CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 9
This chapter begins the dispensational section of the epistle, which commences with Abraham, and the promises made to him, and closes in chapter 11 with the ultimate salvation of Israel, so that the course of God’s dispensational dealings is brought out. We are here on a lower platform, so to speak, than in the previous part of the epistle. God’s dispensational dealings do not bring Himself to light in the way that has been before us in the earlier part. The effect of the dispensational dealings is the restoration of God’s people upon earth; the effect of the light, that is, of the revelation of God, is that God gives us a place of association with Christ in heaven. In these chapters (9 - 11) the course of God’s ways is traced, Israel in general is broken off from the tree of promise and the gentiles grafted in, then again prophetically the gentile branches are broken off and the natural branches restored. The gentile branches are still in the olive tree, the Jews having been for the time cast off, and the casting away of them has been the riches of the world; but the gentiles have their place on the ground of continuing in the goodness of God, if they do not, they, too, will be broken off.
It was important that this subject should be brought in, in order that the ways of God might, in our apprehension, be reconciled with the great scheme that has been unfolded in connection with the righteousness of God; these ways are not inconsistent with what has been taught in the earlier part of the epistle, which in reality has reference to the church in principle, though you do not get direct teaching as to this. Not only is grace to the gentile consistent [p. 101] with the promises made to the Jew, but Jew and gentile are brought together in the same mercy, that they might be together one body in Christ. The Old Testament scriptures only gave the gentiles a place on earth, but the result of the early part of the epistle is to put the saints, Jew or gentile, in association with Christ. “Whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son”. This involves the position of the church in the heavenly places.
Salvation takes its form from the ways of God at any particular time. In Acts 2 the remnant of Israel were added to the church; salvation took that form then; but “all Israel will be saved” does not mean that they will be brought into the church, but that they will be saved by the Deliverer coming out to Zion, who will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. The reconciliation of the doctrine which sets man aside, so that there is only one Man before God either as Mediator or Priest, with these outward dealings with man, is in the fact that there was one thread running from beginning to end of God’s ways, and that is God’s sovereignty. God really never owned flesh. Outwardly He was dealing with man in the flesh, but beneath it there was the maintenance of His sovereignty at every step. He would not own flesh or its claims — the children of the promise are counted for the seed, not the children of the flesh. So Isaac is the child of promise, and Ishmael is rejected. Then again Jacob is chosen, he is loved, and Esau hated. Again when it comes to a question of Israel in Egypt and Pharaoh, God has mercy on Israel and destroys Pharaoh.
Though the setting aside of man, root and branch, did not come out fully until the cross, yet God was carrying out His purpose from Abraham’s time. Abraham was the root of promise. In a kind of way the rejection of fleshly claim still goes on here; further [p. 102] on in this section we get the idea of the gentiles not continuing in God’s goodness, and being cut off. If you go to nine christians out of ten, they know little or nothing about this thread of purpose, not of the truth that there is only one Man before God. One Man as Mediator on God’s side, and one Man as Priest on man’s side. God’s purpose is not frustrated, while He deals outwardly with things down here. Chapter 11 proves that the gentiles are being owned outwardly, they have their opportunity now; but while that is so, God takes care that His purpose is carried out. He always did. The gospel comes in in two aspects, as light and as life. Light in the gospel refers to every man, but, as life-giving, the gospel accomplishes God’s purposes. When God makes known His righteousness, it is “towards all”, it has its bearing on every man; that is light coming in. But God is working out His purpose by life. A man must be born again, and God’s work be carried on in his soul, Christ becoming his life. On the other hand there is a testimony down here which presents the light of God so as to exercise the conscience of every man; but no man believes unto life apart from being born again; that truth largely comes out in John’s gospel. Light from God is now being presented to the gentiles in the gospel, there is in that way the reconciliation of the world; the gentiles have their opportunity as brought within the range and reach of the testimony of God; and the light of God is such that it is capable of exposing and exercising every man. Felix trembled when the light of the word of God was brought to bear upon him. The light shines upon every one, but the light shining in is a distinct thing.
You get the gospel in connection with the thought of life taken up continually in Scripture. It is that which John presents. You get that side of the gospel in John 3, the point there is life, and necessarily [p. 103] therefore it is connected with the purpose of God. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”, is a statement of divine purpose, the purpose of God’s love, not as to persons, but as to blessing, while in the previous part of the chapter the truth is brought out that a man must be born again. “Believing” is the characterising condition of the one that has eternal life, be it Jew or gentile. It is true that no one could have life if he had not the truth of God, had not faith, for faith is light in a man’s soul; that is, a man’s light really is measured by his faith. But for this there must be a work of God in the man, though you could hardly speak of this work in its outset as life. It is a necessity, for how can fallen man touch spiritual things, unless he is born of the Spirit? It is impossible in the nature of things. God may use the preaching of the gospel to that end, but it is the work of the Spirit, “the wind bloweth where it listeth”. The apostle was sent to open the eyes of the gentiles, but we must not confound that with the sovereign work of the Spirit of God by which a man is born again.
What is important in connection with these chapters is that there is a testimony from God in the world which is light, and is capable of exercising the conscience of every man. Light has come into the world, and men come to it or hate it. In preaching to a company of sinners, you address the company and seek to exercise the consciences of all, because the light of God is capable of exercising the heart and conscience of every one in the company; therefore you may preach to them with the greatest confidence; but then there is also the use which God makes of the testimony to bring a man into His own purpose. The great thing with anxious souls is to seek to give them light from God. It is the work of God to make them anxious so that they want the light, then it is [p. 104] the business of the evangelist to give them light. What more wonderful thing can there be for us than to follow in the line of God’s work, and to enlighten the soul of man in regard to God? Light is not the knowledge of my own condition; though the light, it is true, exposes my condition; but there is not much comfort in exposure; but the light being the revelation of God, the proper effect of it is that, coming into a man’s heart, it cheers him, as the light of grace. Light is most cheering, it will expose all that is contrary to it, but the proper effect of light is exhilarating and cheering. So is it with the light of God to man when it enters the soul, it is the revelation of God in grace. God is righteous and holy, but every attribute has been met and glorified in the cross, and God presents the light of that glory in the face of Christ. He has no demand to make, but He presents the light that we might be conformed to what He is. It is most wonderful that God should make Himself known in the very attributes which were so terrible to man, in order to conform us to the glory revealed in Christ. The light of God cheered when the Lord was down here, for though the work by which God was glorified in His attributes had not been accomplished, yet the truth of the gospel came out in principle in Christ when here; there was nothing really new in principle afterwards. Trouble in a man’s soul may result from natural conscience, or it may be the result of the work of God; the revelation of God is capable of reaching and exercising the conscience, that it should be so proves that God is God and speaks in His word.
In John 8 we get the very two things of which we have been speaking; the effect of the light upon the Pharisees was complete exposure; the woman did not want exposure, she was taken in the very act of sin, she was already exposed; but exposure was needed in regard to the Pharisees, the people that did not expect to be exposed; there was no comfort to the Pharisees,
[p. 105] but there was to the woman, and she must have felt it to be so; in this we see the beautiful character of light, it exposes, but does not condemn, it cheers.
All that we have been considering comes in with regard to the outward dealings of God with man, beneath which is the sovereignty in which He carries out His purpose. What had come to pass was this, that God had let the gentile in on common ground with the Jew. There was no difference. The Spirit of God had been communicated alike to both Jew and gentile who believed. The Jew in his exclusiveness might complain, but the apostle’s answer is that God had only vindicated His sovereignty, and none would have had at any time any blessing at all but for that. He compels them as to their own hereditary history and national blessings to admit the principle, as seen in God’s rejection of Ishmael and Esau, and in the destruction of Pharaoh, also in their having been spared when they had made the golden calf — God retreated into His own sovereignty, and then takes occasion to assert that He will be gracious to whom He wills to be gracious, and that principle eventually let in the gentiles. At every point God took care to vindicate His sovereignty, so that Israel should not think that God acknowledged flesh. Take the points presented one after the other. Ishmael represented the flesh, Esau represented the flesh, the Egyptians represented the flesh, and Israel in the wilderness represented the flesh; so that the key to these chapters is the sovereignty of God which lay underneath all His outward dealings. He accomplishes His purpose, and at the same time refuses to recognise the flesh. Thus the whole chapter is unanswerable by a Jew, for their whole status rested upon the sovereignty of God. When they made the golden calf they might have been cut off to a man, in fact God proposed to Moses to cut them off. It was through the intercession of Moses that they were spared, but on the principle of God’s sovereignty. Now the gentiles are being tested at the present time, and the result will be that they will be cut off because they have not continued in the goodness of God. What are they doing? Almost every pulpit in the country is being used to discredit and set aside the word of God.
There is another great principle which comes out at the close of the chapter, it is this: no dealing of God ought to have taken Israel by surprise. Whatever God did, He first made it known by the prophets. In setting aside the people Lo-ammi was no surprise, it had been foretold. So as to receiving them again God had spoken of it prophetically, “I will call them my people which were not my people, and her beloved which was not beloved”. The fact that there must be a sovereign work of God in man is maintained, in that, when vessels of mercy are spoken of, it is said whom “He had afore prepared unto glory”, while as to vessels of wrath fitted for destruction God allows the perverseness of man to come out. Pharaoh is an example, he was perverse, and God allowed him to go on to the point of open defiance, and then God acted in open judgment. God withdrew restraints, and he rushed on to his own destruction. Man is lost at the outset. If God withdraws restraints, man’s perversity only develops, until it comes out in the shape of open rebellion.
We have to consider “the lump” with which the potter deals, the lump is man as he is. God does not act in creation to make a vessel to dishonour. What God made was very good, but God deals with man as man is. The potter is only a figure, the application of the figure is in verses 22 and 23. You could not conceive of God creating anything that was not perfectly good. When dealing with man as he is, then it is that God claims His right to make of the same lump one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour; but as to creation it would be evil to conceive of God [p. 107] making anything that was not perfectly good. Apart from the outward dealings of God and the testing of Israel under law, there were the secret things which belonged to God. These things now come out in the church.
The test that God proposed after that sin had come into the world was the world to come. Certainly it was so from the time of Abram, and in reality from the time of Abel. Israel’s mistake was in putting themselves on the ground of works in order to reach something in this world, instead of pursuing things in connection with another world. Abraham, their father, had looked for a city that had foundations, and for a better country, and his faith, by which he was reckoned righteous, had reference to God’s power for that other world. If men looked on to another world, it was only by faith they could do so; if they sought, as Israel did, something in this world, they sought it on the principle of works. The fatal mistake Israel made was in failing to see that death was upon man. Although the law came in and spoke of life, yet death was already on man; the law did not come in to ignore that great fact, indeed it made matters worse, for it brought in the curse, but death was there already. The law came in in the wisdom of God, that the whole state of things might be demonstrated. It had to do with man as he is, in connection with this present world; faith has to do with another man and another world.
Christ came to bring in the light of another world, and hence he was a stumbling-block to Israel, for they were pursuing everything in connection with this world. The gentiles had no promises, nor were they pursuing righteousness; but when the light of Christ came to them, to a certain extent they accepted it, but it was a stumbling-block to the Jew. God had warned Israel that Christ would come as a stone of stumbling, and it is indeed an unvarying principle in His ways [p. 108] that He never brings in anything without giving warning first. Christ introduced the light of another world, though He met everything that was here for the glory of God; but God had thoughts and purposes which were not connected with this world. Christ became a test to men while going on to accomplish the will of God. When He went to Jerusalem for the last time He propounded two parables, that of the man who planted a vineyard seeking fruit from the husbandmen, and eventually sending his Son; secondly, after stating the refusal of the Son, the Lord showed in the other parable the existence of another purpose altogether in the marriage made for the king’s son. Whatever else took place incidentally, the real object of the coming of Christ into the world was to bring into effect the will of God. “Lo I come to do thy will” — Thy pleasure, and that had in view another world. According to Psalm 8 Christ was to be made a little lower than the angels — but the point to be reached was the being crowned with glory and honour, and all things put under His feet, the introduction of the world to come.