A Voice from the Past: Sonship And Heirship

By C. H. Mackintosh [1]

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward” (Gen 15:1).

The Lord would not suffer His servant to be a loser, by rejecting the offers of the world. It was infinitely better for Abraham to find himself hidden behind Jehovah’s shield than to take refuge beneath the patronage of the king of Sodom. The position into which Abraham is put, in the opening verse of our chapter, is beautifully expressive of the position into which every soul is introduced by the faith of Christ. Jehovah was his “shield,” that he might rest in Him; Jehovah was his “reward,” that he might wait for Him. So with the believer now: he finds his present rest, his present peace, his present security, all in Christ. No dart of the enemy can possibly penetrate the shield which covers the weakest believer in Jesus.

And then, as to the future, Christ fills it. Precious portion! Precious hope! A portion which can never be exhausted, a hope which will never make ashamed. Both are infallibly secured by the counsels of God and the accomplished atonement of Christ. The present enjoyment thereof is by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us. This being the case, it is manifest that if the believer is pursuing a worldly career, or indulging in worldly or carnal desires, he cannot be enjoying either the “shield” or the “reward.” If the Holy Spirit is grieved, He will not minister the enjoyment of that which is our proper portion—our proper hope. Hence, in the section of Abraham’s history now before us, we see that when he had returned from the slaughter of the kings, and rejected the offer of the king of Sodom, Jehovah rose before his soul in the double character, as his “shield” and his “exceeding great reward.” Let the heart ponder this, for it contains a volume of deeply practical truth.

In it we have unfolded to us the two great principles of sonship and heirship.

I. Sonship

But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!” (Gen 15:2-3).

Abraham desired a son, for he knew, upon divine authority, that his “seed “ should inherit the land (13:15). Sonship and heirship are inseparably connected in the thoughts of God—“one who will come from your own body shall be your heir” (Gen 15:4). Sonship is the proper basis of everything; and, moreover, it is the result of God’s sovereign counsel and operation, as we read in Jas 1:18, “Of His own will He brought us forth.” Finally, it is founded upon God’s eternal principle of resurrection. How else could it be? Abraham’s body was “dead;” wherefore, in his case, as in every other, sonship must be in the power of resurrection. Nature is dead, and can neither beget nor conceive aught for God. There lay the inheritance stretching out before the patriarch’s eye, in all its magnificent dimensions; but where was the heir? Abraham’s body and Sarah’s womb alike answered “death.” But Jehovah is the God of resurrection, and therefore a “dead body” was the very thing for Him to act upon. Had nature not been dead, God should have put it to death ere He could fully show Himself. The most suitable theatre for the living God is that from which nature, with all its boasted powers and empty pretensions, has been totally expelled by the sentence of death. Wherefore, God’s word to Abraham was:

“Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “so shall your descendants be” (Gen 15:5b).

When the God of resurrection fills the vision, there is no limit to the soul’s blessing; for He who can quicken the dead, can do anything.

And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness (Gen 15:6).

The imputation of righteousness to Abraham is here founded upon his believing in the Lord as the Quickener of the dead. It is in this character that He reveals Himself in a world where death reigns; and when a soul believes in Him as such, it is counted righteous in His sight. This necessarily shuts man out, as regards his co-operation, for what can he do in the midst of a scene of death? Can he raise the dead? Can he open the gates of the grave? Can he deliver himself from the power of death, and walk forth, in life and liberty, beyond the limits of its dreary domain? Assuredly not. Well, then, if he cannot do so, he cannot work out righteousness, nor establish himself in the relation of sonship. “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matt 22:32) and therefore, so long as a man is under the power of death, and under the dominion of sin, he can neither know the position of a son, nor the condition of righteousness. Thus, God alone can bestow the adoption of sons, and He alone can impute righteousness, and both are connected with faith in Him as the One who raised up Christ from the dead.

It is in this way that the apostle handles the question of Abraham’s faith, in Romans 4, where he says:

Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead (Rom 4:23-24).

Here, the God of resurrection is presented “to us also” as the object of our righteousness. If Abraham had looked up into heaven’s vault, spangled with innumerable stars, and then looked at “his own body, already dead” (Rom 4:19a), how could he ever grasp the idea of a seed as numerous as those stars? Impossible. But he did not look at his own body, but at the resurrection-power of God. And inasmuch as that was the power which was to produce the seed, we can easily see that the stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore are but feeble figures indeed; for what natural object could possibly illustrate the effect of that power which can raise the dead?

So also, when a sinner hearkens to the glad tidings of the gospel, were he to look up to the unsullied light of the divine presence, and then look down into the unexplored depths of his own evil nature, he might well exclaim, “How can I ever get thither?—how can I ever be fit to dwell in that light? Where is the answer? In himself? Nay, blessed be God, but in that blessed One who traveled from the bosom to the cross and the grave, and from thence to the throne, thus filling up, in His Person and work, all the space between those extreme points. There can be nothing higher than the bosom of God—the eternal dwelling place of the Son, and there can be nothing lower than the cross and the grave; but, amazing truth! I find Christ in both. I find Him in the bosom, and I find Him in the grave. He went down into death in order that He might leave behind Him, in the dust thereof, the full weight of His people’s sins and iniquities. Christ in the grave exhibits the end of everything human—the end of sin—the full limit of Satan’s power. The grave of Jesus forms the grand terminus of all. But resurrection takes us beyond this terminus, and constitutes the imperishable basis on which God’s glory and man’s blessing repose forever. The moment the eye of faith rests on a risen Christ, there is a triumphant answer to every question as to sin, judgment, death, and the grave. The One who divinely met all these is alive from the dead, and has taken His seat at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. And not only so, but the Spirit of that risen and glorified One, in the believer, constitutes him a son. He is quickened out of the grave of Christ: as we read:

And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses (Col 2:13).

Hence, therefore, sonship, being founded on resurrection, stands connected with perfect justification—perfect righteousness—perfect freedom from everything which could in anywise be against us. God could not have us in His presence with sin upon us. He could not suffer a single speck or stain of sin upon His sons and daughters. The father could not have the prodigal at his table with the rags of the far country upon him. He could go forth to meet him in those rags—it was worthy and beautifully characteristic of his grace so to do; but then to seat him at his table in the rags would never do. The grace that brought the father out to the prodigal, reigns through the righteousness which brought the prodigal in to the father. It would not have been grace had the father waited for the son to deck himself in robes of his own providing, and it would not have been righteous to bring him in his rags. But both grace and righteousness shone forth in all their respective brightness and beauty when the father went out and fell on the prodigal’s neck, and yet did not give him a seat at his table until he was clad and decked in a manner suited to that elevated and happy position. God, in Christ, has stooped to the very lowest point of man’s moral condition, that, by stooping, He might raise man to the very highest point of blessedness, in fellowship with Himself. From all this, it follows, that our sonship, with all its consequent dignities and privileges, is entirely independent of us. We have just as little to do with it as Abraham’s dead body and Sarah’s dead womb had to do with a seed as numerous as the stars which garnish the heavens, or as the sand on the seashore. It is all of God. God the Father drew the plan, God the Son laid the foundation, and God the Holy Spirit raises the superstructure; and on this superstructure appears the inscription:

“THROUGH GRACE, BY FAITH, WITHOUT WORKS OF LAW”

II. Heirship

But then opens another most important subject to our view, namely, heirship. The question of sonship and righteousness being fully settled—divinely and unconditionally settled, the Lord said to Abraham: “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it” (Gen 15:7).

Here comes out the great question of heirship, and the peculiar path along which the chosen heirs are to travel ere they reach the promised inheritance. “And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Rom 8:17). Our way to the kingdom lies through suffering, affliction, and tribulation; but, thank God, we can, by faith, say, “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom 8:18). And further, we know that “our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor 4:17). Finally, “we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Rom 5:3b–4). It is a high honor and a real privilege to be allowed to drink of our blessed Master’s cup, and be baptized with His baptism, to travel in blest companionship with Him along the road which leads directly to the glorious inheritance. The Heir and joint-heirs reach that inheritance by the pathway of suffering.

But let it be remembered that the suffering of which the joint heirs participate has no penal element in it. It is not suffering from the hand of infinite justice, because of sin. All that was fully met on the cross, when the divine victim bowed His sacred head beneath the stroke. “Christ also suffered once for sins,” and that “once” was on the tree, and nowhere else (1 Pet 3:18a). He never suffered for sins before, and He never can suffer for sins again. “Once, at the end of the ages [the end of all flesh], He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb 9:26b). “Christ was offered once” (Heb 9:28a).

There are two ways in which to view a suffering Christ, first, as bruised of Jehovah; secondly, as rejected of men. In the former, He stood alone; in the latter, we have the honor of being associated with Him. In the former, I say, He stood alone, for who could have stood with Him? He bore the wrath of God alone; He traveled in solitude down into “the rough valley that had neither been eared nor sown,” and there He settled forever the question of our sins. With this we had nothing to do, though to this we are eternally indebted for everything. He fought the fight and gained the victory alone, but He divides the spoils with us. He was in solitude “in the horrible pit and the miry clay”; but directly He planted His foot on the everlasting “rock” of resurrection, He associates us with Him. He uttered the cry alone; He sings the “new song” in company (Psalm 40:2–3).

Now the question is, shall we refuse to suffer from the hand of man with Him who suffered from the hand of God for us? That it is, in a certain sense, a question, is evident, from the Spirit’s constant use of the word “if,” in connection with it.—“If indeed we suffer with Him” (Rom 8:17b)—“If we endure, we shall also reign” (2 Tim 2:12). There is no such question as to sonship. We do not reach the high dignity of sons through suffering, but through the quickening power of the Holy Spirit, founded on the accomplished work of Christ, according to God’s eternal counsel. This can never be touched. We do not reach the family through suffering. The apostle does not say, “That ye may be counted worthy of the family of God for which ye also suffer.” They were in the family already; but they were bound for the kingdom, and their road to that kingdom lay through suffering; and not only so, but the measure of suffering for the kingdom would be according to their devotedness and conformity to the King. The more like we are to Him, the more we shall suffer with Him; and the deeper our fellowship with Him in the suffering, the deeper will be our fellowship in the glory. There is a difference between the house of the Father and the kingdom of the Son: in the former, it will be a question of capacity; in the latter, a question of assigned position. All my children may be around my table, but their enjoyment of my company and conversation will entirely depend on their capacity. One may be seated on my knee, in the full enjoyment of his relationship, as a child, yet perfectly unable to comprehend a word I say; another may exhibit uncommon intelligence in conversation, yet not be a whit happier in his relationship than the infant on my knee. But when it becomes a question of service for me, or public identification with me, it is evidently quite another thing. This is but a feeble illustration of the idea of capacity in the Father’s house, and assigned position in the kingdom of the Son.

But let it be remembered that our suffering with Christ is not a yoke of bondage, but a matter of privilege; not an iron rule, but a gracious gift; not constrained servitude, but voluntary devotedness.

“For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Phil 1:29). Moreover, there can be little doubt but that the real secret of suffering for Christ is to have the heart’s affections centered in Him. The more I love Jesus, the closer I shall walk with Him, and the closer I walk with Him, the more faithfully I shall imitate Him, and the more faithfully I imitate Him, the more I shall suffer with Him. Thus it all flows from love to Christ; and then it is a fundamental truth that “we love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). In this, as in everything else, let us beware of a legal spirit; for it must not be imagined that a man with the yoke of legality round his neck is suffering for Christ. Alas! It is much to be feared that such a one does not know Christ, does not know the blessedness of sonship, has not yet been established in grace, is rather seeking to reach the family by works of law than to reach the kingdom by the path of suffering.

On the other hand, let us see that we are not shrinking from our Master’s cup and baptism. Let us not profess to enjoy the benefits which His cross secures, while we refuse the rejection which that cross involves. We may rest assured that the road to the kingdom is not enlightened by the sunshine of this world’s favor, nor strewed with the roses of its prosperity. If a Christian is advancing in the world, he has much reason to apprehend that he is not walking in company with Christ. “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also” (John 12:26). What was the goal of Christ’s earthly career? Was it an elevated, influential position in this world? By no means. What then? He found His place on the cross, between two condemned malefactors. But, it will be said, God was in this. True; yet man was in it likewise. And this latter truth is what must inevitably secure our rejection by the world, if only we keep in company with Christ. The companionship of Christ, which lets me into heaven, casts me out of earth; and to talk of the former, while I am ignorant of the latter, proves there is something wrong. If Christ were on earth now, what would His path be? Whither would it tend? Where would it terminate? Would we like to walk with Him? Let us answer those inquiries under the edge of the Word, and under the eye of the Almighty; and may the Holy Spirit make us faithful to an absent, a rejected, a crucified Master. The man who walks in the Spirit will be filled with Christ; and, being filled with Him, he will not be occupied with suffering, but with Him for whom he suffers. If the eye is fixed on Christ, the suffering will be as nothing in comparison with the present joy and future glory.

Our last selection from “C.H.M.” (“Sanctification: What Is It?” JOTGES [Autumn 1992]: 45-56) as he was affectionately called, was from his Miscellaneous Writings. The present offering is from his other well-known work, Notes on the Pentateuch. Regarding this work, Wilbur M. Smith, a great evangelical bibliographer of recent years, wrote: “One of the richest devotional works in the English language. A precious spiritual help to many of God’s choicest servants for two generations. Should be possessed, read, and meditated upon by every Bible student, especially every Sunday-school teacher.” The original (non-pirated!) American edition was published in 1879, by Loizeaux Brothers, now of Neptune, New Jersey. (It is still printed by them.) They have kindly granted us permission to update the spelling and punctuation a bit, as well as to use the New King James Version for easier modern reading and add Scripture references in those places where they were not provided.

Notes

1. Charles Henry Mackintosh (1820–1896) was born in County Wicklow, Ireland, converted at 18, and became a fervent advocate of grace principles, ministering chiefly among the Brethren Assemblies in the British Isles. It is his warm-hearted evangelical writings that have continued to bless Bible Christians all over the world.

A Voice from the Past: Grace Reigns

By Sir Robert Anderson [1]

“The Gospel of the glory of the blessed God!” [2]

“Please, show me Your glory,” was the prayer of Moses; and God answered, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” [3] God’s highest glory displays itself in sovereign grace, therefore it is that the Gospel of His grace is the Gospel of His glory.

Let us take heed then that we preach grace. He who preaches a mixed gospel robs God of His glory, and the sinner of his hope. [4] They for whom these pages are intended, need not be told that salvation is only by the blood; but many there are who preach the blood of Christ, without ever rising to the truth of grace. Dispensational truth, as it is commonly called, is deliberately rejected by not a few; and yet without understanding the change the death of Christ has made in God’s relationships with men, grace cannot be apprehended.

It is not that God can ever change, or that the righteous ground of blessing can ever alter, but that the standard of man’s responsibility depends on the measure and character of the revelation God has given of Himself. God’s judgments are according to pure equity. They must have strange thoughts of Him who think it could be otherwise. In the Epistle to the Romans we have the great principle of His dealings with mankind. “[He] will render to each one according to his deeds; eternal life to those who by patience continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.” [5]

But is the standard of well-doing the same for all? Shall the same fruit be looked for from the wild olive as from the cultured tree? from the mountain side, in its native barrenness, as from the vineyard on the fruitful hill? Far from it. The first two chapters of the Epistle to the Romans are unmistakable in this respect. The Gentile will be judged according to the light of nature and of conscience, neglected and resisted; the Jew, by the revelation of God entrusted to him. St. Paul’s sermon in Athens is no less clear as regards the condition of the heathen. As he said at Lystra, [6] they were not left without a witness, in that God did good, and gave rain and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness. By such things, he declares again in another place, [7] God’s eternal power and Godhead are clearly seen, so that they are without excuse. And so here, [8] God left the heathen to themselves, not that they should forget Him, but that they should seek Him, even though it were in utter darkness, so that they should need to grope for Him—“to feel after Him, and find Him.” And, though there was ignorance of God, He could wink at the ignorance and give blessing notwithstanding, for “He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” [9] Moreover, this is still the case of all whom the witness of the Holy Ghost has not yet reached. If it be asked whether any have, in fact, been saved thus, I turn from the question, though I have no doubt as to the answer. [10] There is no profit in speculations about the fate of the heathen; their judgment is with God. But there is profit and blessing untold in searching into His ways and thoughts towards men, that we may be brought in adoration to exclaim, “Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” [11]

But to resume: “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness.” [12] And the change depends on this, that God has now revealed Himself in Christ, and therefore, ignorance of Him is a sin that shuts men up to judgment. See the Lord’s sad utterance in John 15:24, as a kindred truth. Indeed, the whole Gospel of St. John is a commentary on it. Darkness had reigned, but God did not hold men accountable for darkness; it was their misfortune, not their fault. But He did hold them accountable to value and obey the little light they had, “the candle set up within them,” and the stars above their head—those gleams of heavenly light, which, though they failed to illumine the way, might at least suffice to direct their course. But now, a new era dawned upon the world, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” [13] The Light had entered in; the darkness was past, the true Light was shining. To turn now to conscience or to law, was like men who, with the sun in the zenith, nurse their scanty rushlight, with shutters barred and curtains drawn; like men who cast their anchor because the daylight has eclipsed the stars. The principles of God’s dealings was the same, but the measure of man’s conduct was entirely changed. It was no longer a question of conscience or of law, but of the Only-begotten in their midst. It was no quirk or quibble, but the solemn, earnest truth, by which the blessed Lord Himself replied to the inquiry, “‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.’” [14] The question was a right one, and the answer enforced the same unchanging principle, that the light they had was the measure of their responsibility. The same great truth is no less plainly stated in the Nicodemus sermon. [15] This was the condemnation, not that men’s deeds were evil, though for these too there shall be wrath in the day of wrath, but that, because their deeds were evil, they had brought on themselves a still direr doom; light had come into the world, but they had turned from it and loved the darkness. [16]

But this is not all; even yet, the reign of grace had not begun. Grace was there truly, for “grace came by Jesus Christ,” [17] but, like Himself, it was in humiliation; it had yet to be enthroned. Grace was there. No adverse principle came in to influence His ways and words; but though pure and unmixed, as it must ever be, it was restrained. He had a baptism to be baptized with, and how He was distressed till it was accomplished! [18] While there was a single claim outstanding, a single tie unbroken, grace was hindered, though it could not be alloyed.

But now was about to come the world’s great crisis—the most stupendous event in the history of man, the only event in the history of God! He had laid aside His glory, and come down into the scene. At His own door [19] He had stood and knocked, but only to find it shut in His face. Turning thence, He had wandered an outcast into the world His power had made, but wandered there unknown. “His own did not receive Him;” [20] “the world did not know Him.” [21] As He had laid aside His glory, He now restrained His power, and yielded Himself to their guilty will. In return for pity, He earned but scorn. Sowing kindnesses and benefits with a lavish hand, He reaped but cruelty and outrage. Manifesting grace, He was given up to impious law without show of mercy or pretence of justice. Unfolding the boundless love of the mighty heart of God, He gained no response but bitterest hate from the hearts of men.

The Son of God has died by the hands of men! This astounding fact is the moral center of all things. A by-gone eternity knew no other future: [22] an eternity to come shall know no other past. That death was this world’s crisis. [23] For long ages, despite conscience outraged, the light of nature quenched, law broken, promises despised, and prophets cast out and slain, the world had been on terms with God. [24] But now a mighty change ensued. Once for all, the world had taken sides. In the midst stood that cross in its lonely majesty: God on one side, with averted face; on the other, Satan, exulting in his triumph. The world took sides with Satan: “[His] precious life [was in] the power of the dog,” [25] and there was none to help, none to pity.

There, we see every claim which the creature had on God forever forfeited, every tie forever broken. Promises there had been, and covenants; but Christ was to be the fulfiller of them all. If a single blessing now descends on the ancient people of His choice, it must come to them in grace. [26] Life, and breath, and fruitful seasons freely given, had testified of the great Giver’s hand, and declared His goodness; but if “seedtime, and harvest, and the changing year, come on in sweet succession” still, in a world bloodstained by the murder of the Son, it is no longer now to creation claims we owe it, nor yet to Noah’s covenant, [27] but wholly to the grace of God in Christ.

In proof of this I might cite prophecies and parables, and appeal to the great principles of God that are the basis of Gospel doctrine, as above both parable and prophecy. Nay, I might leave it to men themselves, as Christ did, to decide between themselves and God. But I rather turn again to that solemn utterance of the Lord, in view of His lifting up upon the tree: “Now is the judgment of this world.” [28]

“[These things the] angels desire to look into.” [29] And if angels were our judges, what would be our doom! For ages they had both witnessed and ministered the goodness of God to men. But yesterday the heavens had rung with their songs of praise, as they heralded the Savior’s birth in Bethlehem: “On earth peace, goodwill toward men.” [30] Goodwill! And this was what had come of it! Peace! And this was what men turned it to! What thoughts were theirs as, terror-struck, they beheld that scene on Calvary! Crucified amid heartless jeers, and cruel taunts, and shouts of mingled hate and triumph! Buried in silence and by stealth; buried in sorrow, but in silence. He who hears in secret, heard the stifled cry from the broken hearts of Mary and the rest, and the smothered sobs that tore the breasts of strong men bowed with grief—the last sad tribute of love from the little flock now scattered. But as for the world, no man’s lamentation, no woman’s wail was heard! They had cried, “Away with Him, away with Him!” [31] and now they had made good their cry: the world was rid of Him, and that was all they wanted.

Angels were witnesses to these things. They pondered the awful mystery of those hours when death held fast the Prince of Life. The forty days wherein He lingered in the scenes of His rejection and His death—was it not to make provision for the little company that owned His name, to gather them into some ark of refuge from the judgment-fire, so soon to engulf this ruined world? And now, the gates lift up their heads, the everlasting doors are lifted up, and with all the majesty of God, the King of Glory enters in. [32] The Crucified of Calvary has come to fill the vacant throne, the Nazarene has been proclaimed the Lord of Hosts!

But, mystery on mystery! The greatest mystery of all is now the mystery of grace. That throne is vacant still. Those gates and doors that lifted up their heads for Him are standing open wide. Judgment waits. That sea of fire that one day shall close in upon this world to wipe out its memory forever, is tided back by the word of Him who sits upon the Father’s throne in grace. When the Son of Man returns for judgment, “then He will sit on the throne of His glory.” [33] When that day comes, how terrible shall be the judgment! Half measures are impossible in view of the cross of Christ. The day is past when God could plead with men about their sins. [34] The controversy now is not about a broken law, but a rejected Christ. If judgment, therefore, be the sinner’s portion, it must be measured by God’s estimate of the murder of His Son; a cup of vengeance, brimful, unmixed, from the treading of the “winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” [35]

But if grace be on the throne, what limits can be set to it? If that sin committed upon Calvary has not shut the door of mercy, all other sins together shall not avail to close it. If God can bless in spite of the death of Christ, who may not be blest? Innocence lost, conscience disobeyed and stifled, covenants and promises despised and forfeited, law trampled under foot, prophets persecuted, and last and unutterably terrible, the Only-begotten slain. And yet there is mercy still! What a Gospel that would be!

But “the gospel of the glory of the blessed God” is something infinitely higher still. It is not that Calvary has failed to quench the love of God to men, but that it is the proof and measure of that love. Not that the death of Christ has failed to shut heaven against the sinner, but that heaven is open to the sinner by virtue of that death. [36] The everlasting doors that lifted up their heads for Him are open for the guiltiest of Adam’s race, and the blood by which the Lord of glory entered there is their title to approach. The way to heaven is as free as the way to hell. In hell there is an accuser, but in heaven there is no condemner. The only being in the universe of God who has a right to judge the sinner is exalted to be a Savior now. [37] Amid the wonders and terrors of that throne, He is a Savior, and He is sitting there in grace. The Savior shall yet become the Judge; but judgment waits on grace. Sin has reigned, and death can boast its victories: shall grace not have its triumphs too? As surely as the sin of man brought death, the grace of God shall bring eternal life to every sinner who believes. One sin brought death, but grace masters all sin. If sin abounded, grace abounds far more. Grace is conqueror. GRACE REIGNS. Not at the expense of righteousness, but in virtue of it. Not that righteousness requires the sinner’s death, and yet grace has intervened to give him life. Righteousness itself has set grace upon the throne in order that the sinner might have life: “That as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” [38] Such is the triumph of the cross. It has made it possible for God to bless us in perfect harmony with everything He is, and everything He has ever declared Himself to be; and in spite of all that we are, and all that He has ever said we ought to be.

I have already referred to St. Paul’s allusion to the ancient military triumphs, when writing to the Corinthians. [39] The word there used occurs again in his Epistle to the Colossians. Having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, “leading them in triumph in Him.” [40] In the hour of His weakness, our enemies became His own, and fastened upon Him to drag Him down to death; but, leading captivity captive, He chained them to the chariot-wheels of His triumph, and made a public show of them. Just as Israel stood on the wilderness side of the sea, and saw Pharaoh and his hosts in death upon the shore, it is ours to gaze upon the triumphs of the cross. God there has mastered sin, abolished death, and destroyed him who had the power of death.

God has become our Savior. Our trust is not in His mercy, but in Himself. Not in divine attributes, but in the living God. “GOD is for us;” the Father is for us; the Son is for us; the Holy Spirit is for us. It is God who justifies; it is Christ that died; and the Holy Spirit has come down to be a witness to us of the work of Christ, and of the place that work has given us as sons in the Father’s house.

“Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.” [41]

Rejoice, rejoice, my soul,
Rejoice in sin forgiven;
The blood of Christ hath made thee whole,
For thee His life was given.

For thee His blood was shed,
On Him thy sins were laid;
To bear thy guilt He bowed His head,
And now thy peace is mine.

Rejoice in peace made sure,
No judgment now for thee;
Thy conscience purged, thy life secure,
More safe thou cannot be.

Thy Savior is the Lord,
Who died to set thee free;
Thy trust is in His faithful word,
He liveth now for thee.

Rejoice in joys to come,
The hope of glory near;
He’ll soon return to take thee home,
No cause for thee to fear!

JOTGES 9:2 (Autumn 96) p. 70

Now, by the Spirit sealed,
Rejoice in God the Lord;
The mighty God is now thy shield,
And He thy great reward.

Thy song of triumph raise;
Exult with heart and voice;
Oh shout aloud His glorious praise!
Rejoice, my soul, rejoice! [42]

This article is Chapter II, 8–19, of The Gospel and Its Ministry. The original chapter title, simply “Grace,” has been made more specific in light of Sir Robert’s words in all capitals on p. (?).

Notes

1. Colorful and competent barrister, writer, and lay preacher Sir Robert Anderson (1841–1918) deserves to be better known among Bible Christians. Born of devout parents in Dublin, he was educated there at Trinity College. He was skillful in dealing with Irish and Irish-American plots against the British government. Though he retired from the Home Office in 1877, he was called back to service in 1880. At Scotland Yard, In 1888, the year of the notorious “Jack the Ripper” murders in gaslit London, he became head of the C.I.D. (Criminal Investigation Department). One modern British TV. special even suggested Sir Robert as a possible “Ripper” suspect! In light of his life and career, this shows the depths to which anti-Christian bias in the Western media can sink. Anderson preached widely for 50 years in churches and Gospel Halls, and was associated with many Christian societies, such as the Mildmay Conferences, the Evangelical Alliance, and the Prophecy Investigation Society. He was a staunch conservative, and an enemy of “higher criticism.” Such classics as The Coming Prince, Daniel in the Critics’ Den, and The Gospel and Its Ministry are the products of his pen. Several of Sir Robert’s books are still in print, and all are worth procuring. Ed.
2. First Timothy 1:11; not “the glorious gospel.” (Sir Robert’s preferred translation [ERV, 1885] is more literal, but the traditional is not wrong. Elsewhere we have replaced the ERV by the NKJV [1982] for today’s readers. Ed.).
3. Exodus 33:18–19.
4. Italics supplied. Ed.
5. Romans 2:6–11; see also John 5:29. Editor’s note: Romans 2:6ff. concern the impossibility of justification by works. Compare 2:13 and 4:5. In Romans 2 Paul is confronting the self-righteous legalist who thinks he will be justified by hearing the law. Yet Paul insists only a perfect doer of the law will be justified (2:13; cf. Gal 3:10). Only by faith in Christ can the ungodly be justified (Rom 4:5).
6. Acts 14:8–18.
7. Romans 1:20.
8. Acts 17:22–31.
9. Hebrews 11:6.
10. See Acts 10:34–35.
11. Romans 11:33.
12. Acts 17:30–31a.
13. John 1:14.
14. John 6:28–29.
15. John 3:1–21.
16. John 3:19.
17. John 1:17.
18. Luke 12:50.
19. John 1:11, “He came to His own” (eis ta idia ēlthen) can scarcely be expressed in English. The French idiom is more apt: “Il est venu chez soi, et les siens ne l’ont point reçu.”.
20. John 1:11.
21. John 1:10.
22. See 1 Pet 1:20; Rev 13:8.
23. John 12:31, “Now is the judgment of this world” (Nyn krisis esti tou kosmou toutou).
24. Editor’s note: It is not clear what is meant here. Based on the next paragraph, it may refer to temporal blessings upon the saved and the lost. In any case, before the cross, as after it, the way was narrow that led to life and few found it (Matt 7:14). Those who did not believe in the coming Messiah for eternal life—which was most people—were lost.
25. Psalms 22:20.
26. Romans 11 leaves no room to question whether Israel will in fact be blessed hereafter; but even their national blessings they will owe to grace.
27. Genesis 9:11–17.
28. John 12:31.
29. 1 Peter 1:12.
30. Luke 2:14.
31. John 19:15.
32. Psalms 24:7–10.
33. Matthew 25:31; cf. Rev 3:21.
34. For the believer, the question of sin was settled at the cross; for the unbeliever, it is postponed to the day of judgment. “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Pet 2:24). “The Lord knows how to … reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment” (2 Pet 2:9). The distinction between judgment and punishment is important. The criminal is judged before he leaves the courthouse for the prison, but his punishment has yet to come—it is a consequence of judgment, not a part of it. All unbelievers are precisely on a level as regards judgment. “He who believes in Him is not condemned [the word is krinō ], but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). Here the moral and the immoral, the religious and the profane, stand together, and share the same doom. But when judgment, in the sense of punishment (condemnation), is in question, there can be no equality; every sentence shall be apportioned to the guilt of each by the righteous and omniscient Judge. See Rev 20:13; Matt 12:36; Luke 12:47–48; Jude 15; and 2 Pet 2:9, already quoted.
35. Revelation 19:15.
36. Italics supplied. Ed.
37. “The Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22)! “I judge no one,” the Lord says again in another place (8:15). “If anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world” (12:47). The day of grace must end before the day of judgment can begin. “The acceptable year of the Lord” must run its course before the advent of “the day of vengeance.” Compare Isa 61:1–2 with Luke 4:16, 20, and notice the precise point at which the Lord “closed the book.”.
38. Romans 5:21. Read from v 12. I have sought to epitomize the argument of the passage.
39. This is in chapter I of Anderson’s book. Ed.
40. Colossians 2:15.
41. Isaiah 12:2.
42. Sir Robert gives no author for this poem nor does he label it “anonymous.” Could it be that this Scotland Yard man, like some of the fictional detectives (Dorothy L. Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey and P. D. James’s Adam Dalgliesh, for example), had a literary flair? Ed.

A Voice from the Past: Priest Or Prophet

By W. H. Griffith Thomas [1]

I. Introduction

In the Bible the fact of a ministry is clearly recorded. In the OT the ministry consists chiefly of two orders or classes of men—the priests and the prophets—each with its own sphere more or less clearly defined, and with a work of great importance and absolute necessity, because of divine appointment.

The essence of the priesthood was the representation of man to God; the essence of the prophetic office was the representation of God to man. Anything else done by a priest or prophet was accidental and additional, and not a necessary part of his office. The essential work of the priest was expressed in sacrifice and intercession, and may be summed up in the word mediator. The essential work of the prophet was expressed in revelation and instruction, and may be summed up in the word ambassador. The priesthood meant propitiation, and the prophetic office meant revelation. The priest was concerned with the way of man to God; the prophet with the will of God to man. The two offices were thus complementary, and together they fulfilled the requirements of the relationship between God and man.

II. New Testament Silence on a Class of Believers as Priests

The ministry of the NT is equally clear and unequivocal, but with certain great and notable differences. In the NT there is absolutely nothing about a special order or class of men called priests. The only priesthood, apart from the Lord’s priestly work, is the spiritual priesthood of all believers. There is, however, much that answers to the essential ministry of the OT prophet, but with the difference that ministry in the NT is not confined to any one class of believers: it is the privilege and duty of all. There are most assuredly diversities of gifts in that ministry, but ministry generally and of some kind is for all. Indeed, the various gifts are for the express purpose of “equipping the saints for their work of ministering” (Eph 4:12, Greek).

Whether, then, one thinks of the ministry of the priest or of the prophet, it is clear from the NT that there is no class of believers to which spiritual functions belong exclusively as of absolute right and divine appointment. What is required for “decency and order” is quite another question, and though important and essential, is assuredly secondary to the above-named fundamental principle of the NT.

From these differences between the OT and NT, it is easy to notice the silence of the NT as to any special order of priests, and its insistence on the ministry of the Word.

This Silence is a Simple Fact

Not a single reference can be found in the NT to a special human priesthood. In the Lord’s instructions to His disciples and apostles in the four Gospels, not a word is said about a special priesthood. In the first book of general church history, the Acts of the Apostles, not a hint of such a priesthood is given. The epistles to the Corinthians give the first detailed picture of one particular apostolic church but they include no sign of any such priesthood. Hebrews, the great doctrinal epistle for Jewish Christians, has nothing in it about priests except the Lord’s priesthood. The three epistles of pastoral and ecclesiastical instructions, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, say nothing about any special priesthood. Nor do the mature writings of the two great apostles of the circumcision, Peter and John, include any trace whatever of a human priesthood. This evidence taken separately in its parts is striking, but taken as a whole it is completely overwhelming.

This Silence Is a Striking Fact

Here are 27 books, covering a period of at least 40 to 50 years, [2] referring to the foundation and early history of the church amid differences of place, country, race, capacity, and conditions of life. Yet there is no provision for a special order of priesthood. It is also striking because all the writers (with the one probable exception of Luke) were Jews, and as such were steeped in sacerdotal ideas, language, and associations from their earliest childhood. The apostles use sacrificial and sacerdotal language on several occasions to describe certain elements and aspects of the gospel. For example, in Rom 15:16 Paul speaks of his preaching as his sacred and sacrificial service, and his Gentile converts as his sacrificial offering. But as the context shows, this is manifestly spiritual and symbolical in meaning, and is at once descriptive and illustrative of his work as a “prophet” or preacher of the gospel. But not one of the apostles ever used the word hiereus, a sacrificing priest, to distinguish a Christian minister from a layman. The avoidance of this term is remarkable.

Westcott is said to have observed in some of his lectures at Cambridge that this avoidance was the nearest approach he knew to verbal inspiration. Some would venture to go a step further and claim it as an unmistakable example of the superintending control of the Holy Spirit in the composition of the Scriptures. Humanly speaking, the chances against avoiding the use of hiereus in this connection are like 10,000 to 1. Indeed, it may be said that to refuse to explain it by the guiding of the Holy Spirit is to require for its explanation what is virtually a miracle of human thought, foresight, and mutual prearrangement among several writers.

If it be said that the question is one not of words but of things, one may note Lightfoot’s reply that “This is undeniable: but words express things, and the silence of the Apostles still requires an explanation.” [3] Neither the word nor the thing can be discovered in the NT.

This Silence Is a Significant Fact

This is what Lightfoot calls “the eloquent silence of the apostolic writings.” [4] There is no mention of the subject in the NT because there is no place for it and no need of it. In the Jewish economy a mediatorial priesthood was necessary because of man’s alienation from God, because sin was not put away, and because the way to God was not open. But now sin has been put away, the way into the holiest is manifest, and for this Christ the divine high priest is all and in all. This is the burden of the teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews: the one and only, inviolable, undelegated (aparabaton, Heb 7:24) priesthood of the Lord. Christ’s priesthood is unique, perfect, and permanent, and as long as He is priest there is no room for and no need of any other mediator.

This silence as to a special human priesthood shows that such a priesthood is irreconcilable with the letter and spirit of apostolic Christianity. In this respect “Christianity stands apart from all the other religions. [5] It is the “characteristic distinction of Christianity” [6 ]to have no such provision. Where there is no repeated offering there is no need of an altar; where there is no altar there is no sacrifice; where there is no sacrifice there is no priest. The benefits of the sacrifice once for all offered are now being continually bestowed by Christ and appropriated by the penitent believer without any human mediator because “the kingdom of Christ … has no sacerdotal system.” [7]

However, the argument has been frequently used that ministerial priesthood, or the priesthood of the ministry, is only the universal priesthood of believers expressed through their representatives. It is said that as the human body acts through its members so the church as the body of Christ acts through the ministry as its instruments and that consequently when the “priest” is exercising his ministerial functions it is really the church acting through him.

To this line of argument the following seven answers may be given.

1. The NT is entirely silent as to this special and, as it were, localized priesthood. Surely, if the ministry had been regarded as exercising a priesthood distinguishable from the priesthood of all believers, or regarded as the priesthood of the church in a specialized way, it would have been necessary to show that this ministerial priesthood existed in the early church. Yet there are no priestly functions associated with the Christian ministry as such in the NT. Instead, the priesthood of all believers is inherent in their relation to Christ. This is the divine warrant for it and there is no such warrant for any narrower or modified form of it.
2. Is it not at least unsafe, even if not perilous, to base such a novel and far-reaching claim on a metaphor, the figure of the human body?
3. The scriptural use of this metaphor never differentiates between the spiritual body and its instruments but only between members.
4. The modern use of the metaphor now in question proves too much, for while in the natural body certain members alone can act and “minister” in certain ways, as the hand does in one way and the foot in another, in the scriptural concept of the Body of Christ, each member has real “priestly” functions (“that which every joint supplieth,” Eph 4:16). These differences of function are only of degree, not of kind, and do not constitute the ministry a special and localized priesthood, a position which would involve a difference of kind.
5. This idea of a ministerial priesthood as expressive of the universal priesthood is a novel and significant departure from the older and still generally accepted idea of the sacerdotalism of the Christian ministry. It represents an almost entire shifting of the ground. The prevalent conception of the priesthood of the ministry has been that of an order of men in direct touch with Christ, and acting as such on the body rather than for it. But the new use of the metaphor really implies that the instruments act for the body and through the body, in the sense of not being immediately in contact with the Head. The older sacerdotalism maintains that the priesthood receives and represents “an attribute of grace distinct from” that received by the church, “by virtue of which grace, men are brought into such relationship with God that through this instrumentality they obtain the promised blessings of the covenant under which they live.” [8] But this view involves much more than a concentration of the priesthood of the whole of the church in a part of it. It represents another line of grace different from the general one in kind as well as in degree. Yet Scripture knows nothing of two separate lines of grace, one from the Head direct to the church and the other from the Head to the ministry. The older and newer views of the priestly character of the ministry are therefore incompatible, and sacerdotalists cannot have both. It is impossible on any true analogy to distinguish between the spiritual body and its ministerial organs in such a way as to make the organs the instruments of the body, according to the new view, and yet in authority over it, according to the old view. Upholders of ministerial priesthood must choose between these positions, though for neither of them is there any warrant or authority in the Word of God.
6. The functions of the Christian ministry are those of a personal medium, not of a priestly mediator. They are prophetic, not priestly; they are exercised on behalf of Christ rather than on behalf of the church; and they represent the Head rather than the body. And even so far as they may be said in certain aspects to represent the church, the functions are “representative and not vicarial.” [9] In short, the essential idea of the ministry is diakonia, not hieratum, service not sacerdotalism, and it can never be too frequently asserted that the fundamental concept of the Christian ministry is that it represents God to the church rather than the church to God, that it is prophetic and not priestly.
7. There is no function or office of the Christian priesthood which cannot be exercised by any and every individual believer in Christ of either sex, wherever and whatever they may be. Differences of function in the Christian ministry there are, but in the Christian priesthood there are none. Thus it is concluded that the NT has a simple, striking, and significant silence on any new and special order of priests.

Along with this silence as to any new order of priests, the NT insists on the ministry of the Word.

III. NT Emphasis on the Ministry of the Word The Nature of the Ministry

The ministry is twofold, for evangelization and edification; one is to the sinner and the other is to the saint. At least seven series of titles are associated with the ministry, which show the character and necessity of it in the church. The minister is a herald (kēryx), a messenger of good news (euangelistēs, apostolos), a witness (martys), an ambassador (presbeuō [10]), a servant (diakonos), a shepherd (poimēn, oikonomos), a teacher (didaskalos, prophētēs). The variety and fullness of these words plainly show the paramount importance placed on the ministry of the Word.

The Message of the Ministry

There are two phrases that sum up this message, one referring chiefly to its relationship to God and the other to its relationship to man. “The Word” is the message as it expresses the mind of God. “The gospel” is the message as it describes its destination for and acceptableness to man. At least seven titles are associated with “the Word”: the Word of God (and the Word of Christ and the Word of the Lord), the Word of reconciliation, the Word of salvation, the Word of grace, the Word of righteousness, the Word of truth, and the Word of life. There are also seven titles connected with “the gospel”: the gospel of God, the gospel of Christ, the gospel of the grace of God, the gospel of salvation, the gospel of peace, the gospel of the kingdom, and the gospel of the glory of God.

These various aspects, so clear, so full, so important, may all be summed up in three well-known passages: “It is I” (the person of Christ); “It is finished” (the work of Christ); and “It is written” (the Word of Christ). They represent salvation provided, salvation wrought, and salvation assured. This is essentially the complete yet remarkably varied message of the ministry of Christianity.

The Purpose of the Ministry

The ministry of the Word is intended to bring God and man face to face—God revealing, man responding. It claims to do for man all that he needs or can need. Regeneration, sanctification, edification, and glorification are all associated with the Word of God, and at every step of the Christian life the ministry of that Word finds its place and power.

This purpose becomes realized in the response of man through faith. The Word of God and faith are correlatives, and faith is emphasized in the NT because it is the only, as it is the adequate, response to the revelation of God. Faith brings the soul into direct contact with God, and the result is “righteousness through faith.” The gospel is the power of God to salvation because in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith, having faith as its correlative and channel from first to last (Rom 1:16–17). Faith responds to God’s Word and appropriates Christ as God’s righteousness “for us” for justification, and God’s righteousness “in us” for sanctification.

This is the NT “ministry of the Word,” and all of it is ministerial and instrumental, not mediatorial and vicarious. Who are believers “but ministers through whom men believe”?

The Permanence of the Ministry

This NT ministry is a permanent one. In Christ’s last days on earth He commanded, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel” (Mark 16:15). Among Paul’s concluding exhortations was “Preach the Word” (2 Tim 2:2). Peter’s last teaching emphasizes the Word of God. John’s closing writings exhort believers to “abide in the truth.”

The permanent ministry of the Word is a threefold guarantee to the church. It guarantees the church’s purity, progress, and power. Whenever this ministry has been neglected, the course of the church has been deflected; and whenever, as at the Reformation, this has been predominant, her purity has been prominent. This is the explanation of every backsliding, the secret of every recovery.

Whenever the ministry of the Word has been honored, there has been extension; whenever it has been neglected, there has been stagnation. Missionary work at home and abroad finds its full impetus in the ministry of the Word.

The ministry of the Word is a protection against all foes and is for the good of all friends. Sacerdotalism sees justification by faith as her most powerful enemy, and assails it with the most virulent opposition. Since the Word cuts at the roots of all priestly power, warfare is waged today against justification by faith. [11]

This truth brings the soul into direct, conscious, blessed, satisfying contact and union with Christ, and thereby dispenses at once and forever with a human mediator. Christ is thereby present and no longer merely represented.

The ministry of the Word, too, is a great power against neo-Anglicanism. [12] As the sacerdotal element goes up, the ministry of the Word proportionately goes down. If the priest is exalted, the teacher is deposed, for the inherent tendency of ritualism is directly opposed to that of the preaching and teaching ministry of the Word of God. As people are saturated with the truth of Scripture, they will find in it their power against all ritualistic practices.

The ministry of the Word is also powerful against the worldliness of the church and the local congregation. Let the standard of the Word be uplifted and pressed on heart and conscience, and the worldly devices and elements in church life will fall away and die. The message of the Word for holiness of heart and life will soon settle questionable methods of church finance, church life, and church work. And all this will be so because of its power to “edify” the believer. More and better Bible classes, more expository teaching in sermons, more individual meditation in the Word will soon show its blessed effects in the individual and congregational lives of churches.

IV. Conclusion

The Word of God should therefore be highly honored. Honor it in the soul, in the home, in the study, in the pulpit, in the congregation, in the college, in the university, in the seminary, in the nation. Preach it out of a full heart, a clear mind, a strong conviction, and a consistent life. Receive it by faith, welcome it by love, and prove it by obedience. Then believers need have no fear for present or future, for the Word is still the seed that quickens, the sword that pierces, the light that guides, the hammer that breaks, the meat that strengthens, the milk that nourishes, and the honey that delights, because it is “the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Pet 1:23).

This article was first published as a pamphlet over ninety years ago with the subtitle “A Question for the Day” (London: J. F. Shaw & Co., ca. 1900). Dallas Theological Seminary reprinted the work in the January to March 1979 edition of its journal (Bibliotheca Sacra, 136:65).

Notes

1. W. H. Griffith Thomas (1861–1924) was born and raised in England. He received his B.A. from King’s College, London and his D.D. from Oxford (in England Doctor of Divinity is an earned, not an honorary degree). He numbered T. E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) and his brothers among his Greek students at Oxford, where he taught till coming to the New World. In Canada he taught at Wycliffe Hall, Toronto. Moving to Philadelphia as his headquarters, he maintained a wide writing and preaching ministry in North America, Britain, and elsewhere. He was a prime mover in the founding of Dallas Theological Seminary in 1924, the year he died. See JOTGES. 4 (Spring, 1991) 41, f.n. 1 for more details. Ed.
2. The period covered may be much less than this if the entire NT was completed before A.D. 70 as some NT scholars suggest. Ed. note.
3. J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians (London: Macmillan and Co., 1879), 264.
4. Ibid., 182.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid., 181.
8. T. T. Carter, On the Priesthood (n.p., n.d.), 99.
9. Lightfoot, Philippians, 267.
10. To have been perfectly consistent Dr. Thomas could have used the noun presbeutēs here rather than the verb presbeuō. However, only the verb actually occurs in the NT.
11. Italics added by editor to highlight today’s even worse situation in Protestantism.
12. The Anglican Church (“Church of England”) is divided into three branches, though outwardly one: the “broad” (=liberal), the “high” (=priestly, imitative of Roman Catholicism), and the “low” (=evangelical) church. The term low is not meant to be an insult, but describes the church as it came out of the Reformation, with emphasis on the Word of God, not ritual. Of course, by free church standards, even “low” Anglicanism seems rather “high.” Dr. Thomas was a staunch advocate of biblical truth within the Anglican communion. In the U.S.A., he commented that, as his daughter Winifred Griffith Thomas Gillespie confided to this editor, he usually found the Episcopal church “high or dry.” Note: Footnotes 2–8 are part of the original pamphlet, the others are ours. Ed.

A Voice from the Past: The True Grace Of God In Which You Stand

By J. N. Darby

—I have written to you briefly; exhorting and testifying that this is [the] true grace of God in which ye stand (1 Peter 5:12b, “New Translation” [1]).

GOD is made known to us as the “God of all grace,” and the position in which we are set is that of “tasting that He is gracious.” How hard it is for us to believe this, that the Lord is gracious. The natural feeling of our hearts is, “I know that thou are an austere man”; there is the want in all of us naturally of the understanding of the Grace of God.

There is sometimes the thought that grace implies God’s passing over sin, but no, grace supposes sin to be so horribly bad a thing that God cannot tolerate it: were it in the power of man, after being unrighteous and evil, to patch up his ways, and mend himself so as to stand before God, there would be no need of grace. The very fact of the Lord being gracious shows sin to be so evil a thing that, man being a sinner, his state is utterly ruined and hopeless, and nothing but free grace will do for him—can meet his need.

We must learn what God is to us, not by our own thoughts, but by what He has revealed Himself to be, and that is, “The God of all Grace.” The moment I understand that I am a sinful man, and yet that it was because the Lord knew the full extent of my sin, and what its hatefulness was, that He came to me, I understand what grace is. Faith makes me see that God is greater than my sin, and not that my sin is greater than God. The Lord that I have known as laying down His life for me, is the same Lord I have to do with every day of my life, and all His dealings with me are on the same principles of grace. The great secret of growth is, the looking up to the Lord as gracious. How precious, how strengthening it is to know that Jesus is at this moment feeling and exercising the same love towards me as when He died on the cross for me.

This is a truth that should be used by us in the most common everyday circumstances of life. Suppose, for instance, I find an evil temper in myself, which I feel it difficult to overcome; let me bring it to Jesus as my Friend, and virtue [2] goes out of Him for my need. Faith should be ever thus in exercise against temptations, and not simply my own effort; my own effort against it will never be sufficient. The source of real strength is in the sense of the Lord being gracious. The natural man in us always disbelieves Christ as the only source of strength and of every blessing. Suppose my soul is out of communion, the natural heart says, “I must correct the cause of this before I can come to Christ,” but He is gracious; and knowing this, the way is to return to Him at once, just as we are, and then humble ourselves deeply before Him. It is only in Him and from Him that we shall find that which will restore our souls. Humbleness in His presence is the only real humbleness. If we own ourselves in His presence to be just what we are, we shall find that He will show us nothing but grace.

It is Jesus who gives abiding rest to our souls, and not what our thoughts about ourselves may be. Faith never thinks about that which is in ourselves as its ground of rest; it receives, loves, and apprehends what God has revealed, and what are God’s thoughts about Jesus, in whom is His rest. As knowing Jesus to be precious to our souls, our eyes and our hearts being occupied with Him, they will be effectually prevented from being taken up with the vanity and sin around; and this too will be our strength against the sin and corruption of our own hearts. Whatever I see in myself that is not in Him is sin, but then it is not thinking of my own sins, and my own vileness, and being occupied with them, that will humble me, but thinking of the Lord Jesus, dwelling upon the excellency in Him. It is well to be done with ourselves, and to be taken up with Jesus. We are entitled to forget ourselves, we are entitled to forget our sins, we are entitled to forget all but Jesus.

There is nothing so hard for our hearts as to abide in the sense of grace, to continue practically conscious that we are not under law but under grace; it is by grace that the heart is “established,” but then there is nothing more difficult for us really to comprehend than the fulness of grace, the “Grace of God wherein we stand,” and to walk in the power and consciousness of it…. It is only in the presence of God that we can know it, and there it is our privilege to be. The moment we get away from the presence of God, there will always be certain workings of our own thoughts within us, and our own thoughts can never reach up to the thoughts of God about us, to the “Grace of God.”

Anything that I had the smallest possible right to expect could not be pure, free grace—could not be the “Grace of God…” It is alone when in communion with Him that we are able to measure everything according to His grace…It is impossible, when we are abiding in the sense of God’s presence, for anything, be what it may—even the state of the church—to shake us, for we count on God, and then all things become a sphere and scene for the operation of His grace.

The having very simple thoughts of grace is the true source of our strength as Christians; and the abiding in the sense of grace, in the presence of God, is the secret of all holiness, peace, and quietness of spirit.

The “Grace of God” is so unlimited, so full, so perfect, that if we get for a moment out of the presence of God, we cannot have the true consciousness of it, we have no strength to apprehend it; and if we attempt to know it out of His presence, we shall only turn it to licentiousness. If we look at the simple fact of what grace is, it has no limits, no bounds. Be we what we may (and we cannot be worse than we are), in spite of all that, what God is towards us is LOVE. Neither our joy nor our peace is dependent on what we are to God, but on what He is to us, and this is grace.

Grace supposes all the sin that is in us, and is the blessed revelation that, through Jesus, all this sin and evil has been put away. A single sin is more horrible to God than a thousand sins—nay, than all the sins in the world are to us; and yet, with the fullest consciousness of what we are, all that God is pleased to be towards us is LOVE.

In Romans 7, the state described is that of a person quickened, but whose whole set of reasonings centre in himself…he stops short of grace, of the simple fact that, whatever be his state, let him be as bad as he may, GOD IS LOVE, and only love towards him. Instead of looking at God, it is all “I,” “I,” “I.” Faith looks at God, as He has revealed Himself in grace…Let me ask you, “Am I—or is my state the object of faith?” No, faith never makes what is in my heart its object, but God’s revelation of Himself in grace.

Grace has reference to what GOD is, and not to what we are, except indeed that the very greatness of our sins does but magnify the extent of the “Grace of God.” At the same time, we must remember that the object and necessary effect of grace is to bring our souls into communion with God—to sanctify us, by bringing the soul to know God, and to love Him; therefore the knowledge of grace is the true source of sanctification.

The triumph of grace is seen in this, that when man’s enmity had cast out Jesus from the earth, God’s love had brought in salvation by that very act—came in to atone for the sin of those who had rejected Him. In the view of the fullest development of man’s sin, faith sees the fullest development of God’s grace. I have got away from grace if I have the slightest doubt or hesitation about God’s love. I shall then be saying, “I am unhappy because I am not what I should like to be”: that is not the question. The real question is, whether God is what we should like Him to be, whether Jesus is all we could wish. If the consciousness of what we are—of what we find in ourselves, has any other effect than, while it humbles us, to increase our adoration of what God is, we are off the ground of pure grace. Is there distress and distrust in your minds? See if it be not because you are still saying “I,” “I,” and losing sight of God’s grace.

It is better to be thinking of what God is than of what we are. This looking at ourselves, at the bottom is really pride, a want of the thorough consciousness that we are good for nothing. Till we see this we never look quite away from self to God. In looking to Christ, it is our privilege to forget ourselves. True humility does not so much consist in thinking badly of ourselves, as in not thinking of ourselves at all. I am too bad to be worth thinking about. What I want is, to forget myself and to look to God, who is indeed worth all my thoughts. Is there need of being humbled about ourselves? We may be quite sure that will do it.

Beloved, if we can say as in Romans 7, “In me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing,” we have thought quite long enough about ourselves; let us then think about Him who thought about us with thoughts of good and not of evil, long before we had thought of ourselves at all. Let us see what His thoughts of grace about us are, and take up the words of faith, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”

John Nelson Darby (1800–1882) was a nineteenth century protagonist for grace who gained a reputation for controversy for taking a stand against the politics of his own church (he was originally a priest in the Church of Ireland). Later he crossed swords with the Jesuits on the continent (endangering his life, some reports say), the Reformed Establishment in Switzerland, Cardinal Newman (whom he knew as a young Evangelical), his brother, Frances Newman, who became a rationalist, and even George Muller of Bristol.

There are 40 volumes of Darby’s Collected Writings. He was a remarkable linguist, outstanding in Greek, Hebrew, Latin, French, German, Dutch, and Italian, and could do all right in Spanish. Late in his life he learned Maori in New Zealand. Darby had a strong influence on the American Bible Conference movement, the Scofield Reference Bible, and fundamentalism.

Though from an aristocratic family (they owned a castle in Ireland), he gave it all up to travel the world teaching the Bible, at times living a Spartan existence. Darby was a graduate of Westminster (Abbey) School and Trinity University (Dublin), where he won the gold medal in classics as a teenager.

Notes

1. This translation was “New” in 1869 and 71, so it is now usually called the Darby Translation. Darby translated the Bible into French and German during his continental ministries, and did the NT and the Pentateuch in English before he died. First Samuel through Malachi were completed from his French and German versions and published soon after his death. Darby himself used the Authorized Version in his English-speaking ministries. His own very literal work was for Bible study. It is still in print.
2. Darby is no doubt using the word in the older sense of “power” (cf. Latin virtus and Luke 6:19, KJV). Ed.

A Voice from the Past: Grace

By D. L. Moody [1]

I am going to take tonight a subject rather than a text. I want to talk to you about Free Grace. I say “Free Grace”; perhaps I had better drop the word free and say just grace. There is a sermon just in the meaning of the word. It is one of those words that are very little understood at the present time, like the word Gospel. There are a great many that are partakers of the spirit of Christ or of grace that don’t know its meaning. I think it is a good idea to go to Webster’s dictionary and look up the meaning of these words that we hear so often but don’t fully understand. You seldom go into a religious assembly but you hear the word grace, and yet I was a partaker of the grace of God for years before I knew what it meant. I could not tell the difference between grace and law. Now grace means “unlimited mercy,” “undeserved favor,” or “unmerited love.”

I had a man come today to see me, and his plea was that he was not fit to be saved. He said there was no hope for him because he had sinned all his life and there was nothing good in him. I was very much gratified to hear him say that. There is hope for that man—and I suppose he is here tonight—and there is hope for any man who thinks there is nothing good in him. That was the lesson Christ tried to teach the Jews—the lesson of grace. But they were trying to prove themselves to be better than other people. They were of the seed of Abraham and under the Mosaic law, and better than the people about them.

Now let us get at the source of this stream, that has been flowing through the world these hundreds of years. You know that men have been trying to find the source of the Nile. [2] Wouldn’t it be as profitable to try and find the source of grace, because this is a stream we are all interested in. I want to call your attention to the first chapter of John, the 14th and 17th verses:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. [3]

Then the 17th verse:

For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Then the 5th chapter of Romans, the 15th verse:

But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.

There it is called the free gift—it abounded to many. Then in Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians, the 1st chapter and the 3d verse:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus.

Now bear in mind that He is the God of all grace. We wouldn’t know anything about grace if it wasn’t for Jesus Christ. Men talk about grace, but they don’t know much about it. These bankers, they talk about grace. If you want to borrow a thousand dollars, if you can give good security, they will let you have it and take your note, and you give your note and say, “So many months after date I promise to pay a thousand dollars.” Then they give you what they call three days’ grace, but they make you pay interest for those three days. That ain’t grace. [4] Then when your note comes due, if you can’t pay but nine hundred and fifty dollars, they would sell everything you have got and make you pay the fifty dollars. Grace is giving the interest, principal, and all. I tell you, if you want to get any grace, you must know God. He is the God of all grace. He wants to deal in grace; He wants to deal with that unmerited mercy, undeserved favor, unmerited love; and if God don’t love man until he is worthy of His love, He won’t have time for very much love for him, He is the God of all grace.

Unto whom does He offer grace? I would like to have you turn to your Bibles to two or three texts; to the 21st chapter of Matthew, the 28th verse:

“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said to Him, ‘The first.’ Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.”

Why? Because He loved those publicans [tax collectors] and harlots more than He did those Pharisees? No; it was because they wouldn’t repent, because they wouldn’t take grace. They didn’t believe they needed the grace of God. A man who believes that he is lost is near salvation. Why? Because you haven’t got to work to convince him that he is lost. Now here is a man that said he wouldn’t go, and then he saw that he was wrong, and repented and went, and this man was the man that grace held up. Any man or any woman here tonight who will repent and turn to God, God will save them. It don’t make any difference what your life has been in the past. He will turn to any that will turn to Him.

I was preaching one Sunday in a church where there was a fashionable audience, and after I got through the sermon I said: “If there are any that would like to tarry a little while, and would like to stay and talk, I would be glad to talk with you.” They all got up, turned around, and went out. I felt as though I was abandoned. When I was going out I saw a man getting behind the furnace. He hadn’t any coat on, and he was weeping bitterly. I said, “My friend, what is the trouble?”

He said, “You told me tonight that I could be saved; that the grace of God would reach me. You told me that there wasn’t a man so far gone but the grace of God would reach him.” He said: “I am an exile from my family; I have drunk up twenty thousand dollars within the last few months; I have drunk up the coat off my back, and if there is hope for a poor sinner like me I should like to be saved.”

It was just like a cup of refreshment to talk to that man. I didn’t dare give him money for fear that he would drink it up, but I got him a place to stay that night, took an interest in him, and got him a coat, and six months after that, when I left Chicago for Europe—four months after—that man was one of the most earnest Christian men I knew. The Lord had blessed him wonderfully. He was an active, capable man. The grace of God can save just such if they will only repent. [5] I don’t care how low he has become, the grace of God can purge him of all sin, and place him among the blessed. In proportion as man is a sinner much more does the grace of God abound. There isn’t a man but that the grace of God will give him the victory if he will only accept it.

I want you to turn a moment to a passage you will find in the 7th chapter of Mark:

From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden. For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.” Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”

Now, just see how Christ dealt with that woman—a Syro-Phoenician, a Gentile; she didn’t belong to the seed of Abraham at all. He came to save His own, but His own received Him not. Christ was willing to give to the Jews grace. He dealt in grace with a liberal hand, but those that He was desirous to shower grace upon wouldn’t take it. But this woman belonged to a different people—and just hear her story. I wonder what would happen if Christ should come and speak that way now? Suppose He should come into this assembly and take any woman here and call her a dog.

Why, that Syro-Phoenician woman might have said, “Call me a dog! Talk to me like that! Why I know a woman who belongs to the seed of Abraham who lives down near me, and she is the worst and meanest woman in the neighborhood. I am as good as she is any day.” She might have gone away without a blessing if she had not felt her utter destitution and lost condition. But Jesus only said that to her just to try her, and after calling her a dog, [6] she only broke forth into a despairing cry, “Yes, Lord—yes, Lord.” Christ had said it was more blessed to give than to receive. She took His place and received His blessing and His commands. She was satisfied to be given only a crumb, as long as He heard her petition. So, instead of giving her a crumb, she got a whole loaf.

And so will you get the fullest beneficence of Christ if you lift your heart up to Him. Oh, that many would but just take her place, understand how low and unworthy they are, and cry unto Jesus. If you do, Christ will lift you up and bless you.

But then the great trouble is that people will not confess that they have need of grace. Such miserable Pharisaism is the worst feature of the present time. They think they can get salvation without the grace of God. The old saying is that when you come to Jesus as a beggar you go away as a prince. Instead of doing that, they feel so self-confident and proud that they come always as princes and go away beggars. If you want the Son of God to deal with you, come as a beggar and He will have mercy upon you. Look at the great crowd going up to the Temple. They feel they have strength of themselves, and all pass on, proud and haughty, except one poor man, who smites himself on the breast and says, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”

If you want to see the idea that the Jews had as to who was worthy, and how they thought that that kind of worthiness should be rewarded, just take your Bibles and look at the seventh chapter of Luke. It reads there:

Now when He concluded all His sayings in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum. And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear to him, was sick and ready to die. So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to Him, pleading with Him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying that the one for whom He should do this was deserving.

Yes, that was the Jews’ idea of the reason He should come, because he was “worthy.” What made him worthy? “For he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue.” He was not worthy because he was a sinner. Oh, no; not at all. But he was worthy because “he has built us a synagogue.” Ha! That was the same old story—the story of the present day. There is a great deal of that now. Give that man the most prominent place in church; let him have the best pew and the one furthest up in church, because he is “worthy.” He has built the church perhaps; or he has endowed a seminary. No matter where his money came from. He may have got it gambling in stocks, or doing something else of a like character; but he has given it to us. Oh, yes, he is worthy. He may have made his enormous gains by distilling whisky even! Make room for him, he has got a gold ring on; make room for her, she has got a good dress on. So said the Jews: “Now, Lord, come at once, for he built us a synagogue. Oh, he is worthy. You must not refuse or halt; You must come at once.” That was the Jews’ idea, and it is the idea of the world today.

But how do you expect to get grace that way? The moment you put it on the ground of being worthy of it, then to receive it would not be grace at all. It would only amount to this: that if the Lord should give a man grace because He owed it to him, He would only be paying a debt. Jesus, however, went with them in this instance to teach them a lesson. Luke goes on to say:

Then Jesus went with them. And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof.”

That is the kind of humility we want; that is the kind of men we are hunting after—a man that is not worthy. See how quick he will be saved when he is in that frame of mind. I suppose that someone had run in to tell this centurion that Jesus was approaching the house. And the centurion sent to Him to say he was not worthy that He should come to him, “I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.”

This centurion had faith, at any rate. If he thought himself unworthy to come to Jesus, he sent friends whom he considered better than himself. How common it is to think yourself good and all other people bad. It is good to see a man consider himself a poor, unworthy man. “[God,] I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.” Thank God, he had faith. No matter how many sins we have if we only have faith. In this case, because he had faith Jesus healed his servant without coming to him at all. He hadn’t to go to the house and examine his pulse, and see his tongue. Then He didn’t have to write out a prescription and send him to the drugstore. No; he said, “All right, your servant shall live.”

For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, “Go,” and he goes; and to another, “Come,” and he comes; and to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it. When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him.

It is only twice, I think, that Jesus marveled. He marveled at the unbelief of the Jews; and again, at the faith of the centurion—“He … turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, ‘I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel’!” Here is a Gentile, He said in effect, here is a man not of the seed of Abraham, and yet what faith he shows! Why, here is a centurion, and he has more faith than the chosen people of God. Jesus granted the petition at once. When He saw a genuine check presented for payment He cashed it at once. He pays instantly in the gold of Heaven, without any hesitation or discount.

“And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant well who had been sick.” Found him perfectly well, leaping and dancing around the house, praising God. He had been at the point of death one minute, and the next he had been made perfectly well.

You may be made whole too, friends. You may even be on the borders of hell, and yet be made an inhabitant of the Kingdom of Heaven. Think of this, you men that are the slaves of strong drink. You may be mangled and bruised by sin, but the grace of God can save you. He is the God of grace. I hope that grace will flow into your souls tonight. Christ is the sinner’s friend. If you have read your Bibles carefully you will see that Christ always took the side of the sinner. Of course, He came down on the hypocrites, and well He might. Those haughty Pharisees He took sides against, but where a poor, miserable, humble, penitent sinner came to Him for grace He always found it. You always read that He deals in grace, and tonight He will have mercy on you that confess your sins to Him. If you want to be saved come right straight to Him. He comes to deal in grace: He comes to bless, and why don’t you let Him? Let Him bless you now. Let Him take your sins away now.

A man said to me the other night, “I feel I have got to do something.”

I said to him, “If this grace is unmerited and free, what are you going to do?” And I warn you tonight, my friends, against trying to work out your own salvation. It really is a question whether it don’t keep more people out of the kingdom of God than anything else.

When at Newcastle, [7] I was preaching one night, and I said that grace was free; that all were to stop trying to be saved.

A woman came down and said to me: “Oh, how wretched I am! I have been trying to be a Christian, and yet you have been telling me tonight not to try!”

“Has that made you wretched?” I asked.

“Yes. If I stop trying, what will become of me?”

I said: “But if grace is free what are you going to do? You cannot get it by working.”

She said, “I can’t understand it.”

“Well, let me call your attention now to a few passages of Scripture.” I turn to the second chapter of Ephesians and the 8th and 9th verses:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Salvation is a gift from God. If a man worked it out, he would boast of what he had done, and say, “Oh, I did it.” A Scotchman once said it took two persons to effect his salvation—“God gave me His grace and I fought against Him.” It is not then for men to work, or they will boast of it, and when a man boasts you may be sure there is no conversion. The Ethiopian cannot change his skin, neither can the leopard change his spots. We do not work to get salvation, but we work it out after we get it. [8] If we are ever saved it must be by grace alone. If you pay anything for salvation it ceases to be a gift. But God isn’t down here selling salvation. And what have you to give Him if He was? What do you suppose you would give? Ah, we’re bankrupt. “The gift of God is eternal life”; that’s your hope. “He who … climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.”

Now who will take salvation tonight? Oh, you may have it if you will. “To him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.” The difference between Martha and Mary was that Martha was trying to do something for the Lord, and Mary was just taking something from Him as a gift. He’ll smile upon you if you’ll just take grace from Him. “It is to him who does not work but believes” that blessings come. After you get to the Cross, there you may work all you can. If you are lost, you go to hell in the full blaze of the Gospel. That grace is free to all. To every policeman here, every fireman, every usher, every singer, every man, woman, and child, every reporter, all of you. What more do you want God to do than He has done? Oh, I hope the grace of God will reach every heart here. Oh, be wise, and open the door of your hearts and let in the King of glory. You’ll be saved when you believe. [9] It is written, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.” If you are lost there is one thing you must do, and that is trample the grace of God under your feet. [10] It won’t be because you can’t be saved, but because you won’t. Young man, will you be saved tonight? It’s a question for you yourself to settle. If we could settle it for you we would, but you must believe for yourself. Christ said to that poor sinning woman, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” Oh sinner, hear those words. Oh may the grace of God reach your heart tonight.

This message was delivered in New York and taken verbatim from stenographic reports for The New York Daily Tribune. It was revised and corrected by H. H. Birks and published in Glad Tidings, Comprising Sermons and Prayer-Meeting Talks Delivered at the N. Y. Hippodrome (New York: E. B. Treat, 1876), 149–59. A few spelling and punctuation updatings and more frequent paragraph breaks are the only changes in the text; no words have been changed or omitted.

Notes

1. Dwight Lyman Moody (1837–1899) was one of—if not the—greatest evangelists in history. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people became believers through his ministry, thousands of them on a personal level. Raised in Massachusetts by a widow with nine children, Moody could only afford a few terms of schooling. Even the simple sermon in this issue shows his poor grammar (“he don’t”) several times. What he lacked in schooling he made up for in fervor and even became an educator, founding the first “Bible Institute” in America (1886), now named after him. In 1873 he started the Moody-Sankey evangelistic campaigns in Britain that also greatly enhanced his reputation in the U.S.A., where he had his greatest harvest.
2. John Hanning Speke had discovered Lake Victoria in 1858. The sources of the Nile intrigued now-famous Scots missionary-explorer David Livingston, among others, when Moody gave this message. The year before this sermon was published (1875) British-American explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley sailed around Lake Victoria and in 1889 discovered Lake Edward (between modern Zaire and Uganda).
3. This and all other Bible quotations have been updated from the King James to the New King James for easier reading.
4. Emphasis supplied. Ed.
5. It is clear from this article as a whole that Moody did not mean “change your life and then you can be saved.”
6. It is worth noticing that in the original the word for dog (kynarion) is a diminutive (cf. NKJV: “little dogs”), referring to the house pets the children had, not to the snarling curs that roamed the streets of middle Eastern cities acting as living garbage disposals. Ed.
7. During one of Moody’s evangelistic meetings in England.
8. Emphasis supplied. Ed.
9. Emphasis supplied. Ed.
10. Emphasis supplied. Ed. It is possible that the word not was left out by the transcriber by mistake: “one thing you must not do.” However, Moody is probably saying: there is one thing you do to be saved (believe the Gospel) and one thing you do to be lost (reject the Gospel). Assuming our original text is correct, it is likely that Moody’s intonation in voicing it made his meaning crystal clear.

A Voice from the Past: The Fundamentals Of Grace

By Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871-1952) [1]

Introduction

The exact and discriminate meaning of the word grace should be crystal clear to every child of God. With such insight only can he feed his own soul on the inexhaustible riches which it unfolds, and with such understanding only can he be enabled clearly to pass on to others its marvelous, transforming theme. Here is a striking illustration of the fact that very much may be represented by one word. When used in the Bible to set forth the grace of God in the salvation of sinners, the word grace discloses not only the boundless goodness and kindness of God toward man, but reaches far beyond and indicates the supreme motive which actuated God in the creation, preservation, and consummation of the universe. What greater fact could be expressed by one word?

The meaning of the word grace, as used in the NT, is not unlike its meaning as employed in common speech—but for one important exception, namely, in the Bible the word often represents that which is limitless, since it represents realities which are infinite and eternal. It is nothing less than the unlimited love of God expressing itself in measureless grace.

The word favor is the nearest biblical synonym for the word grace. In this connection it may be observed that the one thought which is almost exclusively expressed in the NT by the word grace, is, in the OT, almost exclusively expressed by the word favor. Grace is favor, and favor is grace. Thus, in considering the Bible teaching on this great theme, equal attention should be given to all passages wherein either the word grace is used or favor is found. Grace means pure unrecompensed kindness and favor. What is done in grace is done graciously. From this exact meaning there can be no departure; otherwise grace ceases to be grace. To arrive at the scope and force of the Bible doctrine of salvation by grace alone we need to follow consistently the path indicated by the exact meaning of the word.

Seven Fundamental Facts About Grace

A. Grace Is Not Withheld Because of Demerit

This fact about grace is more evident, perhaps, than any other. It is the sense of demerit more than anything else which impels a soul to cry out for the kindness and benefits of grace. So, also, grace finds its greatest triumph and glory in the sphere of human helplessness. Grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to withdraw it in the presence of human failure and sin. In fact, grace cannot be exercised where there is the slightest degree of human merit to be recognized. On the other hand the issue of human sin must be disposed of forever. Christ the Lamb of God, having taken away the sin of the world, has by His cross forever disposed of the condemnation of sin. He has by the cross created an entirely new relation between God and man. Consequently, men are now either accepting or rejecting Christ who has borne their sins. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). There is no middle ground. All questions of demerit have been banished. Thus God is righteously free to exercise grace in every case. Salvation is by grace alone.

B. Grace Cannot Be Lessened Because of Demerit

God cannot propose to do less in grace for one who is sinful than He would have done had that one been less sinful. Grace is never exercised by Him in making up what may be lacking in the life and character of a sinner. In such a case, much sinfulness would call for much grace, and little sinfulness would call for little grace. The sin question has been set aside forever, and equal exercise of grace is extended to all who believe. It never falls short of being the measureless saving grace of God. Thus grace could not be increased; for it is the expression of His infinite love: it could not be diminished; for every limitation that human sin might impose on the action of a righteous God has, through the propitiation of the cross, been dismissed forever.

God does not ignore or slight the fact of human guilt and sin; for He has met these issues perfectly and finally for all men in the death of His Son. There remains no demerit, nor degrees of demerit, to be considered or recognized. By grace there is now offered alike to all men all the infinite resources of the saving power of God. The grace of God is, therefore, exercised in perfect independence of human sin, or any degree of human sin.

C. Grace Cannot Incur a Debt

An act is in no sense gracious if under any conditions a debt is incurred. Grace, being unrecompensed favor, is necessarily unrecompensed as to obligations which are past, unrecompensed as to obligations which are present, and unrecompensed as to obligations which are future. Grace must always remain unadulterated in its generosity and benefit. How emphatically this is true of the grace of God towards sinners! Yet how often this aspect of divine salvation is perverted! Infinite and eternal transformations are wrought by the power of God when He exercises His grace. He is thereby glorified and sinners are saved. Such far-reaching results cannot fail to satisfy and delight Him eternally; but He remains unrecompensed for His salvation through grace. What He does He bestows as a gift. Rightfully a benefit cannot be called a gift if it is paid for before, at the time, or after. This is a fundamental truth of the Word of God, and it is imperative that it be kept free from all confusing complications.

When a recompense for the gift of God is proposed, every element of salvation is obscured, and the true motive for Christian service is sacrificed as well. The Scriptures everywhere guard these two truths from such perversion; for, in the Bible, salvation is always presented as a gift, an unrecompensed favor, a pure benefit from God (John 10:28; Rom 6:23). And, in like manner, no service is to be wrought, and no offering is to be given, with a view to repaying God for His gift. Any attempt to compensate God for His gift is an act so utterly out of harmony with the revealed Truth, and exhibits such a lack of appreciation of His loving bounty, that it cannot be other than distressing to the Giver. All attempts to repay His gift, be they ever so sincere, serve only to frustrate His grace and to lower the marvelous kindness of God to the sordid level of barter and trade. How faithfully we should serve Him, but never to repay Him! Service is the Christian’s means of expressing his love and devotion to God, as God has expressed His love to those whom He saves by the gracious things He has done. Christian service for God should be equally gracious.

It therefore becomes those who have received His gifts in grace to be jealous for the purity of their motives in service for Him. Unwittingly the grace of God is too often denied by well-meaning attempts to compensate God for His benefits. No semblance of the most vital facts about divine grace can be retained unless salvation is, in its every aspect, treated as a gift from God, and Christian service and faithfulness is deemed to be only the expression of love and gratitude to God.

According to the Scriptures, salvation is never conditioned on human faithfulness, or on the promise of human faithfulness. There is no payment required, past, present, or future. God saves unmeriting sinners in unrelated, unrecompensed, unconditioned, sovereign grace. Good works should follow; but with no thought of compensation. Christians are “created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Eph 2:10); they are to be a “special people, zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14); and “those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works” (Titus 3:8). Thus, and only thus, are “good works” related to the gracious salvation from God through Christ Jesus. Grace is out of question when recompense is in question.

D. Grace Is Not Exercised in the Just Payment of a Debt

The fact is self-evident that the payment of an honest debt could never be an act of grace. In no circumstances, however, is the recognition of this truth more important than when grace is declared to be the present divine plan for the salvation of sinners. If God should discover the least degree of merit in the sinner, this, in strict righteousness, He must recognize and duly acknowledge. By such a recognition of human merit, He would be discharging an obligation toward the sinner and the discharge of that obligation toward the sinner would be the payment, or recognition, of a debt. “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt” (Rom 4:4).

It is therefore imperative that every vestige of human merit shall be set aside completely if an opportunity is provided whereby pure grace may be exercised in the salvation of men. For the sole purpose that pure grace might be exercised toward men, the human family has been placed under the divine judicial sentence of sin. It is obviously true that all men are sinners both by nature and by practice; but the present divine decree goes far beyond this evident state of sinfulness wherein one man might be deemed to be more, or less, sinful than another; for God, in this dispensation, which began with the cross, has pronounced an equal and absolute sentence of judgment against all, both Jew and Gentile. Men are now “condemned already” (John 3:18); they are “sons of disobedience” (Eph 2:2); not on the ground of their own sinfulness, but on the ground of their federal headship in fallen Adam. Men are now judicially reckoned to be in “disobedience” (Rom 11:32); they are “under sin” (Rom 3:9; Gal 3:22); and they are “guilty” (Rom 3:19). Thus all human merit has been disposed of absolutely and forever, and there is no longer the slightest possibility that, because of personal merit, a divine obligation may now exist toward any individual. The sole divine object in thus universally and judicially disposing of all human merit is clearly revealed: “For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all” (Rom 11:32). Also, “But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe” (Gal 3:22).

That God now saves sinners by grace alone and apart from every human merit is the teaching of His Word: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:8–10).

In this passage the only order which can exist between divine grace and human merit is made clear. Man is permitted to do nothing until God has done all that His grace designs. “Good works” grow out of, and are made possible by, the gracious work of God. To this exact order all revelation concerning divine grace is in agreement.

A striking emphasis is given to the fact that God now saves by grace alone when the biblical doctrines of salvation by grace and the believer’s rewards for service are contrasted. Salvation, being always and only a work of God for man, is always and only by grace alone; while rewards, being always and only that which is merited by the faithful service of the Christian, are always and only based on works. Human merit is always in view in the divine bestowment of rewards; and the grace of God is never mentioned in connection with His bestowment of rewards (1 Cor 3:9–15; 9:18–27; 2 Cor 5:10). So, also, human works are never included as forming any part of the divine plan of salvation by grace.

An act ceases to be gracious, therefore, when it is a recognition of merit, or the payment of a just debt. “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:24).

E. Grace Is Never the Over-Payment of a Debt

Grace is no longer grace if it is complicated in the slightest degree with the payment of a just debt. It can never be that which is added to, or a part of, a righteous transaction. A bounty may be added to the payment of a debt—an extra amount above the full measure due; but in no case should this extra amount be considered a matter of pure grace. The character of the bounty thus added would, of necessity, be qualified to some extent by the relation of the bounty to the debt. The bounty will be either more, or less, than it would have been had it stood alone. Inevitably it will be affected to some degree by the righteous transaction with which it is combined. In the Word of God, as in common usage, the word grace, in is exact meaning, precludes any complications with other acts or issues however righteous and just. Grace speaks of a gift, not of barter or trade, however unequal. It is pure kindness, not the fulfilling of an obligation. An act in order to be gracious must stand disassociated and alone. Divine salvation is, therefore, the kindness of God toward sinners. It is not less than it would be had they sinned less. It is not more than it would be had they sinned more. It is wholly unrelated to every question of human merit. Grace is neither treating a person as he deserves, nor treating a person better that he deserves. It is treating a person graciously without the slightest reference to his deserts. Grace is infinite love expressing itself in infinite goodness.

Through the death of Christ by which He took away the sin of the world, and through the divine decree which has constituted all to be “under sin,” grace is free to save in every case, and only grace can save in any case. Divine grace is never decreased or increased. It offers a standardized, unvarying blessing to every individual alike. The blessing is measureless since it represents in every case no less than all that God, being actuated by infinite love, can do.

F. Grace Does Not Appear in the Immediate Divine Dealings with the Sins of the Unsaved

It is probable that no point in the Gospel of God’s saving grace is so misunderstood, and, consequently, so misstated as the revealed truth concerning the immediate divine dealings with the sins of the unsaved. It seems most difficult for the mind to grasp the fact that, as revealed in God’s Word, God does not deal with any sin in mercy, or leniency. The sinner is never forgiven because God is big-hearted enough to remit the penalty, or to waive the righteous judgments. Any presentation of divine forgiveness which represents God as directly exercising clemency toward a sinner is a fatal detraction from the meaning of the cross of Christ, and is a disastrous misrepresentation of the truth contained in the Gospel of His saving grace. Those who dare to preach the Gospel should give to the cross its true place of vital importance as given to it in the Word of God. How can God utter a more alarming warning on this point than is disclosed in the revelation of the unrevoked anathema upon all who pervert the Gospel of grace? “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed” (Gal 1:8, 9).

Turning from human speculation to the Scriptures of Truth, we discover one basic fact: The Lamb of God has already “taken away” the sin of the world (John 1:29). The fact that Christ as Substitute, has already borne the undiminished righteous judgments of God against sin, is the sole ground upon which divine forgiveness is now exercised. The forgiveness of God toward sinners, therefore, is not an immediate act of grace; it is rather a judicial pardon of a debtor in view of the fact that his debt has been fully paid by Another. We could not know how much He paid; yet, though unable to measure redemption, we may rejoice in the fact that all, even to the measure of the righteous reckoning of God, is absolutely and eternally paid by Christ. It is not a question of the relative benefits which might possibly accrue to the sinner under one form of forgiveness or another—were he forgiven graciously, or in strict justice; it is a question of the basis upon which any divine forgiveness can be extended righteously. This righteous basis has been provided in the cross. By Gospel preaching, sinners are to be told that they may now stand forever pardoned before God: not because God is gracious enough to excuse their sins; but because there is plentiful redemption that is in Christ Jesus through His blood (Rom 3:24; Eph 1:7). Being free to forgive at all, God is free to forgive perfectly. On no other ground can the marvelous statement,—“having forgiven you all trespasses” (Col 2:13), be understood. This Scripture is addressed to Christians and it exactly defines the scope of divine forgiveness which is theirs. It likewise indicates the measure of forgiveness which is offered to the unsaved.

When God thus forgives, absolutely and eternally, through the cross of Christ He is acting as Judge. By this judicial decree, He sets aside forever all condemnation. Such judicial forgiveness, which guarantees an unchangeable standing and position in sonship, should not be confused with the Father’s forgiveness toward His sinning child, which is wholly within the family relationship, and which restores lost fellowship and joy to the child of God.

Every unsaved person is under the three-fold sentence of sin. He is a sinner by practice, a sinner by nature, and a sinner by divine decree. God deals with this three-fold aspect of sin by a three-fold achievement in grace. There is forgiveness for man in view of the fact that he is a sinner by practice; there is imputed righteousness for man in view of the fact that he is a sinner by nature; and there is the divine decree of justification for man in view of the fact that he is a sinner who, by divine decree, is “under sin.”

Judicial forgiveness itself is not an act of grace, nor is judicial forgiveness a mere act of divine clemency for some particular sins of present moment to the sinner: judicial forgiveness covers all sin, and by it the sinner is, as to possible condemnation, pardoned forever. This pardon covers all sins past, present, or future. God the Righteous Father will, in infinite faithfulness, correct and chasten His sinning child, and the sinning child will need to confess his sin in order to be restored into fellowship with his Father; but the Father will never condemn His child (John 3:18; 5:24; Rom 8:1 R.V.; 1 Cor 11:31–32). The forgiveness of God toward the sinner is, then, made possible only through the cross and is never an act of immediate grace, and, when it is free to be extended at all, it is boundless. It contemplates and includes all sin. It forever absolves and acquits the sinner.

Though divine forgiveness results in a position for the sinner wherein there is no condemnation, this fact should in no wise be confused with the deeper aspect of God’s saving grace wherein He justifies the sinner. Forgiveness cancels every debt before God, but justification declares the sinner to be forever judicially righteous in the eyes of God. One is subtraction, the other is addition; and both are righteously made possible through the cross.

Of the various divine undertakings in the salvation of a sinner, some are acts of divine justice, and some are acts of the immediate, super-abounding grace of God. Those acts which deal with human unworthiness and sin are acts of justice. These include forgiveness, justification, death to the law, freedom from the law, and the whole new creation. All this is made possible through the cross of Christ and, therefore, is not accomplished by an act of immediate grace. On the other hand, those aspects of salvation wherein God is revealed as imparting and bestowing His benefits are said to be immediate acts of grace. These include the gift of eternal life, the imputed righteousness of God, and every spiritual blessing. Limitless grace is seen in the love of God which provided the cross; but when that cross is provided, every saving act that is based upon it becomes an act of justice, rather than an act of immediate grace. “That he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom 3:26). [2]

G. Grace Does Not Appear in the Immediate Divine Dealings with the Sins of the Saved

The divine dealings with the sins of the saved are similar to the divine dealings with the sins of the unsaved in one particular, namely, what God does in either case is done on the ground of the cross of Christ. By that cross all sin, whether it be that of saint or sinner, has been righteously judged, and the ransom price, which satisfies every demand of infinite holiness, has been paid. By His death, Christ provided the sufficient ground for both the salvation of the unsaved, and the restoration of the saved. It is because of what has already been accomplished in the cross concerning the sin of the world, that the unregenerate are freely forgiven and justified. This is a part of God’s saving grace, and is wrought on the sole condition that they believe; while the regenerate are forgiven and cleansed on the sole condition that they confess. These two requirements indicated by these two words, it will be noted, are wholly different. The human obligation as represented by each word is exactly adapted in each case to the precise relationships which, on the one hand, exist between God and the unsaved, and, on the other hand, exist between God and the saved. The salvation of the sinner is unto union with God: the restoration of the saint is unto communion with God.

Believing and confessing are two widely differing human conditions, or obligations, and should never be confused or interchanged. The lost are never saved by confessing, and the saved are never restored by believing.

That there is no greater demand imposed upon the unsaved than that he believe, and no greater demand imposed upon the saved than that he confess, is due to that which Christ accomplished on the cross. He wrought in behalf of sinner and saint in bearing the sin of the world, and every requirement of infinite justice is met for all in the finished work of Christ. In the one case, there is nothing left to be done but to believe; while in the other case, there is nothing left to be done but to confess.

The revealed attitude of God toward all men is that of grace alone. Therefore He does not need to be coaxed or persuaded. With His hand outstretched to bestow all that His grace can offer, it is highly inconsistent to plead with Him to be gracious, or to coax Him to be good. By the unvarying teaching of God’s Word, and by the inexorable logic of the accomplished value of the cross, the forgiveness and blessing of God to the unsaved is conditioned upon believing, and to the saved it is conditioned upon confessing.

First John 1:1 to 2:2 is the central passage in the Bible wherein the divine method of dealing with the sins of Christians is stated. A portion of this most important passage is as follows: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness…My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”

According to this Scripture, four vital elements enter into that divine forgiving and cleansing which constitutes the restoration of a sinning saint: (1) Confession is the one and only condition on the human side; (2) Absolute forgiveness and cleansing is promised on the divine side; (3) The Christian, while sinning, has been safe as to divine condemnation, because of his Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and (4) Divine forgiveness and cleansing is exercised toward the believer in unchallenged faithfulness and justice because Christ is “the propitiation for our sins.”

In this transaction, as it is thus disclosed, the believer makes no disposition of his own sin; that has been made for him. So, also, the Advocate makes no excuses for the sinning Christian, nor does He plead for the clemency of the Father in behalf of the believer who has sinned. The Advocate presents the sufficiency of His own blood to meet the condemnation of every sin. The Father does not act in gracious kindness when forgiving and cleansing the believer: He acts in strict faithfulness to His covenant and promise of eternal keeping, and in strict justice because of the shed-blood. Such is the unchanging value of the propitiation which Christ made in His blood.

It should also be noted that, according to this revelation, the sinning saint is never before any tribunal other than that of his own Father. The eternal relationship between the Father and His child can never be set aside. The Father may correct and chasten His erring child (1 Cor 11:31, 32; Heb 12:3–15), and through confession the child may be restored to the place of fellowship; but all of this is wholly within the inner circle of the family and household of God. Condemnation, which would expel the child from the place of a son, is forever past. Nor does the sinning Christian draw on the mercy and favor of God when he is restored to fellowship in the household of God. How easily mercy and favor might be exhausted and overdrawn! On the contrary, the Christian, sheltered under the blood of propitiation, and standing in the merit of his Advocate, is on a basis where no past offenses have accumulated against him; for he is cleansed and forgiven under the legal justice of the Father. The justice of God is made possible and is righteously demanded in view of the shed-blood of His own Son.

Let it not be supposed that this divine plan of restoration of the child of God to the Father’s fellowship will react in an attitude of carelessness on the part of the Christian. The sufficient answer to this challenge is three-fold: (1) True confession is the expression of a very real repentance, or change of mind, which turns from the sin. This is the exact opposite of becoming accustomed to the sin, or becoming careless with regard to it. (2) This very revelation is given, we are told, not to encourage, or license us to sin; but rather that “you may not sin” (be not sinning). According to the Scriptures and according to human experience, the believer’s safety in the faithfulness and justice of the Father and the advocacy and propitiation of the Son, is the greatest incentive for a holy life. It is clearly revealed that God has, by other and sufficient means, guarded against all careless sinning on the part of those whom He has eternally saved through the merit of His Son. And (3) God can righteously deal with sin in no other way than through the absolute value of the blood of His Son; but when sin has been laid on the Substitute, it can never be laid back on the sinner, or on any other. In the cross of Christ, the question of a possible condemnation because of sin is adjusted forever. Mercy and grace can never be co-mingled with divine justice.

Boundless grace is disclosed in the provision of a perfect propitiation for the sins of the believer; but the application of the propitiation is never gracious; it is none other than the faithfulness and justice of the Father. Therefore grace does not appear in the forgiving and cleansing of the Christian’s sins.

Conclusion

It may be concluded that the word grace, as used in the Bible in relation to divine salvation, represents the uncompromised, unrestricted, unrecompensed, loving favor of God toward sinners. It is an unearned blessing. It is a gratuity. God is absolutely untrammeled and unshackled in expressing His infinite love by His infinite grace (1) through the death of His Lamb by whom every limitation which human sin could impose has been dispelled, (2) through the provision which offers salvation as a gift by which human obligation has been forever dismissed, and (3) through the divine decree by which human merit has been forever deposed. Grace is the limitless, unrestrained love of God for the lost, acting in full compliance with the exact and unchangeable demands of His own righteousness through the sacrificial death of Christ. Grace is more than love; it is love set absolutely free and made to be a triumphant victor over the righteous judgment of God against the sinner.

Having examined into the meaning of the word grace, the three-fold divine ministry and undertaking in grace should be considered. It will be observed that:

1. God saves sinners by grace,
2. God keeps through grace those who are saved, and,
3. God teaches in grace those who are saved and kept how they should live, and how they may live, to His eternal glory.

This article is the first chapter in the 1933 Moody Colportage (now Moody Press) to book Grace, long out of print. Chafer called the chapter “The Theme” but we have renamed it. Not a word of Chafer’s has been changed. Only a slight updating of punctuation and capitalization, plus the use of the NKJV for the 1611 (really 1769) KJV, are substituted for easier reading. Editor.

Notes

1. The “Voice from the Past” in our very first issue a JOTGES. was by the beloved Lewis Sperry Chafer: musician, preacher, Bible teacher, and principal founder of The Evangelical Theological College (now Dallas Theological Seminary). Many of us GES. people studied under, not Dr. Chafer himself, but his former students. All who knew him agree that he was not only a strong supporter of grace doctrines but was himself a very gracious and godly Christian. Ed
2. At this point in the original book there is a footnote extending over three pages. Since the first issue of JOTGES (Autumn 1988) contains Chafer’s article covering the same material in greater detail we refer the reader to that.