The
Pilgrim's Messenger
"Have a pattern of sound words
which you hear from me, in faith and love
which are in Christ Jesus."--11 Timothy 1:13
Published Monthly By W. B. SCREWS, Glennville, Georgia
Twenty-five Cents a Year
|
Volume XXIX |
June, 1950 |
Number 11 |
|
Entered at the postoffice
at Glennville, Ga., as second-class matter. |
|
|
"It is by faith, that it may accord with grace"
Rom. 4:16
Since the transgression of Adam became a fact, humans need to be made
right. This is called justification. Man became dead to God, so far as
his ability to commune with Him is concerned. The posterity of Adam was
born in this condition.
But God was not dead to humanity. In His reckoning the blood of the Lamb
availed from the casting down of the world, so that God has been able to
see the human family as right, all the while. The trouble was, humans
could not see themselves as right.
In the fullness of time Christ actually shed His blood. When He did, He
made a manifest fact, that which was already a fact in the reckoning of
God. Even before the blood was actually manifested as shed, there was
not only justification from God's viewpoint, but there were people who,
by faith, appropriated this fact and rejoiced in it.
In the chapter of our text Abraham is discussed. He BELIEVED God, and it
was reckoned to him into righteousness, says Paul. This blessedness that
Abraham experienced, came, not by acts, but by his attitude toward
God---He BELIEVED God. It might be said that one key expression in the
scripture is: "The just shall be living by faith". This shows that
ATTITUDE is the important thing.
The happiness of not having sins reckoned to us is not for the
Circumcision only, but also for the Uncircumcision. Abraham received it
while he was uncircumcised. When he received the rite, he merely had the
zeal of the righteous of faith.
All who have this faith are right, even though they are not circumcised.
Non-Israelites, to whom this rite was never given, are just as much
right as Abraham, even though God does not require circumcision of them.
Justification is in the blood of Christ, and, since He died for the sake
of all, it necessarily follows that all are right in the sight of God.
But none are right in his or her own consciousness, until faith is in
that life. The rightness that is in the blood of Christ will benefit all
in the glory, but it is of no benefit to us in this life, until we
believe. This is why justification by faith is what places us in
position to have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The allotment mentioned in verse 14 of our chapter is to be enjoyed here
in this life. If the enjoyment of it is through keeping the law of
ritualism and forms and ceremonies, faith has been made void. But
salvation is in grace. This being so, the enjoyment of it must be in
grace. This being so, the enjoyment of it must be in grace. Faith is the
medium through which this grace serves us now. Faith is not work. It is
the opposite. We have the experience of rightness through faith. This
accords with the fact that it is a free gift.
Abraham is held up here as the outstanding example of rightness by
faith. Promise was made to him and his seed that they should be enjoyers
of the allotment of the world. In this chapter the seed of Abraham are
defined as being those who have the faith of Abraham whether or not they
are related to him in flesh. And it should be remembered that the world
is to be enjoyed by them. What John says about the world in his
epistles, referring to a time when the enemies of Israel so completely
hold the nations that it is treason to collaborate with them, must not
be "applied" to us, now. Paul says that the world is ours, and here we
find that by faith we may enjoy the allotment of it. God does not intend
that we shall be poor and suffer for the necessary things of the world,
just because we have faith.
There would be no point in discussing the strength of the faith of
Abraham, if it were understood that it is beyond our reach. Abraham
believed God Who vivifies the dead. If we believe that God can do this,
why should we doubt Him at all? He did something for Abraham that was
akin to vivification---he enlivened, or rejevenated him so that he
became a father when he was a hundred years old; and this rejuvenation
lasted, so that, after Isaac was a grown man, and Abraham had a second
wife, she, too bore children by him.
Paul tells us plainly that it was faith that gave this power. Abraham
fully understood how old he was, and he knew all about his physical
condition. Yet his faith laid hold of the fact that God is not limited,
and, behold! he saw unfoldment of the power.
Paul, knowing how prone we are to say, "These things are not for us",
takes great pains to assure us that they are for ALL believers. We would
not say that Abraham's experience will be literally duplicated in our
life, for there may be no need of it. But that there is strengthening of
the body to perform its functions, seems certain. Otherwise, Paul's
words would be but to fill space. And God does not give us words for
this purpose.
The enjoyment of the allotment of the world comes while we are in the
present life. It is not something that can be had apart from faith. Men
may have lands, money, food, and all other material things, without
faith. But this does not necessarily mean the ENJOYMENT of these things.
It is impossible for us to have the enjoyment without seeing all of them
as coming to us like justification comes---in grace. So long as we have
two departments of life we shall enjoy neither in the real sense. We
must be able to see that what are called "worldly" things came by grace,
and we are conscious of this graciousness by faith. So the enjoyment is
by faith, and this accords with grace.
Whatever was rekoned to Abraham by faith, something similar is rekoned
to us by faith. When Abraham believed God he had the assurance of what
he needed in this life, and also the assurance of a supply for all
duration in the future. There was no time when he divorced present good
from future good. They are both from the Lord.
When we believe God; we also believe ON Him. And Who is He? He is the
one Who roused Jesus our Lord from among the dead. And why is this fact
important? Its importance lies in the fact that Jesus Christ was given
up by the Father because of our offenses, and was roused because of our
justifying. In other words, because we were offensive the Father gave
Him to die for us. And because His dying---the shedding of His
blood---justified us, the Father roused Him from the dead.
When justification becomes a fact in our consciousness, by faith, it is
then that we experience being saved in grace, through faith. Man will
have salvation and all its benefits in the glory. But he gets none of
its benefits here, until he believes.
Being right by faith, it is possible for us to see that the afflictions
that are inevitable produce endurance. This ability to endure assures
more fruitfulness. A stalk of cotton, if it remained as tender as when
it first came through the surface of the ground, would bear no fruit. It
must be toughened. Endurance produces testedness. No one knows what he
can do, until he is tested. The experience of being tested produces
expectation. If we have been tested, we know what to expect. Expectation
is not moritfying, seeing that the love of God has been poured out in
our hearts through the holy spirit which is being given to us.
We must remember that from God's viewpoint we are made right in the
blood of Christ. But from our viewpoint we are made right by faith. It
is when we believe , that we are made conscious of being right through
the blood.
The blessedness of being with God in the glory is assured to all,
whether or not they believe, in this life. But the happiness of being
right in our own consciousness, not come by believing.
Faith is in the heart. This is the sense in which Christ dwells in our
heart---by faith. In other words, if you have faith, it is Christ
manifested in your heart. It is a blessed fact that He dwells in us.
If He is in us by faith, we have the spirit of Christ. This marks us as
His.
We also have the holy spirit. This is the power that roused Jesus from
among the dead. Its power is a "rousing" power. Its function in our life
is to enliven the mortal body. The body has power to serve God because
of the indwelling of the holy spirit.
To live in accord with flesh is to recognize no power beyond that of
flesh. Then our dependence is on flesh---we forgot spirit. In that case,
we are about to be dying, Paul says. But if we recognize spirit, and, in
its power, put to death the doings of the body, we are living, and will
be living.
|
|
