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ALONE
WITH GOD
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Spiritual Answers and Reasons
for Faith |
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THE TWO COVENANTS
"I
will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a
people." HEBREWS viii. 10.
NEW word comes into this marvelous
treatise which may repel some, as having a theological
sound; and yet it contains new depths of meaning and
interest for us all. It is the word Covenant. We all
understand pretty clearly the covenants into which men
enter with each other with respect to property, or other
matters of daily business. One man undertakes to do
certain things, on condition that another pledges himself
to do certain other things. When these respective
undertakings are settled, they are engrossed on parchment,
signed, and sealed; and from that moment each party is
honorably bound to perform his share in the transaction.
In some such way, adapting himself to
our methods of thought and practice, the eternal God has
entered into covenant with faithful and obedient souls.
Nor is it possible to overestimate the condescension on
his part, or the honor and advantage placed within our
reach, by such relationship. It seems too wonderful to be
true; yet it must be true, for on no other grounds than
its revealed truthfulness could it ever have become a
matter of human statement or debate. The covenant between
a prince and a beggar, or between a man like William Penn
and the rude dark skins of America, is dwarfed into utter
insignificance and paltriness when mentioned in the same
day as the covenant between God and the soul of man.
Theologians have detected several
different kinds of covenant in the course of human
history, and as depicted in the Bible. But it is
sufficient for us to notice the two covenants, Old and
New, mentioned in this paragraph. And the basis of the
whole argument is contained in Jer. xxxi. 31-34, in which
there is a distinction made between the covenant made with
the fathers-when God took them out of the land of Egypt,
and that new covenant, which in the days of Jeremiah, was
still future. Moses was the mediator of the first, as
Jesus is of the second.
THE MOSAIC COVENANT. It was often
reiterated in very gracious and searching tones. Take, for
instance, that scene which took place as the vast host
defiled into the plain beneath the brow of Sinai, in the
third month of the Exodus. As yet there was no cloud or
fire on Sinai's crest; but a proposition was made to the
people by Moses, that if they, on their side, would obey
God's voice and keep his word, God, on his side, would do
two things: he would regard them as his peculiar treasure
above all people; and he would take them to himself as a
kingdom of priests, and a holy nation (Exod. xix. 5, 6).
And the people, little counting the cost, or realizing all
that was involved, cried with one glib, unanimous voice,
"All that the Lord hath spoken will we do." They
thus entered into covenant.
Shortly after, when the Ten
Commandments had been given, the terms of the covenant on
God's part were very much enlarged. On the fulfillment, on
the part of the people, of the old condition of obedience,
God went further than ever before in his promises, which
comprehended a vast variety of need, and consisted of many
parts (Exod. xxiii. 22-31). And again the people gave one
mighty, unanimous shout of assent (xxiv. 3).
Nor was this all; for when, with the
intention of recording these solemn engagements, they were
entered in the Book of the Covenant, and read publicly,
amid the solemn ratification of sprinkled blood, the
people again said, "All that the Lord hath said will
we do, and be obedient" (xxiv. 7). But how little
they knew themselves! Within a week or two they were
dancing wildly around the golden calf; and within a few
months there was not one who dared affirm that he had kept
the covenant in every jot and tittle. Nay, on the
contrary: "which my covenant they brake, saith the
Lord." What else could be expected of them! although
Moses did write them a second and detailed statement of
the conditions of the covenant in the Book of Deuteronomy,
with the reiterated demand, that occurs like a refrain,
"Ye shall observe to do."
There were two great defects in that
old covenant, which arose out of the weakness of poor
human nature; in the first place, it gave no power, no
moral dynamics, to enable the human covenanters to do what
they promised; and, secondly, it could not provide for the
effectual putting away of those sins which arose from
their failure to carry into effect their covenanted vows
(Heb. ix. 9).
Surely the majority of men, aiming
after a religious life, pass through an experience like
this. When first we are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb,
and brought out into the new life, we seem to stand again
under Mount Sinai; or, better still, our conscience
becomes our Sinai, and from its highest point we seem to
hear the voice of God, engaging himself to be a God to us
if we will in all things obey his voice. And this we
immediately pledge ourselves to do. We are not insincere,
we really mean to perform it; we are enamoured at the
ideal of life presented to us. It is not only desirable as
the condition of blessings, but it is eminently attractive
and lovely.
But we make a profound mistake in
pledging ourselves; for we are undertaking a matter which
is totally beyond our reach. As well might a paralyzed man
undertake to climb Mount Blanc, or a bankrupt to pay his
debts. We soon learn that sin has paralyzed all our moral
motor nerves. The good we would, we do not: the evil we
would not, we do. We are brought into captivity to the law
of sin in our members, which wars against the law of our
mind. We go out to shake ourselves, as at other times; but
we wist not that razors have passed over our locks of
strength, leaving us powerless and helpless.
It seems a pity that each has to learn
the uselessness of these attempts for himself, instead of
profiting by the experience of others and the records of
the past. Yet so it is. One after another starts to earn
the privilege of God's presence and smile and blessing by
being good and obedient and punctilious in complying with
rules and forms and regulations. It goes on well for a
little while, but soon utterly breaks down. We are baffled
and beaten, as sea-fowl who dash themselves against a
lighthouse tower in the storm, and then fall wounded into
the yeasty foam beneath. We are slow to learn that, as we
receive justification, so must we receive sanctification,
from the hands of God as his free gift.
If any reader of these lines is trying
to keep up a friendly relationship with God on this
principle of try and do and keep, the sooner that soul
realizes the certainty of failure, not for want of will,
but through the weakness of the moral nature, and yields
itself to the grace revealed in the second and better
covenant, the more quickly will it find a secure and happy
resting place, from which it will not be disturbed or
driven, world without end.
THE BETTER COVENANT. It is so much
better than that of Moses, in this way: while it pledges
God to even better promises (ver. 6) than those of the
earlier covenant, promises which for a moment demand our
attention, there is no pledge or undertaking of any kind
demanded from us. There are no ifs; no
injunctions of observe to do; no conditions of obedience
to be fulfilled. From first to last it consists of the f
wills of the Most High. Count them up in this marvelous
enumeration (vv. 10, II, 12), and then dare to claim that
each should be fulfilled in your personal experience;
because this is the covenant under which we are living,
and through which we have access to God.
"I will write my laws into
their minds." That refers to the
intellectual faculty, which thinks, remembers, argues. It
will be of inestimable value to have them there for
constant reference; so that they shall always stand
inscribed on the side posts and lintels of the inner life,
demanding reverence, and compelling daily attention.
"I will write them upon
their hearts." That is the seat of the
emotional life and of the affections. If they are written
there, they must engage our love. And what a man loves, he
is pretty certain to follow and obey. "A little
lower," said the dying veteran, as they probed for
the bullet, which had sunk deep down into his breast,
"and you will find the Emperor"; and in the case
of the Christian who has been taken into covenant with
God, the law is inscribed on the deepest affections of his
being. He obeys because he loves to obey. He stays in his
Master's service, not because he must, but because he
chooses it for himself, saying, as his ear is bored to the
door, "I love my Master, I will not go out
free."
"I will be to them a God,
and they shall be to me a people." The
last clause is even better than the first, because it
implies the keeping power of God. His chosen people so
wandered from him that he once called them "LoAmmi"
Not my people (Hos. i.). But if we are ever
to be his people; people for his peculiar possession then
it can only result from the operation of his gracious
Spirit, who keeps us, as the sun restrains the planets
from dashing off into space to become wandering stars.
"All shall know me."
Oh, rapture of raptures! can it be? To know God! To know
the deep things of God. To know him, or to be known of
him. To know him as Abraham did, to whom he told his
secrets; as Moses did, who conversed with him face to
face; or as the Apostle John did, when he beheld him in
the visions of the Apocalypse. And that this privilege
should be within reach of the least!
"I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness." In the old covenant there
was little room for mercy. It was a matter of voluntary
agreement; if one of the covenanting parties failed in the
least particular, there was no obligation on the other to
remain faithful to their mutual agreement. The failure of
one party neutralized the whole covenant. But there is no
such stringency here. On the contrary, mercy is admitted
into the relationship, and exercises her gracious sway.
"I will remember their sins
and iniquities no more." As a score is
forgotten when blotted from a slate, so shall sin be, as
if obliterated from the memory of God. It will be
forgotten, as a debt paid years ago. It will be so
entirely put out of mind that it shall be as if it had
never been. If sought for, not found. The handwriting
nailed through. The stone dropped into ocean depths. The
cloud absorbed by the summer heat, as it fades from the
deep blue sky. Joseph's brethren, in their last approach
to Joseph, after their father's death, betrayed a fear
that though his resentment was cloaked, it was not
thoroughly relinquished. But their fears were entirely
groundless. They discovered that the offense had utterly
passed from their brother's thought, and Joseph wept when
they spake unto him." In some such way as this God
ceases to consider our sins, and grieves if we do not
believe the thoroughness of his abundant pardon.
Are you enjoying the terms of this
covenant in your daily experience? God is prepared to
fulfill them to the letter. Count on him to do as he has
promised. Reckon on his faithfulness. Claim that each
pledge shall be realized in you to the fullest limits of
his wealth, and your need. Do not try to invent conditions
or terms not laid down by him; but gladly accept the
position of doing nothing to earn or win, and of accepting
all that God gives, without money and without price.
Do you ask how God can call this a
covenant, in which there is no second covenanting party?
The answer is easy: Jesus Christ has stood in our stead,
and has not only negotiated this covenant, but has
fulfilled in our name, and on our behalf, all the
conditions which were necessary and right. He has borne
the penalty of human weakness and transgression. He has
met all demands for a perfect and unbroken obedience. He
has engaged to secure, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, a
holiness in us which could never have been obtained by our
own efforts. And as he has become our Sponsor and Surety,
so God is able to enter into these liberal terms with us,
saying nothing of all the cost to his Son, but permitting
us to share all the benefits; on this condition only, that
we identify ourselves with him by a living faith,
intrusting all spiritual transactions into his hands, and
abiding by the decisions of his will. This is the new and
better covenant, which has replaced the old.
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