No. 807
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” (Col. 3:16)
Things familiar to us on the natural plane often symbolically illustrate many of the deep spiritual things of God. Thus, for instance, the resurrection, both natural and spiritual, finds an illustration in the processes of vegetation (1 Cor. 15:35-38); and the processes of the beginning, development, and final perfecting of the spiritual sons of God find a remarkable illustration in the begetting, quickening, and birth of the natural man. (Jas. 1:18; Eph. 2:1; John 3:3)
When we read these illustrations, we cannot abandon and dishonor our God-given reason by accepting obviously absurd interpretations. Our Lord taught His disciples in parables and dark symbolic sayings, expecting them to use their common sense in either interpreting them themselves, or in judging of the correctness of any interpretation offered by others. When, on one occasion, the disciples asked for the interpretation of a parable instead of using their own reasoning powers to draw from it the implied lesson, Jesus reprovingly replied, “Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?” (Mark 4:13) He would have us think, consider, and put our God-given mental faculties to their legitimate use.
“CHRIST IN YOU”
Consider the Apostle’s statement when he spoke of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27) He used the same figure again in his letter to the Galatians, saying, “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” (Gal. 4:19) Here the Apostle likened his care and labor for those begotten to the new nature by the Truth, to the physical endurance of a mother in nourishing and sustaining the germ of human life until the new human creature is formed and able to appropriate for itself the life-sustaining elements of nature. The Apostle thus sought to nourish and sustain those germs of spiritual being with his own spiritual life until, apart from his personal work and influence, they would be able to appropriate for themselves the God-given elements of spiritual life contained in the Word of Truth; until the Christ-character should be definitely formed in them.
In no other reasonable sense could the Apostle “birth” those Galatian Christians; and in no other reasonable sense could Christ be formed in them, or in us. The thought is that every true child of God must have a definite individual Christian character which is not dependent for its existence upon the spiritual life of any other Christian. He must from the Word of Truth, proclaimed and exemplified by other Christians, draw those principles of life, etc., which give him an established character, a spiritual individuality of his own. So positive and definite should be the spiritual individuality of every one, that should even the beloved brother or sister, whose spiritual life first nourished ours and brought us forward to completeness of character, fall away (which the Apostle showed us is not impossible – Heb. 6:4-6; Gal. 1:8), we would still live, being able to appropriate for ourselves the spirit of Truth.
Paul feared, with good reason, that the Galatian Christians had not yet come to this condition of established character – that the Christ-life was not yet definitely formed in them. He said, “I am afraid of you [I fear for you], lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.” (Gal. 4:11) They were already giving heed to seducing teachers and departing from the faith, showing that they were not established in the Truth, and consequently not established in the spirit of the Truth, which is the spirit of Christ, and, hence, that Christ was not yet formed in them.
Alas, how often we see among those who bear the name of Christ, that they have not yet reached that degree of development which manifests a distinct spiritual individuality! They depend largely upon the spiritual life of others, and if the others’ spiritual life declines, these dependent ones suffer a similar decline; if the others go into error, these follow, as did many of those Galatian Christians to whom Paul wrote.
How is it with us? Let us apply the question to ourselves. Is the Christian character formed in us so fully that none of these things can move us or affect our spiritual life, even though they may grieve us at heart?
The great Adversary of the Truth and the Church has thrown a cloak of mystery and superstition around the Apostle’s words by implying that in some secret way, known only to the initiated, Christ personally comes to the consecrated and uses them simply as machines, which become almost infallible because Christ is using them. Those so possessed are considered to be merely passive agents who speak, think, act, and interpret the Scriptures for Christ.
With this idea they generally go further, and claim that Christ personally talks with them and teaches them independently of His Word; and some go so far as to claim that they have visions and special revelations from the Lord. Some speak of this presence as Christ; some as the Holy Spirit; and some speak of them interchangeably.
There is a semblance of truth in all this. We remember that Jesus said, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them . . . shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him . . . and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” (John 14:21, 23) However, a more serious error could scarcely be entertained than this idea of personal infallibility because of the supposed mysterious presence of another being within.
SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES
Notice that this promise of the abiding presence of the Father and the Son is to those who have and keep the commandments of the Lord Jesus. Those who ignore the Word of the Lord and follow their own imaginations and their own changing feelings (mistaking them for the voice of the Lord) are quite mistaken in claiming this promise. They are following a spirit other than the Spirit of Truth, and unless recovered from the snare they must inevitably plunge deeper and deeper into superstition and error.
If it is true that God talks with them and answers their questions through mental inspiration, dreams, or by audible sound, and not through His written Word, the Bible, then the Bible is to them a useless book, and time spent in its study is time wasted. Who would “search the scriptures” as the Lord directed, and as did all the Apostles, if they could merely shut their eyes, or kneel, and have God make a special revelation to them? Any sensible person would certainly prefer a special revelation on a subject, rather than to spend days and months and years examining and comparing the words of our Lord and the Apostles with those of the Prophets and the Book of Revelation.
None of God’s consecrated should be thus misled of the Adversary. Those who are thus deceived soon feel themselves honored of God above the Apostles, who judged of the mind of the Lord as read in His Word and in His providential leadings in harmony with His Word. (Acts 15:12-15) They fancy themselves infallible, and are separated from the anchor of Truth, the Bible. Satan can soon lead them rapidly into the outer darkness of the world, or into yet darker delusions.
The testimony of the Scriptures is quite contrary to this vaunting spirit. Paul exhorted us to examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith, or whether we have rejected the faith and thus become reprobates – no longer acceptable to God. (2 Cor. 13:5) Every true child of God has respect to the commandments of God: he searches the Scriptures that he may know them, and is not left in ignorance of them; and, learning them, he endeavors to keep them, and the abiding presence of the Father and the Son is with them so long as they continue to hold and keep (obey) His commandments.
But how? To illustrate: a friend accompanies another to a railway station saying, as he is about to board the train, “Remember, I will be with you all the way.” He means that his thoughts will be with his friend and that he will be concerned for his welfare, etc. In a similar, and yet in a fuller and broader sense, the Lord is ever present with His people. He is always thinking of us, looking out for our interests, guarding us in danger, providing for us in temporal and spiritual things, reading our hearts, marking every impulse of loving devotion to Him, shaping the influences around us for our discipline and refining, and hearkening to our faintest call for aid or sympathy or fellowship with Him. And not only is the Lord Jesus thus present, but the Father also. How blessed the realization of such abiding faithfulness!
Our Lord always links the progress and development of our spiritual life with our receiving and obeying the Truth. Every child of God should beware of any teaching which claims to be in advance of the Word, or claims Christ or the Holy Spirit speaks to us independently of the Word. The snare is a most dangerous one. It cultivates spiritual pride and boastfulness, and renders powerless the teachings of the sacred Scriptures because those so deluded think they have a higher teacher dwelling in them. Satan, taking advantage of the delusion, can lead them captive at his will.
These symbolic expressions of the Scriptures must be interpreted as symbols, and to force any unreasonable interpretation upon them manifests a culpable willfulness in disregarding the divinely appointed laws of our mind, and the result is self-deception. We read, “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” (1 John. 4:16) The only reasonable interpretation of this is that we dwell in the love and favor, and in the spirit or disposition of God, and that His spirit or disposition dwells in us. Thus God, by His indwelling spirit, works in us to will and to do His good pleasure. (Phil. 2:13) Let us endeavor to have and to keep His commandments, that the abiding presence of the Father and the Son may be with us, being careful to have no theories or works of our own.
(Based on Reprint 3250.)
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FAITH THE BASIS OF TRUE REST
“For we which have believed do enter into rest.” (Heb. 4:3)
St. Paul here referred to the fact that the Law provided to the Jews a physical rest for the seventh day of the week, the seventh year, and the forty-ninth and fiftieth years. He pointed out that these Sabbaths were typical of a better rest, and that all who believe in Christ enter into rest, and thus keep a continual Sabbath. They rest all the time if they abide in the Lord and in His promises; faith is necessary to rest.
God declared His purpose to have a special, holy nation, and promised Abraham that the blessing of the world would come through his Seed, who would constitute this chosen nation. Abraham believed the promise and was glad – he rested. He did not know the way by which God would bring about the blessing, but he had the promise of God, confirmed by His Oath. He did not need to know then about the Lord Jesus or the Plan of Salvation. He had full rest in fully believing God, as did those of his posterity that exercised the same faith as Abraham.
Isaac and Jacob and many of the Prophets, including the Prophet David, thus trusted God. Their writings show that they were fully in harmony with God. They realized that He had made a gracious provision for the future, and that this provision was for the world in general; yet they knew that they were to have a “better resurrection” than that of the world. They rested in their faith in these things that God had not yet accomplished.
Our Lord Jesus declared that Abraham saw His day and was glad. (John 8:56) He did not see it with his natural eye, but with the eye of faith. He saw the day when Christ, who died for all men, will uplift the human family, raising the world up out of sin and death – first exalting His Bride, and finally causing the blessing of God to extend to every creature. This is just what God promised to Abraham: “And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen. 28:14) Abraham did not see God’s Plan clearly, as we see it, but he saw enough to make him rejoice.
Coming to the present age, we see that greater light and greater privilege has brought greater tests of faith in many respects. Abraham was tested when he was told to offer his son Isaac in sacrifice. He knew that the promises were to be fulfilled through this son, but he said: It is for me to be obedient; God can raise my son from the dead. This shall not hinder my faith in the outworking of God’s Plan.
We of the Gospel Age have not heard God’s voice speaking to us directly, as did Abraham; but we live in the time of a further development of the great Plan of God. He has sent His Son into the world. He was made flesh and dwelt among us, and He died, “the just for the unjust.” Unbelief would assert that if Jesus had been the Son of God He would not have died; but there was a mortgage held on the human race by justice, and their case was hopeless unless a Redeemer should be provided. The eye of faith today is able to grasp God’s purposes in a fuller way than did Abraham. Yet we do not know that our faith is any greater than his; for even if we have more trials and difficulties, we have also greater opportunities and greater light. Abraham had full faith, full confidence in God, and no one could have more than this.
The Lord’s people of the present time believe that mankind will be rescued from sin and death. Some have more knowledge than others, and more testing; some who have less capacity cannot endure so severe testing, nor can they enjoy so fully. But all can have the same rest that Abraham had – the rest of faith in God. Each in proportion to his knowledge and faith will have rest. The most learned and the most ignorant can have this rest, if only they believe God.
REST PROPORTIONATE TO FAITH
The rest we have entered into is not our ultimate rest. If we have the faith today, we may have the rest today; if we lose the faith, we also lose the rest, but a perfect, permanent rest awaits us. God has promised us certain great and precious things. He is our Creator and our Father, and will do for us the things He has promised. And according to our faith it will be unto us – much faith, much rest; little faith, little rest. Those who are in harmony with God believe His testimony.
This does not imply that all who have been of God’s children have believed all of the divine plan; for we see that this would not be possible. Some have had greater opportunity for believing; and some have had less. We who live today have much more advantage than those who lived prior to our day. Our test does not come so much from lack of knowledge; but it is rather a test of faith in God, and obedience to the light now given us. Having this great flood of light now granted at the close of this age, our faith should be very strong, and we should seek to increase it more and more by gaining all the knowledge now due. We should grow in faith, grow in grace, grow in knowledge and grow in love. We enter into a deeper and more intelligent rest if we avail ourselves of the helps which the Lord has provided for us. If we truly believe, we will manifest our belief by works in harmony therewith.
In Scriptural usage the word believe implies much more than merely to acknowledge a fact or a truth. The great Truth before us all is what the Bible calls the Gospel, the Good Tidings. The belief referred to in our text is belief in this Gospel: We who believe the Gospel do enter into rest. What is the Gospel that we believe? It includes all the features of God’s love and mercy to us as a fallen race – His proposition for eternal life through Christ, with all the blessings this involves. To the Church, the Gospel – the Good Tidings – includes also the offer to them of joint-heirship with Christ in the Kingdom.
One might have an intellectual belief in these promised blessings without entering into the rest mentioned in our text. But this form of belief is evidently not in the Apostle’s thought. To the extent that the individual recognizes those facts, accepts them and acts upon them, to that extent he enters into rest. If he believes partially, he rests partially; if he believes more, he rests more; if he believes perfectly, he has perfect rest, and will show his faith by his works. The Gospel Message is so wonderful that anyone who believes it will desire to avail himself of its blessings.
HEART CONFIDENCE ESSENTIAL
The expression of the text, “We which have believed,” implies that the belief has reached the heart, and will thus affect our course in life. And the second part of the statement, “do enter into rest,” implies that the rest is gradually coming to us because we have believed. We have first believed; and the fullness of rest is a condition to be attained gradually as our faith grows stronger, and as we learn to appreciate more fully what we have accepted.
“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” (Rom. 10:10) It is not merely believing with the head – it is not a mere intellectual belief. When we accept the Gospel as a fact, and enter fully into it, we begin at once to have a measure of this rest; and as we learn by our experiences how true the Lord is to all His promises to us, the rest becomes deeper and more abiding. The belief is at first a full belief in the message of God; but as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of God, our faith becomes firmer and more established, and our rest increases proportionately.
(Based on Reprint 5433.)
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“SONGS IN THE NIGHT” (Job. 35:10)
“The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.” (Psa. 126:3)
We are still in the night of weeping. Sickness, sorrow, sighing and dying continue, and will continue until the glorious morning of Messiah’s Kingdom breaks. How glad we are to learn of the glorious change that will then come to earth. The Prophet David expressed this thought saying: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Psa. 30:5) St. Paul expressed the same sentiment when he declared, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now . . . the earnest expectation of the creature [creation] waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” (Rom. 8:19-22)
The Sons of God in glory will, with their Lord, constitute Emmanuel’s Kingdom, and at present these Sons of God are comparatively little known or recognized among men; frequently they are considered “peculiar people,” because of their zeal for righteousness and truth, and for God. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2) They will share His glory, honor, and immortality and with Him scatter divine blessings to all the families of the earth.
A SONG OF DELIVERANCE
The 85th Psalm provides a lesson which may properly serve several applications. The first of these would be to Israel’s deliverance from the Babylonian captivity, when Cyrus gave permission that all who desired might return to Palestine. About fifty-three thousand – a small number – availed themselves of this privilege and of his assistance. The people rejoiced in this manifestation of the turning away of divine disfavor, and the return to them of God’s favor and blessing. The pardon of their transgressions as a nation was here evidenced in this privilege of returning to God’s favor.
A secondary application of the song is just before us. Israel has been in a far greater captivity in Christendom during the past eighteen centuries. She has the promise, nevertheless, of a mighty deliverance. The Cyrus who granted them liberty to return from literal Babylon was a type of the great Messiah who is about to give full liberty for the return of God’s ancient people to divine favor – to Palestine. [This was originally written in 1909.]
Israel’s sins have not yet been taken away, even as the world’s sins have not yet been taken away. The great Redeemer has, indeed, died for sin, and He is the sinner’s friend, but as yet He has only appeared in the presence of God for the Household of Faith – not for the world. He advocates for none except those who come to God and give Him their hearts and lives – those who love righteousness and hate iniquity.
The world is enslaved by sin and death, the twin monarchs who are now reigning and causing mankind to groan. We were born in this enslaved condition, as the Scriptures declare: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psa. 51:5) Our race, groaning under the weaknesses and imperfections we have thus inherited – mental, moral and physical – long for the promised deliverance from the bondage of sin and death. The majority of mankind undoubtedly feel the gall of their slavery, and will be glad to be free.
The great Deliverer is the antitypical Cyrus. Soon He will go forth to victory, and will establish His Kingdom under the whole heavens. Soon the Church class, the saints, “the elect,” will be glorified, and then the time will come for the blessing of the non-elect – for their restitution to human perfection and to a world-wide paradise, which Messiah’s power and Kingdom will introduce. “For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” (1 Cor. 15:25-26) The grave (sheol, hades) will be no more; death will be destroyed by the resurrection of the dead, everyone “in his own order.” (1 Cor. 15:23)
Many of the Lord’s people who can see something of the blessings due at the Second Advent, and who appreciate in some measure the fact that the Lord comes again to bestow the great blessings secured by His death, fail to see this other proposition; viz., that those in their graves have as much interest in that glorious reign of Messiah as those who at that time will be less completely under the bondage of corruption – death. But as surely as Jesus died for all, they all must have the blessings and opportunities which He purchased with His own precious blood. Hence, we should expect blessings in the Millennial Age upon all those in the grave as well as upon those not in it; and of this we will find abundant proof, as we look further into the Lord’s testimony on the subject. It is because of God’s plan for their release that those in the tomb are called “prisoners of hope.” (Zech. 9:12)
The prevailing opinion is that death ends all probation, but there is no Scripture which so teaches. God does not purpose to save men on account of ignorance, but on the contrary: “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Tim. 2:3-4) Since the masses of mankind have died in ignorance, and since there is neither “knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave” (Eccl. 9:10), God has therefore prepared for the awakening of the dead, in order to provide the opportunity for knowledge, faith, and salvation. Hence His plan is this: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all [all who are in Christ] be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s [those that are in Christ] at his coming.” (1 Cor. 15:22-23)
THE SECRET OF JOY
While the whole creation groans under its load of sin and sorrow, those of the Household of Faith may sing and rejoice, even in the midst of all the sorrows of life, even though they share the results of sin as fully or even more fully than do others. The secret of their joy is twofold: (1) They have experienced reconciliation to God; (2) They have submitted their wills to His will. They obtained this new relationship by way of faith in the Redeemer – faith in His blood of Atonement. They have consecrated themselves to God – surrendering their own wills and covenanting to do the divine will to the best of their ability. This submission of the will to God, and the realization that all their life’s affairs are in God’s keeping and under His supervision, give rest to the heart. They have a rest and peace in this surrendered condition which they never knew when they sought to gratify self-will, and ignored the right of their Creator to the homage of their hearts and the obedience of their lives.
They have joy and peace, and songs of thankfulness to God, because to them He grants a knowledge of His divine purposes, and shows them “things to come.” They see beyond the trials and tribulations of the present time and see the glories that will follow the present time of suffering. They see that the Church, the saintly ones of all denominations and of all nationalities, are prospective heirs of God – heirs of glory, honor and immortality, and associates with the Redeemer in His glorious Kingdom. This encourages and stimulates them.
They also see the outlines of the divine program for the blessing of all the families of the earth. When they thus perceive that God is interested in the whole human family, very few of whom are saints, it gives them cause for rejoicing. Seeing the provision God has made for the world of mankind, they are contented, and are glad to have God’s will done in themselves and in all the earth.
(Based on What Pastor Russell Wrote for the Overland Monthly, pages 176-178.)
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