When we walk with the Lord

In the light of His word,

What a glory He sheds on our way!

While we do His good will,

He abides with us still,

And with all who will trust and obey.

Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,

But his smile quickly drives it away.

Not a doubt, not a fear, not a sigh, not a tear,

Can abide while we trust and obey.

Trust and obey, for there's no other way

To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Men and women of faith are characterized by the path that they choose in life. And that path is governed by their adherence to the will and the word of God, as it's revealed to them by God.

Now we live in a nation which over the last hundred years or so has rapidly departed from the God of the Bible. The latest example is just this last week from the Church of England where the clergy in Birmingham were advised to be careful not to give offence by singing Christmas carols that draw attention to the fact that Jesus is the true Messiah.

So that's the state of the nation today. They're throwing out Christianity. They don't want it. I want to remind us today that it wasn't always so. There was a time when there was some truth in the notion that we live in a Christian country. Where our government and those in high place, including our royal family and the majority of the population in general, at least paid lip service to the absolute truth of the Bible, even if all of them didn't sincerely believe in the Bible and the God of the Bible.

And I was reading just this morning before I came out, a blog post by a writer called Dr. Campbell Campbell-Jack—a Scottish, he's an ex Church of Scotland minister I think or a Free Church minister. (He lives in Stirling)—but he was writing and saying that people today are dangerously ignorant about their own heritage. And he said:

“just as a fish cannot see the water in which it swims, so westerners cannot see and value their Christian heritage and its benefits.”

I thought that was very good.

King George the sixth, the father of the late Queen Elizabeth the second, made his first Christmas broadcast to the nation on the 25th of December 1939, just four months after the outbreak of the second world war. And at the end of his address to the nation, he read part of a poem by a lady called Minnie Louise Haskins. He read the preamble to that poem and it goes like this:

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year

Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown

And he replied go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God

That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.

And King George stopped there, (there's more, I'm going to read the rest of the poem later.) But he added these words, he said:

“May that Almighty hand guide and uphold us all”.

He was a man of sincere faith in God and I believe that his daughter Queen Elizabeth was too.

So Minnie Louise Haskins wrote this poem. Who was she? She was a member of the congregational church and she taught in Sunday school for many years. She studied at the University College in Bristol and she worked as a volunteer for the Wesleyan Methodist mission, and in 1907 she went out to India, to Madras, to work in what was called the Zinana mission to women. And in 1912 to raise funds for their mission to the women in India, she published a small volume of poems, and one of the poems was a poem called “God Knows”, the poem in which the preamble that we've just read that the King George the 6th read in 1939, December 1939.

That poem meant so much to Queen Elizabeth, that after her father died, she had the words of the preamble that he read engraved on stone plaques and fixed to the gates of the King George the 6th memorial chapel in Windsor Castle where the King was interred. The Queen Mother was also buried there.

But I want to just take us to the scriptures now and talk about some of these men of faith. Men of faith —of course there are many women of faith, we know that. But I want to talk particularly about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

So Genesis chapter 17:1 -

“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, ninety-nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him ‘I am God Almighty, walk before me and be thou perfect’”.

You be perfect. Abram's obedience and his faithfulness to the call of God had a lasting effect on his family for generations to come. And the Bible records how Abram's grandson Jacob blessed Joseph and Joseph's sons. And Jacob said in Genesis 48: 15 - 16, let me just read that, Genesis 48:15—

“And he blessed Joseph and said, the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which hath fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel which hath redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads and let my name be named on them and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”

The particular phrase which I want to fasten here on is “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk”, — ‘before whom’—

When Abraham was ninety-nine, Abram his name was at that time, God appeared to him and said walk before me, walk before me. And Jacob repeated that word, the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk.

Now the word before in the Hebrew is the Hebrew word for face. So the meaning implicit in this phrase walk before me is that Abraham and Isaac's walk, their journey through life was to be lived in the presence of God. God wanted them to do that, that's why he appeared to Abraham and said to him, “walk before me and you be perfect”—Perfect in the sense of having the moral integrity to do what was right in God's eyes and to be blameless in his words and in his actions. He was to live in the knowledge that God was watching, God was watching him and that God was actively directing his footsteps. Just as a shepherd would direct or lead the sheep in the Holy Land we know that the shepherd goes in front of the sheep. But in this country they go behind the sheep and they get the dogs to help them.

But there's the thought, walk before me, he's the good shepherd. Jesus said “I am the good shepherd” and he's watching over us and he wants us to look to him for guidance in our life.

Jesus said “I am the light of the world”.

King George the sixth said “put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be better to you than a light, than light and safer than a known way.”

Jesus says

“I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.”

And in Psalm 119 it says

“your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path”.

So those who choose to walk by faith, to walk before God in the light of his word, they'll be blessed with God's favour. They'll experience God actively working on their behalf for their benefit in life.

King David one of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's descendants, he was a man of faith just like them. And he followed in their footsteps in as much as they walked before God according to his will and word. And David endeavoured to do that in his life although he was a failing man just like you and I. But God blessed him and David wrote in Psalm 65:11, let's just turn to it.

Psalm 65:11, here's what David the Psalmist wrote.

“You crown the year with your goodness and your paths drop fatness.You crown the year with your goodness”.

We've come to the end of another year and we can look back and we can say God has crowned this year with his goodness. He’s blessed us throughout the year. But one of the commentators that I read about this word, “you crown the year with your goodness”—he said, you can read it as you have crowned, ‘you have crowned the year’ and it can also mean encompass,—you have encompassed the year with your goodness. So that suggests the thought that God has surrounded us with his goodness. He's hedged us about and protected us and blessed us. He's redeemed us from all evil. He's delivered us from things and people that would harm us. He's surrounded us with his goodness in the year that's passed.

And so as we come to the threshold of a new year, we look back and we acknowledge God's goodness in so many ways. But we also look forward with confidence that no matter what 2025 may have in store for us, based on our experience of God's goodness to us in the past and God's promises in his word, we have confidence that God's goodness and mercy will encompass us and surround us in 2025. David wrote at the end of Psalm 23:

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Before I read the poem, I'm going to read another verse that came to me as I was thinking about things this morning.

And it's found in Isaiah 54, just at the end of Isaiah 54:17.

"No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness which is of me, says the Lord”.

“No weapon that's formed against you shall prosper."

That's a precious verse to me, and it was and is.

Now in closing we'll just read the whole of the poem that King George VI read part of in 1939. It's called “God Knows”.

“And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.' And he replied, 'Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.' So I went forth, and finding the hand of God, trod gladly into the night, and he led me toward the hills and the breaking of day in the low east.

So heart be still:

What need our little life

Our human life to know,

If God hath comprehension?

In all the dizzy strife

Of things both high and low,

God hideth His intention.

God knows. His will

Is best. The stretch of years

Which wind ahead, so dim

To our imperfect vision,

Are clear to God. Our fears

Are premature; In Him,

All time hath full provision.

Then rest: until

God moves to lift the veil

From our impatient eyes,

When, as the sweeter features

Of Life’s stern face we hail,

Fair beyond all surmise

God’s thought around His creatures

Our mind shall fill.'

(Minnie Louise Haskins 1875-1957)

We'll ask God's blessing.

O God, we give thanks for your goodness to us in this year that has passed, and we thank you that you have surrounded us with your care and kindness and protection, and we are confident that you will continue to bless us as we endeavour, by the help of the Holy Spirit, to walk before you, to walk before your face, to live lives that are pleasing to you in the light of your word. And so we are glad to put our hand in your hand and go confidently into this new year. Bless us, we pray, for we ask all and give thanks in the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Now shall we sing the words of hymn 380.

O Master, let me walk with you in lowly paths of service free. Tell me thy secret, help me bear the strain of toil, the fret of care. Teach me thy patience still with thee in closer dearer company, in work that keeps faith sweet and strong, in trust that triumphs over wrong.

The whole hymn, 380.

O Master, let me walk with Thee

In lowly paths of service free.

Tell me Thy secret, help me bear

The strain of toil, the fret of care.

Help me the slow of heart to move

By some clear winning word of love.

Teach me the wayward feet to stay,

And guide them in the homeward way.

Teach me Thy patience still with Thee

In closer dearer company,

In work that keeps faith sweet and strong,

In trust that triumphs over wrong.

In hope that sends a shining ray

Far down the future's broadening way,

In peace that only Thou cans’t give.

With Thee, O Master, let me live.

This talk by Steve Seddon, was recorded at West Point Hall 82 Albert Road, Levenshulme, Manchester in December 2024.

TRANSCRIPT:

“... and it's that which I'd like to share with us.

Hope is a kind of curious thing because it's very different in the Bible compared to hope that we kind of speak about on a daily basis. And I looked at many definitions to try and find one that was interesting. The one that warmed to me most was just one word, optimism. And that's how we think of hope, I think, pretty much every day.

And we've got a little illustration. You see in otherwise harsh ground, barren ground, you see a shoot amazingly, emerging. And it speaks of hope. And it's about an optimistic outlook, a positive outlook for the future. And that's really important, isn't it? Because we live in a world that there's plenty of things to be miserable about. And it's good to be optimistic. But the Bible doesn't describe hope in those terms.

And I just want to issue a challenge at this point.

What do you hope for and what is your hope based on? Because there's this statement I've heard a number of times. It's "blind optimism". And it's about having a hope that is baseless. It's just, well, "I hope so!" And you know, one of the most tragic things is that there's that blind optimism in many people's lives to do the most important thing in life. And that is what happens after life. And I'd like us all to consider that.

What's my hope after life and what is it based on? Is it blind optimism or is it something more solid than that? And I put it to you that the Bible hope that we're going to be showing together is not blind optimism. It's not even optimism. It's certainty. And it's not an expectation that something may happen. It's a guarantee that something will happen. And I wanted to share at the beginning one of my favourite verses in recent years. And I find it really interesting when you read the Bible and you interact with Christians and a verse keeps cropping up. And this one is, this is one of those. And it says,

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Spirit." [Romans 15:13].

What a brilliant verse. It's a prayer, actually. "May the God of hope," - you know, that's who the Christian God is. He's the God of hope. And the prayer is that he might fill us with joy and peace as we trust in him.

I wanted to try and cleverly make an acrostic of hope. I miserably failed. I just couldn't do it. There were some very limp attempts on Google which I chose not to do. So we've come up with something a little more sophisticated.

But we've got these other companions of hope, let's call them that, in this verse. And it's joy and it's peace and it's trust. And what links these things together in this verse? It's a curious thing. Is there something that is missing from the verse that makes them all make sense? And I put it to you.

But if we go back a few verses, just three verses or so, we come across this brilliant word, "promise." [Romans 15:8]

And it says, "Christ has come," that's the Lord Jesus Christ has come,

"to confirm the promises made, to glorify God for his mercy ... May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

And here's the thing. Christian hope, as well as being a guarantee, not an optimism, is based on promises. And for me that makes all the difference. If your expectation is founded on a promise, it changes the whole thing.

So let's think about that most important part of human life. It's death. It's what happens next.

Blind optimism is a tragedy. Hope, Christian hope, based on promises, just changes the whole scenario. I wanted to try and illustrate it by a promise that was made to a man in a very, very dire situation.

And it's the Lord Jesus Christ being taken to be crucified. So this is a really solemn part of the Christian message.

And it says,

"As they," that's the soldiers, "led him," that's Jesus, "as they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed when they came to the place called the Skull.There they crucified him along with the criminals, one on his right, the other on his left. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others. Let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One." The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself." All the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him. "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us." But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly. We are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth ..."

Here's the promise:

"... Today you will be with me in paradise." [Luke 23:26-43].

You know, one of the amazing things about this story is it puts to rest without question the notion that we can earn a place in heaven by our good works. And, you know, that often I think that sense, it is fairly logical, isn't it, that if we are as good as we can be then somehow that will be rewarded. For many people who have that optimism, it's based on this sense that if I do good then I'll be fine. Here was a man who was sentenced to death and he had no time to do anything. His life was characterised by wickedness, by his own confession. He was receiving what his deeds deserved. But he recognised that next to him on that middle cross was someone who was very different. And he just appealed literally on his deathbed, so to speak, that the Lord Jesus Christ who he recognised was, I believe, the Son of God. He could see that. He wasn't the only man on the day, the centurion, but also recognised because of the dignity of what was going on, and what the Lord Jesus has said from the cross, that here indeed was the Son of God. So he made that appeal. "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

I just appeal to all of us to make that appeal. If we're struggling with hope, maybe our hearts are stirred about whether our hope is blind optimism or whether it's founded on something, then appeal to God, to the Lord Jesus Christ to help you with that as this dying man did. And then Jesus issued that brilliant promise, "Today you'll be with me in paradise." I think it's the Christian message really in a nutshell.

There was repentance there. There was a recognition that the guy needs a Saviour, and that's part of the Christian message too, that we need the Lord Jesus to be our Saviour. And having recognised that, we also recognise we can't do anything about it ourselves.

And then we appeal and he makes that promise. You know, it's put up in this very famous verse from the Bible that I want to make no apology for defaulting to something that is perhaps the obvious, especially for those of us who are familiar with God's Word. It is the most quoted verse I think, but it's got that promise in it.

I wanted to highlight it. It says,

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes on him"

- and here is the promise -

"shall not perish, but have eternal life." [John 3:16].

And I just make that statement from God's Word to us this afternoon. It has that power associated with it. But you know, there's another dimension.

"For God so loved the world," and we introduce love into this dynamic that's going on. So we have God's love, and it gives us hope, and it gives us peace, and it gives us joy, and it involves our trust. Trust is another word for faith, and they're all bound together by the promises of God.

There's a brilliant verse in Psalm 119, another favourite of mine, and you have to read it in the NIV version. It says,

"Your promises are thoroughly tested, and your servant loves them." [Psalm 119:140].

So when God makes a promise, time has proven that his promises are fulfilled.

That's my message today. It's hope from a Christian Bible perspective, not blind optimism, not just optimism, but indeed it's a certainty, and it's a certainty based on the promises of God, which he's made, founded on his love for us. And it's just for us to appeal, recognising that we need God to be our Saviour.

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope."

That's a curious expression. How can you overflow with hope by the power of the Spirit?

I think it has to do with dispelling any doubt, and isn't that where we want to be as we get to difficulties in our life, particularly in anticipation - as I get older, I know you suddenly become aware of your own mortality. It's probably something we don't really want to talk about, but it's a fact. And as we get to terms with our own mortality, then don't we want to be overflowing with hope? No doubt as to what is for us beyond this life, and of course its eternal life.

What a hope that we have. Thank you.”

==========

If you live in the Manchester area, feel free to come along to any of the following regular Services:

Sunday: The Remembrance (Worship Meeting) 10.00am – 11.00am

Sunday Morning Service with Bible Teaching: 11.30am – 12noon

Tuesday:Little Fishes Toddler Group 10.00am – 11:45am

Ladies’ Bible Study (fortnightly) 12.30pm – 2.00pm

Tuesday Club (7-14yrs) 6.00pm – 7.30pm

Bible-based ‘Thought for the Week’ & Prayer 8.00pm – 9.00pm

Wednesday Warm Space 10.30am – 12.30pm Charity Cafe (last Wednesday of the month) 10.30am – 1.00pm.

West Point Hall 82 Albert Road, Levenshulme, Manchester.

I want to read five scriptures and see if we can tie them up a little. The first is in the book of Colossians. If you don’t want to turn it, it doesn’t matter, but if you do, Colossians 1:15. And they’re all speaking about the Lord Jesus. So Colossians 1:15.

The background to Colossians by the way is, Colossians was in Turkey. It was linked with two other churches, Laodicea and Hierapolis. And it would seem that one of the founding members, if you like, was someone called Epaphras. We don’t know for definite, but it seems as if he was there at the beginning.

But anyway, this verse says of the Lord Jesus,

"who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation."

Back into John’s Gospel, chapter 1. John’s Gospel, chapter 1:18, John 1:18, a well-known verse.

"No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him."

So the first in Colossians was "who is the image of the invisible God", the Lord Jesus. And here it says of him who is in the bosom of the Father. And then over to Hebrews 1. Further back in the Bible. Hebrews 1. And this time verse 3.

"who being the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high."

And then back a little to Philippians 2 ... Philippians 2:6 -

"who being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God".

So that’s, who is the image of the invisible God in Colossians, who is in the bosom of the Father in John’s Gospel, and here who being originally in the form of God, and then, lastly Acts 10. And this time verse 36, say it. And then it says,

"The word which he sent,"

this was God sending to the children of Israel,

"preaching good tidings of the Gospel of peace by Jesus Christ," and it says "he" in the translation, but how good is this: "Who is Lord of all."

So I want to say something today about the fact that Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord, and he’s Lord of all. And behind that, just to bring in the factor of why we’re here this morning, why we’ve come to remember the Lord Jesus, why we make the effort to get ourselves up and out, and to remember him. He is the image of the invisible God. That’s a Greek word that’s spelled E-I-K-O-N - eikon. And it means something that is derived from something else. So in other words, all that God is, and he is therefore one God, but there are three persons in the Godhead. All the Lord Jesus, he is the physical representation of the invisible God. All that God is, “who is the image of the invisible God”, and then it says he’s “the firstborn of all creation”. That’s nothing to do with being born first. That’s not what firstborn means in the Bible. It’s a word called prototokos, and it’s to do with the fact that he is before everything else. He stands as the first of anything and the first of everything. He is the firstborn. It’s a title of the Lord Jesus, a title of his deity. He’s the firstborn of all creation. So, what about that? Well, there’s a context to that, of what he is in his essence. It says,

“Who delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love.”

Now, that’s God, it’s speaking of God doing that, but it’s the Lord Jesus who carried that out. He has delivered us through his death on Calvary’s Cross. He’s taken us out of the thraldom of darkness, spiritual darkness, and he’s brought us into the sphere and the ambience of spiritual light. He’s translated us into a kingdom that’s called “the kingdom of the Son of God’s love”. It’s a wonderful thing. Then, he not only delivered us, but the Lord Jesus redeemed us. He bought us. He paid a price to reconcile us back to God. And it says just before,

“who is the image of the invisible God, in whom we have our redemption”.

So, he’s redeemed us. And then it says, “The forgiveness of our sins.” So, he’s delivered us, he’s redeemed us, he forgave us of all our sins and of all the wrong that’s in our nature and in our life. But even more than that, he’s reconciled us to God. And that’s later on down that chapter. It says this, Paul is writing to these saints in the church of Colossae in Turkey. And he says,

“And you, has he reconciled, who were alienated and enemies in your mind by evil works, He's reconciled in the body of his flesh through death.”

So, the Lord Jesus had to come into humanity to take a human body so that he could do the work of reconciliation and bring sinners, you and me and everyone else, reconciled to God. So, he’s delivered us, he’s redeemed us, he forgave us, and he’s reconciled us. This is the person of the Lord Jesus that we remember and have remembered today.

And we were just listening to a program on the way here. It’s a lady called Dr. Nikki Fox from Hertfordshire in England. She’s head of science at NASA at the Great Space Centre in America. And she was talking about her experience. She says, as a wee girl of eight months, her father lifted her out of her cot to see the first man who was walking on the moon, Neil Armstrong. And ever since she was small, she had a great interest in space technology. And now she’s the head of science at NASA. And she says, “It thrills us.” She says, “I’m flooded with tears when I see rockets going off.” Because she says, “We’ve spent maybe 20 years to get that rocket into space. And all the pressures,” she says, “in the job of hoping this will work and that will work, the technology that was involved, the cutting-edge technology, in most cases with each one.” And she says, “You know, to see it all.” And you wonder - I don’t know where she stands Christianity-wise - but Colossians tells us,

“In him,” the Lord Jesus, “all things were created. Things in the heavens, things upon earth, things visible, things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and unto him.”

I summarize that in three letters. BTF:

B

all things were brought into existence BY him. In him were all things created.

T

Number two, all things have been created THROUGH him. He's the agency. He's the mediator of everything that's in this world.

F

And then the third thing is, FOR him.

By Him, through Him, for Him.

And then it says, “In him all things consist.” That means this table here, why does it hold together mind you, particles of dust, and is built into a substantial element, and it holds up. It says, “In him all things are held together.” That's why this world exists, because of Christ, who's done all these things. And then later on in that same chapter it says,

“And it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fullness of the Godhead dwell.”

All that God is, essentially, intrinsically, all that God is, it’s seen in Christ, in his life here, in his body. He’s God and man, God-man. And there’s a fullness of the deity, of all that God is, in the person, history of the Lord Jesus. Absolutely wonderful. That’s why we come here. That’s why we remember him.

And then we come back into John’s Gospel, as we know that’s the Gospel of the Son of God, and the focus is very much so on the Lord Jesus. Tells us so much about him. Tells us that he’s the Word “in the beginning.” Now, there’s no definite article before “the beginning” in the Greek language. It’s “in beginning”. It’s not things are beginning, he is a beginning. It’s "in” beginning. He’s already there. And he’s going to do something. It’s not that "in the beginning” was a point in time, when he did that - there was a point in time - but there’s no beginning. He is without beginning. And it says, “in beginning, the Word was with God”. Now, the preposition that’s used there, as we know, as Jo knows, it’s eis - E-I-S, and it means that everything that was connected with the Lord Jesus in his pre-eternal existence was all linked with God the Father and God the Spirit. “In beginning was the Word”. Now, that’s logos. That means intelligence. And it means an intelligence that comes through revelation from God. “In beginning was the Word.” That’s Christ, again. “And the Word was with God”, so he was with the Father and the Spirit:

“and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.”

So John is quite clear, so he’s the One. But more than that, it says also of him, as we read in John 1, 14, 18,

“No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father...”

Now, that preposition “IN” there, is amazing because it's directing us to this. It's the thought of the Lord Jesus: never was he ever NOT in the bosom of the Father. Even when he suffered on the cross, and he was forsaken: “My God, my God” - he didn't use “my Father, my Father”. That would have broken the Father's heart.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

The Lord was still in the bosom of the Father. He never, ever was out of it. And it’s a verse like when we’re away from home. It’s like me going home. When I go in the door, Joan’s maybe not there, she’s upstairs, but I know she’s at home. And even if I’m away from home, she’s in my bosom. The word bosom is like a special place. It means....something that’s set apart. There’s something about the word bosom that has to do with the very centre point of the heart. And so, when I’m away from home, she is still in my heart, in my bosom. And that was the Lord Jesus. All his life here, even on the cross, in the deepest aspect of his intensive sufferings, he was always in the bosom of the Father. Never anywhere else.

“No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.”

So, he’s there, in the beginning. He’s in the bosom of the Father. He is the Lamb of God. Remember John the Baptist with two of his disciples at the time, when he saw Jesus walking.

“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

He knew that he was the Saviour. And then a day later, he saw him again as he walked, and he says,

“Behold the Lamb of God.”

So, he is the Word. He is the only begotten, not born, only begotten, in the sense he’s always been there, without any birth, his pre-existence. And he is also the Lamb of God. And do you remember Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, when he went and came across Christ, he says, "Peter, we found the Messiah." The word means anointed. It has to do with his sovereignty, his kingship. He says, “We found the Messiah.” And then when the Lord Jesus saw the disciple, Nathaniel, and said, “I saw you under the fig tree long before I had come and spoken to you.” And Nathaniel got up. And in a moment, it’s like the thief on the cross who believed in the very eleventh hour of his life, the last hour, the last moment of his life.

Here was someone as soon as he saw and listened to Jesus saying, “I saw you under the fig tree.” He [Nathaniel] says, “You are, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.” That was divine revelation, and it happened instantaneously. Amazing. So the Lord Jesus is all that.

So; when you look at it in John’s Gospel, chapter 1, you see, you think of the Lord Jesus. “He was in the world. The world was made by him. The world” generally, “knew him not.” Really didn’t want to know him. And it says also in the Book of Hebrews, and we’ll refer to that in a moment, “When he bringeth the firstborn into the world,” which is the inhabited earth, the world, the meaning there in the original language is,"When again he bringeth his firstborn into the world, let all the angels of God worship him."

Now … there’s difference of view on it: is it referring to his first coming, (his incarnation) - or - referring to his next coming to the earth, to reign during the millennial period? We leave that to whatever you think.

Let’s go to Hebrews where it tells us this of the Lord Jesus,

“who is the effulgence of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had made purification for sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

And that just encapsulates, if you like, everything about the Lord Jesus. He is the effulgence of Godhead’s glory. The word means, it’s like the radiating of light, it’s light being emitted from a source, and that light is absolutely brilliant. And that’s what the Lord Jesus is, in his person, in his humanity, he’s showing the effulgence of Godhead glory. And he’s “the very image of his substance” so that’s a different word from "who being in the image of the invisible God”. This is the word charaktér, it’s spelled with a K in the Greek, ...., but this is to do with the character of Christ in his being, in his humanity. He became something that he had never been before, and yet he remained what he had ever been. He took humanity, but he did not divest himself of his deity. He did it for the external glory, that’s a different matter. The external glory, he left that aside to come into this world, but he always remained, even though he took humanity, he remained in his essential deity.

So, Hebrews tells us amazing things. Number one, he’s the light of deity, he’s the effulgence of his glory, he’s the very image of his substance, or his character, that’s to do with the Godhead, and then he has power, and then he has dealt with sin, “when he had made purification for sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty and high”. This is the Saviour. You know, it says later on in that same chapter, whoever the writer to the Hebrews was, this makes, talks about that too, but anyway, it’s inspired by the Spirit of God, and it says, you know, “you have laid down, Lord …

"you’ have laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands, but they are going to perish, and they’ll wax old as a garment, and as a vesture, they’ll be rolled up, and they shall be changed,"

there’ll be a change, “but you remain, you remain, and your years shall not fail.” And imagine using our sense of time and motion in the context of God, who has no beginning and who has no ending, “your years” the writer says, “shall never end, - never fail.”

“You are the same, and your years shall never fail.”

So that's true of the Lord Jesus. And then that chapter also tells us this, that

“God has spoken at the end of these days in his Son, whom he appointed, heir of all things, through him also, he made the ages.”

The Lord Jesus - that's why we come to remember him. That’s why we make the effort to try and be here, because of him. So, who is the image of the invisible God? Who is in the bosom of the Father? Who is the effulgence of his glory? Philippians we read from, where it says of him, the Lord Jesus, “Have this mind in you”, writing to the people of Philippi, who were in Greece, of course, ... “Have this mind in you, which was also Christ Jesus. Who being [originally] in the form of God”, though that word has more to do with his glory, is to do with the outward glory of Christ - is always God, but

“who being in the form of God, counted it not a thing to be grasped that, to be on an equality with God.”

He didn’t make an issue, and didn’t self-advertise or self-promote who he was and where he came from - Of course, he spoke about it, he did, but in the sense, this is him, divesting himself of that outward glory, and it says he took the form of a servant. It’s a change here. Took the form of transformation, it took the form of a servant, and then it says, being made in the likeness of men. Now it doesn’t say, because it can’t say, being made in the image of men. The Lord Jesus was never made in the image of men. He is the image of the invisible God, but here the likeness has to do with resemblance. He’s like us, but he’s different.

“Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient, even unto death, yes, the death of the cross.”

The death of the cross. So what Philippians centres on, is the taking of Christ’s humanity, the divesting of the external glory, not the internal glory of his person, and he’s coming into this world, and he stoops more and more. He becomes a servant, never a servant of men. He was a servant of Jehovah. The servant of Jehovah. But he served, there’s no question. He ministered. He did that which was service, but it was all God’s - what Jo was thinking about this morning and speaking about in his thanksgiving - all to do with doing the will of God. And then the answer to that is exaltation, subjugation, confession.

“Wherefore God has highly exalted him, and given to him the name that is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every tongue should confess, every knee shall bow to the glory of God the Father.”

Wonderful words. The answer of Christ's humiliation and humility is now exaltation and glory.

So we come to the last chapter, the last reference in Acts 10, where it says, those lovely words, we were thinking about Israel this morning - Neville was mentioning that - and we know it says - God sent this word to the children of Israel: “preaching peace” - “preaching peace by Jesus Christ.” So Peter is giving them ... when he’s saying this, and he’s saying it’s the gospel that has been brought. Firstly for the Jew, then for the Gentile nations. Principally for the Jew. That’s why Christ came for the Jewish nation, as part of the Jewish nation. And God is sending this word by his Son, preaching good tidings of the gospel of peace by Jesus Christ. He’s Jesus Christ. Then Peter speaks of Jesus of Nazareth, and that’s him as the man.

“How that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and he went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed, for God was with him.”

And all that Lord Jesus was doing was in conjunction with the Father and the Spirit too. And here he is. And then Peter goes on to say in his warning, and he says, “And God has ordained that he will be the judge of the quick the dead.” Now the quick are those who have been made spiritually alive, because when we get saved, we are asked to serve the Lord, and then one day believers will have to answer at the judgment seat of Christ, the bema of Christ. But the dead are those who are spiritually dead, who have not responded to the word of the gospel. And then he ends, and he says, “to him,” this is Christ, “all the prophets bear witness that through his name, everyone who believes in him shall receive remission of sins.” And that’s true today. The person who accepts Christ and who believes that he’s the Son of God and that he’s the Saviour of their souls, they receive the remission of sins. All to do with this person, the Lord Jesus, whom we’ve remembered today. Why we’re here. Why we wanted to be here. Why we got up out of bed early and make a move. All to do with him, “who is the image of the invisible God, who is the bosom of the Father, who holds all things by the word of his power.”

And then what I omitted in there, who in that last chapter of Acts 10 [v. 36] it says,

“He is Lord of all.”

He is Lord of all. Jesus is Lord. That’s [the Greek word] kurios. That’s someone who’s the master, who’s the proprietor, and that’s what he wants to be of our lives as far and as much as we can let him do that, and it’s all to his glory. So thanks very much for listening.

“Biblical Forgiveness”, Paul Whitehouse.

Click to listen to this very practical address, on Soundcloud.

When clearing out my father’s study after he died, I discovered this little pamphlet. Written by Sir (James) Norman Dalrymple Anderson O.B.E., M.A., LL.B.,— ‘a missionary, jurist, and writer on religion with strong Cambridge connections’— it was first published in November 1954. The flyleaf of the printed booklet says:

‘This Presidential Address was delivered at the Inter-Varsity Conference, March, 1954, and is published by the Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions, 39 Bedford Square, London, W.C.1.’

LAW AND GRACE

J. N. D. ANDERSON, O.B.E., M.A., LL.B.

THE subject of ‘Law and Grace’ is one which, as a lawyer, I always find interesting, but which, as a Christian, I have often found bewildering. It is a topic on which it seems unusually easy to be woolly-minded, with great damage not only to the understanding but to the whole spiritual life. So I felt that I should like to try to clarify my own thinking on this subject, and perhaps thereby to help some others to a clearer understanding also.

Now it seems to me that there are three chief dangers which may beset us in this connection.

There is, first, the danger of erecting a false antithesis [contrast] between law and grace. This, I suppose, is the salient danger of an exaggerated dispensationalism which regards the Old Testament as all law and the New Testament as all grace; and which thinks of the Jews as ‘under law’ — with the implied corollary that there was then no place for grace, and regards the Church as ‘under grace’ — with the spoken or unspoken inference that there is now no place for law.

Any such attitude must, logically, lead to the most serious consequences. It involves, in the first place, a misunderstanding and misuse of the Scriptures. Still worse, it necessarily implies a misunderstanding of God Himself, for it denies any continuity or consistency in His dealings, His attitude and His character, The truth is, of course, that we find both law and grace in both Testaments, for we find both law and grace in the very character and heart of God.

Again, this false antithesis may lead to a virtual antinomianism [the belief that Christians are released by grace from the obligation of observing the moral law] in both doctrine and practice.

As a simple example of the mental attitude involved, I venture to suggest that a number of evangelical Anglicans feel a certain hesitation in repeating in the Communion Service, after each of the Ten Commandments, the words ‘Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law’ — as though to use this phrase were somewhat inappropriate for one living in the ‘dispensation of grace’. And visitors from other denominations, which seem to have no equivalent to this practice, would, perhaps, be inclined to hesitate still more. But does not this hesitation find its origin in the false antithesis which we are considering?

Then, secondly, there is the danger of a false synthesis [fusion] between law and grace. This, I think, is a danger to which evangelicals are less prone than certain other sections of the Church. It indicates that the man or woman concerned has no adequate grasp of the purpose and place of either law or grace; no clear apprehension of either the way of salvation or the process of sanctification. It is this error, above all others, which is attacked in the Epistle to the Galatians — the error of those who seek salvation not through Christ alone but through Christ plus something else. It is the error not of the antinomian but of the legalist.

And then, thirdly, there is, as it seems to me, the danger of what I can only describe as a general confusion on this subject of law and grace. This may show itself in a variety of different ways, but particularly, perhaps, in the matter of comparative religion, and in our attitude regarding the position, responsibility and possibilities of those who have never heard the gospel and who earnestly and conscientiously follow some other faith. And this, in turn, may not only befog our message but even vitiate our apprehension of the essential nature of sin on the one hand and of salvation on the other.

A FALSE ANTITHESIS

Let us consider first, then — and at disproportionate length — this primary danger of a false antithesis, and its corrective in the Scriptures.

I suppose it is inevitable that when we speak of law our minds go back instinctively to the Pentateuch. It is not, of course, that law begins or ends with the Pentateuch; it is much wider than that in its scope. But be that as it may, we can, I think, profitably start at this very point. So I propose to examine this danger of a false antithesis in the light of two great statements of Scripture regarding the relation of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Old Testament Law. The first is the statement of Christ Himself

‘Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.’ (Mat. 5:17,18) And the second is the statement of St. Paul ‘Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.’ (Gal. 3:24)

Now when our Lord said He had not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it, what precisely did He mean? In approaching this question we should do well, I think, to remember that the Mosaic law has been aptly described as comprising three main, and largely distinct, elements, which may be termed the moral law, the ceremonial law and the social law. And we must, as I see it, consider each of these separately.

First, then, the moral law which we may venture to regard as constituting the ‘weightier matters of the law.’ (Mat. 23:23) This law, in its essence, is both eternal and immutable: necessarily so, for it is an expression of the holy character of God Himself, and of what God demands — and indeed must demand — of man. So, just as God cannot change, nor can His law. On the contrary, the moral law, as an expression of His holy character, endures from eternity to eternity, while as an expression of His demands on men and women it has existed at least since the creation. It existed in Eden before the Fall; it stood from the Fall until Sinai; and it was articulated in some detail in the Pentateuch. To fail to fulfil its demands was always sin; but such failure became actual transgression only after its demands were enunciated.

‘Sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law … Law came in, to increase the trespass. (Rom. 5:13, 20)

‘What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin ’. (Rom. 7:7)

Then Christ came, and fulfilled this moral law in three distinct ways. He ‘fulfilled’ it by giving it a deeper, more searching and more exacting meaning. He showed, for instance, that the prohibition of murder includes the venomous or vengeful thought, and that the prohibition of adultery includes the lustful look. He taught us that the moral law is as much a matter of the inward disposition and imagination as of the outward deed and word; that it represents all-pervading principles of character and conduct even more than specific commands and prohibitions.

Again, He fulfilled it by perfectly keeping it, by epitomizing its very principles and spirit in His life and character. He did this, moreover, not only in His sinless life but also in His atoning death, in which He met, on behalf of others, the righteous demands of a law which had been broken. And He did all this alone and uniquely.

To this aspect of His work we must return later.

But it is important to notice, too, that He also fulfilled it by reinforcing its demands on His disciples — that is, on us. For He said

‘Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.’ (1 Mat. 5:20)

And the apostles in their turn re-expressed and reimposed this moral law on the Christian Church, for the Epistles abound with commands, prohibitions and exhortations to this very end. More, it is important to notice that in both Testaments the basis of the moral law, in its demands on the believer, is repeatedly depicted as nothing other than the very character of God. ‘Be holy, for I am holy’ ( 2 Lev. 9:44) God said of old. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect ’ (3 Mat. 5:48) our Lord reiterated.

Thus the value of the moral law for the Christian can scarcely be exaggerated. He must study it in order to know God in His holiness and perfection, and he must strive to apply it to his own life and character in order to know how to please God and fulfil His holy demands. It is clear, then, that isolated verses must not be wrested from their context and quoted in contradiction to this plain and consistent tenor of Scripture; so it would be quite out of place, for instance, to suggest that when St. Paul said ‘All things are lawful for me’ (1 Cor. 6:12) (probably, in any case, by way of quoting a popular phrase) he could have intended for one moment anything which was contrary to the moral law.

Secondly, the ceremonial law — which, it is important to realize, represented, in essence, the way of grace. That was its purpose and its objective; but in the Pentateuch it took the form of law.

In Eden man broke the moral law, and ever since then has been a sinner both by nature and by act. And sin always and inevitably separates from a holy God. In a sense this may be termed an impersonal, inexorable law which is inherent in the basic antithesis between God and sin. But there is also a more personal element involved — the holy wrath of an ever-loving, ever-holy God against that sin which corrupts His fair creation, which cuts man off from His life and fellowship, and which affronts not only His laws but His very nature.

But from the first God revealed a way back to His life and fellowship. It seems clear that even in Eden God taught man the basic need for and perhaps the meaning of animal sacrifice. Soon after we find Abel’s lamb accepted, and Cain’s fruit offering rejected; while the latter was told ‘If thou doest well (i.e. if you perfectly keep the moral law), shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin (or, more probably, a sin offering) lieth at the door.” (Gen. 4:7) Again, in Noah and the ark we find another ‘type’ of deliverance by grace from judgment by law. (Gen. 6,7; cf. Heb. 11:7)

The New Testament, moreover, tells us explicitly that Abraham was justified by faith, for he ‘believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.’ (Rom, 4:3) David, too, clearly knew the same secret — and that after Sinai — for he could say

‘Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not reckon his sin.’ (4 Rom. 4:7,8)

But between Abraham and David the Mosaic ceremonial law had been imposed.

The underlying purpose was, indeed, to teach the way of grace — the way for a sinner back to God. Thus the different courts and veils of the temple and tabernacle, and their manifold prohibitions, were to inculcate the lesson that the sinner could in no sense saunter into the presence of a holy God; while the sacrificial system and temple ritual were designed to demonstrate that there was, none the less, a way back, for the penitent and the obedient, through the blood of atonement and the water of cleansing. But these truths were all taught in picture language, ‘through a glass, darkly’; they were embodied in a code of detailed rules, in the guise of law; and they involved many human distinctions, such as that between Israelite and Gentile, and between priest and layman. Essentially, then, the ceremonial law enshrined the way of grace, epitomized in the repentant sinner with his sacrificial lamb. But the outward form was one of law, stereotyped in the minutiae of the temple ritual.

Then Christ came. He came ‘under’ the ceremonial law,’ (Gal. 5:4) and He Himself observed it although not the additions and circumventions devised by men. But the Baptist identified Him at the beginning of His ministry as the Lamb of God; (Jn. 1:29) and it seems clear that the prophetic vision of Isaiah 53 (in particular) dominated His messianic consciousness throughout His whole life, and especially on the eve of His passion. (cf. Luke 22:37) It was for this, supremely, that He had come. So at the Passover feast the Paschal Lamb was slain; (cf. 1 Cor. 5:7) the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; (Mark 25:38) and the ceremonial law had been perfectly fulfilled.

It is well, perhaps, to pause at this point to emphasize the difference between the way in which our Lord dealt with the moral law on the one hand and the ceremonial law on the other.

The first He fulfilled both in His life and death, but reimposed on His disciples; the second He not only fulfilled but, in so doing, abolished. Type was henceforth to be swallowed up in antitype, and shadow to give way to substance. As the writer to the Hebrews tells us

‘For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.” (Heb. 7:18, 19; cf. also Heb. 9:12-14; Heb.10:1-4, 9-14.)

What, then, is the value of the ceremonial law for the Christian? Much, for its detailed provisions illustrate different facets of the all-embracing work of redemption and serve to impress upon him the wonder of Christ’s salvation. But sacrifice, temple and priesthood have all now done their work, in pointing to Calvary, to the throne, and to the Saviour; to attempt to carry over into the Christian Church any of the ritual, imagery or human distinctions (as some of our sacerdotal friends appear to do) is to go back from the substance to the shadow; while to believe that any of the Jewish exclusiveness or sacrificial observances will be reimposed, at least with any semblance of divine approval (as some extreme dispensationalists seem to postulate), is surely a reversal of the whole progress of revelation. The ceremonial law has been finally and perfectly fulfilled: it was grace taught through law, and now grace stands openly revealed.

Thirdly, there is the social law that is, the ordinances regarding such matters as homicide, slavery, crime, penology and diet. These laws were for the temporal government of the nation of Israel, which was, indeed, God’s chosen race, but was a very earthly and largely unspiritual people — except always for what the Bible calls the ‘Remnant’. (cf. Rom. 9:27, 11:5)

This is the part of the Pentateuch which is preeminently law in the modern sense — the law applied by the courts (although much of the moral law and even of the ceremonial law also, no doubt, shared this distinction). Parts of this social law, moreover, do not appear particularly lofty to the Christian conscience, and have close parallels in the Code of Hammurabi and the laws of other Semitic peoples of antiquity which have come down to us. It was God-given, indeed, in the sense that He specifically allowed its promulgation in the form found in the Pentateuch and its enforcement for the daily government of a very imperfectly disciplined theocracy; but at the same time it often fell far short of the moral law. An obvious example of this is provided by the Mosaic law of divorce, of which our Lord observed that for ‘the hardness of your hearts’ Moses gave this commandment, ‘but from the beginning it was not so’ (Mat. 29:8 3).

Then Christ came, and fulfilled the social law. How so? Do you remember the parable of the vineyard in Mat. 21 and our Lord’s terrible comment when the husbandmen killed not only the messengers but the ‘ owner’s son:

‘Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof’? (Mat. 21:43)

So God’s people no longer form an earthly theocracy, for which ordinary laws of human government must be prescribed; instead there is found among all nations the company of the redeemed, the congregation of the regenerate, on whom the moral law in its fulness is incumbent. Thus the social law has fulfilled its purpose and been done away.

The second great New Testament statement about the law we must consider is that of St. Paul in Galatians 3:24. Let us ask ourselves precisely how it may be said that it was our schoolmaster, or tutor, to bring us to Christ. It seems to me that this statement is true in three distinct senses.

Firstly, the moral law convicts us all of sin; of commands transgressed, of demands disregarded. So it drives us to the need for forgiveness (that is, grace) as our only hope.(cf. Gal. 3:19-22) As we have seen, sin — in the sense of falling short of God’s eternal standard has reigned ever since the Fall, but sin only becomes conscious transgression in the light of law. Again, the ceremonial law always pointed the awakened sinner to the possibility of grace, but it was grace in the semblance and shackles of law — and Calvary, where grace stands fully revealed, represents a wonderful liberation from these exacting and meticulous demands. (cf. Gal. 4:4,5) But Israel as a whole stumbled, in both Old and New Testaments. Instead of being driven by the moral law to take refuge in grace through the ceremonial law, the Jews erected out of the moral and ceremonial law together a false way of self-righteousness. So they missed the very purpose of both laws, and refused to submit themselves to the righteousness of God. (cf. Rom, 9:30, 10:4)

Secondly, the moral law reveals not only human failure and transgression, but the essential sinfulness and rebellion of the human heart. Thus it drives us to regeneration (that is, grace) as the only remedy. It is not merely that we have not kept the law; we have often not so much as wanted to keep it, but have rebelled against it. (Rom. 7:7-13) So we do not only need forgiveness, but cleansing of heart, the new birth, a radical change in our innermost beings. There is, of course, something of this in the Old Testament. It was typified, in part, by the laver (Ex. 30:18-21 etc.) of the ceremonial law; and it was apprehended by faith in such passages as Ps. 51. But chiefly, in the Old Testament, it was depicted as characteristic of the New Covenant, in such passages as Jer. 31:31-34 and Ezek. 36:33-36. For this New Covenant was not only to include heart cleansing, but to substitute for an external commandment, graven on stone and demanding an unwilling obedience, a commandment written on the heart and mind — signifying the glad response to its dictates of one regenerate in will, affections and outlook. (Heb. 8:10) It was thus that the apostle could write ‘For I delight in the law of God after the inward man…” (Rom. 7:22)

Then, thirdly, the moral law continues to reveal sin in the believer even after this experience of regeneration, and so to drive him continually to seek renewed forgiveness and sanctifying power (that is, grace). St. John tells us that

‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,’ but if we ‘confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1st John 1:8,9)

And St. Paul, after saying that he delights in the law of God after the inward man, adds ‘But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.’ (Rom. 7:23) For this situation the New Testament reveals only one remedy, when the apostle continues

‘For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin (or, as a sin-offering), condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit’ (Rom. 8:2-4)

The reason, he tells us, is that the ‘flesh’ (that is, the principle of the self-life) always and inevitably ‘serves the law of sin’, (Rom. 7:25) and the ‘fleshly mind’ is constitutionally at enmity with God; (Rom. 8:7) but the Christian is commanded and enabled to ‘walk by the Spirit’, and thus ‘not gratify the desires of the flesh’. (Gal. 5:16) Put in quite different terms, we are told that ‘love is the fulfilling of the law’ (Rom. 13:10) and the only secret of victory, therefore, is the love of God ‘shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us’. (Rom, 5:5) So only can we ‘serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit,’ (Rom, 7:6) and find that sin no longer has dominion over us, since we are ‘not under law but under grace’.(Rom, 6:14)

A FALSE SYNTHESIS

Secondly, and very much more briefly, let us consider the opposite danger of a false synthesis between law and grace. This has in fact been partly covered already. But let us ask ourselves this question: what, then, is the scriptural way of salvation?

Salvation is certainly not a combination of law and grace, in the sense that grace alone is in any way inadequate or defective. On the contrary, the New Testament is crystal clear that we are saved by grace alone (that is, by Christ alone, on the basis of faith alone). For it is certain that no one can be saved by the moral law, which must inevitably postulate perfection as the only basis for approach to a holy God. That, surely, is the meaning of St. James’ hard saying:

‘For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.’ (Jas. 2:10)

In other words a single sin is enough for the law to stand broken, and the transgressor to stand condemned as such. No, the moral law must drive us continually to complete abandonment to grace alone, that we may be

‘found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.’ (Phil. 3:9)

‘But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation (propitiation) by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus.’ (Rom. 3:21-26)

But this last verse brings us to a further truth. In human affairs we can and must make a sharp distinction between law and grace, between justice and mercy. There is an enormous difference between being declared free by the verdict of justice, on the one hand, and pardoned by the prerogative of mercy, on the other. A court of law can deal with a criminal in three distinct ways: it may declare him guilty and condemn him; it may declare him guilty, pass sentence, but record a plea for mercy; or it may declare him free of the law. The first and third are the two opposite verdicts of the judgment of justice, while the second relies on the prerogative of mercy alone; and in human affairs the two are not only distinct but may be contradictory. But God, if I may say it reverently, is ‘all of a piece’. He cannot condemn and then exercise a prerogative of mercy, without at the same time declaring the prisoner ‘free of the law’. With Him righteousness and peace (justice and mercy) must ‘kiss each other’ (cf. Ps. 85:10) to forgive He must also justify.

And therein, of course, lies the wonder of the cross. It was there that the One who is Himself the fount and origin of the moral order, against which our sin is an outrage; the Creator, who never willed our sin but did put us into a world where we should be subject to temptation; the Judge, before whom we must stand and whose holiness can accept nothing less than perfection — it was there that God Himself, in the Person of His incarnate Son, took the sinner’s place. There the penalty was paid, the law was vindicated, sin was judged, and the sinner was justified. This was no doubt experienced, and dimly understood, by the saints of the Old Testament; (cf. Gal. 3:6) but it was only made manifest and fully understood after Christ had in fact died and the Holy Spirit had come in power at Pentecost. (cf. Gal. 2:16, 3:10-13 1 Pet. 2:24, etc.) But there must be a complete abandonment to this way of grace, and to Christ as the only Saviour. For just as no man can be saved by the moral law, so none can now be saved by the ceremonial — whether Mosaic or sacramentalist. To obscure this fact is an utter perversion of the ‘means of grace’, for the gospel must always remain:

‘Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to Thy cross I cling.’

But it is also true, on the other hand, that true grace always shows itself in action, and that living faith must find expression in ‘works’. New Testament faith is no mere mental belief that God is One, a belief in which even the devils share; (Jas. 2:19) but a commitment of the soul to the grace of Christ, a faith that acts, ‘working through love’. (Gal. 5:6) It represents not so much a dogma as an abandonment; not so much a doctrine as a relationship. The Christian’s attitude is admirably epitomized in the children’s verse:

“I would not work my soul to save,

For that my Lord has done:

But I would work like any slave

For love of God’s dear Son.’

A GENERAL CONFUSION

Finally, it remains to say a few words about the danger of what I have termed a general confusion on this subject a confusion which may particularly affect our attitude to those of other religions. One continually hears something like this. ‘Yes, this is all very well for those who have been born and bred in Christendom; but what of others? Surely the good Muslim, the consistent Confucianist, and the believing Buddhist, will be judged by their own standards? Do you suggest that they are doomed to inevitable damnation? That would be an intolerable doctrine.’

Now what is the truth of this difficult question? May I briefly outline the facts as I myself see them?

Let us postulate, in the first place, that something of God’s moral law is known to all, for God has not left Himself without witness. (Acts 14:17) There is no partiality with God; but to all who ‘by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality’ (Rom. 2:7) He has promised eternal life. This seems to be the plain teaching of Rom. 1 and 2.

But it is equally clear from the same Epistle, in the second place, that man always and everywhere falls short. He falls short, inevitably and by nature, of the ultimate moral law. So he is a sinner. And he also falls short of the standard he knows, the code he ought to follow. So he is a guilty sinner.

‘For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ (Rom. 3:22,23)

‘No human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law.’ (Rom. 3:20)

So all men, whatever their religion and whatever their moral condition, stand in urgent and equal need of a Saviour.

And it seems inescapably clear, in the third place, that there is only one Saviour. (Acts 4:12; Jn. 14:6) It is fundamental to the whole biblical revelation that no one else could ever meet human need, except God Himself in the Person of His incarnate Son. How else can we explain the manger of Bethlehem and the cross of Calvary? And it is equally fundamental that even God can never forgive human sin except on the basis of the atonement, when He Himself judged sin, bore its penalty and justified the sinner. How else can we explain the agony in Gethsemane, (Luke 22:42) and the cry of desolation on the cross? (Mt. 27:46)

Then is there no hope for those who have never heard the good news, who have had no real opportunity to embrace the gospel? That does not necessarily follow.

It seems clear, indeed, that a Muslim, for instance, cannot be saved by trying to be a good Muslim, or a Confucianist by striving to be a consistent Confucianist. But then neither can a Baptist be saved by trying to be a good Baptist, nor an Anglican by striving to be a consistent churchman. But suppose the Muslim, the Confucianist or the pagan were to come to realize — by the gracious working of God’s Spirit — that he is a sinner, and suppose he were to cast himself, in his sin and need, on the mercy of God, to the best of his knowledge? Does not the Scripture say that

‘there is no distinction . . . For, “every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved ”’? (Rom. 10:12,13)

Such would, of course, be saved through Christ, the only Saviour — just as the Old Testament saints were saved through Him alone. And if they should ever really hear the good news on earth, they would surely be among the company of those who accept the gospel with joy at its first hearing. But if they should never hear at all on earth, I suppose they would awake on the other side of the grave to know and worship the One to whom they owe their salvation. Is not this what St. Peter meant when he said, in the house of Cornelius,

‘Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him’? (Acts 10:34,35)

Not, of course, that any one can earn acceptance by their good works. The teaching of Scripture is quite clear regarding this. But from the passage just quoted it would seem that men are accepted on the grounds of their ‘fear’ of God and their consequent abandonment of themselves to His mercy an abandonment which, like the understanding faith of the Christian, must always issue in righteous living.

Two further points must be stressed. Firstly, this line of reasoning, if it be true, by no means lessens our missionary responsibility. We need only remember how we ourselves were brought to this commitment of faith. Was it not by the appeal of the gospel story? And did not St. Paul, as soon as he had declared that

‘Every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved’, immediately add: ‘But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? … And how are they to hear without a preacher?’ (Rom. 10:13,14)

And if there be some who, like Cornelius, grope their way to an abandonment of themselves to God’s mercy, is it not our privilege and responsibility, like that of John the Baptist, to ‘go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins ’ ? (Luke 1:76,77)

Nor, secondly, does this lighten the responsibility of those who have heard the gospel message but not accepted it. On the contrary, it accentuates that responsibility — for such have no manner of excuse, and no semblance of alternative. There is no other Saviour, and no other way; there is a real salvation, but through grace alone; and that salvation, when truly experienced, must always show itself in practical obedience to the moral law.

Originally published in London by the Inter-Varsity Fellowship in 1954. Sir Norman Anderson donated the royalties for all of his writings to TEAR Fund (https://www.tearfund.org/), but the current copyright holder is unknown. If you are the copyright holder, please contact the webmaster.

A few lines from William Blane’s poem ‘The Atonement’:

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

“What means a universal call if there be not enough for all?

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

As if the Saviour passed some by while He for others’ sins did die,

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

And that, though all are told to come, there’s but provision made for some;

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

Or that in some mysterious way God means not what the Scriptures say.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

Let hampered minds their thoughts expand, nor on such narrow footing stand;

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

The mighty work of Jesus scan – He “tasted death for every man”.

---

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

He “died for all”, that they who live back to Himself that life should give.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

He has for “all” atonement made; for all mankind the ransom paid.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

God loved the world; and when He gave His Son, it was the world to save.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

And though He knew some would not take of the provision He would make,

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

The foreseen choice of self willed man changed not heaven’s universal plan,

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

As, in the love that moved His heart, all in the atonement had a part…”

---

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

“O tell the tidings all around, that every soul may hear the sound-

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

The atoning work embraces all who were enveloped in the Fall.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

To earth’s remotest regions go, and preach to every child of woe,

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

Impartial who or what they be – the rich, the poor, the bond, the free,

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

That Christ on their behalf has died that God with Him is satisfied,

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

And now is ready to forgive – the simple terms, “believe and live”.

---

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

And he who disregards the news, and doth his day of grace abuse,

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

Shall find the worm that never dies, as in the burning lake his sighs

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

To all eternity, shall be – “There was provision made for me:

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

I might have been in heaven above, but I despised God’s mighty love.”

(Extracted from ‘The Atonement’, by William Blane)