ATTAINMENT OR ACCEPTANCE?

^[p. 201] ATTAINMENT OR ACCEPTANCE?

There are only two ways of arriving at anything; either by one’s own work, or by pure gift. While man was under trial, he was required to work to reach any advantage. It was thus every offer, however good, became a greater trial of him; and continually exposed his inability, unless he had faith in God. “The violent take it by force”, Matthew 11: 12.

After the fall, and until grace reigned, everything was on the ground of work. Abel offers the firstling of his flock; it is his work, no doubt a work of faith; faith in God led him to do the right thing, but it was his act. Through faith he had done well, while Cain, who had no faith, had not done well.

But now the light of grace does not lead the awakened soul to offer, but to accept the fulness of the offering which has been made. However effectual the type or shadow was, it in no respect reached to the antitype; in neither scope nor dimension. The man who had faith in God, acted, and gained accordingly. The act was required, though it was done through the power of God. Thus by faith Noah prepared an ark for the saving of his house. Thus Abram by faith went out, not knowing whither he went. The man was called to do an act, and if he had faith in God, the act secured a certain blessing for him. Thus Israel had to go in and possess the land; truly it was God who brought them in, but they had to do an act in order to secure the benefit.

Now gift or grace is in quite a different way. Each blessing is provided, and the believer is required to accept in faith, not do any act to secure it.

Let us look at three great acts which typify the blessing of the believer under grace. I have already referred to them, but let us examine them a little in detail. The first had to do with approach to God. There was the slain lamb; the sinner brought it himself; and as he had ^[p. 202] faith, he received a certain sense that he had done what was required, and he was relieved for the moment; but this necessarily required repetition, for the blood of bulls and of goats could never take away sins. Still, as there was conscience before God, there was a recurrence to the mode which He had enjoined for effecting relief for it. The man of faith then did a work, and gained a limited blessing; while in grace the gift transcends immeasurably any and every idea conveyed by the type where work was necessary for attainment.

The Son of God comes into this world, and He is the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. He comes from God’s side. The man under trial, and seeking to attain, comes from his own side. When God acts from His own side, only His Son could clear everything away from fallen man, worthily of God; so that the believing sinner is brought to God. He really has nothing to do but to rest the eye of faith on Him who has removed from the eye of God for ever all that offended. It is not only forgiveness of sins; and hence sin is not imputed, but there is a judicial termination of the body of sin in the cross, and the believer is perfected for ever by the offering of the body of Jesus once.

Many a believer in this day, though knowing that salvation is only through the work of Christ, is unconsciously on the ground of work or attainment, and he seeks relief for his conscience, by bringing Jesus as an all-sufficient offering to God: but as the relief is not permanent, he is obliged to recur to this act again, and he really does not see that God has come forth in gift; that where sin abounded, grace doth much more abound; and that the grace does not merely cover the ruin, but has greatly abounded over it. “For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ”, Romans 5: 17.

^[p. 203] Now if there be simple faith in the grace of God, there is a divine sense in the soul of the perfection in which God has placed the believer through the work of Christ. The worshipper once purged has no more conscience of sins. This is the work of Christ for me according to God’s pleasure. If I sin, I return to that which God has judicially put away in the cross; and if I do not judge it, and repent, as consigning it to the distance in the cross in which God has placed it, God will discipline me on account of it. There must be the renunciation of the flesh, just because we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, for the old man has been crucified in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Little place would there be for effort, if this truth in its full blessedness were seen, though the exercise of faith is needed every moment; and here diligence comes in. “Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of”. “Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity”, 2 Peter 1: 5 - 7. This is the diligence which turns to the best account what we already possess; as in Matthew 25, the talents were advanced by trading, and the servant gained according to his faithfulness. “By the grace of God I am what I am ... but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me”.

It is not now, exert yourself to the utmost to acquire it. That was the day of attainment, and then the impotent man was supplanted — a stronger than he could step down before him (John 5). But when the day of grace began, the one needing it most was the first relieved, because he had the greater claim on grace. There is an immense difference in the state of soul of the one who is using the sacrifice of Christ as an attainment by faith in the virtue of it; and the one who sees that it is all gift, from beginning to end, effected according to the love ^[p. 204] and goodness of God. I have no space here to attempt to delineate the characteristics of each; there is one trait, however, distinct enough. When it is attainment, it is from man’s side I see things, but when it is gift, I see them from God’s side; and the consequences are characteristic of their origin. Where there is attainment the man is allowed a place, and the measure of the attainment is really the measure or sense of grace; whereas, when it is from God’s side, the sense or measure of grace is ever boundless; and the more enjoyed, the more there is to be enjoyed. The one is occupied with man’s poverty, the other with divine blessedness. The former, though he obtains real relief respecting his guilt, yet does not enter into the love of God, nor the satisfaction which God has in the work of Christ, which is an ever-increasing satisfaction to the one who sees that it is all done according to God; and yet he does not lose any of the blessings enjoyed by the one who only appropriates Christ from the sinner’s side (as the sin-offering typifies). On the contrary, he enters more fully and deeply into it.

Secondly, let us note the difference between the heavenly stranger as typified by Abram, in the work of faith, and one who is the heavenly stranger by the gift of grace. Abram was called out to be a stranger in the land of promise, but he got nothing but as he acted in faith. There was a certain reward attached to a certain act. Hence he was always succeeding, when in faith; but if he failed in faith, he lost everything previously gained, as for instance, when he went down into Egypt, and which was in a sorrowful and full degree exemplified in Lot. But the heavenly stranger now possesses everything before he is a stranger in act. As he accepts in faith what is his, he is in the enjoyment of it, and this throws him into strangership here, but his enjoyment does not make it his, nor can he lose it because of unbelief, though he be as destitute morally as one who has plenty of treasure in his house but lives in penury. Hence there ^[p. 205] must be a great difference between a heavenly stranger who owns nothing but as he acts in faith, and the one who owned everything before he had faith about it. The one measures by his acquisition, while the other is encouraged by the greatness of the gift to delight in the Giver. The heavenly possessor is necessarily the heavenly stranger on earth. The more fully I enter into my home in heaven, the more distinctly do I feel and act on earth as a stranger, which I really am. It is quite true that as I am a stranger I receive the rewards of stranger-ship, but I am not trying to be a stranger to secure these benefits; but by being true to what grace has made me. And here responsibility comes in; here the “ifs” in the New Testament come in: If I continue, and if I do so-and-so, I enjoy the portion which through grace is mine. I have been faithful in that which is my own. If I sow to the Spirit, I of the Spirit reap life everlasting; but this is very different from obtaining title or right to a blessing, in consequence of an act, even be that act one of faith. The responsibility is greater if I do not accept or keep to what has been given me, and obtained for me at so much cost by my Saviour. In the one case, I lose my attainments; in the other, I have made light of the gift.

Thirdly, let us look at the difference between Israel entering the land, and the man in Christ. Everything depended on their act. They must go in and possess the land. True, God brought them in, but they had to act in order to possess, and those who went in without faith did not remain possessors. Now the believer is united to Christ, and is in full title and ownership of the heavenly places before he enjoys any of it. True, as he accepts in faith the portion which grace has given him, the greater is his sense of possession and consequently of his enjoyment. In the one case the act was necessary in order to obtain possession; in the other, there was as much title before enjoying possession, as there was consequent on possession. If I only possess heaven in proportion to my act of faith, as was the case with ^[p. 206] Israel respecting Canaan, I have no right of possession but as I secure it; my sense of owning the land is only as I set my foot on it. Hence I am necessarily anxious as to my progress; my possession depends on it; whereas with a believer now, he has full title before he lays hold of any of it, and every apprehension of his portion only stimulates him the more to advance, and to be in association with Him who is there. It is the vastness of the blessing which he has in association with Christ, which makes him long to apprehend it more, as Paul says, “that I may apprehend that for which ... I am apprehended of Christ Jesus”. It is the breadth and length, and depth and height, which occupy him who has Christ dwelling in his heart by faith. He does not depend on his own progress for assurance of possession, but he is so assured of the unsearchable riches of Christ, as his portion, that he dwells on it in faith; and thus, as the greatness of his possession is realised, he longs to enter still more into what he is sure of is his.

We all know the tendency there is in our hearts, and often in proportion to our earnestness, to be on the line of attainment, instead of being simple recipients; and it is well for us to note the difference in state which the effort to attain produces, from that which grace or the acceptance of gift produces. One who is in the former is never even; he is elated at any sense of his progress, and depressed if he becomes conscious of his losing ground, though generally he is too well pleased with his own engrossment of desire to advance, and obtain more. In the other, in proportion as the grace is simply held, there is great evenness. There is ever a sense of being far behind in enjoying the vastness of what has been conferred; and there is the greatest thankfulness for a sight of it, while with each new acquisition, there is the sense that ‘the draught which lulls our thirsting awakes our thirst anew’ . The one is like a man making a fortune; while the other is exploring the vastness of the gift bestowed on him; one necessarily is occupied with ^[p. 207] what he is doing; the other is praising the Lord for all that He has shared with him.

One word in conclusion. It would be sad indeed if the man of effort could in any way practically surpass the man in Christ. I have no doubt but that the soul walking in grace will, as the antitype does to the type, exceed in every moral way the man of effort. It would be sad indeed if the man of unbounded property should not in every way surpass the man acquiring it. I am sure the soul in any true sense of the vastness of the gift will surpass in diligence and labour the one who, in his misguided earnestness, imagines that it is all attainment. Surely the one with boundless resources in Christ, and with any fidelity of heart for Him, must surpass the most devoted heart that does not know its portion in its object. The Queen of Sheba is after all only an enraptured spectator, while the church is united to Christ and participates with Him in His things: and surely the latter must, because of intuitive or intrinsic grace, surpass the former.