THE KNOWLEDGE OF GRACE
THE KNOWLEDGE OF GRACE
I desire to say a little about the knowledge of grace. It is a great object with God to build up the knowledge of His grace in our souls, and this work of God is often presented to our minds in Scripture under the figure of a structure. The familiar words “edify” and “edification” suggest the thought of a building — a structure in the soul. We read of being “built up” and of “building up” ourselves, and so on.
It is a fact that a wonderful work is being carried on by God in the souls of His people. God is building up in human hearts the knowledge of Himself in His own infinite and blessed grace. And it is of vital moment that we should know what God is working for, and that we should not hinder His work either in ourselves or in others. There is a solemn word in Romans 14: 19, 20 as to this.. “Let us, therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. For meat destroy not the work of God”. Edification is “the work of God”, and it is a very solemn thing to hinder or destroy it. That which is built up in the souls of God’s children is the knowledge of Himself and His infinite grace. I hope to be enabled to present this to you from the chapter we have read. But it will be necessary first of all to clear the ground a little.
If a structure of any importance or magnitude is to be reared, the first essential is a good foundation, and to secure that it is necessary that everything that is worthless or unstable should he cleared away. The [p. 6] site of a palace might be covered with mud huts, or with more or less pretentious buildings, or it might be a jungle thick with noxious weeds, and teeming with venomous reptiles, where the very air was filled with pestilence. It would he equally necessary in each case to clear the ground. And it is this which the Holy Spirit is doing in the first three chapters of this epistle. He depicts man in three aspects as different outwardly as the three states in which we have pictured the palace site. That is, in chapter 1 we have men set forth in all the licentiousness of unbridled lust and manifest corruption; having come into that state because they did not think good to have God in their knowledge, and “because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful”. In chapter 2 it is man with light enough to have a judgment about things and able to condemn evil when he sees it in others, and probably with enough conscience to keep his own wickedness as much as possible out of sight, and yet at the same time guilty of that which he condemns in others. In chapter 3 it is expressly the Jew — the religious man — that is in view, and he who has the oracles of God is proved to be no better than the profane Gentile whom he despises. In each case man is brought in as lying under the judgment of God; see chapter 1: 18, 32; 2: 2 - 5; 3: 19, margin.
Yes! this is the solemn truth. Whether man appears in open profligacy, or in the guise of a moralist, or invested with high religious privileges or pretensions, he is the same naked exposed sinner before the eye of God, and the heart-knowing God pronounces that “there is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”. Such is man — the child of Adam. He is corrupt and condemned, and must be removed in judgment if God’s thoughts of blessing are to take effect. The ground must be cleared.
[p. 7] If souls honestly faced this at the outset, they would escape many subsequent exercises and difficulties. They would secure a good foundation, for they would get down to what builders in some parts of the country call the “bed-rock”. They would come to realise the meaning and value of the death of Christ as that in which the righteousness of God is declared, and as that which alone clears the ground for the blessing of man. The death of Christ has cleared the ground. He has died for all, and this is the most solemn testimony that all were under death as the judgment of God. But this has been made known in grace. The terribleness of man’s condition, and of the judgment under which he lies, has been set forth in the way of infinite grace in the death of Christ. For He has come under our judgment in perfect grace that the ground might be cleared for our blessing. It is not that we deserve a thousand stripes and that Christ has borne them. The truth goes far deeper than this. We were condemned to death. The extreme penalty had passed upon us. The vilest sinner on earth cannot go beyond this, and the most moral and religious man that ever lived cannot stop short of it, or evade it. Death is upon us as the judgment of God, and if we are to be blessed the ground must be cleared by death.
That this is unspeakably solemn would not be questioned by any right-minded person, but at the same time it is most blessed to see that God has Himself cleared the ground. In the death of Christ we see the sentence executed in such a way that, while the righteousness of God is most completely declared, the ground is perfectly cleared for the blessing of man. The death of Christ is the “bed-rock”. It is that on which the whole structure of grace and glory can be securely reared, for it is that in which everything unsuited to God has been removed in righteous judgment. I recognise that I am under the sentence of death, but “through faith” I know that the sentence has been executed in the way of infinite grace. There never was such an exhibition of grace as when Jesus tasted “death for every man”. If you bow to the truth you must own that God has searched you, and that you justly lie under sentence of death. But then you learn the grace of God in the wondrous fact that Christ has died for you.
The ground was cleared for God when Christ died, and we apprehend it by faith. The young convert who exclaims, in words which have just acquired meaning and power in his soul, “Jesus died for me”, is coming to the apprehension that the ground is cleared. When a man gives himself up as lost and condemned, and realises that nothing will meet his case but the death of Christ, the ground is cleared in the apprehension of his soul. He thinks no longer of good self or bad self — the death of Christ is his only hope. He finds the true expression of his heart in such words as —
“just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bid’st me come to Thee;
O Lamb of God, I come”. (446:1)
Where this is truly the heart’s language the ground is cleared of self-confidence and self-righteousness, and God can proceed with His blessed work of building up the knowledge of His grace in the soul.
The grace of God is all administered “through our Lord Jesus Christ”, and we can learn it and have it built up in our souls as He is before us. He not only administrates the grace of God, but it is all set forth in Him. If we have bowed to the solemn truth that we are guilty and condemned, and have realised that nothing but the death of Christ could shelter us from the just judgment of a holy God, we have thought long [p. 9] enough about ourselves. Indeed we have reached the conclusion of the whole matter. A thousand years of self-examination and self-occupation would not carry us a step farther. It is all over with us, and we may as well accept this at once. Repentance — true self-judgment — is, a great necessity, but continued occupation with our own badness and unworthiness can only keep the soul in darkness and distress. God would have us to know that the death of Christ has cleared the ground so that His infinite grace might come to us in all its fulness and freeness. And that grace is set forth in the Lord Jesus Christ and comes to us through Him.
It is not that I am patched up or mended; it is not myself with additions or subtractions; it is Infinite divine favour and blessing set forth in another Person altogether, and administered to me through Him. In short, it is as God establishes our hearts in the knowledge of Christ, and we learn the grace of which He is the Mediator, that we are edified — our souls are built up and consolidated in the knowledge of grace. The structure of grace is enlarged in our souls, and we become “established with grace”.
I should like to borrow an illustration from the Old Testament in connection with the building of the temple, but I only refer to it as an illustration and not in the way of interpretation. “And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house.... And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building ... So he built the house, and finished it” (1 Kings 5: 17; 1 Kings 6: 7, 9). I think these stones may illustrate the greatness, preciousness, and divine suitability of Christ as the One in whom all the thoughts of God’s grace are established and set forth . And God would lay this [p. 10] down in the apprehension of our souls as a divine basis upon which the whole superstructure of the knowledge of His grace might be reared. “I have laid the foundation”, says the apostle to his Corinthian children in the faith, “and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ”. (1 Corinthians 3: 10, 11). The foundation had been well and truly laid at Corinth, but there were those who were building worthless material upon it — who were occupying the saints with what was of man, and thus hindering the work of God in their souls. The whole structure must correspond with the foundation. If the foundation is of God the super-structure must also be of God; if the foundation is “Jesus Christ” the whole building must be of the same material.
There is no human effort or noise connected with true edification; all is the quiet and blessed work of God by His Spirit. But there is need of exercise on our part lest we hinder and grieve the Spirit and stay His work. We are in danger of being like the people in Haggai’s day, who said, “The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built”, but who were dwelling in their own “ceiled houses”. That is, we may put our own things in the first place, and if we do they will soon shut out God’s things. Many a man makes his spiritual interests secondary to his business interests, and the result is soul-starvation.
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5: 1). We have not peace with God through feeling happy, or through having lived a holy life, or through being obedient. But we believe on God as the One who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead for our justification, and we have peace with Him through our Lord Jesus Christ. We apprehend the Lord Jesus [p. 11] Christ as having made atonement, and as now risen and glorified at God’s right hand. Our sins are gone, and the One who bore them is now our righteousness. This settles every question, and silences every accuser. We are with God not according to our deservings, but according to His perfect grace through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then through our Lord Jesus Christ “we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5: 2). The favour in which we stand can only be measured by Christ. He has become Man, and through death and resurrection He has reached the right hand of God in unbounded favour and acceptance. We can say of Him, “Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed” (Psalm 84: 9). Death has passed upon us; we, as in the flesh, have gone from God’s sight in the death of Christ, that we might be in the favour of God according to the perfection of Christ. So that if we wish to know the favour in which we stand we must learn the preciousness of Christ — the beauty and acceptance of God’s Anointed. Our history as children of Adam — the dark pages of which were filled with sins, imperfections, and inconsistencies — has been closed in Christ’s death. And a new volume is now opened before our faith in which every page records the perfections of Christ, and the blessedness of God’s favour through Him. God would have our souls filled with a sense of this favour in His presence. When that blessed One was here a voice from the opened heaven declared, “Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. The Father could look down upon Him with inexpressible delight. And now that He is risen and glorified the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has “made us accepted in the beloved” to the praise of the glory of His grace. He has marked us out for sonship through [p. 12] Jesus Christ to Himself. The grace of God has bound us up thus with Christ for ever, and He would build up the consciousness of this in our souls by His Spirit.
“God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Romans 5: 8, 9). Here we see the unchangeableness of divine love. When we were in the worst possible condition Christ died for us, and the love thus commanded toward us will never fail. Wrath is coming upon the world of the ungodly, but “we shall be saved from wrath through him”. It is a moral impossibility that the believer should ever come under an infliction of wrath from God. It sometimes happens that a Christian under great pressure of trial is tempted by Satan to think that God is dealing with him in wrath. The Thessalonians had been troubled, I suppose, by this dreadful thought, but the apostle reminds them that they were “beloved of the Lord”, and that God had loved them and given them “everlasting consolation and good hope through grace” (2 Thessalonians 2: 13, 16).
Nothing can separate the believer from the love of God, and under no circumstances whatever can he come under an infliction of wrath from God. God may have to correct His saints for their sins, and where there has been no failure He may chasten them for their profit, that they may become partakers of His holiness; but all this is in love, not in wrath. The Corinthians had been behaving badly, and yet the salutation addressed to them was, “Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1: 3). There is ever grace and peace from God towards His saints. Even to Laodicea the Lord says, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten” (Revelation 3: 19). Every action of God toward His saints is in grace and blessing; it is ever [p. 13] the outcome of His love. The love that reaches us through death is an everlasting love, and it is the sure pledge of our salvation from wrath.
“We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5: 11). There can be nothing greater than this. Everything that God is has come out through our Lord Jesus Christ. We may see something of God’s power and wisdom in creation, and many of His moral perfections come out in connection with the law and the prophets, but it is through our Lord Jesus Christ that the full glory of all His attributes and the blessedness of His nature has been revealed. And to the saint everything that is made known of God is a source of satisfaction and joy. Through grace the saint appreciates God. The psalmist said, “Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy” (Psalm 43: 4). He thought of going to God much as a schoolboy would think of going home for the holidays. How much more can we make our boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ! One could say —
“The heart within us leapeth,
And cannot down be cast,
Since with our God it keepeth
Its never-ending feast.
The Sun which smiling lights us
Is Jesus Christ alone;
And what to song incites us,
Is heaven on earth begun”.
Finally, it is by the Lord Jesus Christ that we have now received the reconciliation. When all the blessedness of God has been brought to light, we could not be happy without suitability to Him. We may see an illustration of this in the case of the prodigal. When his father kissed him there was clearly nothing between them. The full grace of his father was made known to him. But this in itself did not give him [p. 14] suitability to his father or to his father’s house. He needed the best robe for that. The best robe did not produce any change in the father, it did not add to the father’s love, but it changed everything on the prodigal’s side. It invested him with conscious suitability to the father’s presence. That is the result of reconciliation; see Colossians 1:21,22.
If we make our boast in God as having manifested Himself to us in full grace and blessing through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have also the consciousness of receiving the reconciliation through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are not only kissed, but the best robe is put upon us.
Everything that is not Christ belongs to the “old things” which have been touched by sin. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [or, there is a new creation]: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 5: 17, 18). As made the righteousness of God in Christ, the joy of reconciliation is ours. But if we accept that Christ alone is our suitability for God’s presence, it commits us to the practical refusal of everything that is not Christ. There can be no allowance of the flesh. The soul who has truly apprehended reconciliation sees that Christ is everything and in all. Everything that is not Christ is displaced in the estimation of his heart.