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NOTES ON SCRIPTURE 1895 NO. 37

Noah was safe from the judgment when he was in the ark, and this safety was confirmed to him after a year and ten days. He was on the earth in full safety, but assurance of safety was not enough for him; he desired to be assured of the favour of God. He offered a burnt-offering - typically, Christ offering Himself to God and glorifying God. Hence He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. In consequence of the burnt-offering God smelled a sweet savour; Noah is now in favour and in power. Every christian believes that Christ died, and they rejoice that they are safe, but many do not know that they are in the favour of God, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. They are not in the acceptance of the burnt-offering, that is, of Christ raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. The resurrection of Christ is not denied, but He is not the Son of their hearts. His death is not lost sight of because the eye is fixed on Him risen, for if He be risen, He must have died; and if you do not believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you are not assured of your justification and of your acceptance with God. You do not see that there is a Man now before God, who so glorified Him where you had dishonoured Him that, on the ground of that Man, God can receive every believer in Jesus. If you believe in Christ risen you are justified, you are in the favour of God, and the Holy Spirit is given to you to shed abroad in your ^[p. 83] heart the love of God. The first work of the Spirit in the heart of the believer is to assure him that God, whom he had offended, loves him. This is his first impression; then he knows that his eye, the eye of faith, is resting on Christ as the burnt-offering, and not this only, but the same Holy Spirit (as we read in John 4: 14) is in him a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life. Where there was wrath righteously, there is now love righteously; and where there was sin and death, because of the fall, there is now by the grace of God, through the work of Christ, entrance into the life of Christ. The more you enter into it the better you will prove that you are wondrously blessed, that your cup is full, that you can never thirst again, nor have a sense of deficiency.

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