O blessed two-fold life to which He has called us ! In heaven and yet on earth; seated with Him in the heavenlies, and sitting down with publicans and sinners to tell them of Him who died to save them! We are as He was, who while His feet were standing on the earth, sore and weary from their search after the lost, and hastening on to be nailed to the cross for our redemption, yet spoke of Himself as the "Son of man who is in heaven." Let us strive to be one with Him alike in His exaltation and in his humiliation. And to this end, let us heed that double exhortation given us in Scripture, "Let us draw near having boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus," and "Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp bearing His reproach." What "O LORD, what a wonderful spirit was that which made St. Paul, in setting forth of himself against the vanity of Satan's false apostles, hand in his claim here that he in Christ's cause did excel and surpass them all? wonderful spirit was that, I say, that made him to reckon up all his troubles and labours, his beatings, his whippings, his scourgings, his shipwrecks, his dangers and perils by water and by land, famine, hunger, nakedness, and cold, with many more, and the daily care of all the congregations of Christ, among whom every man's pain did pierce his heart, and every man's grief was grievous unto him? O Lord, is this Paul's primacy whereof he thought so much good that he did excel all others? Is not this Paul's saying unto Timothy, his own scholar, and doth it not pertain to whosoever will be Christ's true soldiers? Bear thou, saith he, affliction like a true soldier of Jesus Christ. This is true; if we die with Christ, we shall live with Him; if we suffer with Him, we shall reign with Him; if we deny Him, He shall deny us; if we be faithless, He remaineth faithful: He cannot deny Himself. This Paul would have known to everybody; for there is no other way to heaven but Christ and His way.” -BISHOP RIDLEY'S Farewell Letter to his Fellow-Prisoners, and those who were exiled for the Gospel of Christ. X. GRACE AND REWARD. No subject seems to be so little understood as that of divine rewards. If the Romanist has exalted merit to the utter exclusion of grace, the Protestant may be in danger of exalting grace to the utter exclusion of merit. Not that the latter has anything to do with our pardon and acceptance. As sinners standing before the mercy-seat, "there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God"; and therefore all must be saved on the same terms, "being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." * As saints standing before the judgment-seat, there will be a difference, since believers are to “be judged every man according to their works." Christ's work for us is the sole ground of our forgiveness; Christ's work in us will be the ground of our reward; the one is a finished work to which we can add nothing by our merit or obedience; the other is a progressive work, depending on our fidelity and consecration, whether it shall at last be crowned with the † Rev. xx. 13. * Rom. iii. 28, 29. Master's "well done." It is evident, therefore, that rewards have a very important place in the scheme of redemption, and it is not necessary, in order to magnify the grace of God, that, having reduced all men to the same level of unworthiness, we should fix them there for ever. What is our Lord's promise to His faithful ones about being recompensed at the resurrection of the just "? What means the prophet's declaration, concerning such as turn many to righteousness, that they "shall shine as the stars for ever and ever ? But it is written, "For as one star differeth from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead." As certainly as there is no between men before the cross, so certainly there will be a difference between them in the resurrection. Observe how clearly these two facts are contrasted in the gospel; grace depending solely on the outward work of Christ on the cross, and reward on the inward work of obedience through the Spirit in our hearts. Hence these two looks enjoined in Scripture : difference "Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." Now we have often noticed that just as the legalist resents the doctrine that good works can have no part in effecting our forgiveness, so the * Isaiah xlvi. 22; 2 John 8 (R. V.). |