Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

329

LECTURE XX.

ROMANS V, 6—11.

"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement."

FROM the preceding verses we gather, that a believer at the very outset of his faith, may legitimately hope for the fulfilment of all God's promises. Some of these take effect upon him in time, and form the pledges and the earnests of those further accomplishments, which are to take place in eternity-thus affording a basis on which to rest the hope of experience. It is true that they are the greater things which are to follow. The glory that is hereafter, will greatly exceed all the glimpses and all the tokens of it with which we are favoured here; and it may be thought that because we obtain small things now, it does not follow that we are to look for greater things afterwards. A man may both be able and willing, to advance the small sum which he promises to bestow on me to-morrow;

but it does not certainly ensue from this, that he will be either able or willing, to grant me the large sum promised on this day twelvemonth. Did the great things come first, we would have less hesitation in expecting the small things that were afterwards to be forth-coming. But when the order is the reverse of this, when the earlier instalments are but minute and insignificant fractions of the entire and final engagement-it may be allowed us perhaps to suspend our confidence, ere we can be sure from the puny samples on hand, of that rich and magnificent sum of blessedness, to which the gospel of Jesus Christ has pointed our expectations.

In the succeeding verses, we have an argument that is eminently fitted to overbear this diffidence ; and which both explains to us why we have received our present fulfilments, and why we may rejoice in the assured hope of all our future ones. On our first acceptance of Christ by faith, all that we obtain is peace with God, who ceases to be our enemy; and lifts away from us that hand of threatened vengeance, which has already been laid upon Him who for us hath borne the whole burden of it. It is a great thing, no doubt, thus to be delivered from wrath and hostility. But you can conceive the work of reconciliation to go no farther than this. It might have been nothing more than the reconciliation of the judge with the prisoner, when he acquits and dismisses him. It may be the simple letting off of a criminal from punishment, or the mere ceasing to be an adversary,

without passing onwards to the new character of a benefactor and a patron. But when God in ceasing to be an enemy becomes a friend-when, instead of being dealt with as the objects of His displeasure, we are dealt with as the objects of His love-when we get not only forbearance, but positive favour from His hands-This is something higher than the peace which accrues to us on the outset of our Christianity. There is an advance made in the scale of privilege; and, if to be at peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord is in itself a great privilege, to receive the Holy Ghost from Him as the evidence of His love is a

still greater one. And, looking onward from this to futurity, it is not till we are refined into the consummate holiness, and raised into the pure and perfect happiness of Heaven, that we shall reach the acme of that enjoyment, which God hath prepared for the faithful disciples of His Son.

Now according to this process, the smaller things you will observe come first, and the greater things follow. There is a gradation and an ascent of privilege, as you move forward in history-but then, to get what is less does not so warrant the expectation of getting what is more, as to get what is much, warrants the expectation of getting what is less. Surely the man who has given me the trifle which he promised, will not withhold from me the treasures that he has also promised, is not so sound a conclusion-as surely the man who promised me a magnificent donation, and hath

now actually made it good, will not break his word and promise, when they are merely staked on some paltry fulfilment, that is still in reserve for me. If the lesser comes in the order of time before the greater, then the non-performance of the lesser would blast all our expectations of the greater, and make us ashamed of the confidence with which we cherished them. But, on the other hand, the performance of the lesser does not so warrant our expectations of the greater, as if the order of the two fulfilments had been reversed. We might well be ashamed of our hope in the latter of the two, if disappointed in the earlier of the two. But if the earlier be at the same time the less of the two, we cannot from this comparison alone say with the apostle, as the less has turned out agreeably to our first hopes, how much more will the greater so turn out likewise?

Now it can be conceived, that, though one present be smaller for us to receive than anotheryet it may have been given in such circumstances of difficulty or provocation, as to argue a higher degree of generosity or good-will; and be altogether, a greater and more substantial token of the giver's regard, than the larger present will be, which is promised to be conferred on us afterwards. The fellow.captive in some hostile prison, whom I had perhaps insulted and reviled, and who in justice might have dealt with me as an adversary -should he, to save me from the agonies of thirst, make over his scanty allowance of water, and so

entail these agonies upon himself, telling me at the same time, that in spite of all the insolence he had gotten from my hands, he could not help feeling an unquenchable love for my person, and a no less unquenchable desire after my interests, and that if ever a happier time should restore us to liberty, and to our native land, he would contribute of his influence and his wealth to the rising interests of my family-who does not see that even a single cup of cold water, given in such circumstances, and with such assurances as these, may well warrant the highest hopes that can be entertained of his kindness. And should I, touched and overpowered by so striking a demonstration of it, and ashamed of all my former perverseness, henceforth bind myself in gratitude and duty to this benefactor-may I not well argue, that surely the man who ministered to me, though in the smaller, and did so at such an expense of suffering to himself, and also in the face of all the injury I had done unto him, will now acquit himself to the full of the larger bounties which he held out in expectation, should I now return with him his devoted friend to the country of his fathers; and he, replaced in the ample sufficiency that belongs to him, should have it in his power, by an easy and a willing sacrifice, to translate me into all the comfort and all the independence which he engaged to render

me.

There is a parallel to this in the gospel. Forgiveness is a smaller boon than positive favour;

« AnteriorContinuar »