FROM MERCY TO GLORY
[p. 455] FROM MERCY TO GLORY
The object of this chapter is to show that the dealings of God are morally all on one line. One thing is certain in the ways of God, and that is the fact of His effectual mercy. I do not know a better phrase, but whilst using it, I know that He will not invalidate responsibility. If there were not effectual mercy there would not be anything for God, for man of himself never answered to any testimony of God. If anything really depended upon man, and upon his answering to his responsibility, there would be nothing for God. The gospel is preached to every creature under heaven, and yet there is not a man that of himself answers to the gospel. Man in the flesh is in nature opposed to God; man would be a god to himself. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. But at the same time God is the judge, and He will not give up the principle of responsibility in the creature. The effect of that is that men will be judged for their works, responsibility must be maintained. Idolaters, fornicators, liars, whoremongers find their part in the lake of fire.
In Romans 8 the point reached is that the elect of God are brought to light. That is the result of the light of grace having come into the world. In the third chapter we have what is called the ‘no difference principle’. God’s righteousness is towards all, whether Jew or gentile, and this is maintained so far as the testimony of God is presented. But it is also true that the testimony of God has brought into view the elect of God. The principle of effectual mercy is seen in those loving God, the called, according to His purpose. In chapter 9 the apostle shows that God has been working on the principle of effectual mercy since the time of Abraham and David, and will continue to do so to the end. If you [p. 456] go back to Abraham, he was called of God, and there was light from God there, but only Isaac was chosen, and the mercy of God was seen in connection with him. The two principles of light in the house and the exercise of the sovereignty of God thus came out. The promises were renewed to Isaac. Effectual mercy was shown in Jacob. God says in the prophets, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated”. There was light in Isaac’s house, but at the same time the principle of sovereignty of mercy just as God chose. He had given Isaac and He chose Jacob. In the wilderness there was light for the children of Israel. They had been brought out of Egypt, where, too, there had been in measure light for them. In regard of them it was that God announced the principle He would have mercy on whom He would have mercy. Isaac had the adoption and the covenants; light, government, the law were tried with them; they had every advantage, and yet it had to be shown that a mere remnant answered to the dealings of God. Jehovah secured His tenth. If anything had really depended on Israel, God would not have had anything, and yet all the time responsibility was there. The effectual mercy of God steps in and secures a remnant for Him.
After this, you get in the chapter the power of His name, which is another principle. The scripture says with regard to Pharaoh: “For this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth”. God would make known the power of His name, and was willing, too, to show forth wrath. It is in this way that God will in result make known Himself in the sovereignty of His mercy on the one hand, and on the other in the display of His wrath, as we have in the last chapter of Isaiah, verses 19 - 21. The same thought comes out in the Revelation, where we are led on to see the complete disentanglement of good and evil; on the one hand, good finds its place with God, and evil its place in the lake of fire. These principles of responsibility, and [p. 457] sovereign mercy run throughout the whole of Scripture and are connected with the working out on the part of God of the disentanglement of good and evil, they are witness to the power of His name. You never need to fear looking any divine principle straight in the face, either God’s wrath or His mercy.
I never expect to see a christian who has been brought into blessing by any works of his own. I should never myself have been a christian had it not been for the sovereign mercy of God. Christians are proof of the effectual mercy of God, who yet maintains responsibility, which entails wrath. He will give proof of the power of His name. We are the vessels of mercy prepared beforehand unto glory, but none can attempt to explain why He should have made us vessels of mercy, one can only say He has a perfect right to do as He pleases. But He cannot do evil on account of what He is Himself, nor on account of what may be man’s judgment of Him.
I want now to come to the preparation for glory. We cannot understand this unless we know that we are subjects of the sovereign mercy of God. What I understand to be glory in man is the result of the formative power of God’s Spirit in him. As the apostle prays that the Ephesian saints might be strengthened according to the riches of God’s glory with might by His Spirit in the inner man. The Spirit will consolidate every fibre of the inner man. The inner man is evidently in contrast to the outer man. The work of the Spirit of God is to strengthen us in the inner man. It is by the knowledge of God that this is effected, and people are not much affected by doctrine; they may hear and enjoy it, but it is often not effectual in ministering to the inner man.
But all will be powerfully affected by the knowledge of God. It is the Spirit of God only that affects a soul. Thus you get the constitution of the inner man built up. If you have children you seek to build up a good constitution in them, that you may see them healthy and strong, and the Spirit’s desire is to build up the constitution [p. 458] of the saints, to feed them with solid food. In that way we are built up in the inner man, and God takes great pains to this end. He assures us of His love; the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God. My child knows that I love it, it wants no other witness.
There is, too, another point, namely, that God takes care of the manners of His own. As parents wish to see good manners in their children, so God will have suitable conduct to mark His own. Discipline proves that a child belongs to its parents, and with God the same thing is true, for if we are without chastisement we are not children. The object of the chastisement is that we may be conformed to God’s nature, thus bringing us more under the influence of His love, and that is our glory. The effect of this is confidence, the man that has been disciplined has confidence. “We glory in tribulations”, says the apostle, “knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience experience; and experience hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit”. It has been said that confidence is a plant of slow growth. Discipline breaks down the will that hinders our coming under the influence of God’s holy love, that we may be partakers of His nature. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God”. One that is unclean in spirit cannot for a moment have confidence in God, for confidence is begotten as we are really conformed to God, as we become partakers of His holiness. The fact is, that confidence is the effect of God’s work in us, and that is a great point to arrive at.
Who can go much amiss that has confidence in God? I do not expect to find things easy in this world, the point I want to reach is, that of simple confidence in God, effected by His work in me, and to be conformed thus to His nature. I have spoken of being conformed to God’s nature, and of the confidence that flows from this.
[p. 459] People sometimes think that confidence towards God is the fruit of faith; confidence is the fruit of love. There must indeed be faith, but we need all to ask our hearts the question, are they established in the love of God? That is what the love of God has in view.
There is a further thought, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. That God will have a place here for His Son is certain, to my mind, and Christ will not be displaced when He has once secured a place in the heart. The result of this is that we are rooted and grounded in love, we gain another principle of intelligence, that we may travel in spirit over the heavenly country. That is what I understand by the expression, “the breadth, and length, and depth, and height”. It reminds us of Abraham being led throughout the extent of the land of promise; we survey it in all its extent, the range of divine purpose in Christ.
Every promise of God has its end in Christ, and we are strengthened that we may survey the extent of divine purpose. Everything has failed in man, but all is recovered in Christ, and in this is involved the working out of the principles of good and evil. The object of all of which we have been speaking is that we may be filled unto all the fulness of God. If a man builds a house for himself he wants to fill it. Not only is there the design, the building itself, but it has to be filled; and here we are shown how God’s house will be filled. The love of Christ is to fill all things; the whole moral universe, for being the centre and the sun, He is going to fill all things. The sun is great enough to fill the solar system, and so in the heavenly universe Christ will fill all things. This love of Christ passeth knowledge, but every family will be brought under the influence of it, and now God will have Christ dwelling here by faith in the hearts of His people, that they may be established in the purposes of God.
That is how God prepared us for glory. The glory of God is to fill the universe; it is to come out some day,
[p. 460] and I want to come out with it. I am nothing now, and the longer I live the more I am content to be nothing, but await the time with patience when Christ will be everything. For the church comes down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God and her light like unto a stone most precious. So great and so glorious is the display that the saved nations walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honour unto it. Nothing enters into it that defiles. God corrects always in infinite wisdom and patience, with the object that we should be partakers of His holiness. You thus, in effect, get Christ dwelling in your hearts by faith, and thus arrive at a great expansion of intelligence, and with that power of intelligence you can enter into the deep things of God, and know that by which God will fill the moral universe. Nothing will be hid from the heat of it, Christ will be the source of the light, and the light will be reflected in the city. Every part of it reflects the light. If you place a diamond in a dark cellar, it does not give out any light, because it has none in itself, but when it is in the light it is brilliant by reflection; thus it is with the heavenly city. May God keep our hearts in the light of Christ.