CHAPTER III. GODS CHARACTER OUR
RESTING-PLACE
We have seen that a sinner's peace cannot come from
himself, nor from the knowledge of himself, nor from thinking about his own acts
and feelings, nor from the consciousness of any amendment of his old self.
Whence, then, is it to come? How does he get it?
It can only come from God; and it is in knowing
God that he gets it. God has written a volume for the purpose of making himself
known; and it is in this revelation of his character that the sinner is to find
the rest that he is seeking. God himself is the fountainhead of our peace; his
revealed truth is the channel through which this peace finds its way into us;
and his Holy Spirit is the great interpreter of that truth to as: "Acquaint thyself
now with God, and be at peace."[7] Yes, acquaintanceship with God is peace!
Had God told us that he was not gracious, that he
took no interest in our welfare, and that he had no intention of pardoning us,
we could have no peace and no hope. In that case our knowing God would only make
us miserable. Our situation would be like that of the devils, who "believe and
tremble;"[8] and the more we knew of such a God,
we should tremble the more. For how fearful a thing must it be to have the great
God that made us, the great Father of Spirits, against us, not for us!
Strange to say, this is the very state of disquietude
in which we may find many who profess to believe in a God "merciful and gracious!"
With the Bible in their hands, and the cross before their eyes, they wander on
in a state of darkness and fear, such as would have arisen had God revealed himself
in hatred not in love. They seem to believe the very opposite of what the Bible
teaches us concerning God; and to attach a meaning to the Cross, the very opposite
of what the gospel declares it really bears. Had God been all frowns, and the
Bible all terrors, and Christ all sternness, these men could not have been in
a more troubled and uncertain state than that in which they are.
How is this? Have they not misunderstood the Bible?
Have they not mistaken the character of God, looking on him as an "austere man"
and a "hard master?" Are they not laboring to supplement the grace of God by something
on their part, as if they believed that this grace was not sufficient to meet
their case, until they had attracted it to themselves by some earnest performances,
or spiritual exercises, of their own?
God has declared himself to be gracious. "God is
love." He has embodied this grace in the person and work of his beloved Son. He
has told us that this grace is for the ungodly, the unholy, the unfit, the stout-hearted,
the dead in sin. The more, then, that we know of this God and of his grace, the
more will his peace fill us. Nor will the greatness of our sins, and the hardness
of our hearts, or the changeableness of our feelings, discourage or disquiet,
however much they may humble us, and make us dissatisfied with ourselves.
Let us study the character of God: - holy, yet loving;
the love not interfering with the holiness, nor the holiness with the love; absolutely
sovereign, yet infinitely gracious; the sovereignty not straightening the grace,
nor the grace the sovereignty; drawing the unwilling, yet not hindering the willing,
if any such there be; quickening whom he will, yet having no pleasure in the death
of the wicked; compelling some to come in, yet freely inviting all! Let us look
at him in the face of Jesus Christ; for He is the express image of his person,
and he that hath seen Him hath seen the Father. The knowledge of that gracious
character, as interpreted by the cross of Christ, is the true remedy for our disquietness.
insufficient acquaintanceship with God lies at the root of our fears and
gloom. I know that flesh and blood cannot reveal God to you, and that the Holy
Spirit alone can enable you to know either the Father or the Son. But I would
not have you for a moment suppose that this Spirit is reluctant to do his work
in you; nor would I encourage you in the awful thought, that you are willing while
he is unwilling; or that the sovereignty of God is a hindrance to the sinner,
and a restraint of the Spirit. The whole Bible takes for granted that all this
is absolutely impossible. Never can the great truths of divine sovereignty and
the Spirit's work land us, as some seem to think they may do, in such a conflict
between a willing sinner and an unwilling God. The whole Bible is so written by
the Spirit, and the gospel was so preached by the apostles, as never to raise
the question of God's willingness, nor to lead to the remotest suspicion of his
readiness to furnish the sinner with all needful aid. Hence the great truths of
God's eternal election, and Christ's redemption of his Church, as we read them
in the Bible, are helps and encouragements to the soul. But interpreted as they
are by many, they seem barrier-walls, not ladders for scaling the great barrier-wall
of man's unwillingness; and anxious souls become land-locked in metaphysical questions,
out of which there can be no way of extrication save that of taking God at his
word.
In the Bible God has revealed himself. In Christ
he has done so most expressively. He has done so that there might be no mistake
as to it on the part of man.
Christ's person is a revelation of God. Christ's
work is a revelation of God Christ's words are a revelation of God. He is in the
Father, and the Father in him. His words and works are the words and works of
the Father. In the manger he showed us God. In the synagogue of Nazareth he showed
us God. At Jacob's well he showed us God. At the tomb of Lazarus he showed us
God. On Olivet, as he wept over Jerusalem, he showed us God. On the cross he showed
us God. In the tomb he showed us God. In his resurrection he showed us God. If
we say with Philip, "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us;" he answers, "Have
I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me? He that hath seen
me hath seen the Father."[9] This God whom Christ reveals as the God of righteous grace
and gracious righteousness, is the God with whom we have to do.
To know his character as thus interpreted to us
by Jesus and his cross, is to have peace. It is into this knowledge of the Father
that the Holy Spirit leads the soul whom he is conducting, by his almighty power,
from darkness to light. For everything that we know of God we owe to this divine
Teacher, this Interpreter, this "One among a thousand."[10] But never let the sinner imagine that he is more
willing to learn than the Spirit is to teach. Never let him say to himself, "I
would fain know God, but I cannot of myself, and the Spirit will not teach me."
It is not enough for us to say to some dispirited
one, "It is your unbelief that is keeping you wretched; only believe, and all
is well." This is true; but it is only general truth; which, in many cases, is
of no use, because it does not show him how it applies to him. On this point he
is often a fault; thinking that faith is some great work to be done, which he
is to labor at with all his might, praying all the while to God to help him in
doing this great work; and that unbelief is some evil principle, requiring to
be uprooted before the gospel will be of any use to him.
But what is the real meaning of this faith and this
unbelief?
In all unbelief there are these two things, - a
good opinion of one's self, and a bad opinion of God. So long as these two things
exist, it is impossible for an inquirer to find rest. His good opinion of himself
makes him think it quite impossible to win God's favor by his own religious performances;
and his bad opinion of God makes him unwilling and afraid to put his case wholly
into his hands. The object of the Holy Spirit's work, in convincing of sin, is
to alter the sinner's opinion of himself, and so to reduce his estimate of his
own character, that he shall think of himself as God does, and so cease to suppose
it possible that he can be justified by any excellency of his own. Having altered
the sinner's good opinion of himself, the Spirit then alters his evil opinion
of God, so as to make him see that the God with whom he has to do is really the
God of all grace.
But the inquirer denies that he has a good opinion
of himself, and owns himself a sinner. Now a man may say this; but really to know
it is something more than saying. Besides, he may be willing to take the name
of sinner to himself, in common with his fellow men, and not at all own himself
such a sinner as God says he is, - such a sinner as needs a whole Saviour to himself,
- such a sinner as needs the cross, and blood, and righteousness of the Son of
God. He may not have quite such a bad opinion of himself as to make him sensible
that he can expect nothing from God on the score of personal goodness, or amendment
of life, or devout observance of duty, or superiority to others. It takes a great
deal to destroy a man's good opinion of himself; and even after he has lost his
good opinion of his works, he retains his good opinion of his heart; and even
after he has lost that, he holds fast his good opinion of his own religious duties,
by means of which he hopes to make up for evil works and a bad heart. Nay, he
hopes to be able so to act, and feel, and pray, as to lead God to entertain a
good opinion of him, and receive him into favor.
All such efforts spring from thinking well of himself
in some measure; and also from his thinking evil of God, as if he would not receive
him as he is. If he knew himself as God does, he would no more resort to such
efforts than he would think of walking up an Alpine precipice. How difficult it
is to make a man think of himself as God does! What but the almightiness of the
Divine Spirit can accomplish this?
But the inquirer says that he has not a bad opinion
of God. But has he such an opinion of him as the Bible gives or the cross reveals?
Has he such an opinion of him as makes him feel quite safe in putting his soul
into his gracious hands, and trusting him with its eternal keeping? If not, what
is the extent or nature of his good opinion of God? The knowledge of God, which
the cross supplies, ought to set all doubt aside, and make distrust appear in
the most odious of aspects, as a wretched misrepresentation of God's character
and a slander upon his gracious name. Unbelief, then, is the belief of a lie and
the rejection of the truth. It obliterates from the cross the gracious name of
God, and inscribes another name, the name of an unknown god, in which there is
no peace for the sinner and no rest for the weary.
Accept, then, the character of God as given in the
gospel; read aright his blessed name as it is written upon the cross; take the
simple interpretation given of his mind toward the ungodly, as you have it at
length in the glad tidings of peace. Is not that enough? If that which God has
made known of himself be not enough to allay your fears, nothing else will. The
Holy Spirit will not give you peace irrespective of your views of God's character.
That would be countenancing the worship of a false god, instead of the true God
revealed in the Bible. It is in common connection with the truth concerning the
true God, "the God of all grace," that the Spirit gives peace. It is the love
of the true God that he sheds abroad in the heart.
The object of the Spirit's work is to make us acquainted
with the true Jehovah, that in him we may rest; not to produce in us certain feelings,
the consciousness of which will make us think better of ourselves, and give us
confidence toward God. That which he shows us of ourselves is only evil; that
which he shows us of God is only good. He does not enable us to feel or to believe,
in order that we may be comforted by our feeling or our faith. Even when working
in us most powerfully he turns our eyes away from his own work in us, to fix it
on God, and his love in Christ Jesus our Lord. The substance of the gospel is
the NAME of the great Jehovah, unfolded in and by Jesus Christ; the character
of him in whom we "live and move and have our being," as the "just God, yet the
Saviors,"[11] the Justifier of the ungodly.
Inquiring spirit, turn your eye to the cross and
see these two things, - the Crucifiers and the Crucified. See the Crucifiers,
the haters of God and his Son. They are yourself. Read in them your own character,
and cease to think of making that a ground of peace. See the Crucified. It is
God himself; incarnate love. It is the God who made you, suffering, dying for
the ungodly. Can you suspect his grace? Can you cherish evil thoughts of him?
Can you ask anything farther to awaken in you the fullest and most unreserved
confidence? Will you misinterpret that agony and death by saying that they do
not mean grace, or that the grace which they mean is not for you? Call to mind
that which is written, - "Hereby perceive we the love of God, that he laid down
his life for us."[12] "Herein is LOVE, not that we love God, but that he loved
us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation of our sins."[13]
[7]
Job xxii.21
[8]
James ii.19
[9]
John xiv. 8,9
[10]
Job xxxiii. 23
[11]
Is. xiv. 21
[12]
1 John iii.16
[13]
1 John iv. 10