THE PRESENT END OF GRACE
[p. 25] THE PRESENT END OF GRACE
On two past occasions we looked at some of the precious things spoken of in this chapter. I desire now to bring before you the end which God has in view in making known His grace to us. We are told that, “they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ”. Then again, in the last verse of the chapter, we read of grace reigning “through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord”. It seems to me that these two statements give us the end towards which grace works, viz. that believers should reign in life, and be brought into eternal life. I hope to be able to set before you, in some measure, what is conveyed by these statements.
But we must, in the first place, dwell a little on the blessedness of the grace that has reached us. This grace may be divided into two parts: (1) that which meets our need as sinners, and (2) that which enriches us with spiritual blessing in the favour of God. The “gift of righteousness” meets and settles everything connected with our guilty state as sinners. Then the “abundance of grace” is the excess of God’s rich bounty which goes far beyond the meeting of our need.
We may see these two things, in picture, in connection with the Queen of Sheba. In coming to Solomon she first got her need met — her hard questions answered, and all her desires gratified. But there was an excess above all this which “Solomon gave her of his royal bounty” (1 Kings 10: 13).
Most of us have known what it was to have “hard questions” — questions to which the wisdom of men could furnish no answer. One of the oldest and [p. 26] hardest questions ever raised in this world is that of job, “How should man be just with God?” (Job 9: 2). How can man — guilty, ungodly, and wholly destitute of righteousness and goodness as he is — be clear of all his guilt, and happy in the knowledge that God will not impute sin to him? The “gift of righteousness” is the divine and perfect answer to this “hard question”.
Man’s terrible state as a lost sinner is graphically described by Jehovah’s words through the prophet Jeremiah: “For thus saith the Lord, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous. There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines .. . thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity” (Jeremiah 30: 12 - 15). Man left to himself is utterly helpless and hopeless. But in such an extremity as this lies the opportunity of a Saviour God. He is not without compassion or resource in the presence of man’s desperate case. He says, “For I will restore health unto thee, and [p. 27] I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord” (verse 17). It may he said that this refers to Israel. That it does so only makes the depth of man’s ruin, and the riches of God’s grace, more apparent. If the people to whom God had vouchsafed so much divine light, and so many divine privileges, could only he described in such language as this, does it not prove conclusively that no amount of light and privilege can make man other than what he is — a guilty and lost sinner? Indeed, “there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3: 22, 23).
On the other hand, if grace is rich towards those who have sinned against light, and who have abused every divine privilege that God could confer upon man in the flesh, none need despair. The grace in which God says, “I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds” is available for every sinner under heaven, whether he be Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, white or black, religious or profane. In Jeremiah 31: 34 you get the same thing in plain words, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more”.
God does this for His own sake (Isaiah 43: 25), that His grace may he known by men. He sets Himself forth as a just God and a Saviour, and says, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 45: 22). The Lord Jesus has been delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification, that He might become the righteousness of every believer. The believer can say, “In the Lord have I righteousness and strength” (Isaiah 45: 24). This being the case, he is entirely cleared of guilt and condemnation, and consequently delivered from all the power of the enemy. “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord” (Isaiah 54: 17).
Righteousness is a divine gift. We could not earn it or buy it, but God gives it, and it is available for everybody. Those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ have Him as their righteousness. A dying saint said, “Christ is my righteousness, and that settles everything”. Thank God, it does settle everything for the believer. Has it settled everything for you? Have you received “the gift of righteousness”?
Then there is “abundance of grace”. This is; as I have said, the excess — the “royal bounty” that gives more than was needed or asked for. It is one thing to have the conscience at rest because the gift of righteousness has been received; it is another to have the heart satisfied with “abundance of grace”. How few [p. 28] of us know what it is to be in abiding satisfaction of heart! God has given “abundance of grace”, and it is for us to gather what He has given.
Jeremiah 31: 10 - 14 gives the thought of abundance of grace in Old Testament language. “Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall he satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord”. No doubt this scripture speaks of earthly blessing in the millennium. But what will be good for Israel then is good for us now in a spiritual sense. It is not now earthly blessings, but all the grace of heaven. Something better than silver or gold or the cattle on a thousand hills. It is an abundance which fills our hearts with spiritual wealth and joy, so that our souls are as a watered garden. Satiated with fatness and satisfied with God’s goodness, His saints are made capable of approaching Him with hearts full of joy and praise. Peter and John could not give the lame man at the gate of the temple silver and gold, but in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth they could meet his need and fill his heart with such joy that he could enter “with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God” (Acts 3).
[p. 29] The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. And to each one of us has been given grace according to the measure of the beneficence of Christ. Who can set bounds to this abundance of grace?
But someone may say, “I do not doubt the abundance of grace, but I must confess that I have not the joy of it in my soul”. I suppose most of us are conscious that our joy in spiritual blessings is not so full or so constant as it might be. We have to learn that we not only need One to secure the blessings and to give them, but One who is able in His grace to bring us into the enjoyment of them.
In connection with this, note the words, “He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock” (Jeremiah 31: 10). We need to be shepherded by the Lord. In the East sheep do not choose their own pasture; the shepherd leads. In this country, where the sheep are left to themselves we sometimes see them trying to nibble something in the worst part of the field. As saints we need to be shepherded by the Lord, and we may be sure that He leads into pastures of tender grass. As the Shepherd He leads us into the blessing He has secured for us, and for which He has secured us. There is no limit to His giving, for He has laid down His life for the sheep. And now He lives to care for us, and lead us into the “abundance of grace”. It is a great thing to be conscious of His care and grace in this way — to be under His control, and within the sound of His voice, so as to be led by Him. There is no want in the soul that is shepherded by the Lord. In Romans 5 we get wide pastures of tender grass in which He would lead us. Feeding in those pastures we should he consciously enriched with abundance of grace, and satisfied with God’s goodness.
[p. 30] What would be the practical effect of this? We should be superior to all the influences and attractions of the world because satisfied from a source which lies entirely outside it. “Newness of life” (Romans 6: 4) is a life which has all its springs outside the world. It is a great thing when Christ becomes the Spring of everything to our hearts. David was the spring of everything to Ittai, so that he said, “As the Lord liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant he” (2 Samuel 15: 21). As to this world we have been baptised unto the death of Christ. We have been buried with Him by baptism unto death, that we may live with Him. God would have to us pass over in spirit with Him, and find everything that is life for our hearts bound up with Him. It is an important moment for the Christian when he comes to realise what is involved in his baptism, so that he does not look for life here. He then sees that all his springs of life are in Christ. He looks for death where Christ died, and for life where Christ lives. Christ is the turning-point of everything. It is said that a great Emperor took his seat on one occasion at the wrong end of the table. Some of the attendants drew his attention to the fact, but he replied, “Where I sit is the head of the table”. So for us everything turns upon the place the Christ has. He is rejected here, and has died here. Then we must look for rejection and death here. He has been raised by the Father’s glory and lives to God. Then life for us is bound up with Him where He is.
In the apprehension of this we become superior, as I have said, to the influence and attractions of the world. We are able to take account of ourselves as having died to sin. We reign in life by One, Jesus Christ; we are in the supremacy of life, and thus superior to all that is evil here. Nothing makes one [p. 31] so superior to this present evil world as having a heart satisfied with abundance of grace, with that which is really life towards God.
Paul and Silas in prison were so full of blessed satisfaction in the knowledge of God that they could sing. They were superior to the power of evil which was active against them. So, again, Paul before Agrippa as a prisoner in chains could say, “I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds”. He was consciously better off than the king. Again, in Philippians 4: 11, 12, he could say that he had learned to be inwardly satisfied in every kind of circumstance. He could do all things through Christ who gave him power. He was in kingly supremacy — reigning in life by Jesus Christ. He was not a spiritual scarecrow, but a living exponent of the divine superiority of a Christian to every form of evil here. In writing to the Colossians he would have them to be superior to philosophy, ordinances, etc., because conscious of being complete in Christ.
The saint reigning in life in this moral sense cannot be crushed by the power of evil. Luther, when urged to flee from his enemies, said he would go on if every tile on the roofs of the houses was a devil to oppose him. He could also withstand seductive influences, for at another time one who was sent to offer him money had to write to Rome, “This German beast has not regard for gold”. In these particulars he was in superiority to the evil influences which work in the world. To make His saints thus superior is one great end which God has in view.
Then there is another thing. “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord”. Grace reigns by the Spirit in the heart of the believer who has received the abundance of grace and found satisfaction in God’s goodness. And, if grace reigns in the heart of the believer, it is through righteousness. Deep and true self-judgment is wrought in the soul. If God’s grace dominates my heart, everything that is connected with myself morally will he seen in its true character, and judged accordingly. When we are thus “under grace” and walking in self-judgment, there is nothing to hinder the Spirit leading us into the deep things of God. God has prepared wondrous things for those who love Him — things which the human mind cannot comprehend — and eternal life is found in the knowledge and enjoyment of those blessed things. If God has satisfied us with His goodness and grace, it is that we might love Him. And if we love Him we shall desire above all things to know Him in the circle of His own thoughts and delights. To know the Father, and Jesus Christ His sent One, is life eternal (John 17: 3). To continue in the Son and in the Father is eternal life (1 John 2: 24, 25).
It is as we serve God, and have our fruit unto holiness, that we are delivered from things which hinder us from acquiring the knowledge of God. We thus are set free to enter into the blessed reality of what God has given to us in His Son. God would have us to enter into this by the Spirit — to reap even now everlasting life — to have a present knowledge and enjoyment of things that death cannot touch.