GOD’S BLESSINGS AND MAN’S RESPONSE
D. Robertson
Galatians 2: 20; 1 Corinthians 11: 23, 24
We have here in the verse we read in Galatians a man speaking appreciatively of the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour. He is speaking in the most affecting way of the “Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”. I do not think there is anything more necessary than to be able to say in a truthful way—“the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”. How much is in it! God has in mind to bring souls into blessing through the preaching of the glad tidings. Indeed the glad tidings are God’s proposals of blessing for man, and they are proposed in the terms of divine grace, or else man would never come into the blessing, for if they were proposed in the terms of divine demand no one would be able to pay the price.
Another has paid the price, and because of the price that has been paid, the proposals of blessing are made on the principle of grace. God is able to come out in the fulness of His grace and offer you blessing; not
passing blessing but eternal blessing. I would not be able to convey to you in this short word the full scope of the blessing that God has in His mind and heart for you. In speaking of the thoughts of God one man said, “If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand”, Psalm 139: 18. That is to give you some idea of the fulness of the blessing that God has in His mind for you.
There are certain blessings which we could speak of readily in the preaching that God would have in mind to bring you into, and which are necessary for you to come into. We could speak, for instance, of the blessing of the forgiveness of sins, and I would raise the question with each one if they know the forgiveness of sins. It is a wonderful blessing. The older you get the sweeter it becomes. It is a luxury, men today speak about luxuries, but there is no greater luxury than the forgiveness of your sins, and God can forgive your sins because the Son of God has given Himself. The sacrifice of Christ is the basis—and the only basis, upon which God can bring you into blessing. How much is involved in it! He has given Himself.
what more could He have given? The scripture I was thinking of, somewhat in contrast to it, is where God says to His people of old, “I am Jehovah thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour; I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee”, Isaiah 43: 3. You might say, What great expenditure, countries, nations, in order that these persons. God’s people of old, might be brought into deliverance, but that was not enough to secure for you the blessing of the forgiveness of your sins. Supposing He had given the whole world, He could not have forgiven your sins on that basis, but it says the Son of God has given Himself. Oh that that might touch your heart, that the Son of God has given Himself! He has offered up His life, that life in all its spotless purity; a life that
was lived for the pleasure of God; a life that was lived in communion with God, a life of holiness, a life that was unalloyed with any taint of corruption; it was that life that was given for you that you might be brought into the blessing of the forgiveness of your sins. It involved the work on Calvary’s cross; it involved the three hours of darkness when the Lord Jesus Christ endured the wrath of God against sin and sins, and exhausted the judgment. It involved the time when He cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, Matthew 27: 46.
Think of the stupendousness of the work of Christ in those three hours of darkness. In the light of that Peter could say, “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, 1 Peter 2: 24. Peter could say that. Can you say it? That is the basis upon which your sins can be forgiven; the only basis. Not only did He suffer for our sins during the three hours of darkness, but the life in which He bore our sins was laid down vicariously. How touching it is that such a life of holy perfection should be laid down, and that the sin which He took for us on Himself was ended judicially. The history of the man who had sinned was terminated before God in the death and burial of our Lord Jesus Christ. There was nothing in Him which merited death but He took that place vicariously. What a work! He gave Himself. I want you to be affected by the entirety of that—He gave Himself. It was not a partial thing; it involved Himself, and Paul says, “the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”. Oh that we all might be able to say that! As a consequence of the sacrificial offering up of Christ, God can bring you into the great blessings of the glad tidings.
I have already spoken of the forgiveness of sins, there is the blessing also of justification. That involves not only that Christ suffered on the cross, not only that He died and was buried, but that He was raised again, and on the basis of a risen Christ God is able to justify you. It says, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and in Him every one that believes is justified (see Acts 13: 38, 39). I wonder if you know the blessing of being justified. It means that we are set before God in the light of His righteousness as Christ is before God; set up before God in the glory of the life of a risen Man; justified in the light of a Man risen from among the dead. So it says He “has been delivered for our offences and has been raised for our justification”, Romans 4: 25. Another great blessing is reconciliation, reconciled to God through the death of His Son. Think of that! We are brought near to God. I wonder, dear young friend, if you know what it is to be brought near to God. The only basis on which you can be brought near to God is through the sacrifice of God’s blessed Son, so Paul says, “who has loved me and given himself for me”.
Another great blessing is sonship; it is not only that you are brought near to God but you are brought there in relationship to God, in relation to God as your Father. There was a doctrine put out as to the universal Fatherhood of God. It is not true, it eliminated the necessity of the redemptive work of Christ to bring man into relationship with God. God is Father to believers, to those who put their trust in Jesus. I wonder if you know God as your Father; if you know God in this great relationship in sonship?
I suppose the greatest blessing of the glad tidings is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Has every one here received the gift of the Holy Spirit? What a gift it is! Apart from the gift of the Holy Spirit there is no power to enjoy the other blessings. God would give you the gift of the Holy Spirit so that you are vitally in the enjoyment of these divine blessings. All is made available on the ground of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
Paul is able to say, “the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”. Thank God there are those in this room that can say that too. They can say in the simple joy of their souls, and out of the fulness of their hearts, “the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”. Can you say it? Well, it involves that you come into personal faith, into the faith of the Lord Jesus. Scripture says; “repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ”, Acts 20: 21. If you are still in your sins God would help you to come to repentance. The sinner needs to repent; it is not a matter of trying to reform or trying to become better. You say, What does it mean? Does it mean that I am sorry? It means more than that. It means that you accept what God says about you, and that is that all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (see Romans 3: 23). A sense of that brings a soul to repentance. I would urge that upon you, if you have never had the experience, that you might seek God’s help to bring you to repentance; God would work in your soul to the end that you Might repent. Then there is not only repentance, but God would point you to another Man. I believe where there is repentance towards God, God immediately acts to turn the faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ as a glorious Object, a glorious Saviour. That is what happened in the life of Saul of Tarsus. His life was completely transformed on the principle of repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. He refers to the life he now lived—What a life he once had lived! It was an arrogant life, a life of opposition to Christ, and opposition to the Christian way; that was the kind of life that Paul had once lived, but he says, “but in that I now live in flesh—I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God”.
Oh, you cannot afford to do without it. I would urge it upon you; it is folly to be without it.
Think of the awfulness of eternity before you, and perhaps you have not faith in the Son of God. I would seek to alert you as to the absolute need to come into personal faith in the Lord Jesus. A man I once worked with said to me one day, ‘You have faith?’ I said, ‘Yes, I have faith’. He said, ‘What is the main characteristic of faith, can you tell me that?’ I said, ‘Yes, I can tell you the main characteristic of faith’. He said, ‘What is it?’ I said, ‘It is personal’. That is true, no one else can have faith for you; no one else can transmit faith to you; it is a transaction between yourself and God, and God would give you faith. I do not believe God would withhold faith from any one who really seeks the blessings of God. If you are desirous of a personal link now and eternally with God’s Son, God would give you faith for it. It says, “For ye are saved by grace, through faith; and this not of yourselves; it is God’s gift”, Ephesians 2: 8. That is the principle we are saved on; we are saved on the principle of faith, and that is not beyond the reach of any one in this room. Faith is not beyond the reach of the children here. Some of us can remember impressions we had through the preaching, as children sitting beside our father and mother. God would give you impressions, and one of the impressions is that you must have Christ as your Saviour; you need Him, you need salvation, and the only way to get it is through the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, “I am the door”, John 10: 9. He is the way into blessing; the way into blessing is through personal faith in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. I would appeal to each one here tonight; I appeal to the old brethren that they might be revived in faith in the Son of God, in the enjoyment of it, and the vitality of it, and the preciousness of it. It is a wonderful matter to, be able to say like Paul—“the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”.
He has done it in love, I was affected by that this morning; it was a matter of sacrifice on the basis of love. Divine righteousness in Leviticus said, “it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul”, but just before that divine love said, “I have given it to you upon the altar”, Leviticus 17: 11. We could never meet the demand of divine righteousness, but Another has paid the price, the Lord Jesus has paid the price that divine righteousness demanded.
I would urge each one to take account of ourselves as we are all here before God. He is a heart-knowing God. He knows what is going on in your heart and He knows what is going on in my heart. I would ask you to take account of yourself in the sight of a heart-knowing God.
We have to do with God, and it is a favourable time to have to do with God; God desires to bless you. Think of that! I wonder if it has ever dawned on you that God wants to bless you, to bring you into the secret of His thoughts for you. Right at this very moment, God has something in His mind for you; you might not know what it is, but in the scripture God Himself tells us what it is. He says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil”, Jeremiah 29: 11. What a God He is! There is not an evil thought in God’s heart toward you. It is a dispensation of grace; what God has in His mind for all men, and for you, is blessing.
Well, I just wanted to speak of 1 Corinthians 11. The Lord Jesus has been in this world, and He has given His life as we have been speaking of it, but He is no longer here. At such cost to Himself, such tremendous cost, He has established a claim upon us, the claim of redemption.
He says prophetically in Isaiah, “I have redeemed thee ... thou art mine” (Isaiah 43: 1). One would like to appeal to you on that ground; it may be that there are persons here who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus and that is a very blessed thing, but this is a word for you, this is a word spoken from the glory. I wonder if you are aware of that, that the Lord has given a word for you and for me. You may have yielded to His claims to some degree, you may have put your trust in Him, you may have proved what it is to come into the blessing of the glad tidings, the forgiveness of sins and so on. But I wonder if it has ever occurred to you that the Lord Jesus has given a word from the glory for you and for me. He gave it to Paul. The same person who could say, “the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”, received this word from the Lord Jesus from the glory. He says, “For I received from the Lord”, think of that, “from the Lord”. It is not from a church council; it is not from an assembly of elders, this is from the Lord, and the Lord clearly is in glory, “that which I also delivered to you”. Now Paul was faithful to deliver the word in the way it had come to him. It is given here just as Paul received it from the Lord in glory, and it is for you, dear Christian friend, it is for you. Do you believe it? I want you to listen to it; I am just going to read the scripture again, it says, “the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up, took bread, and having given thanks broke it, and said, This is my body, which is for you; this do in remembrance of me”. What a precious word! That word has stood the test of time. Then,
“In like manner also the cup, after having supped, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood; this do, as often as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me”. Have you done it? Are you doing it? If not, why not? Why lingerest thou, was the word to Paul? Why are you lingering? You love Christ, and you know Christ’s love for you. Why do you not answer to His appeal? It is part of the glad tidings. The glory of the Supper, the Lord’s supper, is part of the message in the glad tidings, and it is the only answer that is worthy of the Saviour, it is the answer that the Saviour is wanting. He would make that appeal, “This do in remembrance: of me”. You may have heard of the gipsy girl who was affected by looking at a painting of Christ hanging on the cross, and she asked what it meant. After some time the artist told her the story of the cross. She then said, ‘You must love Him very much when He has done all that for you’. Later he did another painting and put the inscription beneath, ‘All this have I done for thee, What hast thou done for Me?’
Friend, all this Christ has done for you. What have you done for Him? The least you can do is to remember Him—“this do in remembrance of me”. All this I have done for you—He suffered the agony of Calvary’s cross for you, that the eternal blessings of God might be yours. What have you done for Him? What does He ask you to do? “This do in remembrance of me”. The repentant thief never had the opportunity to do it, he was taken straight to glory, but you have the opportunity to do it. Will you do it? The opportunity may not last very much longer; the Lord Jesus is about to come. I would say simply again—All this He has done for you—“the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”—What have you done for Him? You say, I have not done it yet, but are you going to do it? May you do it, and may the Lord bless the word for His name’s sake.
Preaching at Dundee
2 June 1991