LIFE
OR
THE DAILY TRIUMPH OF GOOD OVER EVIL
“The man is become as one of us, to know good and evil”
This passage contrasted with John 10: 14-15.
Victory is the portion of all in Christ. We can say, “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory” (1 Cor 15: 57), because good and evil have received their full solution at the hands of God. Life which was refused before is now given to men. This great grace is a relief to your heart from all evil. Many a weary heart utters the daily prayer, “Deliver us from evil”, unconscious entirely of the fact that what was not true when this prayer was given is true now. In the gospel we learn that the question of evil IS ALREADY settled for God. Blessed for ever be His Name!
Seeing that this is so, and I shall point out the proof presently, we cannot say with Job, “shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”, Job 2: 10. He was a believer, but no believer could in integrity of heart now say that. What is true today for us is, that “all things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom 8: 28); and James says, “God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man”, James 1: 13.
What I find refused to man, when the question of evil was unsettled, was life, Gen 3: 22. But life is what has come to us in the gospel. “Life and incorruptibility” are brought to light by the gospel, 2 Tim 1: 10. Through sin, man gained the knowledge of “good and evil”, and then life was refused, Gen 3: 22-24. Death became his portion. Life is in the knowledge of God, in the good news of the gospel, when every disturbing element has been removed. “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”, John 17. In Eden, Eve desired something in addition to God and the blessings which He had given. This was how evil came in. The knowledge of God is the knowledge of good. “One is good, that is God”. He (God over all blessed for ever) who as man has settled for ever the question of evil, has declared this. It is a blessed thing for us that eternal life has only to do with good—with good, and with nothing but good. Herein is rest, to live in the atmosphere of good. Man has, for six thousand years, sought to find a good spring, outside of God, and has failed. In the gospel God has revealed Himself as the source and continuous supply of all his need, for he only needs good.
Now the proof that the question of evil is eternally solved lies in the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the making known of good lies in the Person and work of the Holy Spirit, and He dwells in the believer as the abiding power and minister of good, John 7: 39. It is a great comfort to know that God has given life, and the Spirit is the power of it, in order that I might for all time (and for eternity too) know good and nothing but good. What an expanse this grace opens up to us! GOOD is in the knowledge of God, as He has been pleased now to reveal Himself! There could be no limit to this revelation. The Son reveals the Father as He knows Him, Matt 11: 27! And the Spirit is here in order that we may profit by the revelation, in order that it may be true in us that “Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man’s heart, which God has prepared for them that love him, but God has revealed to us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God”, 1 Cor 2: 9 NT.
I should like to say a word about the knowledge which this wonderful change has introduced. When sin came in, God said: “The man has become as one of us, to know good and evil”, Gen 3: 22. But what is true now is, “I know those that are mine, and am known of those that are mine, as the Father knows me, and I know the Father”, John 10: 14-15 NT. In the first case man only knew good as that which he was powerless to do, and he knew evil as that which he had no power to resist, for thus the apostle Paul speaks of both in Romans 7. In the second case, the day succeeding the removal of evil from the eye of God, our own day, we know the fellowship of the Father and the Son. We know evil, but only as that which has been eternally removed for God, and as that therefore that we have done with because He has. It is of the “old things” that “have passed away”. And we know good as that which remains, for God remains, and He makes Himself known in us by His Spirit. “All things are of God” is said of what remains, 2 Cor 5: 17-18. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”, Rom 5: 5. What a triumph of God and a triumph of good we have before us now that He has settled the question of evil. In His grace He has man (the believer) in fellowship with Himself, to seek good, to love what He loves, and to hate what He hates. It is indeed wonderful that now in the only perfect way—in life which He has given—it should be true that “the man has become as one of us, to know good and evil”. In the power of the Spirit we “abhor that which is evil”, and “cleave to that which is good”, Rom 12: 9.
One word more as to this blessing. It is needful to remember that although evil is settled as to God, and therefore as to us, it is evidently not yet put out of this world. The basis on which it will be expelled entirely is laid in the cross. But because evil is morally settled, it has also to be practically overcome, and the power for good is the Spirit in the believer. “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good”, Rom 12: 21. It is as we cultivate the good, that that which is evil, the naturally inherent power in man, is practically set aside. “Wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil” (Rom 16: 19), because it is evil we simply leave it there, it is that with which we do not intermeddle.
We have to do with what is infinitely better, for the occupation of heaven is learnt on earth, and the occupation of heaven is with what is good. With this it is the work of the Spirit to occupy us now. “Finally”, says the apostle, “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do, and the God of peace shall be with you”, Phil 4: 8, 9. “These things do”, surely good things. May we desire and content ourselves with them! May we through grace live in the conscious enjoyment and favour, now as surely we shall for ever, of John 10: 14-15!
From A Voice to the Faithful—vol 30, 1896
