NOTES ON SCRIPTURE 1895 NO. 21
NOTES ON SCRIPTURE 1895 NO. 21
The more we ponder on the deluge, the more two great things come before us, the terrible nature of the judgment on man on the one hand, and the fulness of the salvation on the other hand. When the waters had abated and they had left the ark, they were all safe; but Noah is not satisfied with being safe, he seeks to know how he stands with God, he offers up a burnt-offering. The ark, a figure of the death of Christ, had sheltered them from the judgment. The burnt-offering is a type of Christ glorifying God. “I come to do thy will”. (Hebrews 10: 7) The effect of the burnt offering was that Noah was in the favour of God, and he is set up here in power. In the gospel not only has Christ died, but He was raised for our justification.
[p. 65] You are through grace safe, if you know that He died for you; but if your heart truly enters into His death for you, you desire to know that He was raised from the dead, and when you believe that God raised Him from the dead, you are justified. If you believe in Him risen, you must believe in His death; you see that your judgment has been borne by Him, and that He so glorified God that God has a Man to His own pleasure, and on the ground of His acceptance you are accepted by God. By Him we have access into this favour wherein we stand; and not only this, but the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which He hath given unto us. Not only is everything removed from the eye of God in the cross, so that He can now receive the returning sinner into favour, but the Holy Spirit, as the link and evidence that we belong to Him who saved us, is expressly to assure our hearts of the love of God. As the father impressed the prodigal with the assurance of his affection, so the Spirit’s first work in our souls is to assure us of the love of God.