NOTES ON SCRIPTURE 1895 NO. 15
NOTES ON SCRIPTURE 1895 NO. 15
2 Corinthians 3; Exodus 3: 2; Joshua 5: 13,15
The law, the demand for righteousness, came from the glory of God. It was a ministration of death. Now in the gospel there is a ministration of righteousness from the glory. An amazing contrast! There was grace from the glory to Isaiah; the seraphim took the live coal from the altar, and touched his lips. This intimated that there must be judgment before grace, before it could be said to him, “Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged”. (Isaiah 6: 7) But now a Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, having glorified God in bearing the judgment on man, has been glorified, and the light of the gospel comes down from Him there. “If [p. 58] our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them”, 2 Corinthians 4: 3, 4. The light comes from the finish to the dark soul to enlighten it, though it may be long before that soul enjoys its acceptance in the glory. The burning bush is the emblem of grace, Moses gets his commission there, and he effects deliverance for the people of God. The man with the drawn sword in Joshua 5 sets forth the power of Christ glorified. There is grace and also the glory. You are not only delivered from all that which was against you, but your home is in the presence of God. The nearer you come to Christ in glory, the more assured you are that the righteousness of God is ministered from the glory. So the nearer you get to Him, the more assured you are of His finished work; and in the power of it, you are transformed into the same image. This is not the gospel, but it is the effect consequent upon knowing the gospel. The grace of the father to the prodigal made him feel his own unworthiness the more; but the work which enabled the father to receive the returning prodigal so fully is the same work by which the prodigal can be freed from his old state, and be brought into his father’s house in an altogether new state. The believer in Christ can enjoy the Father’s reception because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made him free from the law of sin and death; Romans 8: 2.