GOD'S GLORY AND HIS LAW
GOD’S GLORY AND HIS LAW
Address by F.E.R.
Psalm 19; Romans 12: 1 - 21 Psalm 19 is remarkable, for the reason that in the first part it presents to us the idea of the glory of God, and at the same time of a light in heaven. “The heavens declare the glory of God”, that is the first expression, and afterwards, “In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun”. It is these two thoughts I desire to dwell upon, but not in their literality.
I want to bring before you what I judge was hidden in the mind of the Spirit; it is that which is important to get at in these scriptural expressions. I do not judge the Spirit of God was taken up simply with the material heavens. The psalmist surveyed the heavens, and saw a testimony there to the glory of God; for wherever he looked upon earth there was confusion through sin; but in the heavens the work of God was above all confusion; and there was another thing, that God had set in them a tabernacle for the sun, and the sun never varied or swerved from its appointed course; at the same time there was nothing hid from the heat of it. But the material things which the psalmist observed were not the limit of what was in the mind of the Spirit; the Spirit had other thoughts not yet revealed, and we can tell now without much difficulty what the Spirit of God had in view.
The second part of the psalm declares the value of God’s law, and I understand that to be the expression of His will. The expression of His will in regard to ourselves is laid out in a very blessed way in the chapter I read in the Romans. We are to prove by the renewing of our minds what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans is peculiarly the expression of God’s will in regard to us [p. 79] down here. But you will not understand the will of God unless you apprehend the glory of God.
It is blessed to apprehend that God is above all the confusion down here — that the heavens declare His glory.
Now in the first part of the psalm I have no doubt the Spirit of God had Christ in view — how that God has set Him in heaven, and thus the heavens declare the glory of God, and that is true at this moment. Stephen looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus. Sin and ruin and woe were down here, but Stephen saw the glory of God, and Jesus at the right hand of God. That is the light which God has been pleased to set in heaven, and the heavens declare the glory of God. Christ has been received in heaven with acclamation, and the glory of God is in the face of Jesus. God’s delight is set forth in Him; it is that which gives character to the great supper in Luke 14. I understand that to be the celebration of righteousness. Righteousness was accomplished in the death of Christ; the resurrection was the testimony of it, and the celebration is in the reception of Christ in heaven. He has been taken to heaven, and the heavens declare the glory of God. There was at the cross the perfect conciliation of love and righteousness in the removal of sin. Witness was borne to it in resurrection, but the celebration is in heaven.
Now in the heavens hath God “set a tabernacle for the sun”. It is important to see that there is a scene where God has everything to His pleasure, that is, in heaven. In the face of Jesus I see the conciliation of things that were necessarily opposed. What I understand in regard to the sun is that it is set for a light on the earth. It was so at the beginning. Thus in setting Christ in heaven, God has set Him there to be a light for man on earth. The setting of Christ in heaven means the introduction of the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God means security for man from [p. 80] the power of every enemy. The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Saints down here are secured from the power of all enemies. It is there that God has been pleased to set salvation. The light is Christ in heaven, in which man upon earth is to walk. It is a great thing to walk in daylight. We know what it is to be in the light of the sun. If you walk in the light you do not stumble. The point is that we walk in the light which God has been pleased to set in heaven.
It is not difficult to tell you why Christ is the light for man upon earth. It is because the grace of God is expressed in Him, the glory of God too is set forth in Him. Christ is the expression of God’s mind to man. You get the proclamation in His name of repentance and forgiveness of sins. It has comforted my mind to see that grace is commensurate with glory, that is a great point, and the reason is that both grace and glory are founded on the cross; and hence it must be that grace is commensurate with glory. Christ is the blessed expression of grace, and at the same time the glory of God is set forth in His face. “Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God”. Grace prepares for glory.
We tread our path down here in the light of Christ, and that means the perfect expression of the grace of God. The point of view for a christian now is heaven; he rejoices in hope of glory and you will not see much of the glory of God on earth. In newspapers you will see very little about heaven. But it is in heaven that we see in the face of Jesus the glory of God; God’s righteousness reconciled with His love; and that is security for everything. There is everything now for man in Jesus, peace, grace, and the hope of glory. Grace is for the present; grace reigns; the presence [p. 81] of Christ in heaven has introduced the reign of grace through righteousness, unto eternal life. One may be travelling on to death, but grace reigns, maintaining righteousness, unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
If in the light of Christ you go through the world, you are an overcomer instead of being overcome. And you walk here in righteousness. If it were not for grace we could not touch righteousness. No unconverted man can walk in self-judgment, for the reason that he is not acquainted with the grace of God; but the knowledge of the grace of God enables one to walk in self-judgment. The allowance of sin is inconsistent with the grace of God, for the teaching of grace is that having denied ungodliness and worldly lusts, we live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; and the soul is thus led in the direction of eternal life, which is God’s purpose.
Now I would like all, both young and old, to be walking in this world in the light of Christ, and it is a light above the brightness of the sun. Saul when he was converted saw such a light, and in the heavenly Jerusalem they have no need of the light of the sun; they have no need even of the greatest natural light because they have moral light, the light of God. I would wish that we might all go through this world in that great light which God has been pleased to set in heaven. Christ is the true sun which God has set in heaven, in order that we might walk in the light of Christ down here upon earth.
Now I come to the law of the Lord, and in regard to that I take up a few points. There is a beautiful description here of what the law of the Lord is, “The law of Jehovah is perfect” (verses 7, 8). I alter the name to ‘Jehovah’ because Jehovah is a name of relationship. When you see the heavens declaring the glory of God, and that God has set Christ there as a great light, then you can walk in peace on earth, and [p. 82] the law of Jehovah becomes your guide; the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. I do not doubt that Israel will hereafter appreciate the law as the expression of God’s will. We are in a scene where there is no way; the world is morally a wilderness, but we walk in the light of heaven, and have a guard and guide for our pathway down here. This psalm gives you the law of God as guard and guide.
The first thing in detail is that you yield your body a living sacrifice. It is the one thing recognised as in the disposal of the christian. In the mind of God the old man is crucified with Christ. All that a man is morally, as a man, is gone for God in the death of Christ. The thing of which God yet takes account is the body, and for the reason that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, it is that which you have to present to God, and it is presented a living sacrifice; you recognise that the time past has sufficed for the doing of your own will, and now you are to prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. It is a comfort to know that that will has been perfectly set forth here upon earth. We are not called to walk in an untrodden path; the will of God has been perfectly set forth in Christ; He could say ‘I have glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work that Thou gavest Me to do’. In the path of Christ the christian is called to walk. The first thing is that your own will is set aside; it is will that distinguishes each one of us. Your will is not mine, and mine is not yours. but every christian’s will is gone. Our old man is crucified with Christ, so that we are to have no will. The body is to be yielded up as a sacrifice to God. Hence you have to consider what you do with your body. If you had the sense that your body was devoted to Christ, you would be careful how you used it. You would not care to adorn it on the one hand, nor would you be careless about it on the other. If you neglect [p. 83] it, it may become a hindrance; on the other hand, if you indulge your body it will lead to corruption. Christ was here on earth fulfilling the will of God; He carried out all the thoughts of divine goodness, and presented grace to man. He was setting forth what was that good and acceptable and perfect will of God down here. That was never set forth until Christ set it forth, and now we are called to walk in that path. Thus we come to have a sober thought of ourselves according to the will of God. “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith”, Romans 12: 3.
I have no doubt that your true measure is the light of God in you; whatever may be the measure of your faith, that is your power for God. The measure of Abraham was his faith, so too I might go on to speak of Moses and many another. It is of little moment to God whether a man is great in the world or a beggar. The fact is that the poor in this world are rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom; on the other hand, a man rich in this world may be poor in faith. The true measure of every one will come to light some day; those who are rich in faith will then be vindicated. It is a great thing to take account of this. According to the measure of faith you have to walk soberly down here, giving up all high thoughts of yourself, if you want to be at all useful for God. I do not care to think of myself above the light which God has been pleased to give me. Practically nothing can be more important than to maintain that the walk of a christian is to be governed by his faith, that is, that he should not go beyond his faith. You will never do anything easily except as the fruit of faith. Many have gone on, as it were, goaded by conscience, but that is not faith. A man is truly great as he enters into the will of God. He appreciates the law of God. The revelation of His [p. 84] will is a delight to that man, and his pleasure is to walk in the law of God. He meditates in it day and night. It is his guard and guide.
Now the first thing that we have to recognise in connection with faith is that we are members of one body; though many, we are members one of another; and in connection with the one body each one has an appointed function; that must be the case with every member of the body. My hand has not the least doubt of its function in regard to the body. So, too, I might speak of any member of the body; if a member of the body is unable to fulfil its function, that member is paralysed, but in a healthy condition every member of the body naturally fulfils its own proper function in the body, and does not in any way interfere with any other member. Every member subserves the body. We have to recognise that we are all one body in Christ, members one of another. Hence your first obligation is not to father, mother, husband, or wife, but as in the body of Christ. Your first obligation is the will of God, and has reference to the place that He has given to you in the body of Christ. Saints sometimes put the natural obligations before the spiritual, and it does not answer. If you put the spiritual obligation first, God will help you in regard to the natural. It is not God’s will for the christian to go on in a path of isolation; that is a point to be recognised, and the exhortations here are to this end, that you shall carry out your obligation in the body in the best way possible. So he that ministereth is to wait on his ministry; he that teacheth, on teaching; he that exhorteth, on exhortation; he that giveth, with simplicity. It often happens that while christians do a right thing they spoil it in the doing of it. The point is to do the right thing in the best way; and I venture to urge that each one of us has an obligation to one another. We are not all teachers or exhorters, but each one may give with simplicity, or perhaps show [p. 85] mercy with cheerfulness, in order to help and encourage another.
I think I can say that nothing would give me more profound satisfaction than to encourage or cheer any christian under pressure down here. I may fail in the carrying of this out, but that is what I would wish to do.
Whatever function has been assigned to you in the body, be content to carry it out in simplicity, in the best way possible by the Spirit of God. That is what it is to be here for the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. We may try and do great things when perhaps God has intended us to do small things. To be here for the will of God, and do small things in the best way is far safer and happier than trying to do great things so as to be conspicuous. No member of the human body claims supremacy; every member of the body fulfils its own function, and the same things should mark the saints.
Now there is just a word more in regard to the latter part of the chapter. A mere moralist could hardly fail to admit the perfectness of the passage; I mean as a rule of life for men down here; you get guides and guards. It involves that you have your senses in measure exercised to discern between good and evil; and that is what God intends to have in the christian. We are brought under the influence of Christ, and to the knowledge of God, in order that we may get a right conception of good and evil, so as to abhor that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good. In the world there is a great mixing up of good and evil; there are traces of good which is of God; on the other hand, there is a fearful power of evil. God has set to work to disentangle, and that work has been done in degree in the christian. His senses are exercised to discern between good and evil. We have a sense of what is good because the light of God is in the heart; on the other hand, we get a perception of what is evil, and have to refuse the evil and cleave to the good.
[p. 86] One point more is that we are not to be overcome of evil, but to overcome evil with good. We get a perception of good and evil, and power is there, so that instead of being overcome of evil we overcome evil with good. There never was a person in the world who had not pleasure in being an overcomer, the trial is in being overcome. When your soul is so acquainted with good that instead of being overcome, you overcome, there is really happiness and satisfaction; and that is the effect of walking in the light of the sun. We have our sun in heaven; Christ, who presents to us all the goodness of God. I could not say I am good, but I can say that my soul has become acquainted with good. I have seen the superiority of good to evil in the cross; all was disentangled there. Now the soul of the christian is instructed in the goodness of God, and in the presence of goodness he learns what evil is. And we find power to overcome evil. So that if one has to do with an enemy he heaps coals of fire on his head. I do not try to avenge myself; the path is to break a man down by overcoming evil with good. if vengeance has to be exercised, that is the Lord’s part, and not mine. I can only say that if you walk thus in the light of divine goodness down here, you may depend upon it, your path will be greatly simplified. It is a great thing to be able to walk in that light, to be able to look up to heaven and say, “The heavens declare the glory of God” and “In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun”.
I repeat what I observed at the outset, that grace is commensurate with glory, for both grace and glory have their foundation in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we are not at all afraid of glory because conscious that grace is commensurate with it. Now we are to walk in the power of grace down here; in self-judgment; and in dealing with others to seek to carry out our function in the body, and, as a general principle, to overcome evil with good.
[p. 87] May God give us grace that we may be well pleased to walk down here in the path appointed for us, and to find our infinite delight in the law of God, in the blessed expression of His will in regard to us as down here.