THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE
[This tract contains three
links which should be opened. – Ed.]
"Because of Thy temple at Jerusalem Kings shall bring
presents unto Thee" (Psa. 68: 29. R.V.) "Now we beseech
you, brethern, touching the coming [Gk. ‘presence’] of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and our gathering together unto Him; to the end that ye be not quickly
shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by
epistle as from us, as that the day of our Lord is now present:
let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling
away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he
that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is worshipped; so that he
sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God"
(2 Thess. 2: 1-4).
"It is extraordinarily significant that the Government of
Israel already plan to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. The Evangelical Christian quotes from a writer
in Palestine:- ‘There
is even a Talmudic Seminary in Jerusalem
where the rites of animal sacrifices are studied in great and earnest secrecy,
in the hope that the Solomonic Temple will soon be
rebuilt on its ancient site. It can be
said without exaggeration that if the orthodox party had their way the State of
Israel would regress to the condition of life before the fall of Jerusalem in
the first century, A.D.’ It is in this [rebuilt] Temple that the Antichrist will proclaim himself to be God."
- DAWN No. 299, March 1949.
Ezekiel
commenced his prophetic ministry in “the fifth year of
the captivity of King Jehoiachin"(in some places called "Jeconiah"). The expression "the
thirtieth year" in chapter 1, verse 1,
is a little obscure, but probably refers to the thirtieth year of Ezekiel's
life. Ezekiel was a priest and if our
supposition is correct then the Lord called him to the prophetic ministry at
the same time as he would normally have entered upon his priestly office. Whatever the meaning of this expression,
however, the time referred to is rendered perfectly clear by the expression in verse 2 to which we have already referred.
Each
of Ezekiel's thirteen prophecies are dated frorn the year of King Jehoiachin's captivity. He prophesied in the fifth, sixth, seventh,
ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, twenty-fifth and twenty-seventh years from
that event. Only two prophecies in the
book are placed out of chronological order - one in the tenth year and the
other in the twenty-seventh. The reason
for this is obviously to bring all the prophecies relating to Egypt together. The vision concerning the Temple and City was given, he says, "in the twenty-fifth year of our captivity ... the fourteenth year after the city was smitten." This shows that Ezekiel was also taken captive
with King Jehoiachin and thus was in captivity five years before his ministry
began. Jehoiachin reigned only a few months, and Zedekiah, who succeeded him,
being the last king, reigned eleven years; and fourteen plus eleven equals
twenty-five.
What
was the purpose of this last vision given to Ezekiel? It has been said that the Lord
intended to give Israel one
more opportunity to return wholeheartedly to Himself, and that had they done so
this new order of things would have been established forthwith in Jerusalem. As, however, they did not return to Him, the
promise of so glorious a Temple became null and void and the whole narrative
therefore ceases to be of any practical interest.
Such
a conclusion, however, is obviously ill-considered. If the Lord had, at that time, brought Israel
into the order of things portrayed by Ezekiel, then the whole of the Levitical law would have been rendered obsolete. But there is not the slightest indication
anywhere that this was intended until such law had found its completion in
Christ. Indeed, as we shall hereafter show, the institutions of Ezekiel's Temple could find their
proper place only in an age of grace.
A
very cursory comparison between Ezekiel's Temple
and the records of Ezra and Nehemiah will serve to show that it is clearly not Zerubbabel's Temple
that is here described.
Some
have suggested that the spiritual Temple
of Christ's Church in its
eternal glory is here set forth in the symbols of an
earthly building and that nothing more is intended. The wealth of detail, however, employed in the
minute description of every part of the building precludes such an idea. Certain parts of these chapters, such as the
issuing of the living waters from under the threshold or the entrance into the
House of the Glory of the Lord, have been taken by some and so spiritualized,
perhaps with some profit to the hearers, but no man has yet ventured to
spiritualize every detail of description and measurement found in the record of
this vision. It would be extremely, difficult, for example,
without being highly fanciful, to find any spiritual counterpart to the
division of the land among the tribes or the order in which the tribes appear
in the land. The same may be said of
the numbers of arches, chambers aria pillars with their detailed measurements
and many other such things. And unless
the whole description can be shown to be merely symbolic of spiritual things,
it is manifestly improper so to regard some particular portions thereof just
according to one's fancy.
To
the honest and unbiased reader, the record given is the plain and simple
description in great detail of a literal Temple, with a city in close
proximity, yet to be built in a particular place in the Holy Land, to
the north and south of which the tribes of Israel are to have equal inheritance
in a manner entirely different front that which has obtained in the previous
history of the nation. The Temple moreover, is to be
filled with the Glory of Jehovah, who is to have His Throne there, while
holiness is to be the law of the House and abundance the characteristic of the
Kingdom.
The
Temple itself
evidently stands upon the summit of a mountain, for the Lord said to Ezekiel, "Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof
round about shall be most holy. Behold! this is the
law of the house" (chapter xliii. 12).
"It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the
Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be
exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people
shall go and say, Come ve, and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will
teach us of his ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall
go forth the law. and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. And He
shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall
beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears
into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall they learn war any more " (Isaiah 2: 2-4).
"‘The third Temple,
as outlined by Ezekiel,’ says Mr.
Menachin Beign, ‘will assuredly be rebuilt in our
own generation.’ Other Jewish
speakers have said the same.
“Solomon's sacred and historic worshipping place was one of the
grandest structures ever raised by man. It represented first a daring piece of
engineering work and embodied all the skill and cunning of the craftsmen of
those days. Furthermore, its conception
was only possible through the united enthusiasm of a whole nation.
Not least, it was reared in the
comparatively short space of seven years. It is doubtful if our leading contractors,
with all their mechanical and labour-saving devices, would undertake to
duplicate the feat in a like period." - H. J. SHIPSTONE, F.R.G.S.
Ezekiel’s
vision of a restored Jewish nation and a rebuilt temple is significant when we
recall what has happened to Palestine.
Since the country passed to the Jews,
they have definitely announced their intention to build a temple in Jerusalem, and what is
more, on the ORIGINAL SITE. The
original temple was reared in the comparatively short space of seven years.
Herod
spent forty-six years in the building of his temple. Over a century was spent in the erection of
St. Peter’s in Rome, and nearly four and a half
centuries were needed to complete the cathedral at Milan. It took Sir Christopher Wren thirty-five years
to build St. Paul’s
Cathedral, and compared with the time expended upon other similar edifices it
was a fairly rapid piece of work.
But
before Solomon could erect his temple he had to prepare the site. It adorns the rocky pinnacle of Mount Moriah,
for Jerusalem
is built on a series of hills. It was
necessary to construct a platform to carry the temple and its subsidiary
buildings. This stupendous base remains
today. It is some thirty-five acres in
extent and was built in so substantial a manner that neither time nor the
devastation of barbarian forces, nor even earthquake shocks, have
been able to break it up. Many of the
stones of which it is composed are of massive proportions, some running to
forty feet in length and weighing well over a hundred tons. Engineers declare that the material used in
filling in the valleys to create this necessary base is three times that
requisitioned in building the Great Pyramid of Cheops.
With
its outer buildings, which included the Judgment Hall, the King's Palace, the
House of the Forest
of Lebanon, the spacious
courts for the worshippers, cloisters, accommodation for the army of priests,
and stables and stalls for the beasts used in connection with the sacrifices,
Solomon's temple, like that erected by Herod, covered the whole of the
thirty-five acre platform. The temple
was not a single building, like a modern cathedral, but a system of concentric
enclosures or courts, of which the temple proper, though the most splendid part
of it, and lifted high above all the rest, was but a small part. It was not only the first permanent
worshipping place of the Israelites, but the first permanent edifice to be reared
for the service of God.
Research
would go to show that the total number of men called into requisition to erect
this wonderful worshipping-place was no less than 180,000. These men worked constantly for a period of
three years. Today with modern methods
of construction and up to date labour-saving devices, the number of workers
could be reduced. But the cost would
still be enormous.
Those
authorities who have studied the subject declare that the cost of building a
temple in the early 50’s would have been between $250,000,000 and $300,000,000.
This would be for a building after the
pattern of that erected by Herod which was devoid of that lavish ornamentation
of the precious metals which characterised Solomon's building. The Temple
itself, according to the Jewish historian Josephus,
was overlaid with gold. The great
seven-branched candlestick was of gold, as was also the table for the shewbread, while the two cherubims
which stood ten feet high, and also the ark were covered with this costly
metal. Then the gold and silver basins,
measures and censers totalled 850,000. It
is computed that Solomon used in the building and ornamentation of the temple
13,000,000 pounds troy weight of gold and 130,000,000 pounds of silver. That quantity of the precious metals would not
be available today; and some idea of what the cost would be, may be gauged when
we remember what value gold is quoted today per ounce. Thus the gold alone used by Solomon
represented an enormous value today!*
[*
It is therefore unlikely that the Jews of today would attempt to rebuild the
Temple at its original cost; but we need also to remember that there are Jews
in the United States of such immense wealth as to make a more moderate building
possible at any moment.]
The
Jews declare that the temple will be built on its original site. This great thirty-five-acre platform belongs
to the Moslems. To them it is no less
sacred than Mecca and Medina, for it was from here that their
prophet Mohammed is said to have made his miraculous journey to Heaven. Two buildings stand upon the temple area
today, that graceful structure the Dome
of the Rock and the Mosque al-Aksa. There is
ample space for the erection of other structures. It may be possible now, or in
the near future for Jew and Moslem to come to some arrangement by which the
temple area is parcelled out between them. Thus the erection of a Hebrew temple
is quite feasible. Ezekiel's vision of a
restored Jewish state and temple may not only be realised but become an
accomplished fact sooner than we expect.
To open a plan of Ezekiel’s
Temple by J. G. Wiles, L.R.I.B.A. : Click here
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THE DOME OF THE ROCK
THE
Dome of the Rock of Jerusalem is known also as the Mosque of Omar, and is
second alone to the Kaaba at Mecca as a sacred shrine of the Moslem world.
It stands upon the reputed site of the Temple of Solomon,
within the Al Haram al Shariff,
on Mount Moriah.
The
seventh century was a period of bloodshed for Jerusalem. In 614 Chosroes II,
King of Persia, captured Jerusalem,
devastated many of the buildings and massacred a great number of the
inhabitants. Fifteen years later, the
Persians were defeated by the Roman Emperor Heraclius,
who entered Jersualem in triumph bringing with him
"the holy cross " which had been carried off
by Chosroes. But,
at the time, the Moslem religion was steadily gaining ground, and in 637, eight
years after the triumph of Herachus, the Caliph Omar
took the city after a siege of four months. The Dome of the Rock was erected in 688 by the
Amir Abd el, Malek, who called it the Mosque of Omar. For four centuries thereafter the Mohammedans
held the city, until it fell to the Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon, who
made it the capital of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. In 1187 it was again recaptured by Saladin the
Great since which time, with two brief intervals, it has remained in Moslem
hands.
The
Dome of the Rock, is a regular octagon in shape,
built within a circle 177 feet in diameter. Its walls are decorated with Oriental ceramics
placed there in the reign of the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Verses from the Koran are inscribed in the
frieze below the dome. Within is the
Sacred Rock, regarded by the Mohammedans as the scene of Mohammed's ascent to
heaven, and the Jews as that of the proposed sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. On this rock the Crusaders set up an altar. The building stands on a platform about twelve
feet in height, and is approached from four sides by flights of broad steps surmounted
at the landing by graceful arcades.
It
is probable that the passing of the Dome of the Rock out of the hands of the
Moslems will be one of the marks of the ending of "the times of the Gentiles" (See
Luke 21 : 24)
- The Good Samaritan, Madras.
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This writing is found in A. L. Chitwood’s book, ‘Focus
On The Middle East’, (p.p. 69-72):-
The existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East forms a contradiction in Islamic
teaching. Islam teaches that (1) “Allah”
has predetermined all things, and (2) “Allah” is through with the Jews.
Judaism (along with the Christian faith) is looked
upon by Moslems as an older religion whose people strayed from the true path of
“Allah.” Resultingly, God is through
with the Jews (and Christians as well); and since “Allah” has predetermined all
things, for the land of Palestine and the holy sites to once again come under
Jewish control is looked upon by Moslems as theologically impossible.
This belief then usually gives rise to an
unanswerable question: “How can a Jewish nation
presently exist in the Middle East, especially in the land of Palestine
with Jerusalem
as its capital?”
This is the land covenanted to Abraham and his
posterity, which Moslems believe was to be inherited by Abraham’s descendants
through Ishmael; and this is also the land which, for centuries, until modern
times, had been under Islamic dominion and control – possessed by Moslems for “Allah,”
but now possessed by the Jewish people.
Moslems attempt to answer the question about present
Israeli dominion and control of this land, solving the problem for the moment,
through simply refusing to recognize the existence of the nation of Israel.
This is why the Moslem nations have such a difficult time when it comes to any
type dealings with Israel. Such dealings, in their eyes, are with a
people who have no right to exist and who form a nation which, according to
Islamic teaching, actually, can’t (and, consequently, doesn’t) exist. This is one problem which Antichrist will
have to solve in order to bring about his covenant of peace.
The actions of Arab delegates at the United Nations
assembly provide a case in point to illustrate Moslem thinking about the
existence of the nation of Israel. When an Israeli delegate gets up to speak,
the Arab delegates (Moslem delegates) either ignore him or get up and
leave. They do neither within a
framework of what might be called bad manners.
Their actions are governed strictly by reasoning within the Moslem way
of thinking: “The Israeli delegate is a nobody, representing nothing, so why listen to a nobody
saying something about nothing?”
Any negotiations with Israel
by Moslems are not normally done directly (as in the case of Anwar Sadat’s
dealings with Menachhem Begin and
others in Israel
during the late ‘70’s). Rather, such
dealings are normally carried out through a third party. And this is possibly the way Antichrist will
enact peace between the Moslems and the Jews.
At the heart of the problem today is the Jewish
occupation and control of the old city of Jerusalem,
the third most holy place in the world for the followers of Islam. The Arabs occupied and controlled this part
of Jerusalem from the time of the inception of
the Jewish state in 1948 until the Six-Day War of 1967, but the Israelis have
occupied and controlled all of Jerusalem
(the new and old sections) since that time.
And in 1980, the Israeli Kenesset passed a
law declaring Jerusalem
to be “eternal and indivisible.”
It is the Temple
Mount in the old city of Jerusalem which makes this
city the third most holy place in the world for the followers of Islam. This is the place Moslems believe Abraham
offered Ishmael as a burnt offering (a corruption of Gen. 22), and this is the
place where Moslems believe Mohammed bodily ascended to heaven and remained for
a short time (he is buried in Medina).
The Temple
Mount though is not
sacred to just the Moslems. It is sacred
as well to the Jewish people. And to
them the Temple Mount is the most holy place in the
world. In the eyes of the Jewish people,
there is nothing that can even remotely compare with the Temple Mount. Moslems face toward Mecca when they pray, but religious Jews face toward the Temple Mount. These Jews, facing toward this mount, pray
for the coming of their Messiah and the rebuilding of their temple.
On the Temple
Mount today there are two
Moslem mosques: the Dome of the Rock (the Mosque of Omar, built
in the seventh century over the cite where Moslems
believe Abraham offered Ishmael and Mohammed ascended to heaven), and the Al
Aksa Mosque (built at a later date). And it is on this mount that a Jewish
temple will stand in the immediate future.
The temple must
be built on the exact spot where the previous two temples stood; and from the
best calculations of those who have studied the matter over the years (such as Rabbi
Goren, Chief Rabbi for the Israeli armed forces
when the Jews captured the old city of Jerusalem in 1967), conclusions are that
the Jewish temple, in order to stand on this exact spot, must be built exactly where the
Dome of the Rock now stands.
How can this be brought to pass? No one seems to know. Rabbi Goren
answers the question by simply saying, “It’s a big
problem.” But it is going to
occur, and it will occur shortly after [or
before] Antichrist establishes his covenant
with “the many” in Israel.
For decades the Jews have been openly praying at the
Wailing Wall for their temple to be rebuilt. And the Moslems, knowing that the only place
this temple can be rebuilt is where the Dome of the Rock now stands, have, over
the years, expressed grave concern about the Jews praying after this fashion at
this particular location. Sometimes the
matter breaks out into open, hostile actions, such as the much publicized
outbreak of violence which occurred October 8, 1990 when several thousand
Moslems moved toward the Temple
Mount to attack Jews
praying at the Wailing Wall.
Thus, at the centre of the Arab-Israeli dispute over
the old city of Jerusalem is the Temple Mount. Possession and control of this one piece of
real estate is at the centre of the intractable problem which exists concerning
the old city of Jerusalem
as a whole. This is where the impasse is centred, which makes the Arab-Israeli
dispute basically a religious
problem. And until this problem is
resolved, very little in the overall dispute can change.
In one sense of the word though, it matters little
what Moslems, Jews, or the nations at large do about the matter today, for,
according to the Scriptures, during the first year of the Tribulation the
Jews are going to build a temple on this mount (Dan.
8: 11-14). The covenant (peace
treaty) which Antichrist will establish between Israel
and the Moslem nations will either have something directly to do with allowing Israel to rebuild her temple or it will provide
conditions which will allow Israel
to undertake this task apart from the actual terms of the covenant itself.
In either case, the covenant will be broken by
Antichrist entering the temple on the Temple Mount,
desecrating the temple, sitting in the Holy of Holies declaring himself to be “God,” and then destroying the temple (Dan. 9: 26; Matt. 24: 15; 2 Thess.
2: 3, 4). The Moslem clerics will
be exercising control over his military endeavours at this time; and, because
of the importance of the Temple
Mount to the Moslems and
Jews alike, it will only be natural for a desecration and destruction of the
Jewish temple to occupy a strategic part in Antichrist’s initial act of
breaking his covenant.
Also, it is possible that the Jews gaining access to
the Temple Mount to rebuild their temple will be the trigger-mechanism which
brings Russia down into Israel during the first year of the Tribulation,
seeking to help Moslem nations to the north and south of Israel do what the
Moslems have been trying to do since May 14, 1948 – drive the Jews into the
Mediterranean Sea and reclaim the land of Palestine for “Allah.”
After all, the temple must stand where the Dome of the Rock now stands, something
unthinkable within the framework of the current status of events in the Middle East. And
any move by Israel toward
the Temple Mount
today, with a view to building a Jewish temple on the spot where the Dome of
the Rock now stands, would bring the wrath of the Moslem world down upon Israel.
A few years ago, the head of the Supreme Moslem
Council in Jerusalem
stated concerning the matter. “The Moslems are
prepared to die for this place [a statement actually referring
to the Temple Mount as a whole].” And certain Moslem nations during the
Tribulation … may very well look upon the matter after a similar fashion when Israel sets about to rebuild her temple, with Russia
taking advantage of the situation at that time through direct military
intervention.
Daniel reveals that Israel will rebuild the temple
during the same year that Ezekiel reveals Russia will come down to help the
four Moslem nations destroy Israel – during the first year of the Tribulation. The timing of both events is seemingly right
for the events to be interrelated; but they may or may not. Scripture is silent on this possible
connection.”
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THE JEWS WILL BUILD A TEMPLE ON
THIS SITE BEFORE THE SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST.
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THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY GHOST
[The following tract is based on the writings of D. M.
PANTON.]
The
rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem is delayed until God’s appointed
time. Dr. Timothy Richard asked a thoughtful heathen, a Chinese
philanthropist, if he had read the New Testament. "Three times,"
he answered. "And what impressed you most? " the Doctor asked. Pausing, the Chinaman replied:- "I think the most wonderful
thing to me in the whole Book is this, that it is possible for men to become
temples of the ‘Holy Ghost’." The
indwelling of the Godhead in the human is not only one of the profoundest of
all mysteries, a dignity conferred on the human body quite inconceivable, but,
in the deep-down root of it, it is the only solution, and the perfect solution,
of all human problems.
The
central aim of a temple, and its innermost shrine, are not, primarily, for
worship, but for the residence of a god. Jehovah said to David:- "Shalt thou build me an
house for me to dwell in?" (2 Sam. 7: 5). All the materials of the Temple were of ordinary
wood and gold and brass: the solitary wonder that made it a unique building on
earth was a fire-hearted cloud in the innermost Shrine: it was not the
magnificence of the structure nor the costliness of the materials, nor
the solemn ritual, that made the Temple so awful, but the actual
presence of Deity. So also, but with
a far more moving emphasis, the wonder of the new temple is the same. The poorest, meanest-clad, least-educated cud
of God; the common members with which once we sinned; the weary limbs, the
hungry bodies, the sleepless frames, the heart in the sick room almost too
tired to beat:- "Your body is
a temple of the Holy Ghost" (1 Cor. 6: 19). For
the Christian is made on the pattern of Christ.
"Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up. He spake of the temple of his body:” (John
2: 19).
Now
the whole Temple
foreshadowed the truth which the prophet Ezekiel had foretold. "I will put my Spirit within
you” - not upon you, in miraculous gifts, or around
you, in guarding power; but ‘WITHIN you,’ like the main-spring of a watch, or the dynamo
of a motor - "and cause you" - in
consequence of the indwelling - "to walk in my
statutes, and do them" (Ezek. 36: 27).
Out of the indwelt soul the Most High
launches the Amazon - or what in a sanctified life can be an Amazon -
of active goodness: "it is God that worketh
in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Phil. 2: 13).
For God does not (first of all) give us
a model; nor does He begin by inculcating prohibitions and negations: He puts Himself
into the human; He enters as the resident main-spring which keeps all the
wheels, pivots, axles accomplishing the purpose for which the human was made. "For we are a
temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in
them, and WALK in them" (2 Cor. 6: 16). God not only dwells, but walks, in the
believer whose life thus becomes (so far as he lets it) a transcript of the
Divine. It is the momentous, profound,
eternal, and only principle on which God solves all problems in a fallen world.
So
then the humblest believer is exalted to a dignity above earth's highest
thrones. For there is more of God
manifest in a Christian than anywhere else in the world: a sanctified, obedient
believer is the sole spot on earth in which He is resident. And the body of the believer is as sacred to
God as the Temple
was. "Mine
eyes and my heart," He says, "shall be
there perpetually" (1
Kings 9: 3). And the potentiality
of this truth is utterly incalculable. "We have
not power enough," someone once said to Evan Roberts. "My brother," Mr.
Roberts answered, "power is a Person, and we have got the Holy Ghost." All holiness, all truth, all life, all power
reside in the Holy Ghost; and The Holy Ghost resides in us: therefore all power
is ours - dormant it may be, but latent - to be and to do all
that God desires. And the
temple’s completion is as certain as its foundation. Solomon began, and Solomon finished, the
first Temple: of Zerubbabel God said:- his "hands have laid the
foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it" (Zech. 4: 9): so Christ, starting the human temple
in regeneration, will complete it in resurrection.*
[*Our
Lord's words-"destroy this temple" (John
2: 19) - a temple which, in fact, was not even decomposed, prove afresh that
God's action on the lost - "destroy both body and soul in
hell” (Matt. 10: 28) - is no annihilation,
but simply a putting out of use, a destruction of function.]
But no transcendent privilege is unattached to a corresponding gravity
of responsibility, and a menace of misuse. Therefore
the Spirit adds :-"If any
[regenerate believer] defileth the temple of God,
him shall God defile *; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye"
- and not unbelievers - "are" (1 Cor. 3: 17). We believers who degrade our bodies are
guilty of sacrilege ; and such sacrilege, with its
unutterably solemn consequence, has been remarkably foreshadowed in the old Temple. The censers with
which Korah and his associates - all people of God,
all drinking of the Rock offered strange fire before Jehovah, so defiling the
Sacred Courts, were beaten into plates to cover the Altar (Num. xvi. 38), as 'vessels of dishonour,' for
ever marking the judgment of God.** So Paul says:-" Some vessels [are] unto
honour, and some unto dishonour: if a man therefore purge himself from these
[sins], he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, meet
for the master's use " (2 Tim. ii. 20).
[*
It is the same word in both clauses: and it can hardly mean 'destroy,' for it is not possible to destroy what has
already been destroyed; but it is very possible for that to be defiled with
Divine degradation which has already been defiled by human sin.
**Impurity
of every kind, drug addiction, contraceptives, excess in wine or food - one of
the most gifted evangelists we ever knew (a teetotaler)
was wrecked by gluttony - all such are
degradations of the body which, if un-abandoned, will bring bodily degradation
at the Judgment Seat of Christ (Luke 12: 47);
and the kindest thing we can do to each other is to state this truth quite
plainly, and keep it steadily before the Church of God.]
Defiled is the temple, its
beauty laid low;
On God's holy altar the embers
faint glow:
By love yet rekindled, a flame
may be fann'd;
O quench not the Spirit, the
Lord is at hand!
So
we get an instantaneous photograph of human need in the fearful picture of a
godless temple. "Wouldest thou pray in the temple?" Augustine asks; "then pray within thyself; but first become a temple."
The natural man has no ‘Divine-spark’ within: he is the workmanship of God,
and bears the imprint of His fingers; but, so far as indwelling Deity is
concerned, he is a dark and empty shrine. All deification of man is Antichrist's exact
negative of the truth.* "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of
His " (Rom. 8: 9): he is " WITHOUT
GOD in the world" (Eph. 2: 12).
[*
“Antichrist's theological system may he summed up in the three following
theses: 1. There is no personal God without and above
the Universe. 2. Man is himself his own god - the god of this world. 3. I am the representative of humanity; by
worshipping me humanity worships itself " (Godet).]
It
is the first massive foundation laid by our Lord on which He rears the entire
superstructure of His revelation of God's mind:- "Except
a man be begotten from above, he cannot see the kingdom of
God; ye must be begotten FROM ABOVE” (John 3: 3, 7). A godless temple must meet a godless doom.
So
we reach the grand climax. "Your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, which ye have"
- not, as you have your human spirit, from your parents; but-"FROM GOD."* All
men are temple buildings, though empty; the structure for God's indwelling is
already there and no preparation is needed for His entrance: all that is
necessary is the invocation of the Shekinah Glory. "Solomon stood
before the altar of the Lord, and spread forth his hands, and said, Now
therefore arise, O Lord God, into thy resting place, thou, and the ark of thy
strength [Christ]: let thy priests, O Lord God,
be clothed with salvation: O Lord God, turn not away the
face of thine Anointed! Now when Solomon
had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and
the glory of the Lord FILLED THE HOUSE " (2 Chron. 6: 12, 41; 7: 1).** It is one of
the kindest, the most utterly wonderful of all the promises of Christ :- "If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the HOLY
SPIRIT TO THEM THAT ASK HIM " (Luke
11:. 1).
[*That
is, from the [Holy]
Spirit of God, and none else. The
entrance of any other spirit into the human body (as in Spiritualistic mediumship) is the introduction of strange fire into the Temple, or such idolatrous icons as Ezekiel saw (8: 10)
upon the Temple
walls.
**Thus
the invocation is full of Christ: for the Ark (a type of Christ) enters with the Shekinah; and He is directly referred to as 'Thy Anointed.' No heart is saved except the heart in which
the Lamb of God - the blood-sprinkled Mercy Seat - is enthroned.]
It
is a tremendous truth. In Carlisle, in Pennsylvania, on the
death of a young Christian man, much loved in his home and college, a large
concourse assembled at the funeral. Finding
the entry of the chapel blocked, his father, a well-known preacher, cried to
the pall-bearers, "Young men, tread lightly! tread lightly ! ye bear
the temple of the Holy Ghost." These simple but startling words fell like
an electric shock on the hearers, and a revival swept through the college and
the town.*
[*
In the temple of the body, the descent of the Shekinah
Glory is manifestly the descent of the Spirit into the new-born individual in
regeneration: in the collective temple of all the saints (Eph. 2: 21), the descent of the Shekinah is as manifestly the Spirit’s descent into the
new-born Church at Pentecost, in miracle and inspiration.]
-------
"And Moses indeed was
faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which
are afterward to be spoken; but Christ as a son, over his house; whose house
are we, IF WE HOLD FAST OUR BOLDNESS AND
THE GLORYING OF OUR HOPE FIRM UNTO THE END" (Heb. 3: 5, 6)
THE HOUSE OF GOD - THE WARNINGS
- APPLICATIONS TO OURSELVES
By G. H. LANG.
[The
following is taken from the author’s book, ‘The Epistle To The Hebrews,’ pp. 67-75, 196-201.]
1. The House of God.
A
house is a building where a person dwells and can be found. God being spirit dwells in a spirit dwelling,
and especially in and among living persons, manifesting Himself
to and in their spirits, causing them to display His own glory, His holiness. A material dwelling is not essential to such a
dwelling of God on earth (Acts 7: 47-50). Such a structure as tabernacle or temple is
simply a condescension to man's limited ability to recognize God as at hand in
spirit. In the finally perfected
conditions of heaven there will be no temple (Rev.
21: 22).
It
was intended at the first that it should be thus with Israel. "When Israel went forth out of Egypt ... Judah became His sanctuary, Israel His
dominion" (Ps. 114: 1, 2). The earthly building was but a visible
exhibition of the existing spiritual reality, the presence of God: it did not
create the latter but merely displayed it to the eye.
The
church of God is now to be such a structure: "that
thou mayest know how it behoves to behave in the
house of God, [the] church of [the] living God, pillar and support of the truth." (1 Tim. 3: 15);
i.e. it is the office of God's people, singly and unitedly, to exhibit
and maintain before men the truth concerning God and His Son, and to
demonstrate His presence among His people. One instance of this dwelling of God with His
church is that, when Christians are together, and their worship and teaching
are ordered and energized by the Spirit of God, the unbeliever will be
constrained to exclaim "God is among you
indeed" (1 Cor.
14: 24, 25). A severe test this of the actual spiritual state of a church.
This
figure of a house is the first and chief figure to teach the privileges
attaching to association with the Son of God; as He said: "On this the rock [the truth of His own Messiahship and Deity confessed] I will build My
church" (Matt. 16: 18). It was
employed frequently by Christ and the apostles (Luke
12: 35-48; Matt. 24: 45-51; Eph. 2: 19-21; etc.). It is a loss when this first and principal
figure of a building is neglected and the figure of the "body" is overstressed, as if it expresses all
truth as to relationship with Christ.
It
is to be observed that "house" often
merges into and means "household," the
inhabitants rather than the structure. Thus
Nathan said to David, "Jehovah will make thee a
house" (2 Sam. 7: 11); and so in
Eph. 2 cited: "ye
are of the household of God." Over this household the Son of God is the sole
Ruler (ver. 6). In
this sphere He alone holds rights direct from the Father of the family: all lesser
authority (as, e.g. of elders) is derived from the Son, and is to be
exercised strictly according to His directions, without variation caused by
human opinion or preference (see Heb. 8: 5).
Here is one chief matter in which
faithfulness is required from His servants, and far too seldom has it been
found. Man's desires and ideas have
largely ousted the rule of the Son as Head over God's house, wronging Him and
ruining the house.
Of
old Moses acted for God in the capacity of chief servant, but Jesus acts as Son
over the Father's household. Moses dealt with things then present as
indications in advance of nobler things to follow (Heb.
3: 5): Christ has now introduced those higher and heavenly arrangements,
and will duly bring them to eternal completion. How blessed to be dutiful and faithful and to
walk in this divine sphere, rather than to turn back to the earthly, imperfect,
and transitory foreshadowings of it. Yet
Christendom has largely done this, by its resumption of the visible and fleshly
in worship, and in the arrangements for what it calls God's house. Stately edifices, elaborate ceremonies,
splendid vestments, a caste of priests or ministers, altars, sacrifices,
incense, music - what is all this but a lapse back from the heavenly and spiritual
to the elements and weakness of the Mosaic and external which Christ abrogated
(John 4: 19-24)? It was against this that the Writer uttered
his warnings and appeals: would that they had been generally heeded, and that
the household had held fast to the Head of the house.
2. The Warnings.
Let
us give most earnest attention to these. They are four, based upon the conditions for sharing
in 1. the house of God; 2. companionship
with the Messiah; 3. for reaching Canaan;
4. for sharing in God's sabbath rest.
1. "Whose house are we IF" ( Heb. 3: 6).
(1) Judah God's Sanctuary.
Writing
from the distance of many centuries the psalmist here cited could say that it
was "when Israel
went forth out of Egypt"
that "Judah became His sanctuary." Yet in the fact this was not so till a whole
year after they left Egypt
(Exod. 40: 17). It
was not till the first day in the second year that the tabernacle was reared up
and God descended to dwell among them. This
is seen in three further particulars: (a) that to meet God Moses had to
ascend the mount (Exod. 19: 20, etc.): (b) that the earlier tent, where
Moses alone met God face to face, was beyond the limits of the camp (Exod. 33: 7-11). These audiences were occasional, and the
cloud, the sign of the presence of God, descended on those occasions. (c) It was on the summit of Sinai that God
said to Moses "Let them make Me
a sanctuary that I may dwell among them" (Exod. 25: 8).
(2) Redemption and Baptism necessary but
inadequate.
Thus
redemption and baptism (of both of which Israel had partaken in type) do not
of themselves assure the indwelling of God in a believer. The first disciples were sincere believers in
Christ, devoted to Him, and used in service, long before Pentecost. Comp. also Acts 8:
4-17; 19: 1-6. The case of Cornelius
and his friends shows that the indwelling may take place at the very moment of
first faith in Christ (Acts 10: 44-48); the
other instances show that it may come later. But until that indwelling at Pentecost the
first Christians, though regenerate, were not yet a house unto God, and until
an individual believer is so indwelled neither is he.
(3) Israel nearly missed this honour.
Israel only narrowly escaped the entire
forfeiture of the dignity of becoming a house unto God. Because of their sin in making the golden calf
God said (Exod. 33: 2), "I will
send an angel before thee ... for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a
stiff-necked people; lest I consume thee in the way." But Moses felt that no angel could afford him
sufficient support for his heavy responsibilities, and he argued the case
before God until the promise was given, "My
presence shall go [i.e. in the
midst of the people, see ver. 3], and I will give thee
rest " (Exod. 33: 12-16), that is, while still carrying his
load.
(4) Israel twice lost the honour.
God
continued to dwell with Israel until they in their blindness and carnality
trusted in the symbol of His local presence, the ark of the covenant, and not
in Himself; whereupon, suffering them to take their own course,"He delivered His
strength into captivity" by the Philistines, and "forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh" (1 Sam. 4; Ps. 78: 6o-62; Jer.
7: 1:2). Thenceforth He was not
in their midst, and consequently they ceased to be to Him a house. It was so for just over a hundred years until
He graciously descended in glory to Solomon's temple. Here He dwelled until the wickedness of His
people caused Him to abandon that house also and give it up to destruction by
Nebuchadnezzar (Ezek. 10: 18, 19; 11: 23). Never since has God dwelled among Israel or have
they been His house, for the Glory did not return to the second temple.
(5) Applications to ourselves.
Thus
the type shows that the indwelling of
God may be withdrawn. It had not
been possible for the Chaldeans to destroy the temple
while the God of glory was there. It had
not been possible for Satan to destroy the bodies of the wicked brethren at Corinth while the Spirit
of God was indwelling them as His sanctuary (1 Cor. 5: 3-5; 11: 30). An assembly also may
corporately forfeit the presence of the Lord and cease to be His sanctuary. Thus the Lord declared Himself to be outside
of the church at Laodicea
(Rev. 3: 20).
Surely
it cannot be fairly doubted that this corresponds to patent facts and explains
them. There are men once owned much by
God as His servants, once so filled with His Spirit that men came into contact
with God in them, but upon whom for long years "Ichabod" has been plainly written, The glory is departed! There are Sardian
churches of whom it is sadly true that they have a name to live and are really dead (Rev.
3: 1). But if they are dead then
the Spirit of life cannot be in them. It is spiritual folly to maintain a theory
against facts. Wisdom admits the
facts and accepts the remedies (Rev. 3: 3, 18, 20).
Every
believer might be indwelled by the Spirit of God, but not every believer is;
every believer might know this indwelling to the end of life, but not every
believer does. And hence the powerful
warning before us: "Whose house are we
[emphatic] IF the
boldness and the boasting of the hope [of sharing the glory of
God; see Rom. 5: 2] steadfast
unto the end we should hold fast." The aorist subjunctive used kataschomen regards the holding fast as one
continuous act completed at the end of each life, and the verb takes emphasis
at the close of the sentence. "If" with the subjunctive declares a condition.
Being to God as a dwelling place depends
upon steadfastness of hope and of witness to that hope. Similarly does Col. 1: 22, 23 lay down that our being "presented before" the Lord, "holy and without blemish and unreprovable,"
depends upon the same steadfastness: "if so be that ye continue in
the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope
of the good tidings which ye heard."
To open FOOLISH VIRGINS
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By
the third century the hope of the gospel had been too
generally abandoned, though they still professed the faith; they avowed
salvation to come through Christ and His death, but had given up His return as
the true hope of the Christian. In
consequence the many who named the Name readily accepted the proposal of the
world to become the official State religion, and the presence and power of God
in the churches that did so soon ceased. Thenceforth it has been the minority that have
confessed the hope and walked in Abraham's path as a stranger among the
peoples, and always it has been among such that the spiritual glory of God has
been displayed.
Israel and we may remain the people of
God - they beloved still for the fathers' sake and we for Christ's sake - yet
cease to be to God for a house, a dwelling place. As we have seen, the tabernacle and temple are
used in the New Testament as types of the believer and the church; but it is
for us to benefit by the whole typical history, its course and
conclusion, not only its glorious commencement, and to profit by its warnings as well as its comfort.
As
regards the church of this age and its testimony, it began with Pentecost, it
will end with apostasy (Matt. 24: 12; 11 Thess. 2: 1-3; 1 Tim. 4: 1-3). The grave peril is that we may "fall from our own steadfastness" (2 Pet. 3: 17). Whether one will reach the glory
and rule the nations depends upon whether he overcomes and keeps the Lord's
works unto the end (Matt. 24: 13;
Rev. 2.: 26). Salvation from
perdition is definitely without works (Rom. 4: 1-8), and to teach otherwise is to falsify the
gospel: but equally definitely ruling with
Christ depends on works, as Rev. 2: 26
states, and to teach otherwise is to falsify our hope, by putting it on a false
basis. Here it is fidelity
that matters, in us as in Moses and in Christ.
2. Messiah's Companions. (Heb. 3: 14).
Moses
had his personal attendant, Joshua. David had the "king's
friend," Hushai (1
Chron. 27: 33). Rehoboam
had "the young men that were grown up with him,
that stood before him" (2 Chron. 10: 8). The Lord in His kingdom will have those who
"walk about with Him in white,"
arrayed thus in white garments then because they overcame now in the battle
with sin and did not defile their garments here (Rev.
3: 4, 5). They are "the called and chosen and faithful"
(Rev. 17: 14). It is faithfulness that matters.
To
the little band who, in spite of failings and failures, had gone through with
their Teacher and Lord to the end, He said: “I come again, and will receive you unto Myself, that where I am
[at any time] ye may be also" (John 14: 3). He had said before: "If Me any one serve, Me
let him follow; and where I am there shall also My servant
be: if any one serve Me, him will the Father honour"
(John 12: 26). Complacency makes this to read, If any one
believes on Christ as Saviour, he shall be with Christ and be honoured by the
Father. But the Lord said that
companionship with Himself, and being honoured by the Father, results from serving and following. And the context is that following Christ
involves being a corn of wheat that dies to itself that it may live in others. Therefore let the believer
ask: Whose interests am I serving: Christ's or my own, Christ's or those
of this world? Whose maxims, whose
example, whose ambitions and ends do I follow: those
of Christ or of others? In the nature of
the case only one who does literally follow the steps of another can arrive
where that other arrives. Another path
will lead to another place.
The
summit of the Christian's true ambition is the immediate presence and continual
company of the Son of God in glory. The
honour and the bliss of this is otherwise pictured as
the mutual joy of bridegroom and bride.
He and I in that bright glory
One great joy shall share;
Mine to be for ever with Him,
His that
I am there."
Elsewhere
this dignity is set forth as sitting with the King on the royal dais at a
banquet (Luke 22: 30), and again, as sharing
His throne (Rev. 3: 21). In all such relationships the dominant thought
is that of sharing habitually the personal company of the Lord. And this is the distinctive element in the
word companions, i.e.
being habitually in the company of one another; and it is equally
the distinctive thought of the word thus translated metochos.
To
his translation of Heb. 3: 1, where this
word is found ("partakers of a heavenly
calling"), Darby adds the
note: "Here metochoi,
who have been made, called to be, partakers of it. They had been koinonoi
of Israel's
rights." These two words are indeed so
similar in meaning as both to be rendered Partakers and Partners.
But one may be a "sleeping" partner, and never be seen at the
business; but the metochoi would be
habitually together conducting affairs in common. The word is used in the LXX at Eccles. 4: 10, and Ps.
45: 7 before considered.
Too
many Christians are content to have a share in the "common salvation," and show little desire or care
to enjoy the company of the Lord or of their fellow-partners. How shall such indifference here lead to
intimacy there? No; ch. 1: 9,
using the same word, speaks of the Lord having companions; our
present (verse 3: 14) declares that "companions [emphatic] of the
Christ [the Messiah] we have become if at
least [eanper] the beginning of the assurance unto the end steadfast we may
hold." We "have become" such companions as regards the calling
and purpose of God, and we may enjoy this privilege already in heart fellowship
with Christ: we shall become such in outward and visible
and glorified reality IF we are steadfast unto the end of our course. It is reaching well the end of
the race that matters as to gaining the prize. He who fails in staying power, and does not
reach the goal, does not lose his life, but he does
lose the prize. It will be much to
be in the kingdom of the saved: it will be far, far more to be a companion of
the King. Ponder this second IF!
Note on eanper, if. It comes here and at 6:
3 only in the New Testament. It
is not found in LXX, but Grimm-Thayer here is wrong in stating it is
not in the Old Testament Apocrypha. It
is in 2 Macc. 3: 38, and the
passage distinctly shows its emphatic sense. Heliodorous had been
sent by the king of Syria to
rob the temple at Jerusalem.
Angels had appeared and flogged him nearly to death, his life being spared only
at the intercession of the high priest. Upon
the king asking him who should next be sent on the errand he answered: "If
thou hast any enemy or conspirator against the State, send him thither, and
thou shalt receive him back well scourged, if he even escape with his life"
(eanper kai diasotheie).
3. Reaching Canaan.
"they were not able to enter in" (3: 19).
Nothing
is clearer than that every redeemed Israelite that left Egypt had a right to enter Canaan.
The purpose and promise of God were
universal to them as sons of Abraham. Their
title was beyond question. Yet nothing
is plainer than that of the 6oo,ooo adult men who left
Egypt only two, Joshua and
Caleb, did in fact enter Canaan. The histories of this failure are narrated
with significant fulness (Num. 13 and 14). The grounds of failure and of success are
stated with unmistakable distinctness. The
later references to it are striking and solemn. Ps.
95 impressed it upon Israel;
Heb. 3 and 4 impress it upon us, and the detail use of the failure in 1 Cor. 10 emphasizes
that the warning is as fully applicable to Gentile Christians as to converts from
Judaism.
That
Canaan must be won is as
certain as that it may be lost. That the promised power of God was adequate and
available to enable them all to take possession was no guarantee that they
would get possession. In the cases
of the few who did so the praise
belonged to their God of grace Who gave them the victory (Ps. 44: 3). That the
majority did not reach the land was, as we are here told, because of unbelief and disobedience.
What
is the antitype of Canaan for the Christian? Whatever it is will have three dominant
features. (1) It will be a gift of
covenant grace, and therefore undeserved. (2) It must be won by conflict. No more
is possessed than the warrior sets his foot upon (Josh. 1: 3). (3) It may be lost by distrust of God and disobedience to His commands.
The two last particulars show that neither justification nor
eternal life is in view, for these are described plainly as "free" gifts (Rom. 3: 24; 6: 23). "Free"
(dorean, charisma) means free of
conditions, what is termed in law an absolute gift, as distinct from a
conditional gift; a gift which therefore can neither
be withdrawn by the donor nor forfeited by the receiver. [See Note A]
What,
then, does Canaan represent to-day? A careful examination of the records will show
that the whole national history of Israel,
from redemption in Egypt
to Solomon, is one continuous type. Parts
of this type have been treated helpfully, especially the tabernacle; but it
needs an Andrew Jukes to expound
this subject as comprehensively, as spiritually, as profitably as in his Types
of Genesis he dealt with the long history from Adam to Joseph.
Slavery
in Egypt is Rom. 1 and 2: redemption by blood is
Rom. 3 to 5: freedom from Egypt, by
passing through the Red Sea, is Rom. 6,
baptism into fellowship with Christ in His death and risen life: the wilderness
is Rom. 7: the crossing the Jordan is Rom. 8: 1-17, experimental transference from being
"in flesh" (the wilderness) to being
"in spirit" (the land of promise), and
thus becoming free from bondage and its fear, even as Israel lost the reproach
of having been a slave race by being circumcised at Gilgal,
at the entrance of the land. This leads
to Rom. 8: 15, 16, the joy of adoption and
communion, so as to become heirs of the goodly land thus reached. This in turn involves suffering with Christ (Rom. 8: 17, 18), as Israel in the land shared with
Joshua the sufferings of the wars of possession. The history of judges pictures
the groaning and travailing of the church of God not yet perfected (Rom. 8: 22, 23), in which experiences there
develop the still remaining weaknesses and failures of our mortal state, and in
which the power of the hope of perfect possession and rest supports the godly (Rom. 8: 24, 25).
For
the Christian this hope is to be realized at the "redemption
of the body" (Rom. 8: 23). Thus the sequence of thought has reached the
second coming of our Lord. Now His own
final word as to that His advent is that He will come as "the root and offspring of David"
(Rev. 22: 16); that is to say, that
David in his rejection, hardships, and wars was a type of Christ now rejected
and hidden, but whose public appearing will secure victory over Satan, with
liberation for the earth, and glory for those who fought and suffered with Him.
Thus did David's return to public life
free Palestine
from the Philistine oppression and bring to glory in his kingdom the men who
had shared his rejection.
But
Rom. 8: 19-21 adds the material feature that
at that revelation of our now absent Lord, with the many sons who by then will
have been brought unto glory, there is to be a releasing of creation itself
from its pains and groans. Previous prophecies had foretold this, as Ps. 72: 16; Isa. 11: 6-9; 30:
23-26; 55: 12, 13; etc. In other
words the period we have now reached in
this line of thought is the millennial reign of Christ, the Prince of peace,
the foreshadowing of which was the earlier part of Solomon's reign of peace and
glory. But failure marked the close
of that period, and failure will mark the close of the Millennium (Rev. 20: 7-10); whereupon will follow a final
judgment and final reconstruction of heaven and earth, a new and eternal order.
Thus
Canaan as a type does not extend beyond the
days of Solomon, and therefore is not a picture of things eternal, but
of two things: (1) of the present era of spiritual conflict as in Joshua and Judges
and in Eph. 6. In this experience rich knowledge is gained of
the power and goodness of God. but it is accompanied with groaning: but
(2), and more fully, Canaan prefigured that millennial period, the era
upon which hope is called to fix itself, even upon "the favour that is being brought unto us at the revelation of
Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 1: 13).
Seeing
that failure and sorrow marked Canaan through
the whole past it cannot be a type of the eternal ages, for these will never be
marred by failure. It follows that it
is the millennial glory which must be won and may be lost, won by
faith that obeys, lost by distrust and disobedience. To this there is no alternative except the
forfeiture of eternal life and salvation entire, which meaning has been based
upon our present chapters but which we think unscriptural.
Note A
ETERNAL SECURITY
The
strength of the case for the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer
is not always realized, and some of its grounds are not understood by all.
Justification
This
security is involved in the nature of the justifying act of God. To justify is the act of a judge when he
declares that, having examined the charge brought against the accused, he finds
him not guilty before the law. The
ground upon which God declares righteous the sinner who puts faith in Christ is
that Christ as his Surety satisfied the demands of the law against the sinner. The atoning death of Christ which satisfied
the demands of the law is imputed to, or put to the credit of, the sinner who
puts his reliance upon the Surety as having suffered on his behalf the highest
penalty imposed by the law. The actual
offender is reckoned in Divine law to have expiated his offences
by having died for them, because his Substitute died for them. "I through the
law died unto [out of reach of] the law....
I have been crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2: 19).
The
question, therefore, as it concerns the sinner, is, for how many of his sins
did Christ by His death accept responsibility and render satisfaction therefor? If it was
for those sins only which he had committed up to the time when he first placed
his faith on Christ and was justified by that faith, then, as to his future
from that hour, one of two features must characterize it, namely, either he
must never sin again, or, if he sin even once, then he must suffer eternal
death, since, in the case supposed, Christ did not bear these post-conversion
sins and no atonement can ever avail in respect thereof, for Christ will not
die again (Rom. 6: 9, 10; Heb. 7: 16).
In
other words: in the case now postulated, sin after conversion must inevitably
cancel salvation for most believers.* For
all these Christ might as well not have died for their pre-conversion sins because
they will be eternally lost for their post-conversion sins.
[*An
exception may be supposed possible in a case where death occurs immediately
after conversion.]
As
regards men who died before Christ died, and who had looked forward by faith to
the coming Redeemer, all their sins of their whole life were past when he died
for them. As regards men who were alive
when Christ died, some of their sins were past and some were future. As regards those born since He died, and who
have believed on Him, all their sins of their whole life were future when He
died. By what process or to what purpose
could a division have been made by Divine counsel and the Surety have been made responsible for a part only of their sins? In all of these cases if He did not accept and
discharge the full legal penalty for all their sins then He did not provide
salvation for any one: the whole stupendous transaction would be void and
valueless. But inasmuch as He did in
fact satisfy the law of God in respect of the sins of the whole life of the one
who relies on Him, therefore the acquittal by the judge of all the earth, that
is to say, His declaration that the accused is not guilty before the law, sets
him free from the eternal penalty due to the sins of his whole life.
Further,
it is deeply important that (according, e.g. to the law of England)
when a person has been tried for a crime and acquitted he cannot be again tried
for the same offence or offences. Fifty
years ago there was a barrister famed for his success in defending criminals. He relates that on one occasion he secured the
acquittal of a man charged with murder, and afterwards did not cease to be
sorry, for the culprit boasted, that, though his lawyer got him off, his was
the hand that did the crime. Yet the man
was secure from the law as regards that offence because he had been tried and
(wrongly) declared not guilty.
In
like manner Christ declared that the one who believes God's message of
salvation "cometh not into judgment, but hath
passed out of death into life" (John 5:
24). For him the door of the
condemned cell has been opened and he has stepped out into life and liberty. "There is
therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8. 1). Who
shall impeach again God's chosen ones, seeing that God Himself has declared
them to be righteous in law? (Rom. 8: 33). So long as the work of the cross retains its
virtue before God, so long will the righteousness imputed to the believer
stand, that is, both are eternal.
2. Temporal Penalties for the justified
Here
enters the vast importance of the truth before urged, that the work of the
cross delivers the believer from the eternal penalty of
sin but not from any temporal punishments which may attach
under the disciplinary government of the universe by God. And these may prove severe and prolonged,
though not eternal in the case of the justified. Various scriptures present
this serious and balancing aspect. For
example:
(1)
There is the private realm of the father and his family,
wherein the children are chastised by the father. This will be considered when we reach ch. 12 of our Epistle. It is a manifestly different case from that of
a criminal before a Court on trial for his life.
(2)
There is the case of a king and his own household.
It is set m our Lord's parables in Luke 19: 11-27 and Matt. 25: 14-30. The
unfaithful servant was deprived of further service and prospects and was cast
out of the house into the darkness of the night during the temporary
festivities connected with the king’s return. He might even be severely scurged (Luke 12: 41-48). But these penalties were not the
capital punishment inflicted upon the king’s enemies. That is stated in
immediate contrast ; "Howbeit these mine enemies,
who would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before
me" (Luke 19: 27).
(3)
There is a parallel instance in Matt. 18: 21-35
of the servant who refused mercy to his fellow servant though himself had received mercy from their lord. In this case the master revoked his mercy and
the remission of the debt, and commanded that the latter be exacted. If this be applied to the unregenerate and
eternity it will mean that the sinner can ultimately "pay all that is due" by his own sufferings; a way
of salvation repugnant to Scripture and which would render needless the
sufferings of the Redeemer. But it is
evident that this measure taken by the lord operated within the same restricted
sphere of his personal household. The
teaching was an answer to the inquiry as to how often a brother
ought to forgive a brother (ver. 21),
and the application which Christ made of the instruction carries the same limit
of the father and the family: "So shall also My
heavenly Father do unto you, if ye forgive not every one
his brother from your hearts" (ver. 3, 5).
None
of such cases raises the matter of the legal status of the children or the
family servants before the criminal courts. This status remained unaffected by the
disciplinary dealings of the father or the retributive measures of the master. Christ gave no challenge to His own statement
that the believer passes out of death into life and will not come into judgment
as to that question (John 5:
24). None of these servants lost
his life by his carnality.
3. Types and Histories
These
truths were made clear in the Old Testament by types and histories.
(1)
The bringing of the appointed sin offering secured forgiveness: and “they [or he] shall be forgiven"
(Lev. 4: 20, 26, 31, 35). He who came repentant to the altar, where was
offered the atoning lamb. "went down to his house justified" (Luke 18: 14). From chs. 9 and 10 of
our Epistle we have seen that that older justification was a foretaste of the
perfect and eternal justification secured by Christ's eternal redemption.
(2)
But more. The bringing of a burnt
offering in due form secured more than bare forgiveness, even the acceptance
of the offerer himself:
"that he
may be accepted before Jehovah” (Lev. 1: 3). His status was assured in the
presence of God, "before Jehovah." Granted that this was imperfect under the old
covenant, yet it was real as far as it went, and it was
typical of the perfect and eternal status acquired in Christ, "through Whom also we have had our access into this grace
[this state of favour] wherein we stand" (Rom. 5: 2).
(3)
From 1 Cor. 5: 7,
"For our passover
also hath been sacrificed, even Christ," it is plain that the passover in Egypt
was typical of Christ and His atoning blood. In Egypt the Israelites, equally with
the Egyptians, were under the sentence of death against sin. The sprinkled blood delivered from that status
as men condemned and who sheltered there-under, and set them free, through
their baptism in the Red Sea into union with Moses (1
Cor. 10: 1, 2), to escape from the land of
doom itself and to enter in the desert the pathway of faith in God. There they were constituted a people, the
people of Jehovah, a new status effected by redemption
and faith.
Yet
the more part of them did not live in conformity with this new standing and
relationship and were overthrown in the desert. Their faith broke down, and so "the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt,
afterward destroyed them that believed not" (Jude 5). They
forfeited bodily life and lost their prospects in the promised land, but God
took care that not a single one of them got back to Egypt, not
even though they set their faces to return there (Num.
14: 3, 4) . They died in the wilderness (Num.
14: 32; 1 Cor. 10: 5). If even one of them had reached Egypt
the type would have allowed that a redeemed person may get back to his original
lost status; but the type inflexibly disallows this. To this same effect is the Divine review of
that period even in Isa. 63, especially verses
9-14. They are described as His
people, loved and redeemed, even though on account of their sins He had to
fight against them.
(4)
On the other hand, the types and histories show how severe may be the penalties
of unbelief and disobedience, short of a resumption of the original alienation
and unrelieved condemnation of men before God. This has been sufficiently illustrated in the
present treatise.
4. Eternal Life
The
same conclusion is involved in the fact that the life infused into the believer
by the new birth is eternal life; that is, it is not a
created life, having beginning and capable of having end, but it is a sharing
in the uncreated life of God Himself, the Eternal: "for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but
have eternal life” (John
3: 16). Thus the giving of
this life secures that the recipient shall not perish, even as Christ said
later of His sheep, "they shall never perish"
(John 10: 28).
For
even if the sheep wander from the fold, and must suffer much distress in the
desert, yet the Good Shepherd will "go after that
which is lost until He find it” (Luke
I5: 4). The
ultimate restoration of the backslidden believer is certain, even though his
penalties be not suffered or his recovery be not accomplished in this life; for
can it be doubted that many backslidden believers die without having been
healed of their backsliding? Such must,
therefore, either be eternally lost (in which case the doctrine we are controverting must after all prove true), or their recovery
must be effected after death, which implies that the Father's disciplinary
dealings for their recovery are applied after death.
The
chief statement on the subject needs, and will bear, strict examination. Christ said (John
10: 27-30): (1) My sheep hear My voice, and
(2) I know them, and (3) they follow Me: and (4) I give unto them
eternal life; and (5) they shall never perish,
and (6) no one shall snatch them out of My hand.
My Father (7) Who hath given them
unto Me, (8) is greater than all, and (9)
no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
(10) I and My Father are one.
It
is difficult to conceive of any words more capable of creating the impression
that the sheep of Christ are eternally secure from perishing. They create the impression that the Speaker
deliberately designed to create that impression, that it was indeed His precise
intention. But it may be urged that this
is true only of the true sheep of Christ, and that one
mark of these is that they know and hearken to the voice of the Shepherd and
follow Him. What if one of them ceases
to hearken and to follow? Does he not
thereby cease to be one of Christ's sheep? and must
not then his security from perishing lapse?
Let
this be tested in a case that can be seen too often. A sinner turns in faith unto Christ, and
manifests the true tokens of being one of His sheep, by continuing for, say,
twenty years to hearken and to follow. Then,
alas, he wanders from the fold and the Shepherd, and so ceases to exhibit the
characteristics of Christ's sheep. So
now (if the argument in question is right) he does not possess
the eternal life and shall perish. It thus becomes
evident that the life which he had during those twenty years was not in fact
eternal, for it has ended so far as he is concerned, nor was he ever secure
from perishing, for at last he is to perish. In his case the magnificent assurances given
by Christ were without value, nor had this person at
any time any real right to comfort himself by them, seeing that ultimately they
will be unfulfilled in his case. So that
during those twenty years he had eternal life, for Christ
stated this of His sheep: yet his perishing at last will show that the life he
then had was not eternal. He
was a sheep of Christ, because for long years he exhibited the true
characteristics of a sheep: yet he was not a sheep of
Christ, because finally he shall perish. This reductio
ad absurdum shows that the reasoning
examined is false.
But
let the Good Shepherd Himself solve this problem by the parable before quoted
from Luke 15: 3-7. It states the exact case above supposed. A man has a hundred sheep. One of them wanders. Does it thereby cease to be a sheep? or cease to be the property of the Owner? Nay, rather; when the Owner has recovered it
does He not cry with joy "I have found My sheep which was lost"? Even while it was lost it was still a sheep
and it was still His, and He secured its restoration and safety.
It
is to be noted that the teaching in Luke 15
applies properly to backsliders, not to the unregenerate, however suitably its
lessons may be extended to such. The
sheep had been in the fold; the coin had been in the possession of the woman,
the prodigal was the son of the father; and each was restored to
its proper status, not set there for the first time.
5. Freely
One
further consideration will suffice to establish our conclusion. Of justification it is stated that the
believer is “justified freely (dorean) by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus
" (Rom, 3: 24); and of eternal life it
is said that, while the "wages of sin is death
... the free gift (charisma)
of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord"
(Rom. 6: 23). The righteousness and justification granted to
the believer in Christ are likewise described by the same word: "the free gift (charisma) came of many offences unto justification" (Rom. 5: 16, 17).
Now
every gift carries at least one condition precedent to its taking effect,
namely, that it must be accepted; but having been accepted a free gift is
necessarily free of conditions subsequent (such as, for example, the conduct of
the receiver after reception of the gift), or it would be a conditional gift, not
a free gift. This is not said of any
other gift of God save justification and eternal life. The righteousness of this arises from the
entire and eternal sufficiency of the redemption price which provides these
gifts. Therefore the minimum
indispensable to salvation, even justification and eternal life, is granted to
the receiver absolutely, whereas gifts to the saved are conditional upon
conduct. Because the unregenerate cannot
work his urgent need is met by a free gift at the expense of the Giver:
because, by the grace of the Spirit, the regenerate can do
good works he is required to do them as the condition of further benefits. This is demanded by both the Divine love and
the Divine morality. The free gift is
unforfeitable, and cannot be withdrawn by the Giver; later gifts are
forfeitable and must be "made sure" by
diligence (2 Pet. 1: : 10).
It
was Rom. 3: 24, "being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus," which helped much to lift Bunyan out of the Slough of Despond, to
set his feet upon the rock Assurance, and to put a new song into his mouth,
even praise unto our God. Of that text
he says sweetly the words quoted before (p. 164):
Now was I as one awaked out of some troublesome sleep and dream,
and listening to this heavenly sentence, I was as if I heard it thus expounded
to me: Sinner, thou thinkest that because of thy Sins
and Infirmities I cannot save thy soul; but behold my Son is by me, and upon
him I look, and not on thee, and deal with thee according as I am pleased with
him. (Grace
Abounding, para. 258.)
Noble
and arresting is his account of an earlier experience:
But one day, as I was passing in the field, and that too with some
dashes on my conscience, fearing lest yet all was not right, suddenly this sentence
fell upon my soul, Thy righteousness is in heaven; and methought withal, I saw, with the Eyes of my Soul, Jesus
Christ at God's right hand. There, I
say, was my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was a-doing,
God could not say of me, He wants [i.e. lacks]
Righteousness, for that was just before him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good
frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that
made my righteousness worse; for my Righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, the
same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. (Ibid, para. 22g.)
Happy
indeed is he who, as touching his status as righteous before God, sees Christ
to be his all, for thus will he be assured that his
judicial acceptance by God is necessarily as eternal as the righteousness of
his Surety.
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