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Colossians, Ephesians
and Hebrews

BY

B. H. CARROLL, D.D., LL.D.,

President of Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary

EDITED BY

J. B. CRANFILL, LL.D.

New York Chicago Toronto

Fleming H. Revell Company

London and Edinburgh

Copyright, 1917, by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 125 N. Wabash Avenue
Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W.
London: 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh: 100 Princess Street

CHAPTER

I.

11.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

VIL

VIII.

IX.
X.

XL

XII.
XIII.
XIV.

XV.
XVI.

XVII.

XVIII.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

Editor's Introduction v

Historical Introduction to Colossians . . i
Analysis, Paul's Thankfulness and

Christ's Person 1 1

Christ's Relation to the Church 21

Christ's Relation to the Father and the

Universe 34

Human Philosophy vs. the Enduring

Gospel of Christ 47

Practical Applications of Colossians ... 58

Historical Introduction to Ephesians. . (>"]
Election, Fore-ordination, Adoption,

Grace 76

Christ's Atonement and Paul's Prayer. . 88

Christ the Head of the Church loi

The Wall of Partition 114

Paul's Second Great Prayer 126

The Great Unities 141

The Necessity of Regeneration 153

The Church in Glory 164

Author's Introduction to Hebrews, Part

I 177

Author's Introduction to Hebrews, Part

II 190

Analysis of Hebrews and Our Lord's

Sonships 208

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

XIX. Christ's Superiority over Angels Good

AND Bad 221

XX. Christ Greater than Moses and Joshua 233

XXI. Christ Greater than Aaron 243

XXII. The Better Promises of the New Cove-
nant 251

XXIII. The Promises of the Surety and of the

Sacrifice 261

XXIV. Promises of the New Covenant 273

XXV. The Heroes of Faith 282

XXVI. The Heroes of Faith (continued) '. . 290

XXVII. The Outcome of the Christian's Life. . . 302

XXVIIL The Better Festivals 313

XXIX. Exhortations and Special Passages 321

XXX. Exhortations and Special Passages

(continued) 328

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

This volume completes Carroll's "Interpretation of the ,
English Bible." The publication of other volumes, in the
order of their appearance, has been as follows: "Revela-
tion," "Genesis," "Exodus-Leviticus," "Numbers to Ruth,"
"Daniel and the Inter-BibHcal Period," "The Four Gos-
pels," Volume I, "The Four Gospels," Volume II, "The
Pastoral Epistles," "The Acts," "James, Thessalonians,
Corinthians," "The Hebrew Monarchy," "Galatians,
Romans, Philippians and Philemon."

The sense of joy and gratitude I feel in the completion
of this task is beyond all words. It was begun more than
three years ago during the lifetime of the great author him-
self. Space forbids the presentation here of the details
leading up to this undertaking. Suffice it to say that on
October 30, 1913, I entered into a contract with Dr. B. H.
Carroll for the publication of these books. At that time
his health was failing and he was aware that he was near-
ing the end of his days. In the interview in which the con-
tract for the publication of this "Interpretation" was made,
Dr. Carroll expressed the wish that I should secure the
assistance in this task of Rev. J. W. Crowder, then assistant
to Dr. Carroll in the department of the English Bible in
the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and who
has since been elected to the full professorship to succeed
his great predecessor. Not only did Dr. Carroll express
this wish while living, but he did more — he inserted in his
will (in which his manuscripts were all devised to his wife
and to me), a provision that Professor Crowder should
revise all of these manuscripts before they were placed in
my hands for final editing and for publication.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

The service of Professor Crowder in the preservation,
preparation and presentation of this "Interpretation" has
been indispensable. For half a score of years he sat at the
feet of the great teacher, and in this way became intimately
familiar with Dr. Carroll's work. It is very gratifying
that I have been blessed with the able assistance of this
friend, student, and worthy successor to Dr. Carroll. I
have been greatly rejoiced that Professor Crowder has so
happily and satisfactorily maintained the department of
English Bible in our great Seminary, and that he now has
the largest class in the English Bible, in which this "Inter-
pretation" is the text book, that he has yet had. He is as
true to God's Word and the Baptist faith as was Dr. Car-
roll himself, and his work in the Seminary is in every way
invaluable to that great institution. While I deeply appre-
ciate every department of the Seminary, none outranks in
importance the department of English Bible, and Professor
Crowder is demonstrating day by day the wisdom of the
Board of Trustees in their unanimous call to him to succeed
Dr. Carroll.

And now the work to which through eventful years I
have turned my own time, talents, means, and energies, has
reached its consummation. Profoundly do I believe that
God has ruled and reigned in it all, and as this final volume
of the series is sent out to the world, my heart sings with
inexpressible joy. More than once have I said, and I repeat
it here, that this is the greatest single achievement of all my
life, and I doubt not that this can be said when I have left
the walks of men and have gone to join the innumerable
throng of God's redeemed on high, where the beloved author
of these volumes now abides with that loving Savior whom
he so deeply loved, and to whose service he dedicated his
great, strong, eventful and triumphant life.

Dallas, Texas. J. B. Cranfill.

THE BOOK OF COLOSSIANS

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

(Note: For helps commended on the Letters of the Roman
Imprisonment see Introduction to Philippians.)

IT is necessary at the beginning to get the geography of
this history clear in mind — to trace out on the map in
the "Bible Atlas" the places mentioned. Indirectly,
where not directly, all the churches established in this region
were Pauline churches. Colosse is only sixteen miles from
Hierapolis and only six miles from Laodicea — all right there
together, all on the Lycus, a tributary of the Meander.

The man who planted these three churches — who directly
established them — was Epaphras, an evangelist, who lived
at Colosse. He established the churches, but Archippus,
the son of Philemon, was the pastor at Colosse — a rather
slow-going pastor. He needed to be stirred up right sharply,
and Paul takes occasion in two of his letters to stir him.
These people ethnologically were Phrygians, but politically
they belonged to the Roman province of Asia.

The occasion of the Letter to the Colossians was the visit
of Epaphras to Paul in Rome, giving him an account of the
state of affairs in the Lycus valley. The conditions were
much sharper at Colosse than elsewhere, but the same errors
prevailed in all three churches, and the form of error pre-
vailed somewhat in the whole province. Hence, while he
wrote a special letter to Colosse, he used the main thoughts
of the letter and elaborated them into a circular letter. The
Letter to the Ephesians was certainly not addressed pri-

1

a COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

marily to Ephesus. A great many copies were made and
these copies were distributed among the churches of Asia.
The letter that went to Ephesus was one of the copies pre-
served. A great many copies were not addressed to any
particular place, but left blank. There is a reference in
Colossians to a letter which they would receive from Laod-
icea, which doubtless is the circular letter which we call the
Letter to the Ephesians. As the Letter to the Romans elabo-
rates the line of thought presented in Galatians, making it
an abstract discussion, so Ephesians elaborates the line of
thought in the Letter to the Colossians, making it an abstract
discussion. Both Ephesians and Colossians, on the face of
them, show that Paul did not personally visit these places,
but doubtless saw some of the people at the time he was in
Ephesus holding that big meeting which lasted two years
or more.

The report that Epaphras brought disclosed a prevalent
and dangerous form of error sapping the Christian faith.
Before discussing what that error was, I call attention to
some commentaries. The most scholarly of all, for both
Greek and English students, is Lightfoot. There is also a very
fine expository commentary by Alexander MacLaren, but
having read both, I greatly prefer, for English students,
Dr. Dargan's commentary, in "The American Commentary,"
published by the American Baptist Publication Society.
Dr. Dargan, late of the Southern Baptist Theological Semi-
nary, though he wrote it when comparatively a young man,
gives us a perfect gem, and it is sound in the faith. His
introductory chapter is even clearer in its statement of the
case than Canon Farrar gives in his "Life and Epistles of
Paul," and even better than Conybeare and Howson.

It has generally been held that the error which was sapping
the faith of these churches in the Lycus valley was Gnosti-
cism. Gnosticism is derived from the Greek word gnosis,
which means knowledge, like "agnosticism," which means

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION S

ignorance — not knowing. The knowledge to which they pre-
tended was a mystical knowledge above that which was
written, and it took the place of the written word. We get
some conception of Gnosticism from mystical dreamers.
We occasionally nieet them in the present time. They are
very confident of everything, saying, "I know, I know, I
know." "How do you know?" "Well, I just feel that it
is so." "Can you prove it from the Bible?" "The Spirit
moves men now as well as He did in Bible days." So he
goes on Spirit knowledge, as he calls it, and places what he
says above what is written.

Another form was this : They would say, "The letter is
nothing; the Spirit is everything. You must not interpret
the Bible literally. For instance, when you read about Adam
and Eve, it must be interpreted as an allegory, and the book
of Jonah is an allegory." Mystics have always been dream-
ers. They are opposed to all forms of organization. If we
ask one, "Do you belong to the church?" he will answer,
"I belong to the universal, the invisible church. Your little,
local concern is nothing to me. I belong to the big church."
Personally, I never did have much use for these vague, loose
people. I believe that all real faith is susceptible of a clear
statement, and that any doctrine which cannot be clearly
derived from the plain passages in the Word of God is to be
rejected.

/ believe that the Word of God is more reliable than any
mystic philosophy, and if a modern mystic wants me to
accept his vagaries, let him give the signs of an apostle.
Let him by miracle accredit his inspiration. Let him raise
the dead and perform other miracles, and then I will be
ready to accept what he says, provided it harmonizes zvith
God's written Word.

Gnosticism did not come in its full development and full
fruitage until about a.d. 150, much after this time. Then
for about 100 years it swayed a large part of the Orient.

4j COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

It was rampant before John died. We have an example in
Cerinthus. John had such a horror of him, it is said, that
when he went to a pubhc bath-house and found Cerinthus
there, he would say, "Let us get away from here, lest that
building fall on us for keeping such company."

What did that mystical philosophy teach? What did it
pretend to account for? First, the creation of the world,
or how things came to be. Their position as to God was
agnosticism, just as the later position of Huxley, Herbert
Spencer, and John Stuart Mill, namely, God is unknowable.
These mystics further taught that it is impossible for a finite
being to come in touch with God — that only through several
grades of eons, or emanations, could men learn from God.
These grades of hierarchy in angelic beings by shading down
lower and lower might finally get low enough to touch
man. Through these grades, or classes of angels they held
that the world was created ; that God did not create it ; that
Jesus was one of these eons, or intermediate angels ; that
the eon took possession of Him at His baptism — of Jesus
the mere man, born of Joseph and Mary — and when He
was crucified the eon left Him ; that He had no real divinity,
and that there were a number of eons higher than He.

The second thing they tried to account for was the origin
of evil. They held to what in theology is called dualism —
that there are two principles in the world, a good principle
and an evil principle. Doubtless they got that from the
Persians. They said that evil rested in matter ; that matter
was evil and spirit good, and therefore they had what is called
ascetic doctrines, the denial of appetite, just as far as one
could and hold soul and body together; for instance, they
would take a drink of water and a crust of bread, have just
one simple garment of clothing, would not marry, lived in
caves, and withdrew from the world just as much as pos-
sible. That was the ascetic part of it, and by doing this, as
the body was matter, they triumphed over sin. Roman

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 5

Catholics incorporate a great part of this in their belief.
Abstinences, fastings, refusal to eat certain things, penance,
scourging, etc., are examples.

Paul takes occasion to tell when here that this is not at all
valuable in overcoming passions; that they have no good
effect in that direction. Many a monk has found that out.
Though he retire from the world and devote the time to
scourgings and fastings, there on the hard rocks temptation
would bind him — temptation to sin in the vilest forms, just
as they come to men out in the world. The Bible idea of
sin is that it originated in the spirit and not in the body;
the body is simply the instrument. "All sin," says the apostle
in another place, "is without the body, but the sin of forni-
cation is against the body." These were their dual ideas —
spirit and matter, both eternal — matter evil and spirit good,
and that there must be a conquest over matter. They directly
controverted the Bible doctrine of sin. When they took
the position that the world was created by eons and when
they assigned Christ a low place among the eons, they denied
His divinity. A large part of this teaching comes nearer
the doctrine of the Essenes than of the Pharisees. In the
time of Christ there were three sects of Jev/s — Pharisees,
Sadducees, and Essenes. The Essenes had their headquar-
ters at Engedi, near the shore of the Dead Sea. They were
communists, had everything in common, were opposed to
marriage, etc.

So we find here that this error was more likely to have
come from the Essenes part of Judaism than from the Phari-
sees. They had their proscriptions touching everything to
eat, drink and wear. Hence the apostle says, "Let no man
take you to task about what you eat and drink." The part
of their doctrine most Pharisaic was the strict observance
of the Sabbatic cycle, that is, weekly Sabbaths, monthly
Sabbaths, and annual Sabbaths. So that this Colossian heresy
was partly Jewish and partly heathen, and altogether un-

6 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

christian. Epaphras felt that it created a situation which
he could not master. So he came to Rome to lay the case
before Paul. He had planted these churches, they were very
dear to him, and he wanted to refer the matter to an apostle
upon whom inspiration rested for the correction of all
these evils. That is the occasion of the letter.

Before going into the exposition we need to look somewhat
at the history of these places. Colosse was one of the stop-
ping places of Xerxes, king of Persia, when on his way to
invade Greece. At Hierapolis was born a contemporary of
Paul, the philosopher Epictetus, one of the most famous of
the stoic philosophers. Cicero, when proconsul of Asia,
stopped here at Colosse, and for a part of the time his head-
quarters were Hierapolis. Hierapolis and Laodicea were
both great cities. Colosse never did become a great city,
and it was more conservative than the others, clinging to
the old Greek customs, while the others went over to the
Romans when Rome conquered that territory, hence they
prospered more.

A long time after Paul and John were dead, in the 4th
century, a council was held at Laodicea and, strange to say,
when this council was held the matters disposed of were
the very errors that Paul is refuting here in this Letter to
the Colossians. That shows how tenacious of life heresy
may be, since at least 250 years afterward it lingered in the
Lycus valley. In the book of Revelation we find that to be
the ruling spirit at Laodicea in the last days of John.

The value of the Letter to the Colossians is almost un-
speakable. We now study one after another, three marvelous
books — Colossians, Ephesians and Hebrews. In Colossians
the person and the work of Christ, in Ephesians the church,
which is the glory of Christ, in the Letter to the Hebrews the
superiority of the new covenant over the old covenant, or
the sacrifice and priesthood of Christ. We have a perfect
feast before us in the study of these great doctrinal letters

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 7

on the person of Christ, His original divinity, His creative
power. His redemptive power, His relation to the church and
to the universe. We find nowhere in the Bible so perfect and
complete a statement as appears in this Letter to the
Colossians.

In the study of the harmony of the gospels, when we get
to that part where John commences, "In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God ; by Him all things were created that were created," I
put in Paul's gospel by the side of that, and always incor-
porate right there this great passage from Colossians, the
great passage from Philippians, and certain similar passages
from Hebrews. Indeed, Hebrews supplements and interprets
Colossians. Every preacher should have clear ideas of the
person of Christ in His relation both to the universe and to
the church as we have them in these letters.

There is a textual difficulty in this letter. See 2 : 20 and
note the difference in the parenthetical clause between the
King James and the revised versions.

1. Does taking the "touch not, taste not, handle not" from
the parenthesis materially alter the sense?

2. Are the precepts, "touch not, taste not, handle not,"
Paul's precepts, or is he here condemning them?

3. Have they any bearing on the modern prohibition of
the liquor habit and traffic, as sometimes applied by Prohi-
bitionists ?

An old deacon once in my hearing quoted this passage,
"Touch not, taste not, handle not," as a decisive scripture
against both the liquor traffic and habit. I told him he had
better let that passage alone, since if it were pertinent to the
subject of prohibition, it furnished a most plausible and
forcible argument to the saloon man. He would use it this
way : "Let no man take you to task about what you eat and
drink, which things perish in the using. If you are a Chris-
tian free from rudimental things, why are you subject to

8 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

such decrees as Touch not, taste not, handle not ?' " How
could you answer him except by denying the application of
the passage to the liquor habit and traffic? Your defense
would consist in showing the real application." Paul was
teaching a salvation of grace through faith in Christ, and
opposing a salvation through ritualistic observances of the
Mosaic Sabbath- feasts, the rudiments of Old Testament
typical teaching, or by trying to kill sin through ascetic appli-
cations of the body. The whole Sabbatic cycle was nailed
to the cross of Christ. They were but shadows of which
He was the body or substance. That old typical food-dis-
tinction between clean and unclean animals was abrogated.
Therefore he says, "Let no man take you to task about what
you eat and drink." "Let no man therefore judge you in
meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day [annual Sab-
bath] or a new moon [monthly Sabbath] or a Sabbath day
[seventh day] ." In other words, "Why do you subject your-
selves to such ordinances as, Touch not, taste not, handle
not ?* " That means that the Christian is not to be under
subjection to a ritualistic system which was a shadow of the
things to come, but to the body of Christ. That ritualistic
system said, "You may eat a goat but not a rabbit ; you may
eat a sheep but not a hog." Paul says that every one of these
things was nailed to the cross ; he is not discussing the tem-
perance question of drinking whiskey, but he is discussing
the Levitical law and the superadded traditions.

When a Jew says that we should keep the seventh day our
reply is: "That was nailed to the cross. There remaineth
a Sabbath-keeping to the people of God which is the first day
of the week." And if when we want to eat a squirrel or a
catfish he says, "Touch not, taste not, handle not," our reply
is, "These distinctions were rudimentary and typical. They
perished with the using. Being shadows, they are fulfilled.
So we understand, then, that it is not Paul who is saying,
Touch not, taste not, handle not.* "

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION S|

Let us close this discussion in a few words of review.
Who wrote the letter ? Paul. When ? About a.d. 62 or 63.
To whom ? Brethren at Colosse. That includes the regular
church, also the churches in the private houses. Who is
associated with him in the letter? Timothy. What is the
occasion of the letter? The coming of Epaphras stating
the false doctrines prevalent in the churches in the Lycus
valley, particularly the churches at Colosse, Hierapolis, and
Laodicea. What the trouble ? It was a blended error partly
heathen and partly Jewish, and altogether unchristian. In
its asceticism it^embodies the doctrines of the Essenes ; in its
ritualism, the doctrine of the Pharisees; in its dualism
the Persian doctrine of spirit and matter. As a phi-
losophy it proposed to answer two questions: i. How
the world or universe first came to be. 2. The origin and
seat of sin, and the means of its conquest. As a doctrine it
denied the divinity of Christ, relied upon mystic, esoteric
knowledge as above God's Word, and taught the worship
of angels.

QUESTIONS

1. Locate on the map the cities of the Lycus valley.

2. Who planted the three churches in this valley?

3. What the occasion of this letter ?

4. What its relation to Ephesians ?

5. What the purpose of both of them?

6. What commentaries commended?

7. What was the error widespread in the Lycus valley?

8. What the derivation and meaning of the term?

9. What another form of it?

10. Give examples of their Biblical interpretation.

11. What is a notable characteristic of these people?

12. When did this doctrine reach its full development?

13. Give an example.

14. What did this mystical philosophy teach (i) As to the origin
of the world? (2) As to the origin of evil and its logical results?

15. What three sects of Jews in the time of our Lord?

16. Which of these more nearly approached this doctrine?

17. What their headquarters and some of their characteristics?

18. What part of their doctrine most Pharisaic?

19. What noted characters of history connected with Colosse and
Hierapolis, and how ?

10 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

20. What the council of Laodicea, and what doctrine was up for
settlement ?

21. What the theme of Colossians, Ephesians and Hebrews, re-
spectively?

22. What passage in John's gospel parallels Paul's in this letter?

23. What passages from Philippians parallels John's ?

24. What textual difficulty in 2:20? Explain its meaning and
application.

25. In Review answer: (i) Who wrote this letter? (2) When?
(3) To whom? (4) Who is associated with Paul in this letter?
(5) What the occasion of the letter? (6) What the trouble? (7)
What its three-fold origin? (8) As a philosophy it proposed to
answer what questions? (9) What of it as a doctrine?

II

ANALYSIS, PAUUS THANKFULNESS AND
CHRIST'S PERSON

Scripture: Col. 1:1-17

WE now begin to expound Colossians. There are
new words in its vocabulary, and especially com-
pound words, suggested by the occasion, which
make exposition in English alone very difficult. The temp-
tation is strong to refer to the Greek text for nice shades
of meaning. Remembering, however, that but few of the
mass of readers have studied Greek, our endeavor shall be
to give the sense of obscure passages as best we can without
confusing the mind by references to a language of which so
many are ignorant. Moreover, in all matters of importance
we may thoroughly rely on getting the best sense by compari-
son of the several English translations.

First of all we need an analysis of the whole letter, that
we may understand, as we progress in exposition, the devel-
opment of the argument and the relation between its parts.
While we find in the several commentaries analyses more
or less simple, we will follow throughout the author's analy-
sis which is as follows :

I. Textual Introduction, 1:1-14. (a) Greeting, 1:1, 2.
(b) Thanksgiving, i : 3-8. (c) Prayer, i : 9-14.

II. Doctrine of Christ's Person, i : 15-23. (a) In relation
to the Father, i : 15a. (b) In relation to the material uni-
verse and all its intelligences, both human and angelic,
1 : 15b- 1 7. (c) In relation to the church, i : 18-23.

III. Parenthetical Explanation of the Apostle's Mission

11

la COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

to the Gentiles and Consequent Concern for Them, i : 24 —
2:7.

IV. Polemics against False Teachers and Teaching at
Colosse, 2 : 8 — 3 : 17. (a) As limiting by a false philosophy
the sufficiency of Christ and their completeness in Him,
2:8-15. (b) Against the folly of this philosophy in account-
ing for creation, and in defining sin, and in the insufficiency
of its means for the conquest of sin, such as, ( i ) A Pharisaic
observance of an obsolete Sabbatic ritual ; (2) A self-imposed
humility ; (3) The worship of angels, supposed to be emana-
tions from God, himself unknowable; (4) A bondage to
impracticable ascetic precepts, based on the idea that sin
resided in matter, which precepts were but expressions of
will worship and powerless to hedge against temptation or to
subdue the passions, or to supply objects high enough to
incite to love-motives, 2: 16-23. (c) Against the substitu-
tion of a mystic knowledge (Gnosis) as a standard instead
of the gospel, 2: 16-23. (^) But the gospel, on the other
hand, raises us with Christ and makes us sharers of His
life and exaltation, supplies us with heavenly objects of
thought and desire, and pledges our manifestation in glory
with Christ, 3: 1-4. (e) It shows sin to be an evil nature
called "the old man," resident in mind, not matter, and ex-
presses itself in fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire,
coveteousness, anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speak-
ing, 3:5-9. (f) It provides for the real conquest of sin
( I ) by regeneration, putting off the old man and putting on
the new man — a re-creation after the image of God — express-
ing itself in a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meek-
ness, forbearance, forgiveness, love; (2) by the process of
sanctification through the instrumentality of God's Word
and through spiritual worship in teaching, prayer, and song,
and (3) by supplying the dominant motive in all word, deed,
or thought, the glory of our Lord, 3:10-17. (g) It unifies
in Christ all races, nations, and social castes, 3:11.

ANALYSIS, PAUL'S THANKFULNESS IS

V. Exhortations, by Way of Application, 3:18 — 4:6.
(a) To family relations and duties, 3 : 18 — 4 : i. (b) To their
spiritual devotions, 4:2-4. (c) Their outward walk and
speech, 4 : 5, 6.

VL Personal Matters, Salutations, and Directions, 4 : 7-17.

VIL Attestation of the Letter and Benediction, 4: 18.

This outline emphasizes the distinctions between doctrftie,
polemics, and practice. The Historical Introduction having
been given in a previous chapter, we now take up in order the
divisions of the text-outline.

L Textual Introduction, i : 1-14. — ^This introduction con-
sists of the greeting, thanksgiving, and prayer. It is a New
Testament method, particularly a Pauline method of com-
mencing a letter. Paul, declaring his apostleship and cour-
teously associating Timothy with himself, addresses the let-
ter, not formally to the pastor, nor indeed to the church, but
"to all the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colosse."
We may infer a reason for this address from the fact that
there were at least two churches at Colosse (see Philemon
1:2). We reserve to the close of the exposition an impor-
tant observation on the plurality of churches in one city,
characteristic of Hierapolis also (4: 15), as we find it to be
of Rome (Rom. 16: 5).

Paul always finds some reason for thanksgiving. Note
carefully for what he expresses thanks in this case : "Having
heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, of the love which ye
have toward all the saints, because of the hope which is laid
up for you in the heavens." The proof is decisive that Paul
himself had not planted the churches in the Lycus valley. He
"hears" and "learns" of their faith and love through his
disciple, Epaphras, the evangelist, who probably planted
these churches (Col. 4: 13). Note that "hope" in verse 5 is
used objectively, meaning the inheritance for which they
hoped. It is common with Paul to use words objectively.

14 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

See an example in Gal. 3 : 23, "But before faith came," i.e.,
before Christ, the object of faith, came.

With Paul thankfulness for great blessings glides into
prayer for other blessings. Dissatisfied ever with his own
attainments, he constantly reaches out to higher things (Phil.
3 : 10-14) and so would incite them to progress. Note there-
fore the precise things for which he prays in their behalf :
(a) "That ye may be filled with the knowledge of His will
in all spiritual wisdom and understanding;" (b) "Strength-
ened will all power, according to the might of His glory ;"
(c) "Giving thanks." So he prays then for increase of
their knowledge and power and thankfulness. They must
not be content to stand still. His prayer calls for progress.
But mark that each blessing sought is toward a practical
end in service and character.

He asks for nothing to be hoarded, nothing for mere en-
joyment. The "increased knowledge of His will" must, when
received, lead them "to walk worthily of the Lord unto all
pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work." And so the
increased power must be used "unto all patience and long-
suffering with joy."

It is worthy of note that all New Testament teaching is
on the same line. The constant cry is "forward," "higher,"
and "excelsior." Not only so, but there is a close and neces-
sary connection between increase of knowledge and increase
of growth. On this point Spurgeon's great sermon on H
Peter 3:18, "Grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," deserves careful study, since
he stresses the thought that we grow in the grace by growing
in the knowledge. We must know more to be more and do
more. The emphatic thought here is that a new convert is
but a babe in Christ, able to be nourished only by the "sincere
milk of the word," i.e., its simplest truths, and by continued
indoctrination in higher truths he attains through fulness of
knowledge to maturity of manhood in Christ. Compare

ANALYSIS, PAUL'S THANKFULNESS 15

Peter's similar teaching by letter to the same people (I Pet.
2:2). In Ephesians, the companion letter to Colossians, we
find the thought greatly amplified and elaborated (Eph.
3:11-16).

Later, Paul in the Letter to the Hebrews rebukes them for
remaining babies : "For when by reason of the time ye ought
to be teachers, ye have need again that someone teach you
the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God ;
and are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid
food. For everyone that partaketh of milk is without expe-
rience of the word of righteousness ; for he is a babe. But
solid food is for fullgrown men, even those who by reason
of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.
Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of
Christ, let us press on unto full growth."

This prayer of Paul that the Colossians might have in-
crease of knowledge and spiritual power was most pertinent
to their condition as reported by Epaphras. If they had
known more of the gospel, they would have been less at the
mercy of the false teachers leading them astray with vain
philosophy, and if they had attained greater spiritual power
they would not have been in danger of falling through weak-
ness. It is the ignorant and undeveloped Christians who
support impostors, freaks, and cranks. On this point it might
be profitable to read my sermon on "Lambs, Little Sheep
and Sheep."

We need now to consider carefully what things Paul re-
garded as worthy of thanks in the Colossians. When we
study them we understand why Paul prayed that they might
be thankful to the Father. Here are the items: (a) "Who
made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light." (b) "Who delivered us out of the power of dark-
ness." (c) "Who translated us into the kingdom of the Son
of His love." (d) "In whom we have our redemption, the
forgiveness of our sins."

16 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

To make "meet" is to make fit or suitable. Adam had a
helpmeet suitable to him. Heaven is not only a prepared
place, but for a prepared people. An unprepared man would
not enjoy heaven. It would be hell to him. A wolf hates the
light. A sinner of the world, with a mind that is enmity
against God and holiness, would hate heaven's light. Even
now we Christians are not fully prepared for heaven. While
regeneration has given a holy disposition to our minds so that
we love God and approve right things, yet we need the
process of sanctification to complete our holiness of spirit,
and we further need the resurrection and glorification of our
bodies that the whole man may be prepared for the heavenly
estate.

The delivery from the power of darkness deserves special
thankfulness. As bearing on this, compare Paul's commis-
sion (Acts 26: 18), being sent to the Gentiles "to open their
eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from
the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remis-
sion of sins and an inheritance among them that are sancti-
fied by faith in me." Darkness is the realm of Satan and he
is its power, as light is the realm of Christ and He is its
power. We ought to cultivate thankfulness that we have
been rescued from Satan.

In illustration I have sometimes cited this fact of border
warfare. A settler's camp had been surprised by savages.
This was the scene when help came: the father was lying
across the wagon-tongue killed and scalped, a little boy
mangled and scalped was hanging in a thorny bush. A
painted Indian brute was standing over a helpless girl, his
left hand twisted in her golden hair, his right hand brandish-
ing the bloody scalp-knife, with the mother kneeling before
him pleading for her child. What must have been her thank-
fulness for the opportune rescue of her girl ? But how shall
this scene compare in horror with that of a sinner under
the power of Satan, led captive at his will toward the pit of

ANALYSIS, PAUL'S THANKFULNESS 17

darkness where his fetters may be riveted on the victim for-
ever. In the "Three Hours of Darkness," in that devil-
darkness, Christ on the cross triumphed over Satan and
rescued us from his power.

The thankfulness increases on our transfer to the king-
dom of the Son of His Love. The phrase, "Son of
His love," needs explanation. It does not mean the "well
beloved Son," for that expresses the Father's love for the
Son. It means that the Son is the representative and
depository of the Father's love toward us. "God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son that who-
soever believeth on Him should not perish but have ever-
lasting life."

The final ground of the thankful spirit which he invokes
on the Colossians is "our redemption, the forgiveness of our
sins." There can be no more disturbing thought than the
exact record of our sins. Books are kept in heaven. Therein
is written every evil desire, imagination, thought, word or
deed. This book of the transgressions of the finally impeni-
tent will be opened at the judgment. But just now in the
day of mercy our Lord stands with uplifted hands — the nail-
pierced hands — over that record, and promises to any peni-
tent believing sinner to bring down that hand and blot out
the record forever.

/ would have the reader lay to heart the solemn fact thai
we all sin in not cultivating the spirit of thankfulness. We
continually pray, "Give! Give! More! More!" and show not
due appreciation of what we receive.

This hinders the efficiency of our prayers. God more
freely gives to the thankful. I recall an incident in my own
life. Once I spent a half -hour impressing on my mind, item
by item, the grounds of gratitude in this passage, and was
surprised to realize its instant effect on my own state. I was
blue when I commenced and happy when I finished. The
fruit ripened at once in my own heart, and I was conscious

18 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

of great unction and power in prayer. We come now to
the second division of our outline :

II. The Doctrine of Christ's Person, i : 15-23 — This doc-
trine is presented here in three relations — to the Father, to
the material universe with all its intelligences, and to the
church. This passage has been a battleground of contro-
versy for ages. "What think ye of Christ?" has ever been a
touch-stone question. Let us consider Christ's person in
each relation.

(a) In relation to the Father. The words expressing this
relation are few : "Who is the image of the invisible God."
"Image" and "invisible" stand over against each other,
"image" meaning that which may be seen, "invisible" that
which may not be seen. So that, as it were, we might read,
"Who is the visible of the invisible God." Compare Heb.
1:3: "Who being the effulgence [shining forth] of His
glory and the very image of His substance." Compare John's
expression, "God manifest." Compare His mission to "reveal
the Father." Compare His reply to Philip : "Lord show us
the Father and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him. Have I
been so long time with you, and dost thou not know me,
Philip ? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. How
sayest thou. Show us the Father?" And particularly Phil.
2:6: "Existing in the form of God." This makes "image"
equal to John's declaration, "The Logos was God," i.e.,
essential deity in nature.

(b) In relation to the universe with all its created intelli-
gences. Here we have six strong expressions : ( i ) First-
born of all creation; (2) Creation was in Him; (3) Cre-
ation was through Him; (4) Creation was unto Him; (5)
He was before all things ; (6) By Him all things consist.

The Arians in later days contended that "firstborn of
all creation" meant that He was the first to be created, as
"firstborn from the dead" in verse 18 means the first to be
raised from the dead. This, of course, denies His essential

(AJSTALYSIS, PAUL'S THANKFULNESS 19

deity and eternity of being, since it makes Him a mere crea-
ture. To the Arian interpretation we must oppose ( i ) the
fact that it is not consistent with the five other strong terms
of the context. (2) In the original there is a difference of
construction between "firstborn of creation" and "firstborn
from the dead." (3) It is out of harmony with the corre-
sponding passages in John and in the Letter to the Hebrews.
When creation is said to be "in Him," "through Him," and
"unto Him" and "consists by Him," and "He was before all
created things and beings," we cannot count Him a creature.
The reader must note the great force of the prepositions,
"in," "through" and "unto." "In Him" denotes source,
potentiality, as in John, "In Him was light, in Him the life,"
denoting origin, source, fountain. "Through Him" denotes
the creative act, "Unto Him" the creative end or purpose.
"Consisting by Him" denotes the standing, on continued
preservation concerning all the powers of Providence. As
Lightfoot puts it, "He is the source of the life, the center
of its development, the mainspring of all its motio.is." The
reader will note the Arian false interpretation of Phil. 2 : 6,
7, in the exposition of that letter.

In view of the Colossian heresy we should particularly note
the sweeping statement, "In the heavens and upon the earth,
things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or domin-
ions or principalities or pov/ers," and should compare the
teaching in Hebrews on the infinite distinction between Christ
and the angels. "Firstborn" in Col. 1:15 must refer back
to its ancient meaning, expressing sovereignty, heirship, as
primal head and Lord. It has been well said, "The idea of
the Son of God being a part of creation was foreign to Paul's
mind and to the thought of his day."

Words cannot be formed to express the idea of essential
deity if the words of John and Paul do not express the deity
of the Son of God who was manifested and became flesh in
order to our redemption.

20 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

QUESTIONS

'♦

1. What the difficulty of exposition in this letter?

2. Give the author's analysis.

3. What distinction emphasized in the outline?

4. Of what does the textual introduction consist?

5. To whom addressed, and why?

6. What the ground of Paul's thanksgiving here?

7. What the meaning of "hope" in verse 5 ?

8. Itemize Paul's prayer for them.

9. What is the relation of knowledge and growth ?

10. What Paul's rebuke to the Hebrews ?

11. What the application to the Colossians?

12. What things did Paul consider worthy of thanksgiving?

13. What is the meaning of "meet" in 1 : 12? Illustrate.

14. What is the meaning of "delivered us out of the power of
darkness" in 1:13? Illustrate.

15. What the meaning of "Son of His love?"

16. What the greatest blessing for which we should be thankful
to God?

17. What three relations of the person of Christ?

18. What expresses his relation to the Father ?

19. With what scriptures should this be compared?

20. Sum up all these in one sentence.

21. On His relation to the universe, answer : (i) What the Arian
contention relative to "firstborn of all creation," and upon what scrip-
ture is this interpretation based? (2) What the three-fold reply to
this contention? (3) What the meaning of "creation was in Him?"
(4) What the meaning of "creation was through Him?" (5) What
the meaning of "creation unto Him?" (6) What the meaning of
"He was before all things?" (7) What the meaning of "By Him
all things consist?"

22. On 1 : 16, "Thrones, dominions, principalities, powers," an-
swer: (i) Are angels referred to? (2) Do the terms express a
hierarchy, i.e., a graded order of angels? (3) Does the apostle
express his belief in a hierarchy of angels ?

23. Then what is the meaning of "firstborn of all creation?"

Ill

CHRIST'S RELATION TO THE CHURCH
Scripture: Col. i : 18-22

BEFORE taking up this chapter proper let us review-
briefly the doctrinal part of the previous chapter. We
stopped at 1:17, and the special points made were
that Christ in His relation to the Father was the image or
visible of God invisible. The term "image" was further care-
fully explained in this context, being interpreted by the sub-
sequent qualifications that creation was "in Him," "through
Him," "unto Him" and "consisting by Him," and He was
"before all things." All these expressions were in turn care-
fully explained in their own context and compared with the
parallel passages in John's gospel and Revelation, in Hebrews
and Philippians, and their bearing on the essential deity of
Christ was pointed out, together with their pertinence to
the prevalence of the heresy at Colosse. We should espe-
cially fix clearly and definitely in our minds the meaning of
the words "image," "firstborn," "consist," and the force of
the prepositions "in," "through," "unto" and "before."

This chapter, commencing at i : 18, considers Christ's
relation to the church expressed in the figure of a head and
body. Whenever this figure (a common one with Paul) is
employed, the church is conceived of as an organism, a much
stronger term than organization, but by that very fact empha-
sizing the inherent, essential idea of organization in the
word "church." The word "head" implies not only sover-
eignty but rule, the source of the body's life and growth
through vital connection with it. In every sense of the word

21

n COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

"church," Christ is the head. He is the head of every par-
ticular church in which alone the institution expresses itself,
and He is the head of the prospective church in glory, whose
constituent elements, or component parts, will be the whole
number of the elect saved by Him.

The only sense in which the church in the third meaning
above now exists, is in the gathering and preparing of mate-
rial, which, when all is gathered and fully prepared, will
be constructively fitted together as an everlasting habitation
of the Holy Spirit. The time and circumstances of the con-
stitution of the universal, or glory-church, with every orderly
step leading thereto, are as clearly set forth as in the case of
any particular church here on earth : ( i ) Jesus will come in
glory. Matt. 25 : 31 ; (2) He will bring with Him the spirits
of the just made perfect, I Thess. 4: 14; (3) will raise and
glorify their bodies, I Thess. 4 : 16 ; (4) will change, or trans-
figure, living Christians, I Thess. 4: 17 and I Cor. 15 : 51-54;

(5) will separate Christians from sinners, Matt. 25: 32, 33;

(6) will present the church to himself as a glorified bride,
Eph. 5 : 27 ; Rev. 21 : 2, 9 ; 19 : 7-9 ; (7) Infilling of the fin-
ished Temple by the Holy Spirit, Rev. 21 : 3. This church,
when constituted, will be a local, visible, organized assembly.
It is as yet only a concept to become an actuality, a plan of
the architect according to which he continually works in
order ultimately to a finished house, a purpose of the divine
mind conceived of as fulfilled, because with Him the end is
present as well as the beginning.

It is every way important that the reader should have clear
ideas of the several meanings of the word "church," set forth
above, and be able to determine from the context which one
of the meanings is employed in any particular passage. While
this is essential to a right interpretation of the word where-
ever it is used in the New Testament, it is emphatically so
in Colossians and Ephesians which, while employing the
word in all its meanings, especially stress the third meaning.

CHRIST AND THE CHURCH ^

Full discussion of this matter will be reserved to the exposi-
tion of Ephesians whose usage is much more extended and
elaborate. And I say in advance that whoever can expound
the word "church" in Colossians and Ephesians is a past
master in exegesis so far as that term is concerned.

We find next the expression : "Who is the beginning, the
firstborn from the dead." There is here a relation between
"the beginning" and the "firstborn from the dead." The two
expressions seem to be in apposition, the second modifying
or defining the first. That is, Christ is called the beginning
from the dead in that He was the firstborn from the dead.
He had the pre-eminence in relation to the creation, as has
been set forth, and the pre-eminence in relation to the church,
just expressed, so must He now have pre-eminence in rela-
tion to the dead, being the beginning or firstborn from the
dead. Thus it pleased the Father that in Him all the fulness
should dwell — fulness as to being God's image, fulness as to
creation, fulness as to the church, fulness as to the resur-
rection.

On the meaning of "firstborn from the dead" the question
of fact has been raised : Was the resurrection of Christ abso-
lutely the first one in history? We must say, "Yes, abso-
lutely." Elsewhere He is called "the first fruits of them
that are asleep." It has been objected that Lazarus and
others were raised from the dead. But all these were but
restorations to life under the old conditions. The bodies
were not glorified. They were yet subject to mortality,
weakness, dishonor, and corruption. They all died again.
In Christ's case He rose to die no more. There was com-
plete and final triumph over the grave. "I was dead and
behold I am alive forevermore." Again, it has been objected
that Moses, who certainly died and was buried, was seen
alive on the Mount of Transfiguration. Yes, but was not
alive in the body. The Jewish myth of the assumption of
the body of Moses is as false as the later papal myth of the

U COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

assumption of the body of the Virgin Mary. The bodies of
Moses and of Mary are yet "mouldering in the ground."
EHjah, indeed, was bodily visible on the Mount to Peter,
James and John, but Elijah, like Enoch, was translated that
he should not see death. The disciples were illumined to
see Moses in the spirit as well as Elijah in the body. The
purpose of the Transfiguration is defeated if we interpret
that Moses was there bodily. The Transfiguration scene
was designed, at least in part, to give a miniature repre-
sentation of the second coming of Christ, as follows: (i)
When He comes He will come in glory (Christ was there
seen glorified). (2) When He comes living Christians will
be glorified without death. Elijah represented that class.
(3) When He comes He will raise the dead. Moses repre-
sented the class to be raised. So that the Transfiguration
scene imaged in miniature the power and majesty of the
second advent. John so understood it, for he testifies : "We
beheld His glory, as the glory of the only begotten from the
Father," John i : 14. Peter so understood it, for he testifies :
"For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we
made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ, but we were eye-witnesses of His majesty. For
He received from God the Father honor and glory, when
there was borne such a voice to Him by the Majestic Glory,
This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased : and this
voice we ourselves heard borne out of heaven, when we were
with Him in the Holy Mount," H Peter i : 16-18. He had
said, "There are some of them that stand here who shall in no
wise taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in
His kingdom," Matt. 16 : 28. Or, as Mark puts it : "Till they
see the kingdom of God come with power," 9:1. Or, as
Luke puts it : "Till they see the kingdom of God."

Matthew prefaced his statement with the words: "For
the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with
His angels," thus showing that the kingdom they would be

CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 25

enabled to see before death was not the kingdom in any of
its earthly aspects, but the glory-kingdom at His second
advent. The promise finds no fulfillment except on the
Mount of Transfiguration, and both Peter and John declare
it to be a vision of Christ in glory as at His second advent.
Hence to represent Moses as having already risen from
the dead destroys the completeness of the Transfiguration-
imagery to represent all the power and majesty of the second
advent.

Again it has been objected that some of the saints rose
from the dead at the moment Christ died on the cross. This
objection misreads the scripture, which says, **And the tombs
were opened ; and many bodies of the saints that had fallen
asleep were raised ; and coming forth out of the tombs after
His resurrection they entered into the Holy City and ap-
peared unto many," Matt. 27 : 52, 53. Let us not balk at the
doctrine. It is fundamental. Christ is the firstborn from the
dead. In that old English classic, "The Spectator," is an
article by Addison entitled, "The Vision of Mirza." In this
vision Mirza sees a flowing river whose source and exit are
hidden in clouds, but across the section visible is a bridge over
which pours the tide of successive generations. The bridge
is sadly out of repair, and so, sooner or later, each passing
pilgrim drops through some crevice into the river below and
is swept away into the impenetrable darkness which veils
its exit. The vision was designed to teach that unaided
human philosophy can neither discover the origin of life nor
the destiny to which death bears us. Shakespeare also rep-
resents death as "that bourne from which no traveler has ever
returned." Like the tracks of the animals which visited the
sick lion in the cave, they could all be seen going in, but none
could be seen coming out. So was death a dark realm until
Jesus was raised and brought life and immortality to light.
He is the one traveler who has returned from death and for
us flashes light on its secrets. He tells of the state of disem-

26 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

bodied spirits, good and bad, of His coming advent in glory,
bringing with Him the souls of the saints in heaven and drag-
ging to Him the souls of the wicked in hell, and the general
resurrection of both the just and the unjust, the reunion of
long severed souls and bodies, the general judgment of all,
and the final state of the just and the unjust.

All this is pledged in His own resurrection. He is declared
to be the Son of God with power by His resurrection. Or, as
the Psalmist puts it : "This day have I begotten thee," refer-
ring to the demonstrations of His sonship by the resurrection.
Just here it is important to note that what we call the second
advent will be really the third. When He suffered on the
cross His spirit left this world and went to the Father. There,
as high priest. He made the atonement behind the veil by
sprinkling His own blood on the mercy-seat in the true Holy
of Holies. On the third day He returned to earth for His
risen body, and this was His second advent. So "when He
bringeth His only begotten again into the world. He said. Let
all the angels of God worship Him," Heb. i : 6. His first
advent was to assume by incarnation the body of His humili-
ation. This was when He was born of Mary. His second
advent was when He returned from heaven to assume His
body of glory. This was when He was born by the resurrec-
tion. His third advent will be when He comes to assume His
mystical body — the church — and to judge the world.

This is a great doctrine — a multiform doctrine — the resur-
rection of Christ. It is the one sign of His divinity and the
one pledge of our glory. As an historical fact it is attested
by witnesses. John says, "That which we have seen with our
eyes, heard with our ears, and handled with our hands —
that we declare unto you." He himself said, "A spirit hath
not flesh and bones, such as ye see me have — handle me and
see." Luke said, "He showed himself alive after His pas-
sion, by many infallible proofs."

The church, with all its officers and ordinances, under the

CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 27

guidance of the Holy Spirit, is the witness through the ages
to His last advent that Jesus is alive — He was dead, but is
alive forever more. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors
and teachers are all witnesses to this one great pivotal fact —
that Jesus is risen indeed. Baptism is a witness to the same
fact whenever administered in font, pool, flowing stream,
lake, gulf, sea or ocean. It memorializes all spectators on
earth, in hell, in heaven, that Christ is risen, is alive, is exalted
to be the head of the church, and head over all things to the
church. The Lord's Supper testifies that He died for our
sins, but is alive now, and points its finger of triumphant
hope to His last advent, for "as oft as ye do this ye show
forth the Lord's death till He come."

Both all pre-eminence and all fulness are vested in Christ.
So is the Father's good pleasure. That there are heights
and depths in this thought seldom realized by the profoundest
Bible students will appear as we examine the next thought —
the thought of reconciliation and its scope. Mark the text :
"And through Him to reconcile all things unto himself . . .
whether things upon the earth or things in the heavens." Or,
as the thought is more broadly expressed in Phil. 2:10, "That
in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of beings in
heaven, beings on earth, and beings under the earth"

In some real sense the atonement made by Christ in the\
Holy of Holies in heaven, based upon His expiation on the
cross, will touch either to save, confirm, or subdue every
angel m heaven or hell, every man, saint or sinner. The^
saints it saves, the good angels it confirms, bad men an(i
demons it subdues, so that they ground arms of active rebel-
lion, and in receipt of final punishment and chains show that
the war against God is over forever, and the whole uni-
verse IS PACIFIED.

Throughout the universe the authority of God is forever
established. The kingdoms of this evil world have become
the kingdom of Christ ; Satan's kingdom is overturned ; the

28 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

earth itself is redeemed unto the Hberty of the children of
God ; death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire, and even
Gehenna itself shall float no flag of rebellion. There is no
more conspiring or fighting against God. Gehenna's in-
mates, men and demons, in everlasting punishment, endure,
but resist no more. All things through Christ are in this way
reconciled. As when a victorious army marches through a
revolting province, disperses all armed companies, captures
all strongholds, receives the surrender of all antagonists,
rescues and rewards all the loyal, expels, confines and pun-
ishes all the disloyal.

Angels and men finally lost are not merely conquered in
the sense that they surrender and are by banishment and con-
finement debarred from future revolt, but they are forced
to see and publicly acknowledge on bended knee that
CHRIST is King and their punishment is just.

More than this : Because angels were appointed to be min-
istering spirits to man, who was made originally "lower than
the angels," Satan, through pride, revolted. He was unwill-
ing to be subordinate to the lower creature — man. This was
the origin of sin in heaven, and led to Satan's being cast out
from heaven with his fellow apostates. Hence his hatred of
man and his purpose through temptation to alienate him from
God and thereby destroy him, and thus defeat the purpose of
God in subordinating him to man. This led to sin on earth,
and thus man passed under bondage to Satan with the earth,
his home.

But Jesus, the Second man, was appointed to destroy the
devil and his works. On the cross of expiation He triumphed
over Satan, making a show of him openly, despoiling princi-
palities and powers as we see further on in this letter.
Through His consequent exaltation to the throne of the uni-
verse, He makes all things work together for good toward
the consummation described above. Now the unfallen angels
were yet on probation. They did not follow Satan, but it

CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 29

remained to be seen if they would actually become minister-
ing spirits to the human Jieirs of salvation achieved by
Christ's expiation. If they did so become, then they would
be confirmed and so lose all liability to fall, and thus things
in heaven would be reconciled. When the saints at Christ's
advent sit with Him on His glory-throne they will "judge
angels." Their testimony of help received vindicates and
confirms the unfallen angels. The fallen angels who fell
through unwillingness to be under man are now brought
before men to be judged. Think of it ! Peter and Job judg-
ing Satan ! When Satan and his angels thus bow the knee to
redeemed and glorified humanity, confess their sovereignty,
and receive sentence of punishment from them and go away
into everlasting confinement, the war is over and all things
are reconciled. What a pity that Milton in his great epic,
"Paradise Lost," so misconceived the reason of Satan's
rebellion ! And what a greater pity that in his feebler epic,
"Paradise Regained," he stops at Christ's resistance to
Satan's temptation, so very short of the cross. But Milton,
in more points than one, was a very unsound theologian.

This Letter to the Colossians transcends all other scrip-
tures in its comprehensive grasp of the atonement. Very
clearly it shows that the cross is the keystone of the arch —
the hinge on which swings open every door of revelation. No
wonder its author could say elsewhere: "I determined to
know nothing among you but the cross. God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross, and if an angel from heaven
should preach any other gospel, let him be anathema."

We thus see that Christ's first advent was to assume the
body of His humiliation and in it to make expiation on the
cross, followed by His making the atonement, or reconcili-
ation in heaven, where, for this purpose, His spirit went
immediately after His death, and this, in turn, followed by
His second advent to earth for His risen or glorified body,
and this followed by His ascension, soul and body, to the

30 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

throne of the universe, and this followed by His sending of
His vicar, the Holy Spirit, to accredit, endue, and abide with
His church, and this followed by His reign in heaven and
the Spirit's reign on earth in the church, and this followed
by His third advent to assume His mystical body, the glori-
fied church, and this followed by the final judgment, and
this followed by the Spirit-filled glorified church, descending
to occupy the now purified and redeemed earth, not only com-
pletes the story of reconciliation, or purification of the uni-
verse, but shows how the reconciliation severally touches all
beings and things, saving saints, confirming good angels, sub-
duing and forever expelling evil angels and men, so that
in all His holy mountain there is nothing left to offend, to
make afraid, to awaken tears, or to incite to pain, sickness, or
death.

But while all this presents reconciliation in its general
aspects, we need to consider it, as does Paul, in its special
relation to the Colossians. Reconciliation implies previous
alienation. Sin alienated God from men and men from God.
Christ is the mediator who brings the two together. The
ground of His mediation is His sacrificial and vicarious
death. This satisfies the punitive demands of the law, and so
propitiates or placates toward God. The offering of the
blood of the sacrifice by Christ as High Priest, in the Holy
of Holies in heaven, reconciles God. The reconciliation of
men to God is effected by the ministry of the gospel, savingly
applied by the Holy Spirit. Accordingly Paul says in our
text : "And you, being in times past alienated and enemies
in your mind and in your evil works, yet now hath He
reconciled in the body of His flesh, through death, to present
you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before Him."

The last clause shows not only the end of reconciliation,
but indicates that their salvation involves more than justi-
fication Not only must the penal sanctions of the law be
satisfied, but they must be internally fitted for presentation

CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 31

to God. That is, not only saved from guilt and condemnation
of sin, but also from its dominion in their hearts and lives.
This makes the doctrine of reconciliation intensely practical.
It involves regeneration, sanctification and glorification. The
presentation of the redeemed in the completeness of salvation
is a definite and official transaction. Indeed, it is compared
to a marriage. We are engaged or betrothed to Christ by
faith here in time. Paul says: "I have espoused you to
Christ as a chaste virgin." The marriage comes later. The
bride must be made ready for the husband. This marriage
takes place when our Lord comes again. In the accompany-
ing Letter to the Ephesians the thought is amplified, closing
thus: "That He might present the church unto himself a
glorious church, not having a spot or wrinkle or any such
thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."

The grandest scene of time or eternity will be this presen-
tation of the redeemed considered as a unit, a bride, glorious
in her apparel. So in the apocalypse John saw and heard :
"And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and
as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty
thunders, saying. Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the
Almighty, reigneth. Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad,
and let us give the glory unto Him ; for the marriage of the
Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And
it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine
linen, bright and pure ; for the fine linen is the righteous acts
of the saints. And He saith unto me. Write, Blessed are
they that are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb,"
Rev. 19:6-9.

Reconciliation is therefore a call to holiness. Let not Bap-
tist preachers skip this "if" of Paul's : "// so be that ye con-
tinue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved
away from the hope of the gospel." A transient faith is not
the faith of the gospel. Any professed regeneration that
does not move on toward sanctification is not true regenera-

33 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

tion. It was not the purpose of God to imitate human rulers
who, when exercising power, turn loose a criminal on society.
"Whom God justifies, them He sanctifies and glorifies."

QUESTIONS

1. How is Christ's relation to the church expressed ?

2. What the conception of the church in the use of this figure?

3. What does the word, "head," imply?

4. In what senses of the word, "church," is Christ the head?

5. In what sense only does the glory church now exist?

6. What the time and circumstances of the constitution of the
glory church? (State this in seven orderly steps.)

7. When so constituted, what will be the nature of this glory
church ?

8. Which meanings of the word, "church," are employed in
Colossians and Ephesians?

9. What the relation between "the beginning" and the "firstborn
from the dead?"

10. What do they mean ?

11. What question of fact raised here?

12. What its answer ?

13. Explain, then, the cases of Lazarus, Moses and Elijah, and
their bearing on the Transfiguration.

14. Give proof that the Transfiguration gave a miniature repre-
sentation of Christ's second advent.

15. What a second objection and its answer?

16. What the vision of Mirza?

17. What is it designed to teach ?

18. Explain His several advents, and the purpose of each.

19. What the one sign of Christ's divinity and the one pledge of
His glory?

20. What the witnesses to the fact that Jesus is alive ?

21. What the scope of Christ's reconciliation? Explain fully.

22. Give an account of the origin of sin: (i) By whom origi-
nated? (2) Where? (3) The cause? (4) The result?

23. Who was appointed to destroy the works of the devil, and
when was it accomplished?

24. What the position of the unf alien angels now?

25. What the position of the saints at the judgment?

26. What vital mistake in Milton's "Paradise Lost?" In "Para-
dise Regained?"

27. In what does this letter transcend all other scriptures, and
what the keystone of the arch of revelation?

28. On reconciliation in its special relation to the Colossians
answer: (i) What does it imply? (2) Who the mediator? (3)
What the ground of reconciliation? (4) How effected? (5) How
applied ?

29. Show that salvation involves more than justification, and that
reconciliation is intensely practical.

CHRIST AND THE CHURCH 33

30. Compare the redeemed to a bride.

31. Describe the scene when the bride shall be presented to her
husband.

32. What is, therefore, the call of reconciliation?

33. Give the clause following Paul's "if."

34. What the evidences of real faith?

IV

CHRIST'S RELATION TO THE FATHER AND THE
UNIVERSE

Scripture: Col. i : 23 — 2 : 7

THIS chapter commences with a question based on the
King James version of Col. i : 23 : "Which was
preached to every creature which is under heaven."
In my younger days the Hardshell Baptists used this passage
to prove that the commission in Mark 16: 15-18, command-
ing to "preach the gospel to every creature" was literally
and finally fulfilled by the apostles to whom alone it was
given. They supported their contention by citing the fact
that the "signs" in Mark 16: 17, 18, which were to accom-
pany and confirm missionary work had long since failed,
and therefore missions were ended; that the "signs" were
a part of the commission, and whoever now claimed authority
to do mission work under that commission must show the
signs or stand convicted of imposture. I used to press this
point on Missionary Baptist preachers to see how they
would answer it. Finally one of them passed the question
back to me, "You are a Missionary Baptist yourself — how
do you answer it ?" My reply was this :

I. Mark 16:15-18 must be construed with Matt. 28 : 18-20.
The perpetuity of the Matthew-commission appears from
"Lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,"
and from the fact that the "make disciples of all nations"
is co-extensive with "teaching them to observe all things,
etc.," which Hardshells themselves admit to be binding
now.

64

CHRIST AND THE FATHER 35

2. Even after Paul had written, "which was preached to
every creature which is under heaven," he himself went right
on in the mission work and commanded others to do the
same, which examples prove the continuity and perpetuity
of the commission. So also does Peter, as appears from
his letters written after Paul wrote Colossians. And so,
also, does John. See particularly the letter to Gains long
after Colossians, in which John commends Gains for help-
ing the missionaries and condemns the Hardshell — Diot-
rephes, verses 6-10.

3. We must look to the apostle in subsequent teaching to
learn if the "signs" are always to accompany the mission
work, or are to cease when their accrediting purpose is
accomplished, I Cor. 13:8, 13.

4. The accuracy of the King James version of Col. i : 23
is questionable. The revision thus renders Mark 16:15,
"Preach the gospel to the whole creation," and renders Col.
1 : 23, "which was preached in all creation under heaven."
Compare Rom. 10:18.

5. Whatever the rendering, the Hardshell interpretation
is manifestly erroneous. The gospel must be preached to
all the world, generation by generation, and not merely to
one generation. The church, as the pillar and ground of
the truth, must continue to instruct the angels in the manifold
wisdom of God until Jesus comes (Eph. 3 : 10) and must, by
its mission work, exhibit the glory of God throughout all
generations (Eph. 3:21). Ephesians was v/ritten after
Colossians.

6. Paul was operating under a direct commission given
subsequently to the one in Matt. 28 and Mark 16, (see Acts
9: 15; 22 \ 14-21 ; 26: 16-18), and transmitted to others the
carrying on of the same mission work, H Tim. 2 : 2.

The next item in the analysis is the parenthetical explana-
tion of the apostle's mission to the Gentiles, and his conse-
quent concern for these Colossians. That item of the analysis

S6 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

extends from i : 24 to 2 : 7. He is expounding here the
object of his mission to the Gentiles.

We recall that when Paul was so long a time at Ephesus,
the capital of the Roman province of Asia, in which were
these Lycus-valley cities, that representatives from this
Lycus valley attended these meetings, among whom were
Philemon and Epaphras, of Colosse, who were both con-
verted. And while he himself at the time of this great meet-
ing did not personally visit these Lycus-valley cities, those
who were converted by him did visit them and plant the
gospel there ; so the establishment of the churches there was
indirectly attributable to him, and so he would have an
interest in them.

But apart from that fact, he was the Christ-appointed
missionary to the Gentiles, and they were mostly Gentiles.
In this valley there were some Jews. The population was
blended. While ethnologically most of them were Phrygians,
they were a mixed people ; some were Jews, some Greeks,
and some Romans. But he was concerned because the whole
Gentile mission had been turned over to him, as to Peter
and the other apostles was given the mission to the Jews.
So we note when Peter writes a letter to these very people
later, he confines himself to the Jewish inhabitants, thus:
"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect who are
sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia." While Peter writes to the elect of the
sojourners of the dispersion — to the dispersed Jews — Paul
writes as an apostle to the Gentiles. What is the difference
between the "to whom" that Paul wrote and the "to whom"
that Peter wrote ? Paul wrote as an apostle to the Gentiles,
and the whole cast of his letter is Gentilic. Peter wrote to
the Jews of the dispersion, and the whole cast of his letter
is Jewish. So then, because Paul was the apostle to the
Gentiles, it is a matter of concern to him that they should
take on false doctrine.

CHRIST AND THE FATHER S7

I call attention to some expressions in verse 24. He says,
"I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my
part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my
flesh for His body's sake, which is the church." Did Dr.
Gordon in his book on the Spirit rightly interpret that
passage, "I fill up on my part that which is lacking of the
afflictions of Christ?" Or does Paul's suffering have any-
thing to do with Christ's sacrificial suffering, in order to the
salvation of man? Or does he mean that his sufferings sup-
plement the non-sacrificial sufferings of Christ? Some of
Christ's sufferings were for our example and others were
not. As proof I cite I Pet. 2 : 20 : "For what glory is it, if,
when ye sin, and are buffeted for it, ye shall take it patiently ?
but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye shall take it
patiently, this is acceptable with God. For hereunto were ye
called : because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an
example, that ye should follow in His steps." So we may
now follow the example of Christ's sufferings, except that
expiatory part, and pur sufferings may supplement His
sufferings except that expiatory part. There we cannot
come in. Those who deny the substitutionary and vicarious
expiation of Christ are accustomed to quote this passage from
Peter and this passage from Paul to show that the suffer-
ings of Christ were merely martyr-sufferings, not unlike
Paul's martyr-sufferings and Peter's, and serve merely as
an example of patience, and that they had no expiatory
nature. It is necessary to emphasize this point as to the
distinction between what He did as a vicarious substitute for
sinners and the ordinary sufferings of Christ, such as we and
all of His people participate in. He himself refers to this
when He says, "If the world hateth you, ye know that it
hath hated me before it hated you. If ye were of this world,
the world would love its own ; but because ye are not of this
world, but I chose you out of the worTd, therefore the world
hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, A

38 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

servant is not greater than his lord. If they persecuted me,
they will also persecute you; if they kept my word, they
will keep yours also."

In verse 26 we have a word that needs explanation. What
does Paul mean by "mystery?" He says, "I was made a
minister according to the dispensation of God, which was
given me to you- ward, to fulfill the word of God, even the
mystery which hath been hid for ages and generations, but
now hath been manifested to His saints." What is this
mystery ? He explains it in the next verse : "To whom God
was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of
this mystery among the Gentiles." In the Letter to the
Ephesians he elaborates on that mystery this way : "Where-
fore remember that once ye, the Gentiles in the flesh, who
are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumci-
sion, in the flesh, made by hands ; that ye were at that time
separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of
Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise,
having no hope and without God in the world. But now in
Christ Jesus ye that once were afar off are made nigh in the
blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who made both one,
and brake down the middle wall of partition, having abolished
in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments con-
tained in ordinances; that He might create in himself of
the two one new man, so making peace ; and might reconcile
them both in one body unto God through the cross, having
slain the enmity thereby : and He came and preached peace
to you that were far off, and peace to them that were nigh :
for through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the
Father. So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners,
but ye are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the house-
hold of God."

The mystery then was this — that in the beginning of the
human race God had purposed not to make any discrimina-
tion between people, and salvation was to be as free to one

CHRIST AND THE FATHER 09

nation as to another, and that in electing the Jews and isolat-
ing them from all other people, it was not done because they
were better than other people, nor was it done to confer
special grace upon them, but simply to make them the deposi-
tory of His truth for the time being, which in the fulness
of time would include all the human race. This is the mys-
tery. But the Jews supposed that God was partial to them —
that they were not merely the custodians of revelation for
all mankind, but that between them and the Gentiles there
was a wall that could not be broken down. They would
stand up on that wall, glorying in their sanctity, and saying
to outsiders, "You dogs ! Don't touch me ! I am holier than
you!" They carried that so far that they would go home
from the crowded streets, immerse themselves and wash their
clothes to remove possible defilement by contact with a
Gentile. Paul does not use the word, "mystery," in the sense
that what he now reveals is mysterious, but that his revela-
tion makes clear what was once a mystery — that the pur-
pose of grace for the whole human race was veiled in
the Old Testament times but unveiled in New Testament
times.

So John, in Revelation, talking about the scarlet woman,
says that she is "mystery," meaning that for the time being
the truth was veiled under a symbol. The symbol was a
woman dressed in scarlet, sitting upon a beast. All Bible
critics confront the question. What is the meaning of "mys-
tery" in the New Testament ? It has several meanings. The
context determines in each case. Paul in a letter to Timothy
says, "Confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness," and
then gives all the elements of that mystery of godliness,
commencing, "God made manifest in the flesh."

In Col. 2 : 2 he says, "That their hearts may be comforted,
they being knit together in love and unto all riches of the
full assurance of understanding, that they may know the
mystery of God, even Christ." The idea is that God, out of

40 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

Christ, is a mystery, unknowable,.but in Christ He is declared
and the mystery solved.

Consider also that word, "assurance." We have three
examples of its use: We have faith and the assurance of
faith. We have hope and the assurance of hope. We have
understanding and the assurance of understanding. There
is a distinction between a man's simple faith in Christ and
the assurance of that faith. Faith, hope and understanding
are all objective, in that they go out of us and take hold of an
external object. But assurance is subjective. It does not
raise a question concerning the merits of the object of faith,
but rather the question, Do I really believe? So with hope
and understanding. Hope looks to certain things reserved
in heaven; assurance of hope is a kind of certificate to a
person that thoroughly satisfies him that his hopes are well
grounded.

These Gentiles did not understand that the gate of salva-
tion was to be just as wide open to them as to the Jews.
When they took hold of it they took hold of it timidly. So
Paul says, "I want you to get full assurance of understand-
ing that you are entitled to this — that God meant you just as
much as he meant a Jew." We see that if the Gentiles could
reach full assurance of understanding that they were entitled
to salvation under the same law and the same terms as the
Jew, then Judaizing teachers could not subvert them, could
not shake them by saying, "You must be circumcised in order
to be saved." The reply would be, "I have an understanding
of that matter, and I have full assurance of the understand-
ing, and I know that I do not have to become a Jew in order
to be saved."

So Paul continues in 2:4: "This I say that no one may
delude you with persuasive speech." That is exactly what
was taking place there. There was a false teacher in Colosse
who was endeavoring to make proselytes to his philosophy,
and one part of that philosophy was that they must observe

CHRIST AND THE FATHER 41

all Sabbatic rituals, whether the seventh-day Sabbath,
monthly Sabbath or annual Sabbath. That is precisely the
point that this false teacher was trying to make. Paul says
to these Gentiles, "I have a deep concern for you, and I want
to lead you into a clear practical understanding of this gospel,
lest somebody come and delude you with persuasive speech."

In verse 6 we have another variation of the same thought :
"As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in
Him." In other words, "You received Him by simple faith,
without conformity to Jewish ritual ; continue as you com-
menced." Compare Gal. 3: 1-3, "O foolish Galatians, who
did bewitch you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly
set forth crucified? This only would I learn from you:
Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the
hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the
Spirit, are ye now perfected in the flesh?"

He continues the assurance-thought : "Rooted and builded
up in Him and established in your faith, even as ye were
taught." Those three words, "rooted," "builded up" and
"established" contain the thought he was trying to impress :
"I want you to be so well indoctrinated that you cannot be
turned aside by specious error."

The same thought prevails in his Letter to the Ephesians
in his prayer, 3:4-19: "For this cause I bow my knees unto
the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth
is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches
of His glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through
His Spirit in the inward man ; that Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and
grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the
saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge,
that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God." That is
one of the greatest troubles with modern churches. They no
longer emphasize doctrine. We would be amazed if we were

43 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

to call up our entire church membership, and as each one
comes up begin to catechise to see if every member was
thoroughly indoctrinated in the faith once for all delivered
to the saints. Many of them cannot discriminate between
one denomination and another — ^between justification and
sanctification. Herein the Presbyterians excel the Baptists —
in the use of the catechism.

Where a church has been faithfully ministered unto by a
pastor who selects, not high sounding texts whose mere sound
led him to the selection, but who has from his deliberate con-
viction preached from the themes that they needed for their
rooting and grounding and establishment in faith, that man
will have an indoctrinated church. But there is a class of
wishy-washy, "milk and cider" preachers who would rather
say it does not make any difference v/hat one believes if the
heart is all right ; it does not make any difference how he is
baptized ; they do not care whether he is a member of the
church or not. That class of preachers raise up congrega-
tions to become the prey of any evangelical tramp or crank.
Such an ill-trained congregation does not make even good
militia, much less veteran soldiers.

To illustrate: Recently a Boston Baptist preacher, mod-
erator of an association, published in "The Baptist Watch-
man" a full four-page article that would degenerate a
vertebrate into a jelly-fish. He denies that baptism is a
prerequisite to church membership, denies that a church has
anything whatever to do with receiving members or judging
of their qualifications, affirms that when a man believes it
automatically makes him a member of the church, prefers
to make baptism essential to salvation rather than essential
to church membership. In a word, the whole article is made
up of "airy nothings" without a stalwart thought in it. The
wonder is how that man ever got into a Baptist church. It
must have been automatically, for no true Baptist church, if
it had been consulted, would have received him.

CHRIST AND THE FATHER 43

To illustrate again : One day a man called at my house who
denied that a church was either an assembly or an organiza-
tion at all, saying that it was merely a living community.
God help us when such jelly-fish views about the church are
taught by those in authority !

Two parts of this letter are of transcendently great impor-
tance. One is the doctrine and the other is this part — the
fourth item of the analysis. Let us look at what the analysis
says:

Polemics Against the False Teacher and Teachings at
Colosse, 2:8-3: 17.

(a) As limiting by a false philosophy the sufficiency of
Christ and their completeness in Him.

(b) Polemics against the folly of this philosophy in
accounting for creation, and in defining sin, and in the insuffi-
ciency of its means for conquest of sin, such as ( i ) a Phar-
isaic observance of an obsolete Sabbatic ritual, (2) a self-
imposed humility, (3) the worship of angels, supposed to be
emanations from God, himself unknowable, (4) a bondage
to impracticable ascetic precepts based on the idea that sin
resides in matter, which precepts were but expressions of
will-worship and powerless to hedge against temptation or
to subdue the passions, or to supply objects high enough to
incite to love-motives.

(c) Against its substitution of a mystic knowledge
("gnosis") as a standard instead of the gospel, 2 : 16-23.

(d) But the gospel on the other hand raises us with Christ
and makes us sharers of His life and exaltation, supplies us
with heavenly objects of thought and desire, and pledges our
manifestation in glory with Christ, 3:1-4.

(e) It shows sin to be an awful nature called the "old
man," resident in mind, not matter, and expresses itself in
fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness,
anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking, 3 : 5-9.

(f ) It provides for the real conquest of sin by regenera-

44 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

tion, puts off the old man and puts on the new man, a re-cre-
ation after the huage of God, expressing itself in a heart
of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, forbearance,
forgiveness, love, and by the sanctifying instrumentality of
God's Word, and by spiritual worship, in teaching, prayer,
and song, and by supplying the dominant motives in all
word, deed or thought, the glory of God, 3: 10-17.

(g) It glorifies in Christ all races, nations, social castes,

3:11.

There was a false teacher, not teachers — it was one person.
We do not know who, but there was one prominent man
there in the Lycus valley who possessed and held this false
philosophy. This philosophy was partly Pharisaic in its
adherence to the Sabbatic ritual, and partly of the Essenes
in its ascetic teaching. This philosophy held that the world
was not created by God, because God is unknowable and can-
not touch man and things, but that it was created by emana-
tions from God — eons — and therefore, instead of worship-
ing God, they worshiped eons, or angels. They said that
they should not worship God because they could not know
Him. They worshiped intermediate beings that came in
touch with them.

Then this philosophy taught that as sin resided in matter,
the way to conquer it was by conformity to ascetic precepts —
that one should retire from the world, live like the Essenes
in a cave on the border of the Dead Sea, not marry, have just
as few clothes as possible, all the time working on the destruc-
tion of the body, because there is where sin resides, since the
soul is all right. That was one phase of the philosophy.
Paul was combating that, as shown in his doctrines : Christ
in His relation to the Father, the universe and its intelli-
gences, and that by Him, in Him, and unto Him was creation,
and that He was before all things, and in His relation to the
church.

With reference to sin, notice what things he enumerates

CHRIST AND THE FATHER 45

as expressions of sin, and see whether it be of the body:
"Evil desire, covetousness, anger, wrath, maHce, raiHng,
lying, shameful speaking out of your mouth." Some of
these are overt acts, but sin, according to that teaching,
resides in the soul and not in the body. The body is merely
used as an instrument in a great many sins, but sin does not
reside in the body. To show further how Paul was con-
troverting this philosophy as to the nature of sin, he calls
it the old man, the old Adam. How then is sin to be con-
quered ? It is to be conquered by something that will change
the nature — that will put off the old man and put on the new
man. That is regeneration, and then follows a sanctifying
power that will carry on the regenerating work, so that
instead of the deeds of the old man like anger, wrath,
malice, etc., we put on the deeds of the new man, like love,
kindness, a heart of compassion, forbearance and forgive-
ness. Then he goes on to show what instrumentalities are
necessary to bring this about : "Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly." So we see the difference between the two
philosophies in question.

QUESTIONS

1. State the Hardshell contention based on the King James ver-
sion of Col. 1 : 23, and reply to it.

2. What the difference between the "to whom" Paul is writing
and the "to whom" Peter later writes ?

3. Expound 1 : 24, "I fill up on my part that which is lacking of
the afflictions of Christ," and show Dr. Gordon's interpretation.

4. What the meaning of "mystery" in i : 25 and elsewhere by
Paul, does it mean the same thing when used by the Synoptic
Gospels and by John in Revelation, and does it mean the same
thing when used in the classics and by modern secret societies?

5. Expound the word, "assurance," in Col. 2 : 2, distinguish be-
tween "knowledge" and the "assurance of knowledge," between
"faith" and the "assurance of faith," between "hope" and the
"assurance of hope," and apply the context showing the value of
the "assurance of knowledge."

6. Show the variation of the same thought in verses 6 and 7.

7. What similar expressions in Eph. 3, and what the applica-
tion there?

46 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

8. What defect in many Baptist churches, what the kind of
preachers that promote it, and wherein do Presbyterians excel us
at this point?

9. Illustrate by the article in "The Baptist Watchman" and by
a modern definition of the word, "church."

10. What the two very important parts of this letter, and what a
brief summary of the second as indicated in the analysis and the
brief discussion which follows?

HUMAN PHILOSOPHY VERSUS THE ENDURING
GOSPEL OF CHRIST

Scripture: Col. 2:8 — 3: 17

THIS chapter continues the exposition of Colossians.
While on broad general lines, the main teaching-part
of the letter has already been considered, we need to
examine somewhat in detail certain words and phrases in
the long paragraph commencing 2 : 8 and ending 3:17. In
2 : 8 "spoil" has the sense of captives — "make you a spoil,"
and in the same verse, on the word "philosophy," note —

1. The derivation of the word — literally "a love of wis-
dom," i. e., human wisdom, or reasonings, in accounting for
things, as opposed to divine revelation in accounting for
things.

2. The province of philosophy. Certain matters come
legitimately within the realm of human philosophy upon
which its reasonings and even its working suppositions may
be heard tentatively, its conclusions, or hypotheses, con-
tinually subject to modification as investigation affords new
light.

But certain other matters are entirely outside its realm,
e. g., whatever is supernatural cannot be settled by natural
reasonings.

Whatever touches ultimate origin and destiny lies entirely
outside the realm of human science, and hence when human
philosophy attempts to settle matters beyond the reach of
human science it becomes mere speculation. Its dogmatic
claims are, as the apostle here puts it, "vain deceit" All its

4a

48 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

voluminous, varied and contradictory literature upon these
subjects from the beginning of time till this hour is as value-
less as the "airy nothings'' of a dream. If every book of it
were burned today in one huge bonfire, as were the magical
hooks of the Ephesians, the world would be better off.

The only light in it all is the light of its burning. See
I Cor. I : i8; 2: i6.

Do not understand me to deny all legitimate scope to
human philosophy. Within bounds it has a great place, but
even in that place its value may be greatly overestimated.

/ am quite sure that more than half of the matter in the
text-books on philosophy in all our schools, colleges and uni-
versities is the most worthless rubbish, and some of it rank
poison.

I am not talking of science. A man who denies the value
of science — real science — rails at God's appointed method
by which man is commanded to subdue the earth and lay
under tribute all nature's potentialities. The predicate for
all schools of human learning is God's dower of authority to
man over land and sea and sky, and his commission to subdue
the earth. Here in the natural world human philosophy is
the avant-courier and handmaid of science. It supposes, it
experiments, it makes myriads of tentative explorations
and flights, shedding off the failures, utilizing and improv-
ing the successes, and thus ever contributing to the enlarge-
ment of science.

Philosophy becomes a fool only when it invades the realm
of ultimate origins, destinies and the supernatural. Here
it is vainer than a peacock, and blinder than a mole, which,
burrowing under the earth, is a fine judge of earthworms,\
but' utterly incompetent to become a critic of landscapes, sky-
views and ocean-wonders.

"Ne siitor ultra crepidam.'* On these matters all God's
treasures of wisdom and knowledge are stored up in Christ,
who is the only revelator of God's hidden things. A human

THE GOSPEL VS. PHILOSOPHY 49

philosophy which, leaving out God (deifying instead, Chance
or Fate), leaving out man's highest nature and highest rela-
tions, leaving out distinction between matter and spirit,
attempts a scheme of the universe and the related human
life — ^perpetrates a folly unworthy of preservation in human
literature. Observe next in 2:8,

3. "After the tradition of men." "Tradition," that which
is handed down — transmitted from father to son, or from one
generation to another — may be either good or bad according
to its origin or subject matter. In the New Testament the
word is accordingly used sometimes in a good sense, some-
times in a bad sense. Paul commands Timothy to pass on
to other good men the deposit of good doctrine which he
had received from Paul. If the original matter be a revela-
tion from God, it does not cease to be good because "handed
down," provided only it be held sacredly intact and trans-
mitted unimpaired. The supreme test of an oral "tradition"
is its conformity with the word written. The Pharisees made
void the written Word of God with Rabbinical traditions.
And so tradition in the early Christian centuries began that
undermining of the simplicity of the written gospel which
culminates in our day into that which is another gospel or
no gospel.

The context, verses 11 to 18, indicates that "the traditions
of men" here rebuked by the apostle is a Jewish element
of Gnosticism rather than heathen, because these traditions
are in the same verse said to be "after the rudiments of the
world" and not "after Christ." But what is meant here by
"rudiments?" In a general way "rudiments" means what
is elemental — ^thc first principles. Of course, "rudiments of
the world" may mean worldly first principles, referring to
mere human origin, but this hardly accords with the New
Testament usage of the word, "rudiments," or with the imme-
diate context The rudiments of revelation were the types,
shadows and ritual of the Old Testament. It was character-

50 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

istic of the Jew in the time of our Lord, and is so even now,
that he went not beyond these rudiments. He would not
see in Christ the substance of these shadows, so he never
went on to maturity.

Moreover, by their traditions they corrupted and dis-
torted even the shadows. This corruption might appear in
stressing the letter which killeth against the Spirit which
maketh alive. Or by their endless elaborations, interpreta-
tions, emendations, infinite trifling details they might con-
vert the law into a burdensome yoke impossible to be borne.
Or by merely human speculation on the fact that the law was
given by "the disposition of angels" they might merge Jewish
speculation into the heathen element of Gnosticism, a creation
by eons — graded emanations from God. To meet which
Paul presents Jesus as having in himself "all the fulness of
the Godhead bodily." Let the reader particularly note the
force of this expression, perhaps the strongest in the New
Testament.

Observe (i) "Godhead." The Greek, fheotes, means
"deity" — not the weaker word, "divinity," the natural force
of which may be evaded, or shaded down. The expression
is even stronger than John's "The Word was God (Theos)/*

Observe (2) "fulness," not in part nor in certain direc-
tions, but "all the fulness of Deity."

Observe (3) "bodily (somatikos), i. e., "bodily-wise." The
word is carefully chosen. Here Lightfoot speaks to the
point : "It is not 'in a body* for Deity cannot be so confined.
It is not 'in the form of a body' for this might suggest the
unreality of Christ's human body, but 'bodily* i. e., bodily-
wise, or with a bodily manifestation."

Observe (4) "dwells (katoikei): "In Him dwells all the
fulness (pleroma) of Deity bodily," as just before, in con-
trast with their vain deceit, their philosophy, he has affirmed
that in Christ "all the treasures of wisdom [sophia] and of
knowledge [gnosis] are stored," 2:3.

THE GOSPEL VS. PHILOSOPHY 51

Observe (5) "And ye, in Him, are complete/' i. e., filled
full (pepleromenoi). Being in union with Christ, there is no
need to seek from human sources a wisdom, a knowledge, a
philosophy, on the matters stated.

Observe (6) Instead of Christ being a low grade eon, or
emanation from God — a subordinate angel — "He is the head
of all principality and authority" — Greek, he Kephale pases
arches kai exousias. He then goes on to show that in being
united to Christ they received the real, or spiritual circum-
cision, and their baptism was in a figure both a burial and a
resurrection with Christ. In other words, the antitype of
circumcision is regeneration, and baptism symbolizes Christ's
burial and resurrection and pledges our own. He then
reaches his true climax in a double direction :

1. That in His death on the cross He fulfilled, cancelled
and abrogated all the Old Testament economy — took it
entirely out of the way — took it forever away.

2. That on the cross He not only conquered, but made an
open show of Satan and all his demons.

Here he follows the imagery of a Roman triumphal pro-
cession, accorded to their conquering generals, dragging cap-
tive princes in their train. (See the author's sermon on the
"Three Hours of Darkness.") He came in triumph, by
resurrection and ascension, after the battle on the cross, not
to imperial Rome, but to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of
God, shouting,

"Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors,
And let the King of Glory come in."

"When He ascended up on high He led captivity captive,"
i. e.f He broke all the chains of bondage which Satan had
bound on men, redeeming the captives of the terrible one,
and He gave as largess the outpoured Holy Spirit with all
His varied gifts to men. Truly that was "the crisis of this
world"

5^ COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

Let not the reader fail to note the apostle's conclusions
from this victory on the cross :

1. Let no man judge you in meat and drink according to
the Mosaic distinctions betwen the clean and unclean. That
distinction is abrogated. >

2. Let no man judge you on any part of the Sabbatic cycle,
either the Seventh-day Sabbath, the lunar Sabbath, the
three great annual Sabbaths, the land Sabbath or the Jubilee
Sabbath. They were all shadows; the body is of Christ.
The whole old covenant with its sacrifices, types, ritual and
priesthood, has passed away. This passage is the death-blow
to all sects which observe the Seventh-day Sabbath. They
are either Jews on this point or merely keepers of a Sabbath
which commemorates creation. Yet when we come to con-
sider the more elaborate arguments in the Letter to the
Hebrews, written a little later, we will find that "there
remaineth to the people of God a Sabbath-keeping'* (Sab-
hatismos) which commemorates not rest from creation nor
deliverance from Egypt, but our Lord's rest after His greater
work of redemption.

3. Let no man seek to impose on you circumcision of the
flesh. Ye are regenerated, having the spiritual circumcision.

4. Let him not judge as one of the Essenes, trying to kill
sin by afflicting the body, saying, "handle not, taste not,
touch not" this or that. All their minute rules, all their
asceticism, all their abjurement of marriage, all their retire-
ment from the world into caves, nunneries or monasteries,
all their regimen of diet and scourging of the body is mere
will-worship and availeth nothing toward shutting out temp-
tations. Allurement, lust, passion, envy, jealousy, malice
and covetousness, that run riot in the world, will find a man
in his seclusion. Walls of brick and stone cannot shut out
human passion. God meant for us to live in the world, but
not to be of the world. "I pray not that they may be taken
out of the world, but that they may be kept from the evil

THE GOSPEL VS. PHILOSOPHY 6S

one," says our Lord. The true remedy is to set our affec-
tions on things above, where our citizenship is. Let the
expulsive power of new affections drive the old loves out
of the heart. Put off the old man and put on the new man,
which, after God, is recreated unto knowledge, righteous-
ness and true holiness. Let the reader note that chapter 3:11
of this letter and Eph. 4 : 24, both allude to man's original
creation in the image of God, and this image involved
"knowledge" (epignosis), "righteousness" (dikaiosune) and
"holiness of truth" (hosioteti tes aletheias).

5. Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision
and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondmen, freemen,
but Christ is all and in all.

These five conclusions from Christ's work on the cross
constitute a priceless heritage, ever to be most jealously
guarded. They are summed up as follows :

1. The distinctions between clean and unclean meats and
drinks is forever obliterated.

2. The creation-Sabbath and all the cycle of Jewish Sab-
baths are superseded.

3. Circumcision of the flesh, distinguishing Jew from
Gentile, is abrogated.

4. Asceticism and seclusion from the world as a preventive
of temptation and passion is valueless.

5. Distinctions of race, caste, society, slavery and freedom,
civilization and barbarism, culture and ignorance, are all
impossible in Christ. He died for man, as man. Regenera-
tion, or the new creation, ignores all artificial distinctions.
There will never be a kingdom of Jesus over Jews, as Jews.
There will never be a restoration of the Jewish polity. It
would be a horrible anticlimax.

Christ was crucified because He would not restore the
national Jewish polity, but established a spiritual kingdom.

Seventh Day Adventism and all pre-millennial adventism
representing Christ as coming to reign for a thousand years

54^ COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

in a restored earthly Jerusalem over a restored Jewish nation,
with the Gentile world in subjugation, nullify the cross and
seek to rebuild what He there forever cast down.

Since the cross, and forever since the cross, it will be
true — "Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision
and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondmen, freemen ;
but Christ is all and in all."

There will be a Jerusalem, the capital of this world. But
it will be the heavenly Jerusalem — coming down from God
out of heaven — after the general judgment. The Holy
Spirit will infill it, according to John's vision, Rev. 21 : 10-14,
"The twelve gates were twelve pearls ; each one of the several
gates was of one pearl : and the street of the city was pure
gold, as it were transparent glass. And 1 saw no temple
therein: for the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are
the temple thereof. And the city hath no need of the sun,
neither of the moon, to shine upon it : for the glory of the
Lord did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb. And
the nations shall walk amidst the light thereof : and the kings
of the earth bring their glory into it. And the gates thereof
shall in no wise be shut by day ( for there shall be no night
there) : and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the
nations into it : and there shall in no wise enter into it any-
thing unclean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie :
but only they that are written in the Lamb's book of life,"
Rev. 21 : 10-14, 22-27.

There never will be a reversion to Moses. The great
central truth of the cross and what it abrogates, set forth
in Colossians, enlarged in Ephesians and elaborated in every
detail in the Letter to the Hebrews, makes an eternal break
with Judaism, as is fitly followed by the destruction 0/ Jeru-
salem and its temple and the eternal cessation of its sacrifices
and priesthood. Therefore the author cannot bear the
thought that anyone should fail to learn the lesson of Col.
2: 14, 15. As the Crusaders failed, so will the Jewish Zion-

THE GOSPEL VS. PHILOSOPHY 55

ists. The tomb is empty. The sanctity is forever gone from
the earthly Jerusalem and the land. Let Greek Catholic and
Roman Catholic have their quarrels over the empty tomb and
vacant temple site, regulated by Moslem police. Our Lord
is not there; He is risen. The Jerusalem that now is
answereth to Mount Sinai and is in bondage with her chil-
dren. The Jerusalem that is above is our mother, and
regeneration is our certificate of citizenship. Heaven is our
Holy Land. Let us by illumination, faith, hope and love
make tours to that holy land. I am far from denying that
God overruled the Crusades to much reflexive good. But
the Crusades themselves, so far as their immediate purpose
and hope are concerned, have no rivals in the history o|
folly.

I have no desire —

"To climb where Moses stood
And view that landscape o'er — "

but would prefer to be caught up with Paul into the third
heaven, into the Paradise of God

"And view that landscape o'er."

/ continually rejoice that I ant not coming unto the dark^
thunder-rocked, fire-crested, smoke-shrouded, trumpet-riven
Mountain of the Law, there to quake and tremble, hut unto
Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, unto God the judge,
unto the general assembly and church of the firstborn, unto
the spirits of just men made perfect, unto Jesus the mediator
of the New Covenant, unto the blood of sprinkling in the^
true Holy of Holies whose atoning efficacy speaks better
things for us than the blood of AbeVs typical animal sacrifice.

"Oh ! when, thou city of my God,
Shall I thy courts ascend?"

I have not the temperament of the archaeologist. I could
never potter with Old Mortality among the tombs of men

56 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

once heroes, but seek the company of living heroes. I could
not be a Chinaman with his back to the future, worshiping
his ancestors, and am entirely without desire to go East
except "by way of the West." Campbell's "Pleasures of
Hope" is a greater book than Rogers' "Pleasures of Mem-
ory." I lift my hat when I hear Paul shouting: "Forgetting
the things that are behind and reaching out to the things that
are before I press on toward the goal of the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus."

I have been scornfully asked, Why the waste of the letters
to the Colossians, Ephesians and Hebrews, since Titus in
less than a decade would obviate their necessity by the
destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish polity?

My answer was. Because he foresaw the great apostasy
which, under the guise of Christianity, would revert to the
Old Testament type and revive its hierarchy, its priesthood,
its human mediators, its ritual, its anointings, its genu-
flexions, commanding to abstain from meats and forbidding
to marry, and which would foist on half the world a blended
Jewish and heathen system of superstition, tyrannising over
the cradle, the grave and the spirit-world, and over govern-
ments, while drunk with the blood of the saints.

QUESTIONS

1. What the meaning of "spoil" in 2 : 8?

2. What the derivation of the word, "philosophy?"

3. What the province of human philosophy and its value there?

4. Into what realm may it not intrude, and what the value of its
literature when intruding there ?

5. Into this realm beyond the scope of human philosophy, what,
according to 2:3 of this letter, is the position of our Lord, and how
does He make known its secrets?

6. What the meaning of "tradition" in 2 : 8, and how is the word
used in the New Testament?

7. What the meaning of "rudiments" in 2:8, and to what does
the New Testament usage of the word usually refer?

8. Show from the context that a Jewish element of Gnosticism is
under consideration here.

THE GOSPEL VS. PHILOSOPHY 57

9. At what point in the argument does the Jewish element blend
with the heathen ?

10. In what great declaration concerning Christ does Paul meet
the false philosophy? (2:9.)

11. Meaning of "Godhead" in verse 9, and how often elsewhere
in the New Testament does the word occur, and compare its force
with John's "the Word was God."

12. Meaning of "bodily," and quote Lightfoot on the choice of
the word ?

13. Meaning of "complete in Him?"

14. What the antitype of circumcision, and the relation of bap-
tism thereto ?

15. State the great climax of Paul in two directions.

16. State the five conclusions from his argument.

17. What the value of the conclusions as a heritage?

18. What the effect as to Judaism of the central truth of the cross
as argued in Colossians, Ephesians and Hebrews ?

19. Wherein the great error of Seventh-Day Adventism, and
most pre-millennial teaching?

20. What the folly of the Crusades ?

21. Will there ever be a restored earthly Jerusalem, with Christ
as King over the Jews, and Gentiles in subjection?

22. What the Jerusalem before the saints ?

23. Why, in view of the destruction of Jerusalem in less than a
decade, did Paul write these prison letters to make a final break with
Judaism ?

VI

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS ON COLOSSIANS
Scripture: Col. 3: 18 — ^4: 18

IN this chapter we take up the practical application of
this letter. From 3: 18 to 4: i the exhortations relate
to the family or home, and are based on reciprocal rela-
tions. From relation arises obligation. These relations are
husband and wife, parent and child, master and servant.
The first two relations are natural, the third artificial.

God himself created the relation between husband and
wife. He made them one in the beginning, himself per-
forming the marriage ceremony. Adam was first made.
Eve was derived from his body and soul. Hence the name,
"woman," meaning derived from man. This marriage rela-
tion is the basis of the home, the family. It was intended
to be indissoluble. The New Testament permits only one
ground of divorce. The sanctity of the bond cannot be
maintained without regard to the reciprocal duties. There
can be but one head to a family. The husband is that head.
This involves subjection on the part of the wife. She must
honor and obey, but it is not a slavish obedience. Her realm
is the home. She lives in her husband and children. The
husband must love his wife and be not bitter towards her.
This thought is elaborated and illustrated in the accompany-
ing Letter to the Ephesians. As Christ loved the church
and gave himself for it, so must husbands love their wives.
Where this great love is extended by the husband it is easy
for the wife to honor and obey, and the children born of
the marriage will be an heritage of the Lord.

68

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS 59

Children, too, are in subjection. They must honor and
obey ; that is the first commandment with a promise. This
honor and obedience must be in letter, spirit and form. A
look or a gesture may disobey. Dr. Adam Clarke, the great
Methodist commentator, says that his mother was a Scotch
Presbyterian, famous for teaching and enforcing family dis-
cipline— that on one occasion when commanded by her to
do an unpleasant service, he obeyed, but looked disobedient.
His mother caught the meaning of disrespect in his eye, and,
shaking her finger in his face, quoted the proverb : "The
eye that mocketh at his father and despiseth to obey his
mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out and the
young eagles shall eat it." Her solemn denunciation
impressed him much. Her words rang in his ears.
Walking out alone in the woods, he was startled by the
cry of a raven overhead, "Caw ! Caw ! Caw !" His
mother's words burned in his mind like fire, and, placing
his hands over his face, he ran back home, crying out:
"Oh, my eyes, my eyes, let not the ravens pick out my
eyes I" But the law binds not the child alone. The parent
must not provoke the child. Many a child has become
discouraged in honoring and obeying parents by their
provocations.

These exhortations on the sanctity of family ties were
very pertinent to the matter in hand. The false philosophy
prevalent at Colosse discountenanced marriage and the rais-
ing of children, as tending to sin. Their selfish delusion was
that the escape from sin was to be found in abstinence from
marriage and retreat from social claims to the solitude of a
cave. While a few free-lovers have denounced what they
call the bondage of marriage, and while the trend of modern
society is to multiply causes for divorce, yet, on the whole,
the common sense of mankind honors both the sacred insti-
tution of marriage and the mutual laws governing marriage
and children. They respect the New Testament declaration

60 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

that "He that provideth not for his own hath denied the
faith and is worse than an infidel."

But some over-pious people have taken great offense at
the gospel because it does not peremptorily inculcate the
abolition of slavery, and incite to servile insurrection. They
greatly mistake the purpose of the gospel. It did not under-
take to be a political and revolutionary force. It came to
serve religious ends. It would have perished in the begin-
ning if it had pronounced on forms of political government
or the legality of social conditions. Whenever its legisla-
tion touched a social or political evil, it was to ameliorate
its harshness, but it relied mainly on the leavening power
of its great principles. Slavery abounded everywhere. It
taught the slave God's care for him and led him into spiritual
freedom. It taught him to be honest, industrious, conscien-
tious, as living unto his Lord. It revealed to him that God,
unlike man, is no respecter of persons, and held out for his
patient hope the heritage of the world to come. It laid a
restraining hand upon the Christian master, curbing his pas-
sions, enjoining justice and mercy in the treatment of the
slave, and called upon him to remember, first, that he was
Christ's bondman, and, second, that in Christ there were no
distinctions between the bond and the free. Thus indirectly,
by the leavening power of its principles, it is reforming all
evils of government and society, and will ultimately purge
the earth of all wickedness of whatever kind.

The exhortations pass from these social relations to incul-
cate the habit of thankful prayer, suggesting as a special
object of petition his own case. But he solicits on his behalf
no selfish gain, only "that God may open to him a door for
the Word" and that when it is open he may unveil the mys-
tery of the gospel "as he ought to speak." These two objects
of prayer, repeated in the Letter to the Ephesians, are very
suggestive. He conceives of prayer as able to influence the
workings of Providence, and to influence the Spirit's power

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS 61

on his own heart. In view of them, let us take heed that
we fall into no infidel attitude concerning prayer, nor raise
in our minds the doubt, "What profits shall we have if we
pray unto Him?" They also suggest that if an inspired
apostle deeply felt the need and longed for the power of
the prayers of his brethren, how foolish in us to discount so
valuable a service.

From devotions we pass to outward walk and speech.
"Walk in wisdom before them that are without." How
little are Christians sensible of the fact that they all, as
well as the apostles, are "a spectacle to the angels," to
demons, and to men. What a text for preachers ! "Them
that are without." Note the frequency of the phrase and
its several contexts, for example, Mark 4:11;! Cor. 5 : 13 ;
I Tim. 3 : 7. Indeed it is a qualification of the preacher that
"he have a good report of them that are without." Apart
from the exact form of the phrase are many passages em-
bodying the thought in other words. Moreover, as words
count as much as conduct with "them that are without,"
"let your speech be always with grace seasoned with salt,
that ye may know how ye ought to answer each one." The
outside world bristles with interrogation points toward Chris-
tians and Christianity. How often we injure the cause by
injudicious answers. How closely Peter follows Paul's lead
in this exhortation : "Ready always to give answer to every
man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in
you, yet with meekness and fear," I Peter 3:15-

Concerning these exhortations on family duties, devotions,
outward walk and speech, observe, first, how close the con-
nection between Colossians and Ephesians, and, second, how
uniform the teaching by all the New Testament writers and
speakers on all these grave matters. Compare, for example,
on husbands and wives, Paul's teaching in these prison letters
(Col. 3:18, 19 ; Eph. 5 : 22, 23) with Peter's (I Peter 2>''7)
writing later to the same people in part. The letter refers

62^ COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

them to its bearers, Tychicus and Onesimus, for detailed
information of his state and work.

In the salutation he distinguished between his Jewish and
Gentile companions in labor. Aristarchus, Mark and Justus
are Jewish Christians, while Luke, Demas and Epaphras
are Gentiles. It is gratifying to note that he takes pleasure
in the association and co-operation of Mark. Evidently in
some way his mind toward Mark is changed since his refusal
to let him be a companion on his second missionary tour
(Acts 15 : 37-40). We have no evidence of the ground of
the reconciliation, and so cannot say whether Paul revised
his original judgment, or Mark evinced repentance for his
former abandonment.

In the first letter from Peter, written a few years later
from Babylon to these same Colossians, he reports that both
Silas and Mark, with others, are with him. In the separa-
tion Barnabas took Mark and Paul took Silas. Peter has
fallen heir to both of the companions on that divided second
missionary tour. We learn in these salutations that Luke
was a physician, which many terms of his writings indicate,
and that Epaphras was an evangelist who probably planted
the three churches of the Lycus valley — Colosse, Hierapolis
and Laodicea.

In his second imprisonment at Rome we find Paul com-
plaining that the Demas he here commends had forsaken
him, having loved this present world (II Tim. 4: 10). And
what a difference in his own salutation when II Timothy
is written! Only Luke is with him. He urges Timothy
to come and bring Mark. Tychicus had been sent to
Ephesus.

In his directions we find a household church in Hierapolis
as well as in Colosse. We find more than one of these
churches in Rome. Doubtless these churches in private
homes came about from the fact that they had no public
meeting house for all the churches in a city, and services

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS 63

were held in the home of some leading brother or sister who
could afford the most room.

The number of these churches in one city is a disproof of
the now current theory that in apostolic times all Christians
of a metropolis were in one church organization, presided,
over by a leading bishop, with subordinate bishops supplying
the various sub congregations, assembling in different parts
of the city.

As bearing upon this point Rev. W. T. Whitley, in deliver-
ing the "Gay Lectures" before the Southern Baptist Theo-
logical Seminary on the topic, "The Story of Missions in
Five Continents," special topic, "Expansion in America and
Australia," has this to say, as reported in "The Review and
Expositor," January, 1908:

"Look next at church organization. To these shores were
transplanted from Britain three patterns, monarchical, aris-
tocratic, democratic. Already a Methodist Episcopal has
been produced — an ingenious crossing of two of these. Al-
ways in Tasmania the Baptist leaders examined their Bibles
to see if Baptist traditions were absolutely in harmony with
New Testament principle ; whether a few baptized believers
who build a house for prayer and praise, paying a few men
and women to conduct it, with one pastor at the head, form
a ^church' on divine right, on a necessary pattern. They
decide not, and all the Baptists in the island form really one
community, with the ministers the ministers of the whole
body. Church extension and matters of general interest are
decided by the whole, and selfish isolation is discouraged.
The same question occurs to a minister in this town, and
he asked whether New Testament precedent did not point
to a single church of Louisville, like the church of Ephesus
or Corinth. American conservatism frowned down the
heretic, and he sought refuge at Rome. But the same ques-
tion has again been raised in Britain, the president of the
Baptist Union stating as his New Year's message that our

64* COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

usual plan is at best of human origin, and not ordered in
scripture, while many of its developments are absolutely anti-
scriptural. For the next few years English Baptists are
likely to inquire diligently whether the congregational system
blindly adopted by Robert Browne is the last word in organi-
zation, or whether the New Testament does not show us all
the baptized believers in a town forming one church, with
a plurality of elders both to teach and to administer business,
and probably many houses for worship. Indeed, in one
great town this system is just being tried, and the question
has been ventilated by papers at our last session of the Bap-
tist Union."

As further illustration of the dangerous trend, I cite a
letter from "The Argus." The title of the letter is : "The
Baptist Outlook in Great Britain," by J. H. Shakespeare.
Under the head of "Ministerial Recognition" the writer gives
as news :

"The regular door into the Baptist ministry is through
one of our recognized theological colleges. Hitherto as soon
as a student left college and became the pastor of a church,
his name was placed on the list of 'accredited ministers' in
*The Baptist Handbook.' This recognition, as it was called,
carried with it the right to share in the Annuity Fund, and
other privileges of membership with the Baptist Union. The
pastors who entered the ministry without first passing
through one of the recognized colleges were required to pass
two examinations before being placed upon the accredited
list of the Baptist Union. At our last spring assembly, how-
ever, a new scheme of ministerial recognition was all but
unanimously adopted, and our pastors are henceforth to
be divided into two sections — probationers and recognized
ministers. Collegiates who receive satisfactory certificates
from their college principals will be at once placed upon the
probationers' list, and non-collegiates will have the same
privilege on passing one examination. All ministers on the

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS 65

probationers' list, whether collegiate or non-collegiate, will
be required to pass a Baptist Union examination and to
submit satisfactory proof as to their pastoral efficiency be-
fore their names can be transferred to the accredited list,
and they then become recognized ministers. It is hoped
that these new regulations will, to some extent, guard the
portals to the ministry, and make it more possible to infer
that if a man is a Baptist minister he shall not only be
spiritually qualified, but also be an educated person."

These two extracts indicate a most dangerous trend. The
first surrenders the old-time definition of a church, not only
advocating the metropolitan idea but the provincial idea of
a church. The second goes to a greater extreme. An asso-
ciation of purely human origin assumes to "guard the portals
of the ministry" — to divide them into classes of probationers
and accredited — into collegiates and non-collegiates, usurps
the church prerogative of subjecting to its examination, and
seeks to limit the ministry to "educated persons."

The stupendous folly of the whole business, its suicidal
unscripturalness, becomes apparent by applying the rule to
New Testament apostles, evangelists, and pastors, and to
past Baptist history. God forbid that we should follow the
English Baptists !

The direction about exchange of letters between Colosse
and Laodicea (4: 16) throws light on two points : (i) That
in all probability the letter from Laodicea was the letter
which we call Ephesians. (2) We learn how New Testa-
ment manuscripts were passed around before there was a
collection of them into one book or library. And how some
lists, after collections were formed, and even some earlier
versions, did not have all the New Testament books. We
note also in the directions that Archippus, son of Philemon,
was a minister, and one, too, that needed to be stirred up
somewhat in the line of duty. The reader will note the usual
attestation of Paul's letters by his autograph signature, a

66 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

habit adopted since he wrote his first letter, caused by report
of forged letters in his name.

QUESTIONS

1. Where does the practical part of this letter commence, and
what reciprocal relations expressed in 3 : 18 — 4 : i ?

2. What the character of these relations, and what arises from
them?

3. Who the author of the relation between husband and wife,
what the history and nature of this relation ?

4. How may the sanctity of the marriage relation be maintained,
and what does this involve?

5. Where do we find the subject of the marriage relation
elaborated and illustrated, and what the essential points in the
discussion there?

6. What injunction here for children, and what, in detail, the
striking illustration given ?

7. What the special application of the exhortations on the sanc-
tity of family ties to the Colossians ?

8. What the gospel's attitude toward the institution of slavery,
and what special precepts here touching this subject?

9. What the lessons here on prayer ?

ID. What the lessons on outward walk and speech?

11. How does this teaching harmonize with other N. T. teaching
on the same subject, and what the-proof ?

12. Who were the bearers of this letter, and what trust did Paul
commit to them besides this letter ?

13. What distinction does Paul here make in his salutation, what
gratifying bit of information here relative to Mark, and what the
probable ground of this reconciliation?

14. What information touching these brethren from Peter, and
what information about Luke and Epaphras found in this closing
salutation?

15. What is here said of Demas, what is said of him in a later
letter, and what the lesson?

16. What some modern ideas of the church, and what the bearing
of the household churches referred to here and in Romans on such
ideas?

17. What Rev. W. T. Whitley's position on this and kindred
questions ?

18. What J. H. Shakespeare's idea of the ministry?

19. What the fault with each of these positions, respectively?

20. What light here on important matters from 4: 16-18?

THE BOOK OF EPHESIANS

VII

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

WE now come to consider the great Letter to the
Ephesians. The history of Paul's connection with
the Ephesians may be found in Acts 18:19-21;
19: 1-41 ; 20: 17-38. His latest connection is in the two let-
ters to Timothy. Peter's connection with all of the dispersed
Jews in the province of Proconsular Asia, including Ephesus,
appears in his two letters, I and II Peter. There is very
little in that ; the only connection is his writing to the Jewish
part of them. John's connection with these churches in
Asia is presented in the book of Revelation. Unquestion-
ably the tradition is correct that John in his old age moved
to Ephesus, and from that place as headquarters he con-
ducted his last apostolic labors. It was from that point that
he was arrested and banished to the Isle of Patmos, and
there wrote the book of Revelation, and that book of Reve-
lation was addressed to the seven churches in Proconsular
Asia.

Much of what is called Historical Introduction is omitted
in this chapter. The reasons are that all of these matters
have been treated in the discussions on Acts 18, 19 and 20,
and mainly because this letter is more of a circular letter
than a special communication to a single church. There is
an utter absence of any local tone in the letter. That it is
a general letter appears from the following considerations :
I. The absence of all personal messages — an unaccount-
able thing in a special letter to the church at Ephesus, in view

67

68 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

of his long stay there, and the necessary intimate personal
relations established. When we read the Letter to the Ro-
mans we see that one whole chapter is devoted to personal
salutations, and we notice in almost all of his special letters
that there are personal messages showing intimate acquaint-
ance. This letter has none of that.

2. It would be impossible for Paul, in writing a special
letter to the Ephesians, to use these two expressions : "Hav-
ing heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among
you," 1:15. In reading those three chapters in Acts we
note that it was not a matter of hearing with Paul to be
acquainted with the affairs at Ephesus, especially about their
faith in Christ. The second expression is: *Tf so be that
ye have heard of the dispensation of that grace of God
which was given me to you-ward." That shows that he
had to know about them by hearsay, and that they had to
know about him by hearsay, which does not fit at all with the
facts in the case concerning Paul's relation with the Ephesus
people. Then he goes on to say : "As I wrote before in few
words, whereby, when ye read, ye can perceive my under-
standing in the mystery of Christ," that is, "When you read
my former letter you will perceive my understanding in the
mystery of Christ." It is impossible that these two expres-
sions could have been used by Paul in writing the church at
Ephesus a special letter. Then that reference to the former
letter to them is a reference to the Letter to the Colossians.
He wrote to the Colossians first, but before he got a chance
so send it he wrote the more extended letter which we call
the Letter to the Ephesians. The same persons who were in
his mind when he wrote to the Colossians were evidently
in his mind when he wrote to the Ephesians.

3. Again, the reference in Colossians 4 : 16 to a letter from
Laodicea which they were to get and read, just as the Laodi-
ceans were to get and read the Letter to the Colossians,
shows that what is called the letter from Laodicea is the

INTRODUCTION TO EPHESIANS 69

letter which we call the Letter to the Ephesians. Both
Colossians and Ephesians were intended primarily for the
churches in the Lycus valley, which he himself had not
planted, but of which he had heard.

4. The phrase, "at Ephesus," in the first verse : "To the
saints that are at Ephesus," is not in the two oldest manu-
scripts— the Sinaitic and the Vatican. Yet again, the earliest
fathers, when commenting upon this Letter to the Ephesians,
say that the expression, "at Ephesus," was not in the copies
they had. It remains, then, to be explained how the name,
"Ephesians," got into the title, and especially how "at
Ephesus" got into the text. These titles were not a part
of the original letters, but were added much later to all of
them. How did it happen that all manuscripts have the
title, "To the Ephesians," and how did it happen that "at
Ephesus" got into the first verse ? The reasonable explana-
tion is this : The letter is a circular letter, a general discus-
sion of a great theme introduced in the Colossian letter, but
here elaborated for all the churches in Proconsular Asia.
A copy would probably be addressed to the Laodiceans,
other copies might be given to other churches. The original
letter may have been this way : "To all the saints that are

at ," leaving a blank for the insertion of

the name of the church to which a copy would be sent. It
was the object of Paul that this letter which we call "Ephe-
sians" should have general circulation. There is no local
tone about it ; it is just as applicable to one church in Asia
as to any other. It is certain that one copy, probably the
original one, reached the church at Ephesus, the metropolis
of Proconsular Asia, so that this copy would naturally
and more readily be preserved and passed into history.
The testimony is both substantial and sufficient that
Ephesus had this letter in her archives. So the world at
large would bear and know of this Ephesian copy of the
letter.

70 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

The Alexandrian manuscript which is one of the three
oldest (in the order of their antiquity (i) Sinaitic, (2)
Vatican, (3) Alexandrian) has "At Ephesus." What is still
more important is that the Peshito-Syriac version, which is
older than any manuscript that we have, has "At Ephesus,"
so the evidence is clear that some of the copies of the New
Testament did have "At Ephesus." The Alexandrian manu-
script and the Peshito-Syriac version prove this. Other
copies did not have it ; the Vatican and Sinaitic manuscripts
and the early fathers prove this. The absolutely non-local
tone of the letter shows its general character. We know that
Paul wrote the circular letter. He might have filled in one
of the blanks, "At Ephesus." Tychicus, who carried the
letter, was very probably an Ephesian. There is no clear
proof as to whether his home was at Colosse, Laodicea,
Hierapolis, or Ephesus, but the probabilities are in favor of
his living at Ephesus.

Now, this is why, in giving this discussion, the usual matter
of General Introduction is omitted, viz. : because this letter
does not concern Ephesus any more than Laodicea, Hierap-
olis, or Colosse. While a copy went to Ephesus, unquestion-
ably a copy also went to Laodicea and one to Colosse. There-
fore it would be out of order for me in a discussion on the
General Introduction to go into details on the history of
Ephesus.

The relation of Ephesians to Colossians is even more
evident and striking than the relation of Galatians to Ro-
mans. The reader should carefully study the parallels be-
tween these letters so ably set forth in the Introduction to
the "Commentary on Ephesians" by Moule in the Cam-
bridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, which I here quote
entire :

I. Christ the head of the church: Eph. 1:22; 4:15;
5:23; Col. 1 : 18; 2: 19. This view of the Lord's position
and function is practically confined to these epistles.

INTRODUCTION TO EPHESIANS 71

2. Christ supreme over angelic powers : Eph. 1:21; Col.
2: 10.

3. The church Christ's body : Eph. i : 23 ; 4 : 12 ; 5 :23-30,
etc. ; Col. 1:18, 24.

4. Articulation and nourishment of the body: Eph.
4: 16; Col. 2: 19. The imagery is peculiar to these epistles.

5. Growth of the body : Eph. 4:16; Col. 2 : 19.

6. The body one : Eph. 2 : 16 ; 4 : 4 ; Col. 3:15.

7. Christians once dead in sin: Eph. 2:1, 5 ; Col. 2: 13.

8. Once alienated from God and grace: Eph. 2:12;
4:18; Col. 1:21. The Greek verb is confined to these
epistles.

9. Once in darkness : Eph. 4 : 18 ; 5 : 8 ; Col. 1:13.

10. Now risen with Christ : Eph. 2:6; Col. 2:12; 3:1.
The Greek verb is confined to these epistles.

11. Made alive with Christ: Eph. 2:5; Col. 2: 13. The
Greek verb is confined to these epistles.

12. Reconciled through the death of Christ: Eph. 2:13-
16; Col. 1:20, 21. The Greek verb is confined to these
epistles.

13. Redeemed, in the sense of pardon of sin, in Christ:
Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14. The exact phrase is peculiar to these
epistles.

14. In the light : Eph. 5 : 8, 9 ; Col. 1:12.

15. Rooted in Christ: Eph. 3: 17; Col. 2: 7. The Greek
verb is confined to these epistles.

16. Built up as a structure : Eph. 2 : 20 ; Col. 2 : 7.

17. On a foundation : Eph. 3:17; Col. i : 2^.

18. Spiritually filled : Eph. i : 23 ; 3 : 19 ; 5 : 18 ; Col. 1:9;
2: 10.

19. The fulness : Eph. i : 23 ; 3 : 19 ; Col. i : 19 ; 2 : 9.

20. The old man and the new man : Eph. 4 : 22-24 ; Col.
3:9>io.

21. Similar classes of sins reproved: Eph. 4:2, 3; Col.
3: 12-14; Eph. 4 : 25 ; 5 : 5 ; Col. 3 : 5-8.

72 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

22. The wrath of God coming : Eph. 5:6; Col. 3 : 6.

23. The duties of home enforced, in the same order and
similar words : Eph. 5 : 22 — 6 : 9 ; Col. 3 : 18 — ^4 : i.

24. The walk of sin : Eph. 2 : 2 ; 4 : 17 ; Col. 3 : 7.

25. The walk of holiness : Eph. 2 : 10 ; 4 : i ; 5 : 2 ; 5 : 15 ;
Col. 1 : 10; 2:6; 4: 5.

26. Redemption of opportunity: Eph. 5:16; Col. 4:5.
The phrase is peculiar to these epistles.

2^. Prayer and intercession : Eph. 6:18; Col. 4 : 2.

28. The mystery revealed : Eph. 1:9; 3:3, 4, 9 ; 6:19;
Col. 1 : 26, 27 ; 2 : 2 ; 4 : 5.

29. Riches : Eph. i : 7, 18 ; 2 : 7 ; 3 : 8, 16 ; Col. i : 27 ; 2 : 2.

30. Ages and generations : Eph. 3 : 21 ; Col. i : 26.
"Generation" occurs in Paul only in these epistles and the
Philippians.

31. The word of truth: Eph. 1 : 13; Col. i : 5.

32. Character and commission of Tychicus: Eph. 6:21;
Col. 4: 7.

The reader will note the great characteristics of this
Letter to the Ephesians :

1. It is a letter of great prayers. There are two prayers
in this letter that beat the world on prayer. One of them
staggers qredulity itself. When we come to expound the
letter both of these great prayers will be analyzed. I ven-
ture to say that most people never in their lives prayed for
some of the things which Paul prayed for here.

2. Then it is a letter of salvation by grace. It certainly
presents the doctrine that salvation is by grace, from its
incipiency in the Divine purpose to its consummation in
glory.

3. It is a letter of great unities. Nowhere else do we find
such complete unities. For instance, Jew and Gentile are
made one — one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Holy
Spirit, all members of the church one, consisting of one
body.

INTRODUCTION TO EPHESIANS 73

4. In the next place it is a letter concerning the multiform
views of the word "church," such as we find nowhere else.

5. Finally, it is a letter of great love. We find when we
come to Revelation that Jesus has just one thing against the
church at Ephesus, and that is, that it had left its first love.
We find in I Cor. 13 a marvelous apostrophe on the power of
love, but that only presents love in one of its aspects. This
Letter to the Ephesians presents it in many forms.

We now come to the analysis. We need a plan, or scheme
of study, so here I give the following analysis :

1. The greeting, i : 1,2.

2. The sublime ascription of praise, i : 3-14.

3. The thanksgiving, 1:15.

4. The first great prayer, i : 16-21.

5. Christ's exaltation and its purpose toward the church,
1 : 2.:i, 23.

6. Salvation by grace, 2 : i-io.

7. The breaking down of the wall of partition between
Jew and Gentile, and their union in one church as an insti-
tution, which finds expression in each particular church,
2: 11-22.

8. The relation of Paul to this great mystery, 3 : 1-13.

9. His second great prayer, 3 : 14-21.

10. The great unities, and the instruments for securing
them, 4: 1-16.

11. Consequent Exhortation: (i) To a life of holiness in
a wicked world, 4 : 17-21. (2) To a life of hohness in family
relations, 5 : 22 — 6 : 9.

12. Christ as the bride, illustration, 5 : 25-32.

13. The Christian armor, 6: 10-20.

14. Tychicus, the messenger, 6: 21, 22.

15. The benediction, 6 : 23.

Attention needs to be recalled to the development of
thought in these letters written during the final imprison-
ment at Rome — that they concern the person and office of

74 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

Christ. In Philipplans on the person and office of Christ we
have presented His great humihation in laying aside the
form of God and taking upon himself the form of a slave
and becoming obedient unto the sacrificial death on the
cross, then His transcendent exaltation to be King of kings
and Lord of lords. This is the thought in Philippians.
When we come to Colossians we have the person of Christ
in His relation to the Father, in His relation to the universe,
and in His relation to the church. When we come to Ephe-
sians we have the relation of Christ to the universe not
much stressed, and His relation to the church, with emphasis
on the church. In other words, Ephesians is a letter more
concerning the church than concerning the person of Christ.
Colossians is more concerning the person of Christ than
concerning the church. And Philippians is altogether con-
cerning the person of Christ. Thus Philippians, the person
of Christ alone; Colossians the person of Christ mainly,
church partly ; Ephesians, person of Christ somewhat, church
mainly. That is the development in these letters.

Whoever can expound the references to the church in
the Letter to the Ephesians is a past master on the New
Testament usages of the word, and nobody is a master or
expert on the New Testament usage of the word, "church,"
who cannot find in Ephesians all three great senses of the
word, "church," that is, the church in glory conceived in
the mind of God as a unit, all the elect; the church as an
institution, and the church as a particular congregation.
Every one of these will be seen when we come to expound
the letter.

INTRODUCTION TO EPHESIANS 75

QUESTIONS

1. Where do you find the history of Paul's connection with the
church at Ephesus prior to this letter, and where his subsequent
connection ?

2. What the slight connection between Peter and Jude with the
Christians of proconsular Asia?

3. What John's connection ?

4. What matter is usually given in an introductory chapter to a
letter written to a particular place, and why omitted here?

5. What expressions in the letter itself make it impossible that
this letter is especially for the Ephesians ?

6. What authorities omit "At Ephesus" in verse i, and what
retain it, and how do you account for this discrepancy?

7. What the letter to which Paul refers in Col. 4 : 16, and what
references in Ephesians confirm it?

8. Give the parallels between Colossians and Ephesians, and
state what they prove.

9. What the great characteristics of this letter?

10. Give the author's analysis.

11. Trace the development of thought in Philippians, Colossians,
Ephesians and Hebrews on the person of Christ and His relations,
and show the change in emphasis as the development proceeds.

12. What the position of one who can give the several senses of
the word, "church," in this letter ?

13. Collocate the references to each and expound them.

VIII

ELECTION, FOREORDINATION, ADOPTION,
GRACE

Scripture: 1:1-14

IN the historical introduction attention was called to the
characteristics of this letter. Let us recall these charac-
teristics. It is a letter of exuberant joy. There is not a
pessimistic note or tone in it. The circumstances of Paul's
own imprisonment cast no shadow over its glowing pages.
It treats of salvation by grace.

Salvation, from its incipiency in the divine purpose before
the world was created, to its consummation in glory, is all of
grace.

The divine sovereignty is exalted throughout, and the
divine love is the fountain-medium and application of sal-
vation. This brings out in a marked degree the Holy
Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — distinguishing with
great clearness the peculiar office of each in the salvation
of men. The Father is the source, the Son is the medium,
and the Holy Spirit applies. All the divine attributes are
magnified — infinite holiness, love, wisdom, omniscience,
omnipotence, and omnipresence.

The salvation is according to a well-ordered plan, and
worked out without accident or confusion to a glorious end.
What love desired, that wisdom planned, intelligence chose,
will decreed, and Providence worked out, making contribu-
tory thereto the whole universe with all its material laws
and spiritual intelligences. No detail is left to chance; all
means are included, whether friendly or hostile. Each link

76

SALVATION CORNERSTONES 77

of the chain is forged by infinite wisdom and power, and the
whole chain, infallibly strong in all its parts, extends from
eternity to eternity.

What of this plan was mystery to the finite mind in Old
Testament days is made manifest in the revelation of Christ.
God's apparent partiality toward a particular nation is now
disclosed to be an equal love for all nations. Jew and Gen-
tile are made one, and aliens and strangers become fellow-
citizens in the commonwealth of Him who is no respecter of
persons. Christian character and service, as fruits of ante-
cedent grace, magnify Him whose holiness is repugnant to
sin and idleness. The whole letter is designed, not only to
glorify the sovereignty of God, but to promote purity of
heart and life.

We take up the exposition, following the order of the
analysis given in the last chapter. The first item of the
analysis is the greeting, verses 1,2. In most of his greetings
Paul first announces his authority, "an apostle," and, second,
that he is such by the will of God. Those addressed are called
"saints" with reference to their profession rather than char-
acter, and "believers" or "faithful" with reference to their
subjective state. He invokes on them, as upon all to whom
he writes, grace and peace.

We come now to the ascription of blessedness to God
because He blessed us. This item extends from verse 3 to
verse 14. Let the reader note the use of the past tense (the
Greek aorist) and not the perfect tense. It is hardly proper
in this connection to say "who hath blessed us." It means
"who blessed us," referring to a time long past. That tense
goes all the way through. We will be able to see the force of
this presently.

Let us notice, in the second place, the distinction in mean-
ing when we bless God and when He blesses us. When we
bless God we ascribe blessedness to Him ; when He blesses us
He confers blessings. In the Old Testament the term

78 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

"blessed" is applied quite often to men. In the New Testa-
ment the term is used, I think, about eight times, and always
refers to God.

Now let us analyze a sentence twelve verses long, extend-
*|\ ing from verse 3 to verse 14, inclusive. I have yet to find a
man who has thoroughly followed that sentence clear through
and kept up the connection. The grammatical construction
is exceedingly difficult, making a clear analysis very hard,
because the apostle, like a Titan, piles mountains upon top of
mountains in his thoughts. He is very economic in his use
of periods. No matter how difficult, let us try to analyze it,
particularly that "blessed us," which in verse 3 is in the past
tense. We want to analyze it as follows : Place where He
blessed us? He blessed us in heavenly places. Time when
He blessed us ? Before the world was. In whonj He blessed
us ? In Christ — we were not there personally. In what He
blessed us? In all spiritual blessings ; temporal blessings are
not taken into account at all. How did God bless us then and.
there, that is, in Heaven before the world was ? In election,
foreordination and grace. That is how He blessed us before
we existed ; in His purpose of election, in His foreordination,
and in His grace. We notice how frequently he brings in
both foreordination and election, and therefore as He blessed
us in election and foreordination we want to see what those
words mean.

I take up the first one— ^election. What is it? Abstractly
it means. choice. Concretely there may be an election of a
nation, like Israel, for a national or typical purpose, but that
is not what he is discussing here. He is discussing the elec-
tion of individuals, or persons. When did this election take
place? Before the world was. As it took place then, and as
we were not existing then, in whom did it take place ? We
were elected in Christ. To what end were we elected ? That
we should be holy and without blemish in love, That is what
the text says about the election.

SALVATION CORNERSTONES 79

The other term used is *'foreordination." First, what is
it? It is a decree beforehand. To ordain is to decree, and
/preordination is a decree beforehand. Who were ordained?
The individuals that were chosen. Unto what were they or-
dainer? Unto adoption as sons. Through whom were they
adopted as sons ? Through Christ. According to what was
this foreordination of the adoption as sons through Christ?
According to the good pleasure of His will. It could not be
according to anything in us ; it was anterior to our being. JTo
^Mt end was that foreordination ? To the praise of the glory
of His grace.

Let us now see how far we have advanced. He blessed
us — where? In heaven. When? Before the world was.
In whom? In Christ. In what? All spiritual blessings.
How could He do that then and there? In election, fore-
ordination and grace. What is election? Choice toward
individuals. When was this choice made? Before the world
was. As we were not there then, in whom was it made ? In
Christ. To what end ? That we should be holy and without
blemish in love. He blessed us at that time in foreordina-
tion. What does that mean? To decree beforehand. Con-
cerning whom ? The particular individuals that were elected.
Unto what? Unto adoption as sons. Through whom?
Through Jesus Christ. According to what? According to
the good pleasure of His will. To what end? To the praise
of the glory of His grace.

That brings in another term — -^race — in which He then
blessed us. What is grace ? Unmerited favor. How is that
bestowed? Freely, gratuitously. I once heard a man say,
"free gratis, for nothing, without charge." That is the way
it is bestowed. As we were not there, in whom was it
bestowed ? In Christ, the Beloved. The blessings that I am
to receive as a Christian were not bestowed upon me, the
hateful, but in Christ, the Beloved. I will get to them by get-
ting into Him, and be complete in Him.

80 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

So far we have analyzed that sentence up to the specifica-
tions of the blessings. The first specification is adoption.
What is adoption? Adoption is a form of law by which one
not naturally a child is legally made a child and heir. Just
as if a father should go to the Orphans' Home and select a
little orphan, with nothing in it to recommend it, take that
child according to the forms of law and receive it into his
family, so that under the law it will inherit just as much as
if it were born in that family. That is adoption.

When does adoption take place ? It is not like election and
foreordination. We were foreordained to adoption; when
the time comes we get it. We are all children of God by
faith, but as John expresses it, "As many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become sons of God, even as many
as believed on Him." So our adoption takes place at the time
when we believe, and when we receive Christ as our Savior.
Foreordination took place way back yonder in eternity, but
the fruitage, the adoption, takes place in time. How is this
adoption signified to us? How am I to tell when I am
adopted ? Whenever in the heart of a believer there comes a
filial feeling toward God, "He hath sent forth the spirit of
adoption whereby we cry Abba, Father."

I remember distinctly when that filial feeling came into
my own heart. Before I was converted I thought of God
as distant, dreadful, unapproachable, and did not like to
think about Him. But when I believed on Jesus Christ and
the spirit of adoption came into my heart, I could not say
often enough, "Father! Father! Father!" I would wake
in the night and say it.

In heaven, before the creation of the world, He blessed us
in all spiritual blessings, but He blessed us then in election,
foreordination and grace. Later the election, foreordination
and grace fruited in adoption. He elected us, foreordained
us unto adoption as sons through Christ unto himself, accord-
ing to the good pleasure of His will.

SALVATION CORNERSTONES 81

Let us take the next blessing that is specified. "In whom
we have our redemption." What is redemption ? To redeem
means to buy back that which had been sold. We were sold
under sin, we were in bondage, under the power of Satan, a
lawful captive to Satan. Christ proposes, as one of the bless-
ings of salvation, to buy us back, to redeem us. So redemp-
tion is buying back. What is the price? His blood on the
cross. We notice over in Peter, he says : "You were pur-
chased, not with corruptible things like silver and gold, but
with the blood of Christ." Redemption and adoption are
both legal terms. They relate to the external aspects of sal-
vation, while regeneration and sanctification relate to the
internal aspects.

The next blessing is forgiveness of our sins. This stands
in apposition with redemption — redemption, which is the for-
giveness of sins : "Our redemption, even the forgiveness of
our sins." That idea of redemption is peculiar to these prison
letters. In Colossians the word, "redemption," is so inter-
preted, but let us get the distinction between redemption and
forgiveness. Redemption, or buying back, implies that we
were sold under sin and had to be bought back. Redemp-
tion consists in loosing the bond of sin, it consists in remission
or forgiveness of sin. Forgiveness of sin, throughout the
Bible, particularly throughout the New Testament, is a great
covenant blessing. See how it is referred to in Hebrews as
one of the three great blessings of the new covenant
(8:9-13) towit:

1. "I will write my law in their minds" — not on tablets
of stone.

2. "All shall know me experimentally."

3. "I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their
sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." In the
sacrifices of the Old Testament the sins were simply passed
over until the true expiation came. So that we may count

82 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

the actual expiation of sins as a great blessing of the new
covenant.

Just here arises a question which has confused many. If
sins under the old covenant were merely passed over until
the Antitype of the sacrifices came, were men really pardoned
before Christ died? The difficulty lies in confounding two
quite distinct things — expiation Godward and forgiveness
manward. No sin was expiated Godward till Christ died,
but sins under the Old Testament dispensation were forgiven
manward whenever the sinner's faith looked beyond the
typical sacrifice to the antitypical. The Son's pledge to ex-
piate in the fulness of time was accepted by the Father as if
performed, and the transgression of the offender who be-
lieved was reckoned to Christ and not imputed to the trans-
gressor. The moment a creditor's debt is charged to the
surety, the debtor is released.

At this point also we need to clear up another matter. If I
am justified, declared innocent, when I believe on Jesus
Christ, how can there be any forgiveness of sin ? I have been
tried and acquitted, and after I have been acquitted why say,
*T will forgive thee?" I will explain. A owes $10,000 and
B is surety. A becomes bankrupt, is unable to pay, and the
security pays it. B having paid it, if the creditor were to
bring suit against A for it, he would stand acquitted before
the law, because he holds the receipt that B has paid it.
While he is declared free, so far as the original creditor is
concerned, he still owes B, his surety, and B may remit the
debt. So when Christ paid our debts we were acquitted
before the law, but were left under obligation to the surety.
Now the surety, having saved us from the law, can say to
us, *T will freely forgive you what I have paid for you on
certain conditions."

We are now ready to go back and take up those blessings
— adoption, redemption, forgiveness of sin. These are the
specifications of the blessings in Christ. They have all been

SALVATION CORNERSTONES 83

explained. According to what are all these? Our text tells
us that they are "according to the riches of His grace." How
are these riches of His grace made to abound in us? By-
revelation of the mystery of His will. Suppose we are in sin ;
we do not know a thing about what took place way back
yonder before the world was. We do not know that way
back yonder we were elected and foreordained and have a
portion in Christ. Our text says, "According to the riches
of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wis-
dom and prudence, making known to us the mystery of His
will." When was this mystery fully made known? In the
dispensation of the fulness of time.

This brings us to another point. What object had God in
view in all these things explained so far, in blessing us in
all spiritual blessings, in election, foreordination and grace,
which blessings are adoption, redemption, and forgiveness of
sin ? To what end ? Here we get on Colossian ground : "To
sum up, gather together, or re-collect all things in Christ."
To re-collect means that there has been a dispersion. That
dispersion took place when sin came into the world. Not
only was man lost, but the world in which he lived was
accursed. Now the object was to sum up, re-collect, all
things in Christ. In Colossians we considered the person of
Christ: (i) in His relation to the Father; (2) in His rela-
tion to the universe; (3) in His relation to the church. All
things in heaven — that includes the angels; all things in
earth — that includes man. He gives two samples or speci-
fications of this gathering together, or re-collection, which
takes place here on the earth (verse 12) : i. "IVe who had
before hoped in Christ." 2. (verse 13) "In whom ye also
having heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salva-
tion." "We" and "you" that have been dispersed are to be
brought together in Christ. Who is the "we ?" Those who
hoped in Christ before the gospel times — the Jews, with types
and prophecies to guide them. Who are "ye ?" Those who

84 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

heard the gospel. It is the purpose of all the election and
predestination and foreordination to re-collect all things and
to sum them up in Christ.

Let us see the process with reference to "we." (i) It is
said "we are made God's heritage." That is the first item.
(2) "Having been foreordained." (3) "According to His
purpose." (4) To what end? "That we should be unto the
praise of His glory."

Let us look at the "you" also. "In whom ye also having
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, first
believed, then were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise."
He is called the Holy Spirit of promise because He was
promised. "Behold I send upon you the promise of the
Father." The prophets promised, John the Baptist promised,
Christ promised. What is the seal ? Pedobaptists tell us that
it is baptism. This is error.

Baptism is never called a seal. We were sealed with the
Holy Spirit. We were sealed unto the day of redemption.
The object of the seal is to indicate ownership and to safe-
guard what is sealed unto its destination.

We take a package down to the express office addressed
to A. B. C, Los Angeles, California. The package is sealed ;
on the seal is the signet of the express company. If the
company is strong enough to guarantee the sanctity of the
seal, it will remain sealed until it gets to its destination. When
we believe, something takes place that is called sealing, and
whatever it is, it is done by the Holy Spirit and not by bap-
tizing. In the Letter to Timothy we find an account of the
signet pressed on the seal. That signet had two inscriptions,
one on each side. On one side this: "The Lord knoweth
them that are His." We may not know ; we may make a
mistake about it. The devil may make a mistake about it,
but the Lord knows. On the other side: "Let Him that
taketh the name of the Lord depart from iniquity." The

SALVATION CORNERSTONES 85

seal of the Holy Spirit makes distinct impressions that God
will always recognize.

The lumber camps furnish an illustration. Many parties
cut down the pine trees and roll the logs into the river. In
the succeeding freshet they all come down to the boom to-
gether. How do they determine separate ownership ? Each
log has its distinguishing mark. So the mark or seal of the
Spirit given unto us declares God's ownership and guar-
antees that we will reach our destination — the day of redemp-
tion.

This seal is God's witness with our spirit that we are
His. Each one has the witness in himself. "They shall all
know me from the least unto the greatest." It is a matter
of personal experience and consciousness. It is even more,
for the next thought is, "it is an earnest of our inheritance."
But^what is an earnest? The grapes of Eshcol brought by
the spies illustrate. The Israelites had in these grapes a
foretaste of the promised land. It was a sample only, but it
prophesied more to follow. So the joy that comes to the new
convert, when he is sealed by the Holy Spirit, is the same in
kind, though not in degree, of the inheritance laid up in
heaven for the saints. While the blessing of this earnest of
the Spirit is fresh in our hearts, we say, "This is heaven on
earth."

In commercial matters an earnest is a part of the purchase
money, binding the contract, and guaranteeing the rest of
the paym.ent. Whoever accepts the earnest is bound to abide
by the full terms of the contract. So our text says this
earnest is "unto the redemption of God's own possession."
The seal declares His title to us, and is an earnest that "He
who commenced a good work in you will perfect it unto the
day of Jesus Christ." Not only does it assure us of God's
personal interest in His property, and of His purpose to com-
plete what He has begun, thereby making it God's own con-
cern and interest that our, salvation receive its consummation.

86 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

but it commits God to the redemption of the cursed earth,
man's habitation. See the thought elaborated in Rom.
8 : 19-23 : *'For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth
for the reveaHng of the sons of God. For the creation was
subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of Him
who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall
be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty
of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the
whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until
now. And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the
first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting for our adoption, towit, the redemption
of our body."

QUESTIONS

1. In the plan of salvation set forth in this letter, how is the
distinguishing office work of the persons in the Trinity brought out?

2. In the working out of the salvation, in what order are the
divine attributes exercised, and the part of each?

3. When was the plan a mystery, and when was the mystery
unveiled by revelation ?

4. In addressing the letter to "saints," does the apostle use the
term as a designation of actual character or of profession and
consecration?

5. Mark the terminals of Paul's ascription of blessedness to God
because He blessed us.

6. What the tense and signification of the verb in His blessing us?

7. What the distinction in meaning between our blessing God and
His blessing us?

8. In analyzing this long compound sentence, 1:3-14, answer:
(i) Where, when, in whom, and in what did He bless us? (2) De-
fine the terms election, and foreordination, and the order and time
of each. (3) When, in whom, and according to what the adoption?

(4) What is grace, how bestowed, in whom, and how do we get it?

(5) What the three specifications of the blessings we receive? (6)
Define and explain the three.

9. When and how were sins expiated?

10. Explain how sins in the Old Testament dispensation were not
expiated and yet were forgiven.

11. Explain how one justified is afterward forgiven.

12. What the end, or purpose, of God in the blessings, as in
election, foreordination and grace?

13. Distinguish between the "we" and the "ye" m 1 : 13, and
give the process in each.

SALVATION CORNERSTONES 87

14. Why is the Holy Spirit called the "Spirit of promise" and
cite both Old Testament and New Testament instances of the
promise, and when was the promise fulfilled?

15. Explain the "seal" in i : 13, what it is, when and by whom
done, and the purpose.

16. Explain "earnest" in i : 14.

17. How may we subjectively know or be assured that we are
adopted ?

IX

CHRIST'S ATONEMENT AND PAUL'S PRAYER
Scripture: Eph. i : 15-21

BEFORE taking up this part of the exposition I will
answer a question arising from the discussion in the
previous chapter, viz. : "Did Christ expiate the sins
of all men, or the sins of the elect only, and does not uni-
versal expiation demand universal salvation ?" This question
belongs to the department of systematic theology. Without
desire to intrude into that department, yet as Biblical theology
cannot be altogether separated from the teaching of the
English Bible, I submit a reply for the benefit of those who
may never study systematic theology. It is every way a
difficult question, and calls out in its answer all the theories
of the atonement advocated in the Christian ages. In gen-
eral terms it is the old question — is the atonement general
or limited? Perhaps no man has ever given a precise
answer satisfactory to his own mind even, and it is certain
no one has ever satisfied all others.

It must be sufficient for present purposes to deal with
the question briefly, relegating to systematic theology the
critical and extended reply derived from a comparison of
all the prominent theories of the atonement in the light of
the scriptures. The following passages of scripture doubt-
less suggest the question : Heb. 2 : 9, "Jesus hath been made
a little lower than the angels * * * that by the grace of
God He should taste death for every man." There must be
some real sense, some gracious sense, in which He tasted
death for every man. I Tim. 4:9, 10: "Faithful is the

88

CHRIST'S ATONEMENT 89

saying and worthy of all acceptation. For to this end we
labor and strive, because we have our hope set on the living
God, who is the Savior of all men, specially of them that
believe." Here again it is evident that God in some real
sense is the Savior of all men, but not in the special sense
in which He is the Savior of believers. A more pertinent
passage is I John 2 : 2, "And he [Jesus Christ] is the pro-
pitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only, hut also for
the whole world."

The first question is answered here if anywhere. The
question is, **Did Christ expiate the sins of all men?" And
this passage says, "He is the propitiation for the sins of
the whole world." Further on in the letter (4 : 14) John
says, "And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father
hath sent the Son to be the Savior of the world," this lan-
guage doubtless referring back to John i : 29, "On the mor-
row he [John the Baptist] seeth Jesus coming unto him,
and sayeth, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the
sin of the world!" Here "Lamb of God," the vicarious
sacrifice, and "taketh away the sin," must refer to the expia-
tion in some real sense. Moreover, it accords with "God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have
eternal life," and quadrates particularly with the sincerity
of the great commission in Matt. 28: 19 and Mark 16: 16,
and the intense earnestness with which the apostles pressed
home upon every heart the duty and privilege of all men
to accept the salvation offered.

The case of Paul is much in point, because of the use of
the very word in question, H Cor. 5 : 18-20, "But all things
are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ,
and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation; towit, that
God was in Christ reconciling the world nnto himself, not
reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed
unto us the word of reconciliation. We are ambassadors

90 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating
by us : we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled
to God." This particular passage is the more pertinent
and important since it discriminates so clearly between the
two reconciliations, towit: (i) God was reconciled to us
through the expiation of Christ, satisfying the claims of
justice and placating the wrath of the law on account of sin.
(2) Our reconciliation to God through acceptance of Christ
tendered in the ministry of the Word.

Here it is evident that expiation becomes effective to us
through faith in Christ. And it is perfectly clear from many
scriptures that no matter in what sense expiation was effec-
tive toward God for all men, it cannot result in universal
salvation, since "he that believeth not, shall be damned."
The second question is answered, towit: No matter in
what sense expiation was for all men Godward, it can avail
to us ward by faith alone. The question of universal sal-
vation is not therefore bound up with reconciliation God-
ward, whatever its extent, but with the ministry of recon-
ciliation and our acceptance or rejection of the tendered
mercy. Speculate, theorize, philosophize as we may on the
extent of the atonement Godward, we are shut up peremp-
torily by the scriptures to the conclusion that "he that believ-
eth not, shall be damned."

It is the opinion of the author that universal or limitedi
salvation is not connected with the atonement Godward,
but with the ministry of reconciliation. In other words,
the question is not, ''Unto how many was God reconciled
through Christ?" hut, "How many of us are reconciled to
God through faith in Christ f"

It seems to the author that the crux of the whole matter
lies in three thoughts: (i) That in the final judgment the
supreme test for men and angels is the question, "What
was your attitude toward Christ, either in himself, His
people, or His cause?" See particularly Matt. 25:31-46,

CHRIST'S ATONEMENT 91

where this principle is appHed to all men. And see I Cor.
6 : 3, where the test is implied toward angels, else saints
could not judge them. Again, this decisive principle of the
final judgment is expressly taught in Matt. 12:41, 42 in
the reference to the men of Nineveh and the Queen of
Sheba, and yet again in our Lord's denunciation of the Gali-
lean cities, Matt. 11:21-24. (2) The second thought lies
in our Lord's teaching that only one sin is an eternal sin,
having never forgiveness in either world, Mark 3 : 28-30 ;
Matt. 12:31, 32, showing that condemnation comes from
action in the Spirit's realm of application. See the culmi-
nation of unpardonable sin in "doing despite to the Spirit
of grace" in Heb. 10 : 26-29. (3) The effect of the death on
the cross conferred on the Messiah, i. e., not the Son of
God in eternity, but the Son of God by procreation, born
of the Virgin Mary, the sovereignty of the universe. See
Phil. 2:5-11.

I hold James P. Boyce to be the greatest all-around Bap-
tist ever produced by the South. While in his "Systematic
Theology" he teaches that expiation of the sins of all men
must mean universal salvation, yet before he closes his dis-
cussion he uses these remarkable words, which I cite :

(i) "While for the elect He made an actual atonement,
by which they are actually reconciled to God, and because
of which are made the subjects of the special divine grace
by which they became believers in Christ, and are justified
through Him," (2) "Christ at the same time and in the
same work, wrought out a means of reconciliation for all
men, which removed every legal obstacle to their salvation,
upon their acceptance of the same conditions upon which
the salvation is given to the elect." "Abstract of Theology,"
revised by F. H. Kerfoot, page 296. (3) On page 297 he
says, "The atoning work of Christ was not sufficient for the
salvation of man. That work was only Godward, and only
removed all the obstacles in the way of God's pardon of

92 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

the sinner. But the sinner is also at enmity with God, and
must be brought to accept salvation, and must learn to love
and serve God. It is the special work of the Holy Spirit
to bring this about. The first step here is to make known
to man the gospel, which contains the glad tidings of salva-
tion under such influences as ought to lead to its acceptance."
For the purpose of comment I mark these paragraphs
(i), (2) and (3). It seems difficult to reconcile (i) with
(3) but (2) and (3) are in perfect harmony. In (i) he
says that "for the elect He made actual atonement" * * *
"they were actually reconciled to God." But in (3) he
says that the atoning work was not sufficient for the salva-
tion of man, that work was only Godward, and only removed
all the obstacles in the way of God's pardon for the sinner."
This language applies of course to the elect. But in (2) he
says, ''Christ wrought out a means of reconciliation for all
men which removed every legal obstacle to their salvation**
Then for the elect the atonement "was not sufficient for the
salvation of man" and "only removed all the obstacles in the
way of God's pardon for the sinner," and if for the non-
elect the atonement "wrought out a means of reconciliation,"
"removing every legal obstacle to their salvation," what is
the difference Godward? What is the difference so far as
Christ's work is concerned? Does not the difference come
in the Spirit's work in connection with the application of
the atonement and the ministry of reconciliation? Do elec-
tion and foreordination become operative toward atonement
or toward acceptance of the atonement? These questions
are submitted for consideration in the realm of the study
of systematic theology. The author does not dogmatize on
them. While he has only a very moderate respect for phi-
losophy in any of its departments as taught in the schools,
and prefers rather to accept every word of God without
speculation, and believes it true and harmonious in all its
parts, whether or not he is able to philosophically explain

CHRIST'S ATONEMENT 93

it, yet he submits merely for consideration along with other
human philosophizing on the atonement the philosophy of
Dr. Wm. C. Buck on this matter. It is found in his book,
"The Philosophy of Religion." On the question of general
or limited atonement he takes this position, as I recall it:
Jesus Christ through His death re-purchased or bought
back the whole lost human race, including the earth, man's
habitat. The whole of it and all its peoples passed thereby
under His sovereignty. What debt they once owed to the
law they now owe to Him, the surety who paid the debt.
From His mediatorial throne He offers to forgive this debt
now due Him to all who will accept Him. But all alike
reject Him. The Father, through the Spirit, graciously
inclines some to accept Him. Thus those really saved are
saved according to the election and foreordination of God,
not operative in the atonement which was general, but in
the Spirit's application which was special. Those thus saved
were originally promised by the Father to the Son. He
dies for the whole world as the expression of the Father's
universal love. He died for the elect. His church, as His
promised reward.

Dr. Buck illustrates, so far as such an illustration can
serve, by supposing a raid by Algerian pirates on a Spanish
village, leading a multitude into captivity in Moorish North
Africa. A philanthropist, touched by their piteous condi-
tion, ransoms all of them by one price, and now, owning
them all, offers remission of the debt and free passage back
to native Spain to all who will accept. Some prefer bond-
age and remain, others accept joyfully and go back home.
Of course this illustration takes no account of the Father's
work or the Spirit's work, touching only the question of
ransom for all, the passing of the debt over to the surety,
his sovereignty, in its remission and their acceptance or
rejection.

Let us do with this or any other philosophy what we will,

94 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

but let us not hesitate to accept all that the scriptures teach
on this matter. When we read John lo: 14-16; 11 : 26-29;
Acts 13 : 48 ; Rom. 8 : 28-39 J Eph. 5 : 25-32, let us not abate
one jot of their clear teaching of Christ's death for the elect
and their certain salvation. And when we read John i : 29 ;
3:16;! Tim. 4:10; Heb. 2:9;! John 2:2; Ezek. 33 : 1 1 ;
Matt. 28 : 19 ; I Tim. 2 : 4, let us beware lest our theory, or
philosophy, of the atonement constrain us to question God's
sincerity, and disobey His commands. There are many true
things in and out of the Bible beyond our satisfactory
explanation. Let faith apprehend even where the finite
mind cannot comprehend.

The exposition proper commences with the third item of
the analysis, which is the thanksgiving. On that item we
have only verse 15 of chapter i: "For this cause I also,
having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among
you, and the love which ye show toward all the saints, cease
not to give thanks for you." We can see that there are two
things for which he is thankful: First, their faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ ; second, their love for all the saints.

We come now to the first great prayer, the fourth item
in the analysis, which extends from i : 16 to i : 21 : "Making
mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of glory," etc. That is the person
to whom he prays. We may say, "Of course he prays to
God." But successful prayer has its relation to Jesus Christ.
Paul says, "I pray to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory." That settles the first point —
to whom does he pray? The next thing is, for what does
he pray ? "May give unto you a spirit of wisdom and reve-
lation in the knowledge of Him; having the eyes of your
heart enlightened." That is what he prays for, "a spirit of
wisdom and revelation, having the eyes of your heart en-
lightened." We can put in one word the whole thing. That
word is "illumination." "I pray that you may be illumined."

CHRIST'S ATONEMENT 95

There are three terms — revelation, Inspiration, and illumi-
nation. Revelation discloses that which we could not other-
wise know. Inspiration infallibly records it. Illumination
causes us to understand it. Some people read the Bible
and find in it nothing to them. But consider these passages :
"Open thou mine eyes that I may understand the wonderful
things in thy law." "The Lord opened the heart of Lydia
so that she attended unto the things spoken by Paul."

Illumination, then, is that work of the Holy Spirit which
causes one to get the real spiritual meanings of the Bible.
Time and again have I come to some passage and said,
"That looks like it was intended to mean much, but some-
how I cannot get hold of it." It was like a fog to me, and
I could not see the real spiritual meaning. I have long
since found out that mere intellectual study does not find
the meaning. The Spirit indited that passage and the Spirit
knows what it means ; for us to understand it, an opening
of the eyes of the heart must take place. Paul prays for
these people to whom he writes, that they may have illumi-
nation, that is, "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Him," or as he otherwise expressed it, "the
opening of the eyes of the heart." Illumination covers the
whole thing. That is what he prays for.

The next question is, What the end or object of that
illumination? Why should he pray that they might re-
ceive illumination? "That ye may know." Let us see what
are the things that they were to know. They are as follows :
(i) "The hope of His calling." (2) "The riches of the
glory of His inheritance in the saints." (3) "The exceeding
greatness of His power toward us." These are the things
that he prays for — that they might receive Illumination and
know these three things. That through illumination they
were to know: (i) The hope of their caUing. Hope here
is used objectively ; it means the things hoped for, to which
we are called; (2) that we may know what the things are

96 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

that God called us to ; (3) and what we hope for. That is a
great prayer.

In the Letter to the Hebrews the thought is presented this
way : "Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem." That is the place
we are coming to. We are coming unto this companion-
ship: (i) Angels — an innumerable company. (2) The
general assembly of the church of the firstborn. (3)
The spirits of the just made perfect. (4) To God, the
judge of all. (5) To Jesus, the mediator of the new cov-
enant. (6) To the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better
than that of Abel. Now his prayer is that they may be
illumined in order that they may know the riches of the
inheritance that is laid up in heaven for the saints. The
reason so many Christians are weak and fruitless is that
they have no grip on the things extended to the hope of the
Christian. The powers of the world to come do not take
hold of them.

I heard a most estimable lady-member of the church say
once, "Heaven ? Oh, -I do not know anything about it ! It
is 'way off yonder, very vague!" I said, "My sister, if
heaven was vague to me I could not preach. I know what I
am hoping for. I have clear conceptions of the world to
come: the place, state, company, joy, all is clear in my
mind, and in that way it attracts."

To illustrate: "Jesus Christ, for the joy that was set
before Him, endured the cross and despised the shame."
Take the case of Moses. How was it that he was enabled
to refuse to become the son of Pharaoh's daughter? "He
had respect unto the recompense of reward." He saw
something better than the pleasures of sin. He saw some-
thing more durable than the riches and glory of this world.
What was it that enabled Abraham to bear up, wandering
about, living in a tent? "He sought a city which hath
foundations, whose builder and maker is God." So Paul,

CHRIST'S ATONEMENT 97

seeing that they had faith and love toward the brethren,
prayed that they might be illumined to know the things which
a Christian hopes for, and to which he is called.

I delight to preach on heaven. There is a tremendous
power over the mind and heart in it. If a man does not
know the hope of his calling, there is not the incentive to
action which comes from the hope of reward. The mind
of man is influenced by motives — the hope of reward and
the fear of punishment.

Once when I was preaching at Belton, not getting results,

I went out and prayed three times that God might make
me, the preacher, realize the nearness and certainty and
eternity of both heaven and hell. When I got that in my
mind and heart the revival broke out, heaven came down,
and we were in the glory of the mercy seat. A Methodist
preacher who was there said he had to take hold of a table
to keep from shouting.

"I pray that ye may be enabled to know what are the
riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." Mark
well the distinction between the first and second thing that
he prayed for. The first related to their inheritance in
Christ, the object of their hope. The second related to
Christ's inheritance in them. We should know both. Does
that distinction suggest anything at all ? Is it not clear that
Christ had an object when He died? There was a joy set
before Him so precious that He was willing to bear all things
for it. Here are two scriptures that will give an idea of it :

II Thess. I : lo, "When He shall come to be glorified in
His saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed,
in that day." Christ's glory is to be in His saints — not as
we are on earth, but as the finished product will be up
yonder in heaven. Then take this passage in Eph. 5 : 2^,
"That He might present the church to himself a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but
that it should be holy and without blemish." The inherit-

98 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

ance of Christ in His saints stood as an incentive to bear
their sins. He had an interest in them.

One of the most wonderful buildings in the world is
Westminster Abbey. As we step into that building we see
this inscription: "Whosoever would see a monument to
Sir Christopher Wren, look around." Sir Christopher Wren
was the architect, and a real monument to him was that
building. A sculptor, when he undertakes to make a fine
piece of work, first goes to the quarry or marble yard and
selects a piece of marble of fine texture — a great, big, un-
couth block. He stands there and looks at it and thinks out
his plan, and at last he sees an angel in it. He goes to work
with his mallet and chisel, lopping off here and there, and
after a while it begins to assume shape; we see the head,
then the wings, then the feet, and when the finishing touches
are put on we stand in the presence of an angel that looks
like it could breathe, fly and talk.

So when Christ's work is completed, the body raised,
then we see the inheritance that Christ has in the saints.
The best person in the world, taken as he is, after grace
has done so much, is, after all, an imperfect recommenda-
tion of Christ. But when Jesus is done with him, his body
has been raised and glorified, the spirit sanctified and made
perfect, with all mortality, corruption and dishonor gone, in
all beauty and holiness like Him — not one, not hundreds,
not thousands, but a great multitude that no man can num-
ber— each one with a crown upon his head, each one with
a harp in his left hand, and a palm leaf of victory in his
right hand, and each one praising God — that is Christ's
inheritance in the saints. Paul says, "I want you to know
that." We ought to know it for our own sakes, because our
conception of heaven will determine the kind of respect we
have for heaven. If our aspiration is to be only an ordinary
man, we will not have much self-respect, but we should
have a burning in our heart, "This is not the best of me.

CHRIST'S ATONEMENT 99

Ah, no! I have climbed the mountain somewhat, but, like
Paul, I must say, 'Higher! Higher! Excelsior!' After a
while I will sit on God's throne and judge the world, judge
the angels;" that is the thing we must know.

Let us take the next thing we must know: "And what
the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who be-
lieve." We must know, if we are illumined, "the greatness
of His power toward us who believe." He illustrates thus :
"According to that working of the strength of His might
which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from
the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in heavenly
places, made Him King of kings and Lord of lords." That
power will be exercised toward believers. We may die away
off by ourselves; the world may not even know that we
have lived; no monument may mark our resting place; in
our last illness no loving hand may be there to wipe the
death damp from our brow, but if we are children of God,
we ought to know what is the exceeding greatness of His
power toward us.

That unknown grave will open; the angels will come down;
that body will he raised and glorified and reunited with the
spirit, taken to the throne in heaven and made joint heir
with Christ upon the throne of the universe.

But his primary meaning is not directed to our bodily
resurrection. He means that in our inward development
as Christians the power exerted shall be as the power that
raised our Lord's dead body.

Let us sum up this first great prayer : ( i ) Unto whom ?
God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2) For what?
Illumination, expressed here as the Spirit of wisdom and
revelation, an enlightenment of the eyes of the heart. (3)
To what end? That they might know the hope of their
calling; that they might know the riches of the glory of
Christ's inheritance in the saints ; that they might know the
greatness of His power toward believers.

100 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

QUESTIONS

1. What double question of systematic theology arises here?

2. What old theological question does this question revive, and
what theories ?

3. What scriptures were cited as bearing on the first part of the
question ?

4. What the special value, as bearing on this question, of II
Cor, 5: 18-20?

5. What passage makes it clear that no matter whether expiation
be for all men or for the elect, universal salvation does not follow?

6. In what three thoughts lies the crux of the whole matter,
according to the author's judgment, and what the scriptures under-
lying each thought?

7. ^ Cite the three passages from Boyce's "Systematic Theology,"
and give your own view of their harmony with each other.

8. On the whole, then, do election and foreordination become
operative or effective toward atonement, whether general or limited,
or toward the Spirit's application of the atonement?

9. _ State the view of Dr. William C. Buck, in his "Philosophy of
Religion," and give his illustration.

10. Whatever man's philosophy, or theory of the atonement, what
is our plain duty toward the scriptures cited pro and con ?

11. What the distinction between "apprehend" and "comprehend,"
and are there many things in the scriptures we must apprehend, even
though we may not comprehend?

12. For what two things does the apostle express thanks?

13. On the first great prayer, 1:16-21, answer: (i) To whom?
(2) For what?

14. What one word covers all he prayed for?

15. Distinguish between revelation, inspiration and illumination.

16. Define illumination and give its purpose, or end.

17. What three great things will the illumination enable us to
know?

18. Distinguish between the first and the second.

19. What the meaning of the first?

20. What the meaning of the second? Illustrate.

21. What the meaning of the third?

CHRIST THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH
Scripture: Eph. 1:22 — 2:10

WE now come to that part of the analysis, item 5,
Christ's exaltation and its purpose toward the
church, 1 : 22, 23. These two verses express the
following thoughts : Christ exalted, first, to be the head of
the church ; second, to be head over all things to the church,
which is a very different idea ; third, that the church is the
body ; fourth, as His body the church expresses His fulness.

Christ exalted to be the head of the church. — "Head"
expresses, first, sovereignty, or rulership. When we say
the husband is the head of the family, we mean he is the
ruler of the family. Head expresses in the next sense the
source of vital connection. In this Letter to the Ephesians,
as we will find a little later, that vital connection between
the head and every member of the body is greatly empha-
sized and elaborated.

If Christ is the head of the church in the sense of sover-
eign or ruler, then it is impious to call anybody else the
head of the church. Some claim to be the head of the
church in the sense of vicegerent, or vicar. For example, the
Pope claims to be the head of the church in that he is Christ's
vicar.

The only vicar that Christ has is the Holy Spirit. When
Jesus went up to heaven He did send a vicegerent to take
His place; another Paraclete to abide with and to guide the
church. It is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit for a mere
man to claim to be the head of the church.

101

lOa COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

Spurgeon in his many volumes of sermons has one polem-
ical volume. One of the sermons in that polemical volume
is the most excoriating denunciation of the claim that the
sovereign of England is head of the church that I have ever
seen. He read a proclamation: "I, Victoria Regina, by
the grace of God head of the church." Then immediately
following that he quoted Paul's words: "I suffer not a
woman to teach nor to usurp authority." Everybody should
read, particularly, that eighth volume of Spurgeon's ser-
mons. The greater part of Christendom today is under
bondage to the thought that the Pope of Rome is the head
of the church. They mean by that that he stands in the
place of God, and that whatever he speaks, ex cathedra, is
infallibly true, and that his authority is ultimate.

In 1870 the cap-stone was put on the Papacy by the
Vatican Council, in servile obedience to the Pope, proclaim-
ing his infallibility as head of the church. The head of
the church also carries with it the idea of authority, which
is called the key of power. Christ is the head of the church.
There is no other. We see on earth a body, but the head
is above the clouds; we cannot see it. The head of the
church is in heaven, the body here on the earth. It is a
vital and fundamental article of the Christian faith that
we should accept no head of the church of Jesus Christ
except the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The disciples of
Pythagoras were accustomed to end a controversy by saying,
"Ipse dixit et ipse Pythagoras." But there should be no
question of absolute deference to mere human authority.

We will now take up the second thought: Christ the
head over all things to the church. Not the head of the
church; we have just discussed that, but the head over all
things to the church, which is a very different thought. It
means that by virtue of His sacrificial expiation here upon
the earth, and the atonement made in heaven based upon
that expiation on the cross. He received the name which is

CHMST HEAD OF THE CHURCH 105

above every name, was made King of kings and Lord of
lords, that He now holds in His hand the scepter of universal
dominion, and that He is over all things to, or in behalf of,
the church.

We see Him express this thought when by anticipation
He commands His church, assembled upon a mountain in
Galilee, about 500 being present, to go out and preach the
gospel to every creature. The statement, "And all author-
ity in heaven and upon earth is given unto me," means that
He is the head of all things to the church ; that He exercises
the entire sovereignty of the universe in behalf of the
church. Oftentimes when we get a little frightened or blue,
become intimidated either by the formidable adversaries
with whom we have to cope or by the insuperable obstacles
that block our pathway, we are prone to forget that the
Savior is head over all things in our behalf ; that there is
nothing hard for Him ; that when it comes to exercising His
power in behalf of the church there are no limitations ; that
we can draw on Him to the last possibility.

That is why I have said that the Texas Baptist Conven-
tion once foolishly got scared over a little financial flurry,
forgot that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. They
ought to have gone on serenely laying out their work,
having faith in God, who is able to raise the dead.

Surely if God could in the wilderness for forty years feed
so many families, and see to it that their clothes did not
wear out, that there was a shade over them every day so
that the sun did not smite them, and that their camp was
illumined by night — a light brighter than the most luminous
display of electric lights in the cities of our time — if He
could call rocks to open and send forth waters, and the quail
to come at His bidding, and angel's food to fall at His will,
what are we, Christ's people in New Testament days, that we
should hesitate on account of difficulties in the way of dis-
charging duties incumbent upon usf

104 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

For illustration, I recall the first mission rally held in
Johnson County. I prepared the program. That county
was in danger of Antinomianism. Some of the noblest
pastors in that association purposed to get together and
sound a higher note. The program compared missions to
a suspension bridge across a mighty river, not a prop under
that bridge where the waters rolled, but on each shore there
was the basis for the support of the bridge. The first
pedestal was "All authority in heaven and earth is given
unto me;" on the other shore the pedestal, "Lo, I am with
you alway, even unto the end of the world." That is, if
He had authority and power, we His people had no right
to hesitate at any time in the discharge of His plain com-
mandments. That is what is meant by Christ's being the
head over all things to the church. Consider carefully what
that means. Every attribute of God is made contribu-
tory to the church — infinite love, infinite justice, infinite
compassion, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, all
engaged to help the church in the accomplishment of its
mission. Note carefully that this headship is headship of
an organization.

But we come next to a new thought — that the church is
His body. Wherever that expression occurs it implies not
so much an organization as an organism. An organism is
a living thing. John the Baptist, after he was beheaded,
had no life. There was a vital relation between the body
of John the Baptist and his head. When his head was
severed his body died. In the Letter to the Romans, again
in the first Letter to the Corinthians, again in the Letter to
the Colossians, and pre-eminently in this Letter to the Ephe-
sians, the church is called the body of Christ, which means
that whatever sense of the word be employed, then Christ is
the head.

Some people unnecessarily trouble themselves in trying to
apply the double sense of headship to the triple sense of

CHRIST HEAD OF THE CHURCH 105

the church. That is, the word church is used in the New
Testament in three distinct senses :

1. Abstractly as an institution, Matt. i6: i8.

2. A particular congregation at one place, I Cor. i : 2.

3. All the redeemed conceived of as a unit and glorified
as a bride or city, Eph. 5 : 25-27 and Rev. 21 : 9, 10. In
applying this headship we say that Christ is the head of the
church, and head over all things to the church as an institu-
tion, or as a particular congregation, or as the general assem-
bly of the redeemed in glory.

We now come to the last thought in that paragraph, "The
fulness of Him that filleth all in all." The church is the
fulness. If I want a true conception of God the Father, I
look at Jesus: "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily, the express image of the person of God."
If I want a true conception of Jesus Christ, I look at the
church, which is the fulness of Christ, the fulness of author-
ity, the fulness of power, the fulness of divine love, and the
fulness of glory, as it ultimately will be. The fulness of
Christ in the church is very much like the thought expressed
in "The glory of His inheritance in the saints." We have
already noted the distinction between our inheritance in
Christ and His inheritance in us.

To see the fulness of Christ in the church, turn to the
last chapter of Revelation, "And I saw the Holy City, new
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made
ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a
great voice out of the throne saying. Behold, the tabernacle
of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they
shall be His peoples, and God himself shall be with them,
and be their God ; and He shall wipe away every tear from
their eyes ; and death shall be no more ; neither shall there
be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first
things are passed away."
i Again the angel asked John if he would like to see the

106 COLOSSIANS, I:PHESIANS, HEBREWS

Bride, the Lamb's wife, and there is given a picture of the re-
deemed in the fulness of their redemption. If when that time
comes one should ask, "Where shall I look to see the fulness
of the Father?" Look at Christ. "Where shall I look to see
the fulness of Christ?" Look at that church in glory. Be-
hold how many nations are represented in it ! See the ends of
the earth come together in it. Behold how many varieties
of men, some very great men intellectually, and some very
simple folk; some very wicked, others just as wicked by
nature, who were not so wicked by practice, but now all are
redeemed. We have the fulness of Christ presented in
this, that all peoples, regardless of distinguishing national-
ities and distinguishing castes, are there. As the Genesis-
creation was an expression of God, so that "the heavens de-
clare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His
handiwork," so the re-creation, or redemption, will more
manifest His glory. Not one of them but has arrived
through regeneration and glorification. Not one of them
but connects back with the eternal foreknowledge, elec-
tion, and predestination of God. That is the fulness of
Christ.

The next item of our analysis is salvation by grace,
2: i-io. That is the text upon which Jerry Clark, in some
respects the greatest preacher in Texas, preached his famous
sermon before the General Association of Texas in Waco
when I was a young pastor there. I had heard a great deal
about Clark; that he was the greatest preacher living, if
one could only get him to preach. His extreme modesty
made him an expert dodger. One of his friends said, "If
you want Clark to preach you must challenge him on the
doctrines of grace. That will stir him." So I had him
assigned to my house and set a trap for him. In a private
conversation I said to him that I had heard of preachers who
were willing enough to preach salvation by grace in the
backwoods, but would shirk if called upon to preach it

CHRIST HEAD OF THE CHURCH 107

before a cultured city audience. His eye flashed fire and
he said, "I am not afraid to preach it anywhere." "Very
well, then, you are appointed to preach Sunday night from
Ephesians 2:8-10." He preached from it and made the
stars fairly sparkle. It was the greatest pulpit classic I
ever heard. It stirred all the dry bones in the valley !

Salvation by grace! The first thought is, "And you did
He make alive when you were dead." There is the sinner,
spiritually as dead as a door nail. Has a dead man power
in himself, pr is he able to call from any source whatever
the power to start to be alive? That is the question. The
declaration is : "When you were dead God made you alive."
That is what old theologians called regeneration. I do not
think that is what the New Testament calls regeneration,
because it stops short of a full idea of regeneration as
expressed in many scriptures, yet it is that power of the
Holy Spirit which makes the soul sensitive. It is a new
creation and is antecedent to any manifestation of life. That
is perfectly clear in the teaching of the scriptures.

Of course, with that kind of a start, spiritually dead, if
a man is saved at all he is saved by grace. It is impossible
for a dead man to make himself alive. Notice how that
deadness is expressed in this paragraph: "And were by
nature children of wrath." That knocks the bottom out of
the thought that sin consists in the wilful transgression of
a known commandment, as the Arminians say. Sin is law-
lessness, first of all— lawlessness in nature before there have
been any external manifestations in overt actions.

We may take a baby rattlesnake, carry him home, feed
him on milk, never let him see his father or mother, pet him
and try to educate him out of his nature. As that snake
grows the poison secretes, the fangs form, and the rattles
come, and if we were to put him in heaven he would throw
himself into a coil, sound his alarm and strike at the angels
passing by. Why ? Because the snake is a snake.

108 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

This sin of nature — of depravity — digs up by the root
any idea of salvation by external ordinances. I recall an
illustration before a Sunday School by Harvey Chamberlain,
who desired to impress the lesson in John 3 : 7, "Ye must
be born again." He had provided a basin of water with
soap and a sealed bottle of ink, and called on the little
fellows to come up and wash the black off of that bottle.
The outside washing only revealed the blackness yet more.
The hollowest sham ever imposed upon the credulity and
gullibility of exceedingly simple folks is the doctrine of
literally washing away sins in baptism. Grace finds us by
nature the children of wrath — that is the original sin. Then
it found us dead in trespasses and sins — that is practice.
From that basis it starts by making alive, or making sensitive,
which is the initial touch of the Holy Spirit, superinducing
in us contrition, or Godly sorrow for sin, repentance, or a
change of mind toward God on account of sin, conversion,
or turning from sin, and faith in Christ. So we are bom
anew.

The second thought is, "dead in trespasses and sins."
These are expressions of the inward nature, and sustain
the relation of fruit to the tree. They are symptomatic of
the inward state. Our Lord declares that out of the heart
proceed evil thoughts, evil speech and evil deeds.

Notice the third thought. Dead by nature, dead by actual
trespasses and sins, and now "walking according to the
course of this world." By the "course of this world" is
meant its spiritual trend expressed in its maxims of business,
pleasure and every form of selfishness. It erects its own
shifting standard of right and wrong. It leaves God out.
Yea, it is in its spirit and mind the enemy of God. But the
course of the world is not the result of chance.

This leads to the fourth thought that Satan is by usurpa-
tion the de facto prince and ruler of this world. There is a
guiding intelligence, the directing will of a master. So our

CHRIST HEAD OF THE CHURCH 109

text adds : "According to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience."
What a succession of thought, and what a cHmax! Dead
by nature, dead by practice, swept along on the tide of the
world-spirit, under the domination of Satan ! What a hope-
less outlook for salvation by human merit! What a predi-
cate for salvation by grace ! What a reinforcement of the
thought in Paul's commission, Acts 26: 17, 18: "Delivering
thee from the [Jewish] people, and from the Gentiles, unto
whom I send thee, to open their eyes, that they may turn
from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto
God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inherit-
ance among them that are sanctified by faith in me." He
is to "turn them from darkness to light;" so they are in
darkness. He is to "turn them from the power of Satan
unto God ;" so they are under the power of Satan. "That
they may receive remission of sins;" so they are unpar-
doned. "That they may receive an inheritance;" so they
are bankrupt. "An inheritance among them that are sanc-
tified;" so they are now unholy. "An inheritance among
them that are sanctified through faith in Christ;" so they
are without faith. Think of a preacher going out relying
on himself to undertake a job like that !

We are not through yet. "Among whom we also once
lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh
and of the mind." Those whom we found dead by nature,
dead by practice, bound up in the chains of the world, under
the power of the devil, are also found to be under the
dominion of the desires of the flesh. As John puts it:
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not
in him. For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh,
and the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life, is not of
the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth
away and the lust thereof," I John 2: 15-17. Or, as James

110 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

puts it : "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is
enmity with God ?" Jas. 4 : 4.

The reader will note particularly the relation of good
works to salvation, expressed both negatively and positively :
"Not of works" but created and saved "unto good works."
They do not cause or even contribute to salvation, but flow
from it as a result. As our Lord puts it: "First make a
tree good and then the fruit will be good." Or, as Paul
later expresses it: "For we also once were foolish, dis-
obedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living
in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when
the kindness of God, our Savior, and His love toward man
appeared, not by the works done in righteousness, which we
did ourselves, but according to His mercy He saved us,
through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of
the Holy Spirit, which He poured upon us richly, through
Jesus Christ our Savior; that being justified by His grace,
we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Faithful is the saying and concerning these things I desire
that thou affirm confidently, to the end that they who have
believed God may be careful to maintain good works," Titus
3 : 3-8. The relation of good works to salvation is here
expressed very clearly.

While good works before salvation are impossible, yet it
is the instruction of saving grace that they follow salvation.
So Paul again says : "For the grace of God hath appeared,
bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to the intent
that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly and righteously and Godly in this present world,
looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of
the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave him-
self for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and
purify unto himself a people for His own possession, zealous
of good works," Titus 2 : 1 1-14.

Lest we might, by attributing some merit to faith, place

CHRIST HEAD OF THE CHURCH 111

it among good works antecedent to salvation, our text is
careful to say, "and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.'*
True, it is fairly questioned that the "gift" here is gram-
matically limited to faith. This matters nothing, since it
includes faith; elsewhere most unequivocally faith itself is
reckoned as a grace, a gift. Like repentance (Acts ii : i8)
faith is a gift of grace before it is a human exercise, being a
fruit of the regenerating Spirit, Phil, i : 29 ; II Pet. 2:1;
Acts 13:48.

Moreover, as the essence of faith is merely to receive an
offered gift, its exercise cannot be classed as a work. The
old hymn holds good :

"Grace first contrived the way

To save rebellious man ;
And all the steps that grace display
Which drew the wondrous plan.

Grace led my roving feet

To tread the heavenly road ;
And new supplies each hour I meet

While pressing on to God.

Grace all the work shall crown.

Through everlasting days ;
It lays in heaven the topmost stone.

And well deserves the praise."

Let us note particularly that the whole paragraph on
salvation by grace is clothed with the imagery of creation,
with an evident comparative reference to the Genesis-
creation. Creation is the bringing into being without the
use of pre-existing material, so that "what is seen hath not
been made out of the things which appear," and so "if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creation." This imagery
absolutely excludes and forbids the idea of any antecedent
good or merit in the subjects of grace. Indeed, redemption
is a much higher order of creation than the Genesis-creation
and deserves and obtains another memorial, as we will later
learn from the Letter to the Hebrews, which shows that
when God had finished the original creation He sanctified the

lis COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

seventh day to commemorate it; but when Jesus finished
the creation of redemption, He also rested from His work,
as God had done from His, and so "there remaineth a
Sabbath-keeping for the children of God" — a first day of
the week to commemorate the new creation, after Christ had
nailed to His cross and blotted out the whole cycle of Jewish
Sabbaths. (Heb. 4:9, 10; Col. 2: 14-17.)

The creative idea in salvation is according to the power
put forth when Jesus was raised from the dead and exalted
to the throne of the universe. This power is infinitely super-
human. Regeneration is a spiritual resurrection from the
dead (Ezek. 2)7'- 1-14; John 5:25, 26). The bones in the
valley were very dry. There was no life-power in them.
Only after the Divine breath was breathed on these bones
did they live.

Pointing to the sinners dead by nature, dead by practice,
borne as dead, non-resisting leaves on the tidal course of this
world, a course impelled by Satan, until like a frail boat in
the suction of Niagara whose fall just ahead is like the
doom of eternity — ^pointing, I say, to such sinners, we may
re-echo the words of Jehovah to Ezekiel, "Son of man, can
these dry bones live?" The only possible answer is, "Not
of themselves — only by God's creative power of grace."

The reader will notice the distinction in idea between the
salvation in Eph. 2:1-10, and the salvation arising from
redemption, justification and adoption in Galatians and
Romans. Here the salvation is in us; there it is for us.
There the salvation is in relation to its legal aspects ; here,
to its spiritual effects. Redemption is Christ's work — justi-
fication and adoption, the Father's work on account of
Christ's work. Regeneration, sanctification and glorifica-
tion are the Spirit's work applying the benefits of Christ's
work. It is not meant that Romans and Galatians leave out
the Spirit's work, but that the prison letters change the
emphasis and stress the internal salvation.

CHRIST HEAD OF THE CHURCH US

QUESTIONS

1. What the four thoughts in Ephesians i : 2.2, 23?

2. What two ideas involved in "The head of the church?"

3. Where now is "the Head of the church?"

4. How, then, does "the head" in heaven rule the church on earth?

5. What impious claims have been made as to a human vicar, or
vice-regent ?

6. When and by what act was the capstone put on the Roman
Papacy ?

7. What is meant by "Christ head over all things to the church ?"
Illustrate by the great commission.

8. Comparing the great commission to a suspension bridge, what
the anchorage on either shore ?

9. What idea is involved when the church is called the body of
Christ, the head, and what the distinction between this idea and the
idea of headship in regard to the execution of the great commission
just considered.

10. In what three senses does the New Testament use the word,
"church," and how do you apply the double idea of headship to the
triple idea of the church?

11. On whom must I look to find the fulness of God, the Father?

12. Where must I look to find the fulness of Christ? Illustrate.

13. In the paragraph 2 : i-io, what the first thought? ^

14. What the first way in which the sinner's deadness is expressed ?
Illustrate by the snake and ink-bottle. What the bearing of this dead-
ness on the dogmas of salvation by external ordinances ?

15. What the second thought of the deadness and its relations to
the first? Illustrate.

16. What the third thought of the deadness, and what the appro-
priate scriptures ?

17. What the fourth thought, and what the appropriate scriptures
from other books of the New Testament? Illustrate by Paul's
commission.

18. What the relation of "good works" to this salvation, and what
the proof-texts ?

19. What the imagery of this whole passage, and how does this
support the teaching so far ?

20. What Sabbath commemorated the material creation ?

21. What additional idea underlies the Jewish Sabbath ?

22. What scriptures prove the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath?
2^. What Sabbath supersedes and commemorates the greater

work of redemption ?

24. Cite passages to prove the creative idea in the Spirit's appli-
cation of our Lord's redemption.

25. What distinction in the idea of salvation in Eph. 2: i-io from
the idea in Galatians and Romans arising from redemption, justifica-
tion and adoption ?

XI

THE WALL OF PARTITION
Scripture: Eph. 2: 11-22

THIS chapter commences with the seventh item of the
analysis — the breaking down of the wall of partition
between Jew and Gentile, and the uniting of the two
into one church, as an institution, which finds expression in
every particular church. The particulars of the statement
of the condition of the Gentiles prior to the proclamation of
the gospel after Christ's ascension are thus given in our text :

1. Separate from Christ — ^having no knowledge of Him,
or any interest in Him — "salvation is of the Jews."

2. "Having been alienated from the commonwealth of
Israel" — i.e., as uncircumcised, not entitled to citizenship
in it. The force of "alienated" here is about this : The orig-
inal promise of the gospel was to the race. Through both
the antediluvian and Noachic periods the promise was uni-
versal in its application. But after these two race-falls,
particularism in a single nation succeeded. The race proba-
tions culminated at the Tower of Babel in the dispersion
of the nations, followed by the call of a particular nation.
This was the time of their alienation. In the Hebrew
"politeia" or citizenship-condition, including country, con-
stitution, economy, they had no part. The call of one nation
made the others aliens.

3. "Strangers from the covenants of the promise." Mark
the plural, including all covenants made with Abraham or
any of his descendants. Mark the word, "promise," not
promises in general, but the promise, that is, of the Messiah.

114.

THE WALL OF PARTITION 115

4. "Having no hope." This does not deny desire or
aspiration, but expectation based on definite and reliable
grounds Hope is composite — a blending of two elements,
desire and expectation. We may desire what we may not
expect and expect what we do not desire. Many heathen
desired better things, but had no assured ground of hope.
They had no accredited revelation. Mommsen in his "His-
tory of Rome" says, "In Hellas [Greece], at the epoch of
Alexander the Great, it was a current saying, and one pro-
foundly felt by all the best men, that the best thing of all
was not to be born, and the next best to die." Testimonies
from the classics might be multiplied on this point.

5. "Without God in the world." Mark the Greek,
"Atheoi" i.e., atheists, not in the active but passive sense.
They had indeed gods many — their own creation. The one
true God was unknown to them. See Paul's speech at
Athens referring to the altar inscribed to the "unknown
God."

6. "Far off." Compare Rom. i : 18-32, to see not only
how far off, but just how they sinfully arrive at that dark
and guilty distance.

7. "A wall of partition" rigidly separated them from the
people who were custodians of the Oracles of God, and the
heirs of all the covenants from Abraham to David.

The reader will miss the mark at this point if he does not
look back carefully to the first eleven chapters of Genesis.
There are in these chapters three distinct race-probations.
First, in Adam, as head of all human beings. Adam fell,
and all his posterity, without distinction, fell with him and
in him. Second, after his fall and expulsion from the
Garden, the throne of grace was set up at the East of
the Garden, and all his descendants, without distinction,
were privileged to approach the God of grace and mercy
through typical sacrifices based on the promise to the race,
"The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head."

116 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

This race probation culminated in the flood, and a third
race probation commenced with Noah, as the new head of
the race and under a special covenant.

When this third race probation failed at the Tower of
Babel, and the dispersion of the nations then followed
(Genesis 12), the call of Abraham, and the fourth race-
probation, commenced through one family to become a
chosen nation under national covenants. The very consti-
tution of one nation to become God's organized people, by
isolating laws and ordinances, left out all other nations as
aliens and strangers. These segregating laws and ordinances
constituted the wall of partition between the Hebrews and
other nations.

Circumcision, the entire Sabbatic cycle, priesthood and
sacrifices, with their ritual, all social and political ordinances
of separation, prescribed limitations of citizenship, a spe-
cial home-land, indeed the entire Sinaitic legislation with
its later developments in Numbers and Deuteronomy, en-
tered into the wall of separation. There is no parallel in
history to the isolating, exclusive legislation of Moses.

We find in the New Testament that Christian Jews wanted
to keep up that wall of partition — to deny that Christ had
broken it down. They said in order to be saved one had
to become a Jew — had to be circumcised. All of these laws
with reference to their altar, the way of approach to God,
etc., as embodied in the tabernacle, or its successor, the
temple, and its offerings setting forth ways and means by
which one could come to God, were in the partition wall.
In Galatians Paul says that even believers in Christ, up to
the time the object of faith came — that is, until Christ came —
were under these laws and had to observe these old cere-
monial laws. The heirs by faith were under tutors until
Christ died.

So we see Christian Jews in New Testament times still
wishing to keep up this wall of partition. When Peter went

THE WALL OF PARTITION 117

into the house of Cornelius and ate with the Gentiles he was
sharply rebuked by some of the church at Jerusalem, but by
patient explanation of all the circumstances he quieted the
opposition, but did not conquer it.

It reappeared at Antioch in the demand that the Gentiles
must be circumcised in order to be saved. This was a vital
and fundamental matter. So Paul and Barnabas sternly
resisted it, and as these Judaizing teachers came from Jeru-
salem and claimed authority from the apostles and the mother
church, the whole case was referred to them and resulted
in the council described in Acts 15. Paul's contention was
fully sustained. Peter, and even James, sided with him.

But even this solemn decision did not end the matter, so
far as the Jews were concerned. The question of eating
with the Gentiles was reopened at Antioch. While a Gen-
tile might be saved without becoming a Jew, a Jewish Chris-
tian must remain a Jew. In this form of the question Peter
and Barnabas were led to dissimulation, the more reprehen-
sible on Peter's part, since this was the very form of the
question on which he had stood so nobly in the case of
Cornelius. Paul won again, but the war went on.

How did Christ break down the wall? In the Letter to
the Colossians is the clearest passage in the whole Bible on
how the whole Jewish law was abrogated, 2:14: "Having
blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was against
us, which was contrary to us ; and He hath taken it out of
the way, nailing it to the cross, having despoiled the prin-
cipalities and powers. He made a show of them openly,
triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge
you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a feast day, or a
new moon, or a Sabbath day."

Christ nailed the whole thing to the Cross — ^blotted it out.
These things were typical. When Christ, the Antitype, came
they were done away forever. The whole Sabbatic cycle
is set forth in this passage ; feast days, or annual Sabbaths ;

lis COLOSSIANS, EPHIiSIANS, HEBHEWS

new moons, or monthly Sabbaths ; a Sabbath day, or weekly
Sabbath, are all blotted out, just as Hosea predicted: "I
will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feasts, her new
moons, and her Sabbaths and all her solemn assemblies."
Seventh Day Adventists try to get people to go back to
keeping the Seventh Day instead of the first day of the
week.

That means Christ has not come — that we are still under
the bondage of types and ceremonies. Whoever believes that,
announces himself as a Jew of the old kind.

It took a Paul to make people see that the wall was broken
down, ground to powder, and swept out of the realm of
obligation by the breath of God's abrogation. It is utterly
gone. Paul would sometimes as a matter of expediency,
out of consideration for weak brethren who believed it was
something awful to eat meat offered to idols, refrain from
eating meat. He said, "The idol is nothing. That is all
done away with in Christ. And all of these laws about
clean and unclean animals have no force now, but so far
as I am concerned, if my eating meat will cause some weak
brother to stumble and fall down and keep on falling, I will
let it alone. I do not let it alone because there is any harm
in it to me, but because of these weak brethren for whom
Christ died."

While that wall of partition stood, on one side were men
without God, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
strangers to the covenant, who had no hope in the Messiah,
therefore without God. It said to the Gentile, "You stand
off yonder." In Mark 7, to show how extreme their position
became, in addition to the law, they observed their added
traditions; if a Jew went to market, when he came back
he must immerse himself to be free from possible defilement
by contact ; he must immerse the table on which he ate, the
couch on which he slept, the pots and vessels which he used.
That entire typical ceremonial legislation which shut out the

THE WALL OF PARTITION 119

Gentile was abrogated. It was blotted out, abolished, and
nailed to the cross of Christ.

We will now see how the thought develops. The old dis-
tinction between Jew and Gentile being blotted out, he now
uses a series of figures. The first figure is marriage, by
which two entirely different individuals become one : "They
twain shall be one flesh." The scripture on that is verse 14 :
"He hath made both one." And in verse 15: "That He
might create in himself of the two, one new man." The
wall being broken down, it is the purpose of Christ to take
the Jew and Gentile and make one new man, so that in
Christ there will be neither Jew nor Greek. That is the
first figure.

The next figure is the new commonwealth. He says, "Ye
are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow
citizens with the saints." Here is a citizenship, and it is
just as good and proper for the Gentiles to be citzens in
Christ Jesus as for the Jews. The next figure is the house-
hold, or family. This is the language : "And of the house-
hold of God." So we have a new man, a new commonwealth,
a new family.

He changes the figure again to the temple, or house of
God. Here is the language : "Being built upon the founda-
tion of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being
the chief corner stone." That temple at Jerusalem was one
of the strongest factors in the wall of partition. Why?
There was a certain place that the Gentiles were permitted
to go — the court of the Gentiles — but they could not go
any further. No Gentile could go up into the Jewish court.

Now Paul says, "That old temple is out of the way; he
builds a new Temple that the old one foreshadowed," and
in this new Temple Gentile material will be used as well as
Jewish material. The chief corner-stone in the foundation
of this new Temple is the rock, Christ Jesus. A corner-
stone is one that holds two walls together. We notice in a

120 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

building where two walls come together a large stone that
goes into each wall and holds them together. Of course
there are corner-stones all the way up, but the chief corner-
stone is down next to the foundation. Every Christian
who exercises the holding-together power is a corner-stone.
Some just stick in the wall. Others we may call inter-
mediate corner-stones. That is the imagery of the Temple.

In verse i8 he shows a much more precious thought:
"Through Him we both [Jew and Gentile] have access to
the Father." Before, it was only the Jews who had access,
but under this new economy, the Gentiles as well as the
Jews have access in Christ to the Father. I stated that when
Christ died He nailed to His cross all discriminating legis-
lation. There was a signal token. Just at the time Christ
died the veil in the Temple was rent in twain from top to
bottom. That veil was said to be 70 feet long, 30 feet wide,
and 4 inches thick. Ten yoke of oxen could not have torn it.
It was closely woven and beautifully colored. At the mo-
ment Christ said, "It is finished," it was rent in twain, com-
mencing at the top and going all the way down. This signi-
fied that the way to the Holy of Holies was then made
open to all.

Paul refers to that in the Letter to the Hebrews when he
says, "Wherein God, being minded to show more abun-
dantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of
His counsel, interposed with an oath ; that by two immutable
things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have
a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay
hold of the hope set before us : which we have as an anchor
of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into
that which is within the veil ; whither as a forerunner Jesus
entered for us, having become a high priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek." Christ destroyed two enmities ;
first the enmity between Jew and Gentile, and made peace
between these two and converted them into one; then He

THE WALL OF PARTITION 121

made peace between each one of them and the Father. Being
reconciled to the Father through Christ we are reconciled
to our fellow-men.

We now come to a very important thought. When Paul
talks about the new man, and the church is said to be the
bride made one with Christ, as Adam and Eve were made
one, and when he talks about one commonwealth and one
citizenship, and when he talks about them being one house-
hold, and being made into one temple, he is speaking of the
church as an institution. God established a time institution.
That institution is exemplified, becomes operative, in par-
ticular churches.

This thought is expressed in verse 21 : "In whom each
several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy
temple in the Lord." That is to say, each particular congre-
gation, particular church, is an expression of the church as
an institution, and its only expression. For instance, a new
state may provide for "trial by jury." There, "jury" is an
institution, of which each particular jury is an expression.
So the expression, "I will build my church," when that insti-
tution becomes operative, it is exemplified in a particular
church. We must make the distinction in usage according
to the laws of language between an institution in the abstract
sense and its expression in every particular, concrete case.
Speaking abstractly, we may say that the church is a temple.
Speaking concretely, each particular church is a temple.
Such usage of language is common. We never misunder-
stand its import in other matters. We never make the ab-
stract sense a conglomeration. If we say abstractly "the
husband is the head of the wife" we do not mean all hus-
bands are blended into one big universal husband. But we
mean that in every particular case the husband is the head
of the wife. Just so in Eph. i : 22 ; 2 : 12-20 ; 3 : 10, 21 the
church as an institution is discussed under several figures.
But always Eph. 2:21, 22 (revised text) shows what the

122 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

institution is in its expression. It becomes operative in
particular churches only. Later Eph. 5 : 23-33 will discuss
the glory church.

The Judaizing Christians fought PauFs gospel on every
field of evangelism, and notwithstanding his letters to the
Corinthians, Galatians, Romans, Philippians, Colossians,
Ephesians, and Hebrews, he foresaw the coming of a great
apostasy that after his day would revert to a national
church with an earthly head and re-incorporate into the
Christian system the ideas, priesthood and ritual of an abro-
gated economy. He foresaw the coming of Christian inter-
preters who would revert to the Jewish Sabbath and insist
on the restoration of a Jewish kingdom with a returned
Christ as King at Jerusalem and with the Gentile world in
subjugation.

Tens of thousands of pulpits in Christendom today are
seeking in some fashion to rebuild that wall which Christ
demolished on the cross, and whose crumbling stone and
wasting wood were pulverized and scattered as fine dust.

From the old covenant, and from effete heathen religions
and customs, they gathered fragments and blended them
into a new yoke of bondage, setting aside the liberty and
simplicity of the gospel. And particularly on the ideas of
the church there is yet before Baptists a hard battle, whose
preliminary skirmishes have already commenced.

So far only the general line of thought has been followed.
But we need to look more critically at some particular expres-
sions, even though there be repetition.

Verse 14, "For He is our peace." What the strict mean-
ing? Is it limited to peace between Jew and Gentile, or is
it the peace of both Jew and Gentile with God, or both?
The peace under discussion is a reconcilation by the cross.
The cross must have here an expiatory sense ; it must pro-
pitiate toward God, making peace between Him and the
sinner, and as both Jew and Gentile draw near to God they

THE WALL OF PARTITION 133

draw near to each other. As all the diverging spokes of a
wheel come together and unite in the hub, so Jew and Gen-
tile find in Christ, the center, primarily, peace with God, and,
secondarily, peace with each other. Isaiah (9: 5, 6), Micah
(5:6), and Zechariah (10:10) predict peace through the
coming Messiah.

Verse 15, "The enmity." Here again the enmity is not
merely or primarily the hatred between Jew and Gentile,
but the enmity of both toward God. This is what stood in
the way of peace. Enmity which antagonizes and holds
nations apart can never be converted to peace until first the
enmity toward God on the part of opposing nations is gotten
out of the way. In the death of enmity toward God is also
the death of enmity toward each other. The thought is
beautifully imaged in the two staves of the prophet, the
staff, "Beauty," and the staff, "Bands," the first representing
the tie uniting Ephraim and Judah to God, the second
binding the two together. "Bands" cannot be broken until
"Beauty" is first broken.

"Create in himself of the two one new man." This is not
demanding that a Gentile shall become a Jew, nor that a
Jew shall become a Gentile; this would not be a creation.
But he creates a new corporate body, i.e., the church as an
institution. But as the two elements, Jew and Gentile, are
blended into the new corporation, this would not be a crea-
tion on account of the use of pre-existing material. A mere
blending, therefore, does not express the thought. The
blending would-be purely artificial if unchanged, incoherent
elements are bound together. By the creating power of re-
generation the Jew is made a Christian, and so the Gentile.
This Christian material of the new corporation did not
exist before. In this way He created in himself of the
two one new man, i.e., a new church. As the corporation
was new, so the elements which composed it were made new.

Verse 16. "Reconcile them both in one body, unto God,

IM COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

through the cross." Here it is evident, what has been ex-
pressed before, that the reconcihation of peace is toward
God, and sacrificially through the cross, and hence their
peace with each other is only a secondary thought resulting
from the first.

Verse 17. "And He came and preached peace to them
that were far off and peace to them that were nigh." "And
He came." When and what this coming ? It was the coming
in the Holy Spirit on Pentecost — the beginning of the exe-
cution of the commission given before His ascension.
Instrumentally the church, endued with power by the Spirit,
did the preaching.

Verse 18. "For through Him [Christ] we both [Jew and
Gentile] have access, in one Spirit, unto the Father." Here
in one short sentence we have all the persons of the Trinity
in their distinguishing office-work.

Verse 20. "Foundation — Corner-stone." Christ is really
the foundation and the corner-stone (I Cor. 3: 10-15 5 I P^t.
2:6, 7). The New Testament apostles and prophets are
the foundation only in the sense that they laid it in their
preaching, and in that way their vital doctrines, or what they
preached, is called the foundation (Heb. 6:1).

Real foundation = Christ.

Teaching foundation = the apostles and prophets.

Doctrinal foundation == what they preached.

Verses 21, 22. Let the reader particularly note that the
church as an institution, whether called "one new man,"
"one body," "one commonwealth," "one household," or "one
temple," finds expression in "each several building" or par-
ticular congregation, and that the leading idea of its mission
is to become an habitation of God through the Spirit.

THE WALL OF PARTITION 125

QUESTIONS

1. Cite and explain each particular of the condition of the Gen-
tiles prior to the gospel proclamation.

2. What race probations in the first eleven chapters of Genesis,
and what change commences in chapter 12?

3. What the wall of partition ?

4. When and how abrogated ?

5. Prove that this includes abrogation of the Jewish Sabbaths of
all kinds.

6. In what letters of Paul is all this made plain ?

7. Yet what did he foresee ?

8. In this chapter what various images are employed to express
the idea of the church as an institution?

9. Prove that this institution finds expression in particular
churches.

ID. What the meaning of "Christ our peace?"

11. What the meaning of unity?

12. What the meaning of "He came and preached peace," i.e.,
when and how was this coming ?

13. What verse of this chapter presents all the persons of the
Trinity, distinguishing between their office work?

XII

PAUL'S SECOND GREAT PRAYER

Scripture: Eph. 3:1-21

THIS discussion covers chapter 3, connecting two items
of the analysis, towit : Paul's relation to the mystery
of the gospel to the Gentiles, and his second great
prayer. And what a prayer it is ! Let us notice that in the
first verse he starts to pray, side-tracks it for twelve verses,
and then resumes. This is peculiar to Paul, starting on a
main thought and then leaving it to branch out on a collat-
eral thought. But he always comes back, as we see here in
verse 14. A man who does that shows an earnest, fruitful,
tenacious mind. We have noticed the trait in lower animals.
A dog starts out and follows a deer until he crosses a fresher
bear track. His hunting instinct turns him immediately into
the cross-trail, but he returns to take up the original trail.
Unlike the dog, some preachers start with a text and follow
it until they flush a new thought, then take after that and
never get back to the text, leaving their sermon as Tacitus,
the historian, leaves that great German hero, Arminius,
standing on a bridge, his readers not knowing whether he
ever crossed over, went back, or is standing there yet.
Other preachers, alas ! follow this order : i . They take a
text. 2. They instantly leave it. 3. They never get back to it.
Paul starts off: "For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of
Christ Jesus in behalf of you Gentiles." This introduces his
prayer, but a parenthesis follows showing why he prays.
This parenthesis is the eighth item of the analysis. It
occurred to him that he ought to explain why he was so

1^6

PAUL'S SECOND GREAT PRAYER 12T

earnest in praying for them. His interest grew out of a
special relation, such as no other man sustained, expressed in
these words : "The dispensation of that grace of God which
was given me to you-ward." There was a special dispen-
sation of the grace of God given to Paul. In the Letter to
the Galatians he uses this language bearing upon the thought :
"When they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel
of the uncircumcision, even as Peter with the gospel of the
circumcision (for he that wrought for Peter unto the
apostleship of the circumcision wrought for me also unto
the Gentiles) ; and when they perceived the grace that was
given unto me, James and Cephas and John, they who were
reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right
hands of fellowship, that we should go unto the Gentiles,
and they unto the circumcision."

To explain his prayer for the Gentiles, he says that the
dispensation of the gospel for the Gentiles was specially
committed to him. God himself divided the work. He
created a foreign mission- department and put it in the hands
of Paul. The home mission department he left to the orig-
inal twelve ; they were to go to the Jews and Paul was to go
to the Gentiles. There is the scriptural thought and justi-
fication for our division of the mission work into home and
foreign departments. To illustrate: If our foreign mis-
sion secretary starts to write a letter touching a mission
station in Mexico, Brazil, China or Africa, he pauses to
explain his interest — that the Southern Baptist Convention
has given him the dispensation of the foreign mission work,
and that is why he is writing.

The next point is that this dispensation was given to him
by revelation of Jesus Christ. He did not get it second
hand from Peter. He is clear to say that this gospel did
not come from man. It was a direct revelation from Jesus
Christ to him. That is demonstration against even the idea
of a human pope, for here is a man whose gospel is entirely

128 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

independent of the gospel committed to the twelve. And he
insists that he is not a whit behind any of them ; he is not
indebted to any of them for the authority with which he
preaches, and they were forced to concede that the same
God who wrought mightily through Peter to the circum-
cision, wrought just as mightily through Paul to the Gentiles.
He makes these points clear.

In Acts 9 we have the first account of God's designating
Paul to this work, setting him apart to be a great foreign
missionary. And as time developed, He called him more
specifically to that work. To show the strenuousness and
insistence of this separation of Paul to this work, note that
he himself had an intense desire to be a home missionary,
and on one occasion, contrary to the direct teaching of the
Spirit of God, he went to Jerusalem, and when he got there,
God met him in the temple and said, "They will not hear
you. Go work where I sent you." In other words, it is
as much the province of the Lord Jesus Christ to select the
field of labor as it is to call a man to preach, and the preacher
who disregards the divine jurisdiction over the place where
he is to preach, is sure to get into trouble and bring shame
and failure to himself. After God had purposed that this
should be his work, and after God had called him to that
work, he still kept hanging around the home mission depart-
ment. So the Lord came to the church at Antioch and said,
"Set apart Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have
called them." Church action followed the divine action.

Just here we come to an expression that causes some
people a little trouble. Verse 3 : "How that by revelation
was made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote before in
a few words/' The question is, if this letter was intended
primarily and exclusively to be for the Ephesians, when did
Paul ever write them about the dispensation having been
committed to him ? Some commentaries say that it is in the
first part of this letter, but there is not a syllable about it

PAUL'S SECOND GREAT PRAYER 129

in the first part of this letter. We find it in Col. i : 25 :
"Whereof I was made a minister, according to the dispen-
sation of God which was given me to you-ward, to fulfill
the Word of God, even the mystery which hath been hid for
ages and generations : but now hath it been manifested to
His saints." That is where he ''wrote before in a few
words'* That shows that there is a very close relation
between Colossians and Ephesians. The Letter to the
Ephesians elaborates the Letter to the Colossians, and jus-
tifies the position taken in the introductory chapter about the
phrase, "At Ephesus."

We now come to the word, "mystery." The word is fre-
quently used in the Bible, but not always with reference to
the same thing. John, in Revelation, presents a picture of
a woman dressed in scarlet sitting on a wild beast with seven
heads and ten horns, and on her forehead is written:
"Mystery, Babylon the great, mother of the harlots

AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.'* In that figure,

under the name, Babylon, he represents the mystery of the
Roman Catholic Church. In another place Paul himself
says in his Letter to Timothy: "Great is the mystery of
godliness." That is a different mystery, towit: (i) That
God was veiled in the flesh. (2) That, though veiled, the
angels recognized Him. (3) That thus veiled He was
preached unto the Gentiles. (4) That He was believed on
by the Gentiles. (5) He was received up in glory. "Con-
fessedly, great is the mystery of godliness."

But Paul uses the word "mystery" in this passage in a dif-
ferent meaning. It is not a mystery to him, nor will it be a
mystery to them after he explains. The mystery will be taken
away. Here is the secret of the mystery, in verse 6 : "That
the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the
body, and fellow-partakers in the promise of Christ Jesus
through the gospel." It was a mystery in Old Testament
times ; it was then veiled. The Jews seemed to be everything

ISO COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

there. But the mystery unveiled shows that even in the
beginning God looked kindly toward all nations of men.
God intended that all nations of men should seek Him and
find Him, that when the typical age passed, His gospel
through His Son should go to all nations that inhabit the
face of the earth. That was all hidden in Old Testament
times, but it is not mysterious now.

In that remarkable Letter to the Romans, chapter ii,
where the same matters are under discussion, he points out
that Israel, the chosen nation, loses the kingdom of God;
that through their fall the Gentiles receive the kingdom of
God ; that through the fulness of the Gentiles the Jews come
back to the kingdom of God; that the failure of the Jews
helps the Gentiles ; that the fulness of the Gentiles helps the
Jews. He says that the whole thing was according to divine
purpose, and then ends with this exclamation : "O the depth
of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God !
how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past
tracing out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord?
or who hath been His counsellor? or who hath first given to
Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of
Him, and through Him, and unto Him, are all things. To
Him be the glory forever. Amen."

Our thoughts so far are : ( i ) That the dispensation of the
gospel to the Gentiles was given to Paul. (2) That this dis-
pensation was given to him by special revelation ; it did not
come secondhand ; he was to be the great foreign missionary-
man. (3) That this was formerly a mystery, but is now ex-
plained. (4) The purpose of God is that the Gentiles shall
be fellow-heirs, fellow-members of the body and fellow-
partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel.

He adds a thought showing a more distant and extensive
end of his ministry : "Unto me, who am less than the least
of all saints, was this grace given, to preach unto the Gen-
tiles the unsearchable riches of Christ ; and to make all men

PAUL'S SECOND GREAT PRAYER 131

see what is the dispensation of the mystery which for ages
hath been hid in God who created all things ; to the intent
that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heav-
enly places might be made known through the church the
manifold wisdom of God." This is my great — my favorite —
text. It sets me on fire. I could wake suddenly in the night
and preach from it offhand. Through Paul, by special divine
appointment, all men are to be made to see this mystery
unveiled. Not only so, but unto angels by the church must
this manifold wisdom of God be made known. The church
is a pedagogue to angels. By the church they are instructed.

The first time I ever met my cousin, J. L. Carroll, he
preached a sermon at the Southern Baptist Convention in
Jefferson on the text: "What I do thou knowest not now,
but thou shalt know hereafter." In this discussion he quoted
verbatim the entire poem on the two weavers, one that I have
never seen anywhere except in Goodrich's old "Fourth
Reader." One weaver was complaining that everything went
wrong; the other believed that everything went right, and
he said to his brother weaver : "You see in part only. Let
your carpet instruct you. While in the loom you see only its
outside. There appears to be a chaotic jumble — warp and
woof and flying shuttle. But when complete and the rolls
are fitted on the floor, the pattern is plain. Fragments of
design in one roll find their counterpart in another. So to
us just now the world is a carpet inside out — it is yet in the
weaving — at the end the design and the pattern will appear."
I thought I had never heard anything more appropriate than
this illustration.

"Now," says Paul, "those angels up yonder are flaming
spirits, but there are many things they do not know. They
have had their curiosity aroused ever since Christ inter-
posed to save man, *which things the angels desired to look
into.' " On the mercy-seat the curiosity of the angels is rep-
resented by two golden cherubim on either side leaning over,

132 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

looking down where the blood is dropping. These heavenly-
students are trying to study out God's wisdom, and God's
wisdom is manifold, it is rolled up in a great roll and the
angels cannot see. The church comes along and takes hold
of the roll and unrolls, unrolls, unrolls, the many folds, and
as the church unrolls, the angels behold the manifold wisdom
of God.

That is a beautiful thought. It elevates one in his own
mind to know that he is helping explain difficult things to
the angels. Not only were the apostles a "spectacle to the
angels," but the church in its work is a spectacle to the angels,
in unfolding to their view the marvelous election, foreordina-
tion, predestination, and foreknowledge of God, developed
in redemption and made apparent through the ministry of the
church in preaching the gospel. The church comes opening
one door and sets Jerusalem on fire, and the angels clap
their hands and praise God — 3,000 Jews saved. The church
turns a key, throws open another door, and the Gentiles
come in. The angels clap their hands and sing, "Glory to
God in the highest." The church goes to Ephesus, 100,000
perhaps are converted there ; it crosses the Bosphorus and
enters Europe, goes to Athens, Corinth, and to Rome itself.
From there it goes to Britain, and then on gospel wings
it flies across the Atlantic Ocean, the gospel is carried across
the American continent, rises in another flight to the islands
of the sea, the Orient, flies over the walls of China, and
goes into Thibet, that darkest, most isolated place in the
world. All of that the angels learn as the kingdom develops.

We come now to a point that always thrilled me.

/ never could understand why some Baptists rejoice to
say there is no church-succession.

I would like for them to take hold of these two passages
in this chapter, "To the intent that now unto the principalities
and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known
through the church the manifold wisdom of God, according

PAUL'S SECOND GREAT PRAYER 133

to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus
our Lord," coupled with the last verse, "Unto Him be the
glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations
forever and ever. Amen."

Whenever church-work stops, then the glory stops. Did
God intend for it to stop? If He did, why did He say, ''Lo,
I am with you always, even unto the end of the world?'* And
why should we tell the church when celebrating the Lord's
Supper, "As often as you do this you show forth the Lord's
death till He come?" Why does He provide for perpetuity?

I am not discussing church history now. I am discussing
God's purpose in establishing the church. Jesus said, "The
gates of hell shall not prevail against it." I do not believe
they have. They have never been able to convince me that
the gates of hell have prevailed against the church.

/ believe that God not only has had people in all ages, but
that He has had an organised people.

He provided for transmission : "The things which I have
committed to you, the same commit thou to faithful men."
How do men have faith ? By hearing. How can they hear
without a preacher, and how can they have a preacher unless
he be sent? Did He not send the church all gifts — apostolic
gifts, prophetic gifts, evangelistic gifts and pastoral gifts?
He set every one of them in the church. The apostles and
prophets served the church; when they were taken away,
there remained pastors, evangelists, teachers. On whose
authority? Christ's. Where placed? In the church. I am
satisfied that if the angels, after watching the unfolding of
the wisdom of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ, from the
time Christ died until the time the apostles died, they have
not had a recess since of a thousand years. They are not left
in suspense, vainly bending over to learn more through silent
centuries. The school goes right on. The purposes ripen.
The ordinances continue to tell their story. Churches come
from churches somewhat as horses come from horses. His-

134 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

tory cannot trace every detail of the pedigree showing how a
certain drove of wild mustangs in western Texas are de-
scendants of the Spanish barbs, brought here by the dis-
coverers 400 years ago. The fact that the mustangs are here
proves the succession, since only like begets like.

/ do not undervalue church history, hut far more impor-
tant to me than fallible human records of passing events is
the New Testament forecast of church history. The former
may err — the latter never.

Before the "Louisiana Baptist Historical Society" it was
my pleasure to discuss this very theme.

We now consider the marvelous second prayer of Paul for
the Ephesians, which is the ninth item of the analysis. The
petitioner is Paul. He is a prisoner. The chain on his hand
clanks with every line he writes. But the Word of God is not
chained, the Spirit of God is not chained, and the spirit of this
man who prays is not chained. It is amazing that a man in
his circumstances could so far forget himself in the riches
of his benevolence and go out in his supplications and entreat
for such blessings as are embodied in this petition.

The next thought is the relation of this prayer to preceding
things. This relation is expressed in these words : "For this
cause I pray." What cause? It has just been stated: first,
that it was the purpose of God that the Gentiles should be
fellow-heirs, and that Paul was the minister selected who
should preach to these Gentiles that the kingdom of heaven
was open to them. So it was for this cause — ^because God
intended that they should have these benefits, and because
He designated Paul as the instrument by which they should
come to them, therefore he prayed.

Let us look at the attitude which was very reverent and
very deliberate: "I bow my knees." To whom? To the
Father. There is a modifying phrase that we need now to
consider, bearing on why he prayed to Him, and especially
why Paul prayed to Him in this connection. This modifying

PAUL'S SECOND GREAT PRAYER 135

phrase is "from whom every family in heaven and earth is
named." There is something in the modifying clause sug-
gesting why Paul offers this petition to the Father, but we
have a difficulty in determining what it means. The common
version reads : "For whom the whole family in heaven and
earth is named." It is very easy to understand what that
idea is. It is exactly the idea expressed in this hymn :

"Let saints on earth unite to sing
With those to glory gone ;
For all the servants of the King
In heaven and earth are one.

"One family we dwell in Him,

One church above, beneath.
Though now divided by the stream,
The narrow stream of death."

If the King James version is the correct rendering, that
is what it means, and we can see the idea at once when he
prays to the Father from whom the whole family, Jews and
Gentiles, those in heaven and those on earth, and those yet
to be born, is named. It is a very beautiful thought. The
objection to that being the proper rendering is that there is
no article in the Greek, and therefore grammatically the re-
vised version is more accurate, not referring to the whole
family collectively but distributively : "From whom every
family is named," that is, those who go to heaven may con-
stitute a family; down here on earth they are not all as-
sembled in one. There was a family at Rome, one at Corinth
and one at Ephesus. In this sense the word "family" is a
synonym for "church." Which is correct ? The revised ver-
sion is very accurate : "I pray unto the Father, from whom
every family in heaven and on earth is named." Every
church is named, whether you conceive of it as the church
of the spirits of the just, made perfect in glory, or distribu-
tively, each particular congregation of Christ's disciples here

136 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

upon earth. There is, quite possibly, another meaning which
we find in the margin of our Bible: "From whom every
Fatherhood is named." That does not make the sense mate-
rially different from the sense of the revised text. Father-
hood upon earth is a reflection of the true fatherhood in
Heaven. All fatherhood gets its idea and ideal from God,
the Father.

These are the three possible meanings of this passage. I
do not like to be on the fence myself, and after studying
about it a great deal. I am inclined to think that the King
James version has the true idea, and I am quite sure it can
be defended exegetically and grammatically, because we find
in the Greek New Testament four or five places where the
article is absent and yet the unity is there, and it is so ren-
dered by the revisers themselves. I think this makes the best
sense and connects better with Paul's thought. He has just
been telling them that under the old economy the Gentiles
were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, without God,
and without hope in the world, but that under the new revela-
tion of the mystery of God's purpose it is evident He in-
tended Jew and Gentile to be one in Christ. And he is speak-
ing of the unity continually, the gathering together, and I
prefer that translation: "From whom the whole family in
heaven and earth is named." The Gentile belongs to that
family just as much as the Jew.

So we advance in our thought. We have Paul the peti-
tioner, the Father petitioned, and the power according to
which he asks that things be granted — "according to the
riches of His glory." What does he ask for? We see the
whole Trinity in this: The Father is the source, therefore
the petition is addressed to Him. He asks one blessing that
touches the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity, and
several touching Christ, the second person in the Trinity.
The first thing for which he asks is strength : "That ye may
be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward

PAUL'S SECOND GREAT PRAYER 137

man." We often see physical giants, like John L. Sullivan,
Jim Jeffries, strong on the outside but not strong on the
inside. Then we see some frail, weak men, like William of
Orange, who was so sick that he could not stand up, but
strong inside and commanding his army. And we see the
general on the other side, the Duke of Luxemburg, who was
so frail and sick that his soldiers had to carry him about on
a litter. A man who did not have strength inside would
have been whining in the hospital and asking for a furlough,
but these two generals were strong inside, and they directed
their armies while they fought one of the most famous battles
of history. Even so, and more so, is it with the Christian.
The outward man perishes, but the inward man is renewed
day by day. The fact is that no man is whipped until he is
whipped inside, and when whipped inside he is whipped alto-
gether. Just as long as his soul is firm and steadfast he is
invincible by any force that can be sent against him.

We will now look at the Christ-side of it, and there are
several parts in that. First, "that Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith." There is a great difference between
taking permanent residence and paying an occasional visit.
It seems that some Christians, at occasional intervals, receive
visits from Christ, not very welcome visits on their part,
and He has to stand outside and knock : "Behold, I stand at
the door and knock." Paul does not pray for that, but that
Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith. That means
to abide, not just a visitor staying over night, but owning
the house and living in it, and He can dwell in your hearts
only through faith.

The second thing is stability : "That being rooted [that is
the image of a tree] and grounded [there he changes the
figure to a house with strong foundations] in love." That is
stability. Look at a China tree; a little wind will blow it
over. Why ? Because it has no tap root. One cannot turn
over a post, but he can turn over a block of wood that is rest-

138 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

ing on the ground. The use of the lateral roots of the tree
is to feed the tree. All of those little fibrous roots close to
the top of the ground furnish the tree food and water. But
that big root that goes straight down is not to feed it, but to
hold it firmly. So Paul prays for stability : "being rooted and
grounded." Some of those buildings in San Francisco with
their rock foundations and steel frames, the rock holding
them together under the ground and the steel frames holding
them together above the ground, were not shaken by even
the earthquake.

The third thing is, "That ye may be strong to apprehend
with all the saints." Apprehend what ? Certain dimensions
— breadth, length, heighth, and depth of the love of Christ.
In other words, "I pray that you may be able to apprehend
the dimensions of the love of Christ ; that you may see how
high it is, how deep it is, how broad it is and how long it is."
All the saints are invited to join in it. Sir Isaac Newton said
that he was just a little child on the coast picking up shells.
He claimed not to know much. So Paul said, "I have not
apprehended all things for which He laid hold of me, but I
pray that you Ephesians may be strong to apprehend the
dimensions of the love of Christ."

The fourth thing is knowledge — "to know the love of
Christ." That refers to personal experience, not a mental
conception, but a realization of it in the heart, i. e., to know
experimentally the love of Christ. We learn some things
about Christ intellectually and put them in our hearts and
assimilate them, but let us learn them personally. As each
lesson comes, let us put it in our hearts and learn it per-
sonally. That is why we are called upon to know the love
of Christ which passeth knowledge. We know now in part,
but not altogether.

The fifth thing connected with Christ that he prays for,
"That ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God." Paul
is not here offering a prayer for one person, but he is pray-

PAUL'S SECOND GREAT PRAYER 139

ing for the church, which is the temple of God, and the
temple of God is to have the fulness of God.

Several years ago in a controversy I quoted this passage
and a man asked, "What do you get out of that ? I have read
it many times but I do not get anything out of it." I said,
"The church is the habitation of the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is in the church, not in part of His power, but in the
fulness of His power. The church has the fulness, but may
not have the realization of the fulness. You let a church get
into a great meeting and those who have been doing wrong
repent and confess; and those who have become alienated
become reconciled, the proud become humbled, and the selfish
become unselfish, those who could not pray learn to pray,
and in that realization they begin to pray for big things.
Before that, if they could get fifteen or twenty around one
sinner, they might have faith enough to pray for him, but
now they pray for men who are far off."

I have seen the old Waco church in the fulness of God. I
went down one day in the great meeting and my nerves
tingled; I could feel prickling sensations running all over
me, the presence of God was so sensibly felt. I asked the
church to pray for a certain one who was very dear to me.
They got down and prayed a very short, sweet prayer, and
that very moment while the words were still coming from
the lips of the one offering the petition, God converted that
man from infidelity, and on the next train he was at the
church to tell them how he was saved at the very hour of
the prayer.

These are the five things in connection with Christ : The
indwelling of Christ by faith, being rooted and grounded
in love, to be able to apprehend the dimensions of Christ's
love, to know the love of Christ and to be filled with the
fulness of God.

That brings us to the benediction. That benediction is an
offering of glory. To whom? To the Father. In what

140 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

sphere? In the church. Through what medium? Christ.
How long? World without end. That means church per-
petuity.

, QUESTIONS

1. What two items of analysis are discussed in this chapter?

2. What characteristic of Paul's letters appears in the beginning
of the chapter, and wherein does he differ from some other
preachers ?

3. What special relation of Paul to those addressed was the
reason of the prayer now to be offered?

4. What passage in Galatians bears on the matter, and does this
justify our present division of the missionary work into two distinct
departments — home and foreign?

5. How did he receive this dispensation of the grace of God,
and what the bearing of it on the question of a human pope?

6. What three passages in Acts give the history of this commit-
ment of the Gentile work to Paul?

7. Where do we also find in Acts a revelation from God to the
church to ordain Paul to this work unto which our Lord had called
him, and what two things does this prove?

8. How do you explain the phrase, "As I wrote you before in a
few words ?"

9. What the meaning of "mystery" here as distinguished from
its meaning in I Tim. 3: 16 and Rev. 17: 5?

10. What additional thought in Paul's conception of his mission,
and to what marvelously glorious end?

11. What then the relation of the church to angels?

12. What the lesson and application in the story of the two
weavers ?

13. Cite two passages in this chapter having a bearing on church
perpetuity, and explain the bearing.

14. Which the more important, the New Testament forecast
of church perpetuity or the testimony of church history on that
point, and why?

15. What verses of this chapter contain Paul's second great
prayer for those addressed?

16. On this prayer answer: (i) What the circumstances of the
petitioner? (2) What not chained? (3) What the cause of the
prayer? (4) What the attitude or posture of the petitioner? (5)
To whom addressed? (6) What the three varied renderings of the
clause modifying the Father, what the difference in meaning, and
which do you prefer?

17. Name the things asked for in this prayer.

18. Illustrate how a church may now be filled with all the fulness
of God.

XIII

THE GREAT UNITIES
Scripture: Eph. 4:1-16

WE have come to the tenth division of our analysis of
Ephesians — The Great Unities, and the Means of
Securing Their Recognition. The importance of
this section, Eph. 4: 1-16, cannot be overstated. It would
be well to memorize this section verbatim. It would be well
for the reader to drill himself on it until every thought in it is
rooted unto such stability that no whirlwind could uproot the
sturdy oak tree of his faith or, changing the figure, until
the composite structure of his faith is so grounded in the
rock, so tied at the corners, so compacted in each layer of
stones, so jointed and roofed that no storm of wind and wave
could undermine, tear apart, or shake it down. These nine
unities are thus named :

One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all,
and in all.

One Lord, who is Jesus Christ.

One bond of peace, which is Christ's atonement.

One Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit.

One calling, meaning the inheritance to which we are
called.

One body, which is the church.

One act of Faith, by which we have access into grace.

One baptism, a prerequisite of church membership.

One system of Faith, i.e., "The Faith," which is the
church-creed,

141

14^ COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

In a true sense this chapter begins the practical side of the
letter : "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to
walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called, with
all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing
one another in love ; giving diligence to keep the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace."

From doctrines come morals. The relation is philosophical
and the bond is indissoluble. All the modern hue and cry
against dogma is really against morals. The more we reduce
the number of the creed-articles, the more we undermine
practical religion.

Neither Christ nor the apostles predicate morals on any
other than a doctrinal foundation. If we are to walk worthily
of our calling, we must first know the doctrine of the calling,
that is, unto what we were called. And all our "lowliness
and meekness and longsuffering and forbearance toward each
other, and diligent keeping of the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace" are dependent on the antecedent doctrines
set forth, otherwise there is no force in Paul's "therefore."
And what one of the doctrines in the three preceding chap-
ters or in this can we omit from our creed without omitting
something profitable in our life? A Christian's creed should
enlarge, and not diminish, up to the last utterance of revela-
tion in order that each article might be transmuted into
experience.

A church with a little creed is a church with a little life.
The more divine doctrines a church can agree on, the greater
its power, and the wider its usefulness. The fewer its
articles of faith, the fewer its bonds of union and compact-
ness.

The modern cry: "Less creed and more liberty," is a
degeneration from the vertebrate to the jelly-fish, and means
less unity and less morality, and it means more heresy.
Definitive truth does not create heresy — it only exposes and
corrects. Shut off the creed and the Christian world would

THE GREAT UNITIES 143

fill up with heresy unsuspected and uncorrected, but none the
less deadly.

Just so it is not good discipline that creates backsliding
and other sins of Christians. But discipline is oftentimes
the only means of saving a church. To hold to discipline for
immoralities and relax it on doctrine puts the cart before the
horse and attempts to heal a stream while leaving the foun-
tain impure. To Christ and the apostles false creeds were
the most deadly things, and called most for the use of the
knife. Let us apply these reflections to the great unities in
this chapter :

1. One God and Father of all, who is over all, through all
and in all. That declaration not only dethrones the idols
of the world, but digs under the multitudinous and gross
immoralities arising from the idolatries. Not only so, but
it uproots all the false philosophies and cosmogonies; for
example. Materialism, Pantheism, Stoicism, Epicurianism
(more recently labeled Darwinian evolution), and the like.

2. "One Lord." This limits revelation, mediation, priest-
hood and kingly rule to Jesus the Messiah, the image of God.
How vast the sweep of this exclusive truth, and how multi-
tudinous the immoralities it outlaws !

3. "One bond of peace." That is one sacrifice through
which our peace with God is secured and our peace with
each other is assured. Apart from this there is no real peace
between God and man, and between man and man.

4. "One Spirit." This limits the vicarship and the vice-
gerency to one, and so not only cuts off the head of Pope and
king who claim to be vicars of Christ, but outlaws all ap-
proaches to Christ or interpretations of Him not directed by
the Spirit, and closes up the way to all immoral attempts to
penetrate the future through demon, wizard, witch, diviner
or soothsayer. Moreover, it limits all application of the
atonement to the Holy Spirit.

5. "One calling." This refers not only to the act of calKng,

lU COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

but to the inheritance to which we are called. It means the
complete salvation of man and his heavenly home, with all the
riches of its glory. We are all going to one place — ^the
heavenly land of promise.

6. "One body," or one church. Applying this to the re-
deemed in the aggregate, it limits salvation to those in Christ
and vitally connected with Him. Applying it as we may and
must to the time institution He established, it overturns the
claims of all human institutions affecting equality with God's
institution, or assuming the right to be recognized as a branch
thereof. Applying it as we may, and as Paul does, to a par-
ticular church, the only expression of the institution, it
excludes all so called churches not modeled after the New
Testament pattern in its terms of membership, polity, doc-
trines, ordinances, and officers.

7. "One faith." This, construed with verses 13 and 14
below, as it may be construed, would evidently not refer to
an individual's trust in Jesus, but to the system, or body of
truth taught by Christ and the apostles. But construed with
baptism and the body, which is a nearer and better connec-
tion, then it means two things :

(a) The one means of contact with Christ, i.e., "by faith
we enter into this grace wherein we stand," and so becomes
an essential prerequisite to church membership and to sal-
vation.

(b) It would also mean one definite transaction through
which justification comes once for all. The thought excludes
the heresy that we may lose justification and so be under the
necessity of repeating the saving act of faith. Faith, in the
act of receiving and relying on Christ for justification, is not
repeated. It is one faith. We may go on, we may not go
back to relay the foundation. This one definite act of faith
is instantaneous. It receives Christ, as a woman in marriage
takes a man to be her husband. It commits the keeping of
the soul to Christ and relies on His ability to keep that which

THE GREAT UNITIES 145

IS so committed until the judgment day. Neither the taking
, in marriage nor the making of a deposit is progressive or
contingent. And so justification, following faith, is not con-
tingent nor progressive. It is a declaration of the court of
the last resort that one is acquitted definitely, at once, and is
forever free.

8. "One baptism." The reference here is unquestionably
to the ordinance of water baptism that follows faith and pre-
cedes church membership. By a figure of speech other things
are called baptism. The overwhelming of Christ in suffer-
ing is so called (Luke 12:50). The overwhelming of the
saints in the outpoured Spirit is so called (Acts 1:5). The
final overwhelming of sinners in the penal fires of judgment
is so called (Matt. 3 : 10-12). But these figures of speech —
baptism in suffering, baptism in the Holy Spirit, baptism in
fire — gather their significance from a likeness in the over-
whelming act to the immersion of a believer in water. The
one baptism of our text means the one immersion in water
according to Christ's example and precept. It therefore
implies two things :

(a) Baptism is one definite thing — immersion — and not
permissibly one of three things — sprinkling, pouring, or
immersion.

The baptism of our Lord in the river Jordan settles the
whole matter and fixes the particular meaning, even if the
word had many meanings, for John, in baptizing Jesus, did
only one thing. He either sprinkled or poured water on
Christ or immersed Christ in water. He did not do all three.

What he did is the one baptism, for when, through His
disciples, Christ also baptized, and baptized more than John
did, the act was the same as that to which He had submitted
himself (John 3:22, 23 and 4: i, 2). And what He sub-
mitted to himself that He also commanded to be done by His
disciples (Matt. 28: 19).

(b) It is not only one thing as distinguished from others.

140 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

but one in that, unlike the Lord's Supper, it may not be re^
peated, when the elements of its validity are all present.
These elements are: (i) proper authority; (2) proper sub-
ject; (3) proper act; (4) proper design, upon all of which
the receiving church must pass judgment. By the consensus
of Christendom, baptism is prerequisite to church member-
ship, and consequently to participation in the Lord's Supper,
which is peculiarly a church ordinance.

9. "The unity of the faith" (verse 13). Here certainly,
if not in verse 5, the reference is to the system or body of
truth constituting the creed of the church, as sufficiently
appears from its direct connection with verse 14. It cer-
tainly teaches the importance of all gospel truth, and the
necessity of bringing all babes in Christ, or new converts,
into unity of belief to safeguard them from divisions and
from becoming the prey of cunning craftiness, to hedge
against shifting from doctrine to doctrine, all in order to
their reciprocal growth so as to affect the maturity of the
church in Christian knowledge and the consequent maturity
of development as the body of Christ.

"The faith" here coincides with its use in Jude 3: "Be-
loved, while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of
our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you
exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was
once for all delivered unto the saints/* Here is a sacred
deposit of truth called "the faith" — a deposit delivered to
the saints — a fixed deposit delivered once for all. This truth
certain heresiarchs, who had crept privately into the church,
were seeking to undermine, "denying our only Master and
Lord, Jesus Christ." And as Jude shows powerfully this
departure from the faith was followed by immorality in life.

Paul refers to this deposit and its sanctity in several places.
Notably I Cor. 15 : 3-8 : "For I delivered unto you first of all
that which I also received," itemizing ( I ) Christ's death for
pur sins according to the scriptures, (2) His burial, (3) His

THE GREAT UNITIES 147

resurrection, (4) His appearance. Again, concerning the
Lord's Supper, he says : "For I received of the Lord that
which I also deHvered unto you," I Cor. 1 1 : 23-34. And
yet again : "Now I praise you that ye hold fast to the things
handed down, even as I delivered them unto you," I Cor.
1 1 : I . To Timothy he writes, "O Timothy, guard that which
is committed unto thee, turning away from the profane
babblings and opposition of the knowledge which is falsely
so called ; which some professing have erred concerning the
faith" I Tim. 6 : 20, 21. And again : "And the things which
thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same
commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others
also," II Tim. 2 : 2. Thus does he provide both for keeping
and for transmission. Concerning himself about to die, he
says, "I have kept the faith," II Timothy 4: 7.

This body of truth, constituting the creed of the church,
be held as of inestimable value, and was ready to pronounce
anathema against an angel from heaven v/ho would preach
any other gospel. It is a radical mistake to say that these
New Testament articles of faith were few and simple. They
touched, among other things, the nature, being, attributes
and offices of the triune God ; the Holy inspired scriptures,
the church with its polity, terms of membership, officers,
ordinances and mission, the whole plan of salvation from
election, foreordination and predestination to glorification;
the family ; the citizen ; the whole of this life, and the whole
of the life to come ; the ministry of angels good and the oppo-
sition of angels bad, and the final judgment.

Particularly they touched the personality of the Messiah,
His pre-existence and deity. His emptying himself of His
heavenly glory and prerogatives to assume in His first
advent the body of His humiliation, in order to His vicarious
expiation of sin on the cross, His going in His spirit after
death to make the atonement in the Holy of Holies ; His sec-
ond advent to earth in order to assume His body of glorifi-

148 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

cation, and His ascension and exaltation to the throne of the
universe as a royal priest ; His sending of His vicar, or vice-
gerent, the Holy Spirit, to accredit, infill, endue with power,
and to abide with His church on earth ; His third advent to
assume His mystical body, the glorified church, to raise the
dead and judge the world.

Broad as is the foregoing statement, it does not include all
the clearly defined articles of the New Testament faith. So
the reader may find it interesting and profitable to study in
connection with the nine unities of Ephesians 4:1-16, Romans
12 : 4, 5, 1 Cor. 12 : 12-31, and these other scriptural declara-
tions or summaries of the faith : Matt. 16 : 16, 28 : 18-20, Rom.
8: 28-30; I Cor. 5:1-8 and especially I Tim. 3 : 15-18. The
last is quite important, for after setting forth that the church
is the pillar and ground of the faith, i.e., the keeper, con-
servator, publisher, illustrator and vindicator of the truth,
the apostle then summarizes the elements of the truth — at
least the elements that enter into the mystery of godliness — ^
thus:

1. God was manifested in the flesh.

2. So manifested He was justified, or vindicated, by the
Holy Spirit, (a) at His baptism (Matt. 3), (b) in offering
up himself as a sacrifice (Heb. 9: 14), (c) in His resurrec-
tion (I Pet. 3: 18, and Rom. 1 14), (d) by His descent at
Pentecost (Acts 2).

3. Though veiled in the flesh. He was recognized by the
angels (Luke 2:9-14; Matt. 3: 11; Luke 22-43).

4. Preached among the nations.

5. Believed on in the world.

6. Received up into glory.

Very solemnly I would warn the reader against any teach-
ing that decries doctrines, or which would reduce the creed
of the church into two or three articles.

We are entitled to no liberty in these matters. It is a posi-
tive and very hurtful sin to magnify liberty at the expense

THE GREAT UNITIES 149

of doctrine. A creed is what we believe. A confession of
faith is a declaration of what we believe. The church must
both believe and declare. The longest creed of history is
more valuable and less hurtful than the shortest.

While "the faith" has many articles, there is unity in
them. They articulate. And it is intensely important to
bring all members of the church into unity touching all the
faith. This brings us to a consideration of —

The Means for Securing Unity. — These are all of divine
appointment. If we ask, what? They are all summed up in
the one word, "Gifts." These gifts are men — teaching men.
As here enumerated they are :

Apostles, who are inspired.

Prophets, who are inspired.

Evangelists, who labor in the kingdom at large.

Pastors and teachers, or pastor-teachers, whose work is in
the particular churches.

The first two were inspired to fix the limits of the faith.
The second two were illumined to understand and expound
these limits. If we ask where are these gifts set, or placed?
They are not in the church ( i Cor. 12 : 28) . If we ask, why,
i.e., to what end ? This is the answer : "For the perfecting of
the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up
of the body of Christ ; till we all attain unto the unity of the
faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-
grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ." That is the answer to the positive side. Negatively
it is expressed thus : "That we may be no longer children,
tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doc-
trine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of
error." The standard is the holy scriptures.

The apostle now gives, under the figure of head and body,
as a livii^ organism, the most vivid description in the Bible
of a well organized and thoroughly instructed church : From
Christ the head, "all the body fitly framed and knit together

150 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

through that which every joint supplieth, according to the
working in due measure of each several part, maketh the
increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love."

This is an ideal church. It constitutes the standard of
perfection toward which every pastor should work. It
teaches not only that each individual member should have
vital connection with Christ through faith, but should have
living articulation connecting with the whole body of church
members, and should contribute in due measure toward the
development of the whole church. In other words, it ex-
cludes absolutely the idea of unsaved men in the church, and
even of saved men who refuse to be articulated with others,
and even those articulated who will not co-operate according
to ability. So that it provides not only for individual salva-
tion, but for the organization of individuals into a corpora-
tion and the full developments of corporate life.

To change the figure, it provides not only for good indi-
vidual horses, but for a well harnessed team of horses to
pull together ; not only for good individual soldiers, but for
a well-drilled phalanx, moving and fighting as a unit. One
balking horse spoils the team. One deserter from the line
leaves an opening through which the enemy may penetrate
and break up the phalanx.

Dr. Burleson used to say of a certain town : *Tt has more
individual excellence, and more general worthlessness than
any other town in Texas." He meant that they had no organ-
ized community life. Their magnified individuality went off
in every direction on tangential lines. We Baptists, in stress-
ing individual liberty, are continually sacrificing the power of
united forces.

Just so the present trend toward cutting off every article
of faith to which some individual crank may object, will, if
tamely unresisted, leave the church without a creed and with-
out a moral life. Turning away from doctrines toward God,
we necessarily turn away from the injunction, "Love the

THE GREAT UNITIES 151

brotherhood." We need to restudy Zech. ii : 10-14. When-
ever the staff, "beauty," which binds us to God, is broken,
then will be broken the staff, "bands," which binds us to each
other.

This discussion is incomplete until we consider the source
of the gifts which make for corporate unity and development.
Our text declares that Christ is the author of the preacher-
gifts. The continued supply of these gifts results from His
exaltation to the mediatorial throne and this exaltation
results from the previous humiliation. The one who ascended
to bestow the gifts is the very one who first descended to
make the expiation which is the basis of the gifts. He was
dead, but is alive forevermore.

We may close with these observations: (i) While even
babes in Christ may be received into the church for further
instruction and development, those appointed to instruct
and develop must have far higher qualifications of charac-
ter, capacity, and knowledge. The minimum of entrance
qualification into the church can never be made the limit
of the church creed, and especially cannot be made the limit
of examination for ordination to the ministry. This would
assume that a babe must teach a babe. (2) The limit of
ordination examination on doctrine is the maximum of
church creed on doctrine. The teacher must develop each
new born soul unto the ultimate height of church-belief in
doctrine. Therefore the injunction: "Lay hands suddenly
on no man — not on a novice." The minister must be "apt
to teach." A teacher is one long past the milk diet, and who
himself nourishes on stronger meat, by reason of use has his
senses exercised to discern between good and evil. He must
himself be "sound in the faith." Even a deacon must be a
proved-man, "sound in the faith." (3) Unless "the faith"
is a needed creed of definite vital truth, there is no basis for
examination looking to ordination and no standard up to
which the convert must be developed. The church, being

15^ COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

the pillar and ground of the truth, must have a standard of
truth to uphold and conserve. Upon the one point of the
mystery of godliness, Paul cites six distinct creed-items. On
the plan of salvation he cites many others. See Rom.
8: 28-30, 33, 34; I Cor. 15: 1-8; and on the ordinances yet
others. (4) As the church must publish the truth, it must
know what to publish. As the church must illustrate the
truth in ordinances it must know the ordinances and their
import. As the church must vindicate the truth in discipline,
it must know what is a vindication of truth in either doctrine
or life.

Again, I solemnly warn the reader against all who depre-
ciate creeds, or who would reduce them to a minimum of
entrance qualifications into the church.

QUESTIONS

1. Name the nine unities in Eph. 4: 1-16.

2. What side of the letter does this chapter commence?

3. What the philosophical relation between doctrines and morals ?

4. What bearing has this relation on creeds ?

5. What the particular effect of this modern cry : "Less creeds —
more liberty?"

6. Apply the foregoing to each one of the nine unities in order,
making clear the meaning and result of each, citing appropriate
scriptures.

7. What scriptures may be profitably studied in connection with
Eph. 4: 1-16?

8. Why is a long creed better than a short one ?

9. What the means of securing unity in doctrine, where placed,
and why, both positively and negatively, and what the standard?

ID. What the teaching of Eph. 4: 16?

11. Who the source of the gifts, and how the continual supply?

12. What the difference in standard between receiving converts
into a church and a man into the ministry, and why?

XIV

THE NECESSITY OF REGENERATION

Scriptures: Eph. 4: 17—5:21 and 6:1-9

THIS section extends from 4:17 to 6:9, except we
leave out the illustration in 5 : 21-33, Christ and the
Bride. That will follow in the next chapter.

Attention has already been called to the remarkable paral-
lels between Colossians and Ephesians. They are nowhere
more striking than in the exhortations to newness of life
in the world and in the family. In both we find the sharp
distinction between the philosophy of a corrupt life and the
philosophy of a pure life.

Effects are traced in each case to an adequate cause. The
unrenewed nature causes the first. The renewed nature,
which is a new creation, causes the second. Nowhere else
in the scripture, except perhaps in Romans i and 7, is there
more clearly shown the power and depravity of original sin,
the inheritance of sin-nature, and the necessity of regenera-
tion in order to a life of holiness. That is the capital thought
in this section.

The two sources of such divergent life are here called
the "old man," and the "new man." In the first the fruit is
bad because the tree is bad. In the second the fruit is good
because the tree has first been made good. The whole exhor-
tation powerfully expounds the words of our Lord to Nico-
demus : "Except a man be born from above he cannot see
the kingdom of God," therefore, "Marvel not that I said unto
you, Ye must be born again." If any man has any doubt
about the necessity of regeneration, let him read this section.

15S

154 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

It is the most powerful argument on the necessity of regen-
eration anywhere in the Bible.

Henry Ward Beecher, the great Congregationalist
preacher, who had several heretical tendencies, was once
subjected to an examination on orthodoxy before a council
of his people. I have the paper which he submitted at that
time. One of the points on which he was examined was the
subject of regeneration. He said, "I unswervingly hold to
the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit in order to
be a Christian." That looks all right. But when one of the
examiners asked, "Do you hold that regeneration is neces-
sary for any other reason than the actual transgressions of
men ?" What a searching question that ! His reply was a
dodge : "I believe that a man needs to be regenerated because
he is an animal." He would not admit original sin. He
would not admit inherited depravity. He said that the
Adam-man was an animal and must be regenerated before
he can become a spiritual man in Christ. That was new to
me. Beecher was one of the most remarkable thinkers the
world has ever known. Nobody else would have thought of
replying just that way. If I had been there I would have
asked Mr. Beecher some questions on the Letter to the
Ephesians.

The reader will notice that every gradation in process of
corruption is set forth with philosophical power in this sec-
tion. In analyzing it we see that he starts with spiritual
ignorance. That produces vanity of mind, darkness of
understanding, and alienation from the life of God. Then
evil practice hardens the heart until we lose sensitiveness to
right and wrong, become past feeling, so that the whole life
is surrendered to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with
greediness.

How much we are reminded here of the terrible process
set forth in Romans i : 21-32 ! There also the whole process
is given: "Because that, knowing God, they glorified Him

NECESSITY OF REGENERATION 155

not as God, neither gave thanks ; but became vain in their
imaginations, and their senseless heart was darkened. Pro-
fessing themselves to be wise, they became fools." Because
they did not like to retain the knowledge of God, God g^ve
them up to reprobate minds, to the working out of all evil
passion. Read the whole of that awful indictment against
the Gentile world.

A great missionary in the early days here in Texas
preached for me in Waco on this theme : "Are the heathen
lost without the gospel ?" His answer was, "Yes, lost." He
took that first chapter of Romans and showed how what is
there said fits just as well to conditions in heathen lands today
as then; that human nature is always the same, and that
through the fall of Adam an evil nature was inherited. That
evil nature develops into acts. The wicked man waxes worse
and worse and finally becomes crystallized, past feeling, with-
out God, and without hope in the world. That was once the
condition of these Ephesians. Many of them were Greeks,
who prided themselves upon the greatest intellectual develop-
ment in the world. Highest in art, science, sculpture, paint-
ing, eloquence, philosophy, they thought themselves the
cream of the earth, but notwithstanding this culture their
moral corruption was extreme. But new in Christ, renewed
in mind, they are exhorted to put off the old man with his
lusts, his anger, falsehood, idleness, theft, evil speaking, bit-
terness, clamor, railing, malice, fornication, covetousness,
filthiness, foolish talking and jesting, and drunkenness.
These are overt acts. As soon as we are renewed in Christ
we are obliged and empowered to put on the new man with
his truth, industry, generosity, thankfulness, spirituality,
mercy, love, praise and prayer.

We see in the Letter to the Galatians the fruits of the two
trees contrasted. Gal. 5 : 22 : "The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
meekness, self-control ; against such there is no law." Gal.

150 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

5: 19; "The works of the flesh are manifest, which are
these : fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sor-
cery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions,
parties, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like."

When I was a young preacher I preached a sermon on
the two trees — the tree of the flesh and the tree of the Spirit
— and stated that some people spend half of a life-time
trying to find out whether or not they are converted. I
held up these two trees, saying, "Under which tree do you
stand? There is a practical way of knowing that you
are a child of God. Here are the things that are the fruits
of the flesh, and here are the things that are the fruits of
the Spirit. You know the fruit of your life; judge from
that. If a man sows to the flesh, he reaps corruption; if
he sows to the Spirit, he reaps life everlasting." Our Lord
said, "By their fruits ye shall know them." The carnal
nature and spiritual nature are opposites and antagonists.
He had already shown the source of the different fruits:
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit." They are just as wide apart as
possible. There is, however, one difficulty in reaching a
correct judgment from the fruit, towit : Even the renewed
man, until sanctification is complete, finds a war in himself,
as we learn from Rom. 7. Sometimes the soul is on top
and sometimes the fleshly lusts. In such cases there are
yet two ways of ascertainment :

1. What is the trend of the life, good or evil, and is there
progress toward the good ?

2. Which trend does the person deliberately encourage
and make provision for?

"You may not be able to keep a bird from lighting on
your head, but you can keep him from building a nest in
your hair." "You may not be able to keep the devil from
knocking at your door, but you are able to refrain from
asking him to spend the night."

NECESSITY OF REGENERATION 157

In this careful elaboration of both good and evil fruits
there are several expressions calling for special notice : "Be
ye angry and sin not: let not the sun go down on your
wrath: neither give place to the devil." The first part of
this statement shows that there is no sin per se in indigna-
tion against a wrong. Christ became terribly indignant at
many evils which He saw in His day. We cannot stand
by and see a great, burly boy browbeat and evil treat a
weak little fellow without being indignant, that is, if we
are any good ourselves. If a man sees a snake creeping
up just about to strike a child, love in that case reaches out
after a stick and hits quickly, and hits to hurt. In this way
a man may be angry and sin not.

We come now to a nice point of discrimination : In our
indignation at what is wrong there is a great hazard of
committing a sin, so our text puts in three cautions. One
is, "do not let the sun go down on your wrath," that is, "do
not cherish it until it breaks out in the wrong direction — •
get rid of it before night." When a man carries anger in
his heart and broods over it for a week, or a year, or waits,
as Absalom did, two years before striking, it grows into
malice. There are two things the sun ought never to go
down on, viz. : Never let the sun go down on your anger —
cool off before night — and never let it go down on unpaid
wages due a day laborer. Many are entirely dependent on
each day's pay. So let us pay our wash-women and not
forget that there are some obligations that a gentleman
cannot defer.

The next danger in anger is this : We are apt, if we are
very hot about a matter, to take vengeance into our own
hands. I will cite a passage which explains : "Avenge not
yourselves, beloved, but give place unto the wrath of God;
for it is written, vengeance belongeth to me ; I will recom-
pense, saith the Lord. But if thine enemy hunger, feed
him ; if he thirst, give him drink ; for in so doing thou shalt

158 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not overcome of evil,
but overcome evil with good."

I knew a man once to make a wrong application of that.
While he was conducting family prayer his boy kept doing
something that angered him, and he overcame evil with
good by throwing the family Bible at him and knocking
him down, which was not promotive of reverence for that
service.

No matter how angry we get, we should never forget
that vengeance is a divine prerogative. Nobody is qualified
to take vengeance except God. He never forgets, and He
takes everything into account. Our text says, "Neither give
place to the devil." When a Christian gets angry there
stands the devil, whispering, "Hit him!" "Kill him!"
"Take vengeance in your own hands !"

I saw a man once walk the floor for hours, and finally I
said to him, "What is the matter?" "I am trying," said he,
"to get rid of a desire to get on the train, go to a certain
place and cow-hide a man until his skin hangs in strings.
It is not right for me to do that, but I am continually
reaching out my hand and trying to take hold of the thunder-
bolt of the Almighty and hurl it."

The question has been asked, "What bearing has Eph.
4: 19, 'being past feeling' on the unpardonable sin?" It is
the tendency of turning away from light to have less light ;
turning away from feeling to have less feeling. A young
man in a protracted meeting may be wonderfully impressed.
He is convinced that the Bible is true, that Christ is a
Savior and that he is a sinner. He is stirred up over the
matter, and feels impelled to go and fall upon his knees
and say, "God have mercy on my soul," but says, "Not
right now — at a more convenient season — some other time."
The next time he will not feel that impression as strong
as the first time. The third time he feels it still less, and
after a while he is past feeling— cannot be awakened.

NECESSITY OF REGENERATION 159

The sun shines on wax and melts it. The sun shines on
soft clay and hardens it. So light followed gets brighter;
light neglected dims into darkness. Being past feeling
may well, in some cases, indicate the unpardonable sin,
but not in all cases. Some feel, by anticipation, the pangs
of hell. Remorse can be active when there is no
repentance.

The next particular passage is verse 28: "Let him that
stole steal no more : but rather let him labor, working with
his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof
to give him that hath need." The point that I want to
impress is this : Many people in the church think, because
they have no real estate, no bank account, and are not rich,
that they ought not to help. They say, "I have nothing."
Here is the answer : "Go to work, get something and help.
You have strength." One of the sweetest offerings ever
laid upon the altar of God is the offering of the poor which
is the result of the labor of their hands.

One day when I was taking up a great collection, people
calling out in hundreds all over the house, an old woman,
who had to be helped up, came on her crutches to the table
and put on the table a pair of socks which she had knit.
I felt the tears running down my face, and I almost listened
to hear a voice from heaven say, "Behold, she hath done
more than they all 1" She felt that she had a right to help,
even if she was poor, and that God did not require her to
give beyond her ability. She could labor with her hands
and make a contribution.

Next consider specially 5:4: "Nor filthiness, nor foolish
talking, nor jesting, which are not befitting." This is the
"fly in the apothecary's ointment" in the case of many
preachers. Many a good meeting has been ruined by the
talk in the preacher's tent. Let a young man who has been
deeply concerned about his salvation hear that foolish talk-
ing and jesting in the hour of the preacher's relaxation, and

160 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

it hurts him; he is led to question the sincerity of the
previous exhortation.

That is why, in my young manhood, I made a covenant
with Dr. Riddle, moderator of our association, that we
would never tell an obscene anecdote and never let any-
body tell us one. He and I made that covenant when camp-
ing out on the prairie between Waco and Groesbeck. After-
wards many people joined us in that covenant. It had a
marked effect. I would like to see every preacher solemnly
enter into an agreement with God to set a watch before his
lips, to avoid foolish jesting and foohsh, obscene stories.

I was in a stage travelling from Canyon to Plainview, one
other Christian besides myself on the stage, and two worldly
sinners. One of them started to tell a very vulgar anecdote.
I said, "Stop ! I imagine that is going to be tough. Let me
get out and walk ; I do not want to hear it. I am willing to
help you while away the time by telling anecdotes, if they
be good ones without any twang in them." He said, "If
you will let me tell this one, I will not tell any more." "But
I do not want to hear that one; I know it is bad, and I do
not want to hear it." "Why?" he asked. "Sir," I said, "I
made a covenant with a man who is now in heaven that
I would never allow any one to tell me a smutty anecdote."
"Well," he said, "Dr. Carroll, I respect your wishes in the
matter." I said to him, "Now you feel better ; you have a
better taste in your mouth."

The next passage is 5:5: "Nor a covetous man, who is
an idolator." Just look at that language! We claim that
idolatry has passed away. But there stands that text : "A
covetous man is an idolator." He worships an idol, and
that idol is money.

No devotee ever bowed before Moloch, or any other
hideous idol in China or India, who was more of an idolator
than a covetous man is.

When I was a boy a book of poetry was largely read

NECESSITY OF REGENERATION 161

called "Pollock's Course of Time." I am sorry people
stopped reading it. It describes a miser in hell with the
devil pouring melted gold down his throat.

The miser is the meanest, ghastliest, grizzliest of all gross
men!

Milton does the same thing in "Paradise Lost" when he
comes to describe Mammon. He makes other demons some-
what respectable, but when he comes to Mammon, there is
nothing in him to admire.

We now notice 5 : 7. Here arises the question, "What
are you going to do with this evil tide all around you?"
(i) "Be ye not partakers with them." We cannot help
what they do, but we should not be partakers. (2) We
should have no fellowship with their unfruitful works. (3)
We should reprove them. I do not say that we ought to go
out on the streets and denounce them. Our lives will reprove
them if we show by the way we live that we do not touch
those things. We cannot walk down the street without
condemning them.

Again, the 14th verse: "Wherefore he sayeth, Awake,
thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall
shine upon thee." That is a great text. Who can locate
that text in the Bible ? On that passage one of the greatest
sermons I ever read is by Dr. Addison Alexander, a Pres*
byterian. I give the divisions of his sermon :

1. Sin is a state of darkness — "Christ shall give thee Hght."

2. A state of sleep — "Awake, thou that sleepest."

3. A state of death — "Arise from the dead."

Let us look at 5: 18: "Be not drunken with the wine,
wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit." There are
two kinds of intoxication, one of wine and one of the Holy
Spirit. I have seen people under the intoxication of the
Spirit. I remember one lady — one of the sweetest ladies
I ever knew. I was not a Christian, but it did me good to
watch her in a meeting. When the power of the Spirit

162 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

would begin to fill her heart, she would begin to show her
intoxication. Her face would become luminous, her lips
would quiver and she would commence to sing : "Oh Love
Divine, how sweet thou art!" It was like the rustling of
the wings of an angel.

A preacher oftentimes needs a stimulant. The trouble is
that some of them take the wrong kind. One thing I know :
Nobody respects a preacher who, before he enters the pulpit,
takes a little toddy or opium to enable him to take hold of
things lively while in the pulpit. One of the most brilliant
preachers in the South made a shipwreck of himself that
way. I was called on to preach for him in his church, and
when he got up to make his introductory remarks he was
braced up right sharply with whiskey, and said some very
foolish things. He could get a church anywhere at first,
but at last he could get a church nowhere. Whenever we
want to be stimulated, we should go off and pray. As we are
infilled with the Spirit, we become enthusiastic; a divine
afflatus rests upon us, enabling us to think thoughts that
breathe, to speak words that burn and to sing songs that
have more convincing power than the sermon. That is
spiritual intoxication.

It is often a practical question : "What shall we do with
exuberant feelings?" How may we find a safe vent for
our enthusiasms, ecstasies, exultations ? Edward Eggleston
tells of a crowd of intoxicated boys raising this very ques-
tion. One of them said, "Let's do something lu-dick-er-ous/'
When asked what he would call a "ludickerous" thing he
replied, "Let's go and rock the Dutchman's house." There
was one inoffensive German in the neighborhood, and their
rocking his house led to some costly and disastrous results.
But verse 19 suggests a better and safer vent: "Speaking
one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord."
I have known churches intoxicated with the Spirit to do

NECESSITY OF REGENERATION 163

that very thing, the members going from house to house
holding glorious song-services that did much to deepen and
widen the religious awakening.

From this general discussion of "the old" and "the new
man" expressed in life's work, he turns to the application
in life's relation, viz. : husband and wife, parent and child,
master and servant, pointing out clearly as he does in other
letters the reciprocal obligations, but as these relations have
been discussed in the Letter to the Colossians, we pass them
here.

QUESTIONS

1. What philosophy of a good or evil life does this section give?

2. What the bearing of the philosophy on the necessity of
regeneration in order to a good life?

3. Cite the case of Henry Ward Beecher's examination by a
council of his people.

4. Are the heathen lost without the gospel ?

5. What our Lord's standard for our judgment of men's pro-
fessions ?

6. What the difficulty in applying this test, and how obviated ?

7. Expound : "Be ye angry and sin not."

8. What the first hazard in being angry, and how guarded?

9. What the second, and how obviated ?

10. What the third, and how obviated?

11. What the bearing of "past feeling" on the unpardonable sin?

12. Show how the poor should help in Qirist's work.

13. What danger attends the preacher's hours of relaxation, and
what examples cited?

14. Prove that we have idolators among us.

15. What two poets describe the miser ?

16. Where do you find the quotation : "Awake, thou that sleepest,
etc.," who preached a great sermon on the text, and what his outline?

17. What two intoxications are contrasted?

18. What prescription in this section for finding a safe vent to
religious exuberance, and what Edward Eggleston's account of a
different vent for worldly exuberance ?

XV

THE CHURCH IN GLORY
Scriptures: Eph. 5 : 22-33 and 6: 10-24

THIS chapter closes the exposition of the Letter to
the Ephesians, elaborating the 12th and 13th items
of our analysis, towit :

Christ and the bride, or the church in glory.

The Christian's enemies, warfare and armor.

First, we will expound the relation between Christ and
His church, so far as set forth under the figure of husband
and wife. We need to recall so much of the first part of
our definition of the word, "church," in New Testament
usage as applied to our subject: "In the divine purpose
from eternity and in its consummation in glory, the whole
number of the redeemed are conceived of as a unit, set
forth in the scripture under the figure of the bride, or wife,
of the Lamb." This divine conception was foreshadowed
in Eve, the first woman, derived from Adam, the first man,
so as by derivation to be bone of his bone and flesh of his
flesh. As Adam was the head, or lord, over Eve, so is
Christ head, or Lord, of the church. As Eve was derived
from Adam, being made a part of himself, extracted from his
side in a deep sleep, so the church is derived from the body
of Christ in the sleep of vicarious death on the cross. As
Eve, when fashioned gloriously, was presented to Adam and
united to him in marriage, to be his companion, so the
church, when complete as to its number, and complete as to
the glorification of each member, will be presented to Christ
and married to Him, to be His companion forever. Under

164

THE CHURCH IN GLORY 166

this imagery the church is the mystical bride of the Lamb.

The reader will readily see that the church in this mys-
tical sense has no real existence now except in the con-
tinuous preparation of its members. It is not yet a church
except in purpose, plan and prospect. It is called a church
by anticipation. Some of its members are already prepared
in both soul and body, for example, Enoch and Elijah, and
perhaps those who rose after Christ's resurrection (Matt.
27:53). Some are prepared in spirit, and constitute the
"spirits of the just made perfect," whose bodies yet sleep.
Some on earth yet are prepared so far as regeneration,
justification and adoption go, but are not yet sanctified in
spirit or glorified in body. By far the greater number are
not yet even born. To be a church they must be assembled
and organized. What is called the "presentation and mar-
riage" is a definite transaction yet for the future.

We hear much of the "universal church." The word,
*'katholikos" (universal), is not found in the Greek Bible
in either the Old or the New Testament. When those so
fond of this phrase as expressive of a now existing church
are called on to define it, they go to pieces. Some of them
say it means all existing denominations, which are branches
of the church. Others say that it means all the particular
churches collectively. Yet others, that it means all living
Christians, whether or not they are members of the church.
And so they go. In all probability, i.e., judging from the
prophecies of the uncountable number that will ultimately
be saved, not one thousandth part of the elect are yet in
existence. How can a thousandth part of the whole be
universal ?

It has no actual existence beyond the preparation of mate-
rial for it, constantly going on. One may say, "I believe
in the Catholic (universal) church," just as he may say, "I
believe in the judgment to come," "I believe in the second
advent," "I believe in the regeneration of the earth."

166 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

The whole of the modern Baptist idea of a now existent
"universal, invisible church'' was borrowed from Pedo-
baptist confessions of faith in the Reformation times, and
the Pedo-baptists devised it to offset the equally erroneous
idea of the Romanist ''universal visible church" We need
to be well indoctrinated on this point, because the error is
not harmless. It is used to depreciate Christ's earth-church,
"the pillar and ground of the truth."

Let us carefully analyze the paragraph before us :

1. "Christ loved the church," that is, He loved the people
v^ho were to be given to Him — all of them. In eternity a
joy was set before Him — a future reward.

2. "He gave himself for it," that is, He died for His
promised people. They in prospect constituted the travail
of His soul. It was promised that He should see the
travail of His soul and be satisfied.

3. He will cleanse it in order to its holiness. Our text
reads, "that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it."

4. This cleansing is to be by "the washing of water with
the Word," that is, a method of cleansing was established.
In the Old Testament-time this cleansing was by the water
of purification, which was the sprinkling on the unclean the
ashes of the red heifer mingled with water. The sprinkling
was done with a bunch of hyssop. (See Num. 10, Ps. 51 : 7,
Ezek. 36:25.) This typical water of purification finds its
antitype in the blood of Christ (Heb. 9: 13, 14). So that
the washing of water in our text means simply the appli-
cation of the blood of Christ by the Holy Spirit in regenera-
tion. Hence it is called "the washing of regeneration,"
Tit. 3:5. In regeneration there are always two elements :
(i) Cleansing by the application of Christ's blood; (2) Re-
newing or changing the heart, or nature (Ezek. 36: 25, 26;
Tit. 3:5). Christ gave himself for His people that He
might cleanse them by washing them in His blood (see
revised text of Rev. 7: 14; 22: 14). This cleansing is also.

THE CHURCH IN GLORY 167

of course, "by the Word." It is the gospel preached that
leads to regeneration (see John 1:9, 13, 15; James i : 18;
I Peter i : 23 ; I Cor. 4:15). The Word of God is not only
an instrumentality of the cleansing-part of regeneration,
but also of the continued sanctification. It includes all ex-
pressed in the prayer for the Thessalonians (I Thess. 5 : 23),
"body, soul, and spirit" and "wholly." It includes the glori-
fication of the body. So that when complete it is a glorious
church, not having spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish. The church
will then be complete in the presence of all its members, and
complete in the full salvation of every member.

5. He makes it holy. Our text says, "That He might
sanctify it, having cleansed it." Cleansing or regeneration
first, then holiness. "Sanctify" here may not mean to set
apart, to consecrate. The glorified church is set apart to its
eternal mission, but more naturally "to make holy," as is
implied by the next thought.

6. "That He might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it
should be holy and without blemish." This means complete
holiness as God is holy. This presentation is the offering
of the Bride to the Groom at the marriage altar. She is
adorned as a bride for her husband. Psalm 45, which is
intensely Messianic, anticipates this presentation thus :

"Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear ;
Forgot also thine own people, and thy father's house :
So will the king desire thy beauty ;
For he is thy Lord ; and reverence thou him.

♦ ♦****

The king's daughter within the palace is all glorious :
Her clothing is inwrought with gold.
She shall be led unto the king in broidered work."

7. Then follows the marriage. Let inspiration describe it :
"And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and
as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty

168 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

thunders, saying, Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the
Almighty, reigneth. Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad,
and let us give the glory unto Him : for the marriage of the
Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And
it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine
linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous
acts of the saints. And He saith unto me, Write, Blessed
are they that are bidden to the marriage supper of the
Lamb," Rev. 19 : 6-9.

The event here described is the crowning glory of the
future. It follows the advent of our Lord. He will come
in glory. He will bring with Him the spirits of the just
made perfect. He will raise and glorify their bodies. He
will transfigure the living saints. He will catch up all the
redeemed to himself in the air and thus separate between
the sheep and the goats. He thus assumes His mystical
body, the church, as at His first advent He assumed the
body of His humiliation, and as in His second advent He
assumed the resurrection body of His glory.

How vivid the picture in Matt. 25:5-12: "Now while
the bridegroom tarried, the virgins all slumbered and slept.
But at midnight there was a cry. Behold the Bridegroom!
Come ye forth to meet Him. * * * And they that were
ready went in with Him to the marriage feast, and the door
was shut. Afterwards came also the other virgins, saying,
Lord, Lord, open to us ! But He answered them and said,
Verily I say unto you, I know you not."

On this great day is fulfilled the scripture : "He shall see
of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied." Now to
the universe appears "the riches of His inheritance in the
saints." "When He shall come to be glorified in His saints,
and to be marveled at in all them that believed."

We thus see in these prison letters of Paul the several
meanings of the word, "church," all illustrated :

As an institution, it is one new man made out of the Jew

THE CHURCH IN GLORY 169

and Gentile; it is one commonwealth in which both alike
are citizens. It is one temple. It is one body. It is one
bride. As an institution it is appointed to instruct angels,
and to be the depository of the divine glory unto all
generations.

As a particular church, in which alone this institution
finds expression, "each several building fitly framed together
groweth into a holy temple of the Lord for a habitation of
God in the Spirit." Each particular church is a body "fitly
framed and knit together through that which every joint
supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each
several part."

' As a glory church it includes all the redeemed, and each
one of the redeemed saved fully, in body, soul, and spirit.

The use of the word, "church," in a sense too broad
for application to a particular church must be found
in this letter, if anywhere. In view of this fact, it is
fortunate that we have such historical passages touching
the Ephesian church as appear in Acts 20:17-38 and I
Tim. 3 : 14. In both these passages there can be no
doubt that the address concerns the particular church at
Ephesus, and yet these broad terms are used : "Take heed
to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit hath made you
bishops to feed the church of the Lord which He purchased
with His own blood." "These things write I unto thee
* * * that thou mayest know how men ought to behave
themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the
living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." There is
no term so broad, whether house, temple, body, flock, bride,
but may be applied to a particular church, because each
particular church in itself alone foreshadows the church in
glory.

The several steps which lead up to the assembling, organi-
zation, visibility, and locality of the universal church — the
steps which lead to its constitution — are as clearly set forth

IW COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

in the scriptures as the steps looking to the constitution of
any particular earth-church. These steps are as follows :

1. Jesus will come, bringing with Him the souls in
heaven, I Thess. 4: 13, 14.

2. He raises and glorifies their bodies, I Thess. 4: 16.

3. He glorifies without death the Christians then living,
I Cor. 15:51-55.

4. Both classes are caught up in the clouds with the Lord,
I Thess. 4: 17. This is the separation of the righteous from
the wicked. Matt. 13 : 24-30 ; 24 : 27-31 ; 25 : 10, 31, 32. They
are now for the first time an assembly — an organization —
and they can discern between the righteous and the wicked,
Mai. 3 : 17, 19.

5. At this time the world is purified by fire, Mai. 4:1-3;
n Pet. 3:4-12; Rom. 8 : 19-23.

6. Presentation and marriage of the bride, Eph. 5 : 27 ;
Psa. 45 : 10-15 ; Rev. 19 : 6-9.

7. The church then sits on the throne and with Christ
judges the evil men and angels. Rev. 3 : 21 ; I Cor. 6:2, 3 ;
Matt. 19:28. This judgment is final. Matt. 25:41-46;
Rev. 20: 11-15.

8. There is now a redeemed earth, purified by fire, H
Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21 : 1, and the glorified church rules therein.
Rev. 21 : 2-27 ; so that lost Paradise with its tree of life is
regained. Rev. 22: 1-15, and at last "the meek inherit the
earth," Matt. 5 : 5.

9. The wicked, both men and angels, having bowed the
knee and confessed Christ's sovereignty (Phil. 2: 10), are
isolated forever in their final prison, Rev. 20: 14, 15; Matt.
25:41, 46, and so the pacification is complete and then
cometh the end, I Cor. 1 5 : 24-28.

The entrance qualifications for the church in glory may
be summed up in one sentence: The complete and eternal
salvation of the entire man — ^body, soul, and spirit. That
derivation of the woman from the man, and God's uniting

THE CHURCH IN GLORY 171

them in marriage, while an historical fact, foreshadowed a
greater mystery — the derivation of the church from the
Lord, and their final marriage in heaven.

The latter part of this book commences with chapter 6 : 6
and goes to the end of the chapter. This paragraph presents
to us the Christian's warfare, the Christian's enemies, and
the Christian's armor. We make a very great mistake if we
think that in the happy hour of our conversion all trouble,
battle and strife is over. It has just commenced. That is
the day we enlisted. The whole war is ahead of us — not
a war for our salvation, but a war in Christian service. The
writer brings out very clearly the nature of the enemies
with which the Christian has to contend. He expressly
says that they are not human enemies — not flesh and blood.
He must not be understood as denying that "the flesh" is
an enemy, for that enmity has been clearly expressed in
Rom. 7, but "flesh and blood" as here used mean simply
human enemies who are unimportant when compared with
the superhuman enemies of whom he speaks. He refers to
these greater enemies and specifies thus: "Our wrestling
is not against flesh and blood (human enemies), but against
principalities, against powers, against the world rulers of
this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in
heavenly places." These are the enemies in his mind.
He tells us who is the leader of these enemies : "That we
may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."

It is the teaching of the scriptures that Satan, a distinct
angelic person, sinned in heaven and led away with him a
great number of angels. My own judgment of the occasion
of that sin is that he revolted against being put lower than
man. God having announced that the new creature, which
at first was made for a little season lower than the angels,
would ultimately be put above the angels and that the angels
should be ministering spirits unto them. That caused the
revolt of Satan in heaven. That was the cause of his down-

172 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

fall, and it also accounts for his enmity to the human race.

Having been expelled from heaven because he refused to
submit to this divine enactment, he determined to wage a
perpetual warfare against man to thwart the purpose of God
that man should be put above the angels. That accounts
for the introduction of sin on earth, in the Garden of Eden.
He determined to bring about the downfall of the human
race. H he could make them enemies to God, and God an
enemy to them, they would become his subjects, and he
would still be over them.

He certainly did win his fight in the Garden of Eden.
He captured the whole world in capturing the head of the
human race, and from that time on the whole human race
has been in bondage to Satan. He and his evil spirits are
the world-rulers. He dictates its maxims of pleasure and
business. Of course, when grace comes in to destroy the
work of the devil and to rescue the human race from his
dominion, and people were converted into the power of this
grace, the devil did not give up the fight. H he cannot
destroy Christians who have escaped from him, he at least
can worry them, and he will wage a warfare against Chris-
tian people who, as he calls them, are rebels against him.
They were in his kingdom, and are now trying to pull down
his strongholds, lessen his empire, and spread revolt in his
kingdom.

It is to the reality and intensity of this struggle that the
apostle calls attention here. He is very careful to teach
that Christians unaided are unable to cope with such adver-
saries— that if they go into this fight, they need to go into
it protected in every possible way defensively, and equipped
with effective offensive weapons.

In a most beautiful allegory Bunyan brings out the whole
thought. As soon as Christian gets rid of the burden of
sin at the cross, he is led to the Interpreter's house (the house
of the Holy Spirit), where many things are explained to

THE CHURCH IN GLORY 173

him, and before he starts off on his pilgrimage to heaven
he is led into the armory, where he puts on the armor which
God has provided for His people. Long before a child can
appreciate the spiritual significance of the book, he is de-
lighted and carried away with its imagery of warfare.
Christian soon, in going down the hill Difficulty, commits
a sin and meets Apollyon, who straddles his pathway. There
ensues a terrible conflict. The book in its allegorical form
describes the victory which Christian won over Apollyon.

Our text says that in view of these enemies, in view of
the wiles of the devil and his demons, on account of their
cunning, on account of their malice, on account of the hold
that they have on the Christian through the remains of his
carnal nature yet with him, for he is not yet sanctified, and
in going out to this battle he needs an armor, or panoply.
The idea is doubtless suggested to Paul by the fact that
even as he wrote he was chained to the soldier of the Praeto-
rian guard, the most formidable of Roman soldiers. The
soldier has on a helmet, breast-plate, a military girdle, war-
sandals, and has a sharp two-edged sword, certainly the
most formidable weapon ever devised for warfare, and a
long shield with which, when he goes out into battle, he
protects himself. So Paul takes this imagery to show how
the Christian must guard against the wiles of the devil —
that the Christian must be panoplied.

As has been said, Paul illustrates by the armor of a Roman
soldier, so familiar to him from being chained to one of the
Praetorian guard every day. The pieces of armor specified
are all defensive, except the sword and prayer, which are
offensive weapons. The office of the girdle was to gather
up and hold together both the loose dress and parts of the
armor. In the place of this girdle he offers truth, that is,
the truth of the gospel. In the place of the breast-plate,
whose office is to protect the heart, he offers righteousness.
Of course this raises the question, Whose righteousness —

174 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

Christ's as imputed, or the Christian's own right doing?
Something may be said for the second, but more for the
first. It is true that right doing is a conscious defense
against false charges. But the devil is not apt to confine
himself to false charges. He will hurl the fiery dart of
true charge against some weakness, infirmity and sin of the
Christian. The imputed righteousness of Christ is imper-
vious to any missile whatever.

The office of the spiked sandal was to insure safe footing
on slippery or treacherous ground. For this he offers the
preparation of the gospel of peace. Being justified by
faith, we have peace with God, and if God be for us who
can be against us? Peace in the heart, the peace of God
which passeth all understanding, will aid to step surely and
stand firmly.

The office of the helmet is to protect the head, another
vital part, and for this Paul offers salvation. He means sal-
vation so far as justification goes, and all it pledges. The
thought is : "He that believeth hath everlasting life, and shall
not come into condemnation." H God justifies, who can
condemn? Who can lay any charge to God's elect? This
thought nourished in the heart protects from any fiery dart
of doubt Satan may hurl at the mind.

The office of the shield is more general. It is carried
on the left arm and covers the whole vital part of the body.
In the place of this, Paul offers faith. But the question
arises : Is faith itself a shield, or is it the hand that inter-
poses the true shield? In Genesis 15, where, in giving an
account of Abraham's conversion, so many new words
appear for the first time in the Bible, among them, "shield,"
"believe," "imputed righteousness," God says, "I am thy
shield." God, then, is the shield of faith — the shield that
faith lays hold of and interproses between the soul and
danger. We are not equal to Satan. God is greater than
Satan. When we see Satan coming faith puts God, the

THE CHURCH IN GLORY 176

shield, between our weakness and Satan; we hide behind
God. One of ^sop's fables says, "A kid standing on the
roof of a house railed at a wolf passing by, to whom the
wolf replied : Not you, but the roof raileth at me." This
fable teaches that time and place often make the timid brave.
A timid little fellow gets behind a big brother and valorously
shakes his fist at an opponent from whom he had just fled.

One of the great magazines illustrated that point. An-
drew Johnson wanted to get rid of Secretary Stanton.
Stanton refused to resign or to be removed, and defied
Johnson, whereupon Johnson appointed U. S. Grant war
secretary. Him Stanton dared not defy. The magazine,
in a telling illustration, pictures the irate and terrible Stan-
ton charging on the little president, but just before he gets
to him, Johnson reaches back and pulls Grant in front of
him. Under the picture it reads : "Let me see you hit him !"
So faith puts God, its shield, between us and the devil.

The office of the sword is offensive. With it an enemy is
thrust or smitten. Paul commends as the Christian's sword
the Word of God. This is called the sword of the Spirit,
not merely because the Spirit inspired it, but also because
the Spirit gives it point and edge when rightly used. Just
here we need to connect Heb. 4: 12: "For the Word of
God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged
sword, and piercing even to the dividing of the soul and
spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the
thoughts and intents of the heart." With this compare
Isa. 49 : 2 and Hosea 6 : 5. The most striking example for
us in the right use of this sword against Satan is our Lord's
use of "It is written" in replying to Satan's temptation.
Another one is the case of Michael mentioned in Jude 6.

The second offensive weapon of the Christian is prayer:
"With all prayer and supplication, praying at all seasons in
the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and
supplication for all the saints."

176 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

This praying covers a wide field: (i) All prayer and
supplication. (2) At all seasons. (3) In the Spirit. (4)
Watching thereunto. (5) In all perseverance. (6) For all
the saints.

Helmet, breastplate, girdle, sandals and shield are de-
fensive— they protect us. The word of God, and prayer,
are offensive weapons ; with them we smite Satan.

"Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees."

Cromwell's Ironsides, about to join battle, first prayed,
then, singing a battle song, they smote with the sword.

QUESTIONS

1. Give so much of the definition of the word, "church," as
relates to Christ as bridegroom and the church as bride.

2. In what sense only does this glory church now exist?

3. Why must we call it a church in prospect, and not an
actuality ?

4. What is the Greek word for "universal," and how often is it
used in Greek Old Testament and New Testament?

5. Where do all break down who claim that there is now a
universal church? Cite examples.

6. Who invented the phrase, "A universal, spiritual, invisible
church," and why, and how did Baptists obtain it?

7. In analyzing the phrase, point out what Christ did or will do?

8. Expound the cleansing, showing Old Testament type and New
Testament type, giving scriptures.

9. What the instrumentality employed, and what the scriptures?

10. When this marriage between Christ and the church, and what
scriptures ?

11. As this letter, more than any other, gives the usage of the
word, "church," in broad senses, show from Acts and Timothy the
application of these broad terms to the particular church at Ephesus.

12. _ Cite every use of the word, "church," or any corresponding
in this letter, and locate each use under one of three heads — the
church as an institution, a particular church, the glory church.

13. Give carefully all the steps of the constitution of the glory
church.

14. What its entrance qualifications?

15. Who the Christian's most formidable adversaries?

16. How are Christians qualified to cope with them?

17. What great Baptist author illustrates all this in an allegory?

18. Name and explain each piece of defensive armor.

19. Give the offensive pieces, and an illustration of each.

20. What circumstances of Paul's prison condition perhaps sug-
gested the imagery ?

THE BOOK OF HEBREWS
XVI

AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION
Part I

THIS letter has evoked more controversy than any
other New Testament book except Revelation. The
controversy has been mainly on two points, somewhat
related — its canonicity and authorship. A book may be de-
termined canonical whose author may not be named in the
text not otherwise determinable. But while positive knowl-
edge of the author is not essential to canonicity, it strengthens
the claim, if the author is shown to be a prophet or an
apostle.

CANONICITY OF THE LETTER

The elaborate discussion of this question belongs to the
department of Historical Introduction, but a condensed yet
reliable statement of the case is here given :

1. In the East its place among the New Testament books
has never been seriously questioned.

2. In the West: (a) It was recognized as authoritative
in the first century, as appears from the letter of Clement,
pastor at Rome, about a.d. 96, 'addressed to the church at
Corinth. Irenseus speaks of Clement as embodying in his
letter the teaching which he had recently received from the
apostles, (b) From the end of the second century to the
close of the fourth its place in the New Testament books
yras retained, but its apostolic origin questioned by some.

17T

178 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

Jerome states the case in his time thus : "The epistle to the
Hebrews is not included in the Latin canon, nor Revelation
in the Greek canon, and yet we receive both ; following by
no means the usage of the present time, but the authority
of ancient writers, who for the most part freely refer to
passages of both as canonical." (c) From the end of the
fourth century it was firmly established in the Western
canon, and remain undisturbed for more than a thousand
years, (d) In the Reformation period, like many other
books, it was subjected to doubt, both on authorship and
somewhat on its matter. Some examples will indicate the
nature of the doubt :

Erasmus denied both the received title and subscription
and the Pauline authorship, but says, "I do not think that
the faith is exposed to peril if the whole church be mistaken
in regard to the title of this epistle (the title attributed to
Paul) so long as it is settled that the Holy Ghost is its author,
and on this point we are agreed"

Luther questioned Paul's authorship because, as he inter-
preted them, some passages, particularly 6 : 4-6, were unlike
Paul. He is the first to suggest, by way of a mere guess,
that Apollos was the author, and others since have adopted
his guess, notably Henry Ward Beecher.

Calvin wrote, "I, indeed, embrace it without controversy
among the apostolic epistles. * * * As to the question, *Who
composed it,' we need not trouble ourselves much."

Much later. Dean Alford : "Nowhere are the main doc-
trines of the faith more purely or more majestically set
forth; nowhere holy scripture urged with greater authority
and cogency ; nowhere those marks, in short, which distin-
guish the first rank of primitive Christian writings from
the second are more unequivocably and continuously
present."

Without multiplying citations we may count it settled that
the Letter to the Hebrews is an integral and very important

THE BOOK OF HEBREWS 179

part of the inspired word of God. The questions evoking
discussion, and wide divergence of views, are : When, where,
to whom, and by whom written ?

Canonicity established and conceded, it may be asked.
Why consider the relatively unimportant questions of author,
date, place, and persons addressed? The sufficient reply is,
that answers to these questions will aid much not only in
the interpretation of the book itself and of other books as
well, but what is more important, the relation of the New
Testament books to each other, and their adjustment as
component parts of a complete and final revelation of God
to man, will appear. When these books are considered in
their adjustment, New Testament revelation is no longer so
many disjoined fragments, but a complete and symmetrical
system of orderly developed truth.

The reader will understand that on these matters not vital,
and concerning which the best scholars of Christendom have
honestly differed, there must be no assumption of dogma-
tism. With the utmost respect for the opinions of others,
with our own fallibility of judgment premised, we will for
ourselves approach the subject in our own way, announcing
in advance that our conclusions are no mightier than the
arguments back of them. First of all, then, come —

THE TITLE AND SUBSCRIPTION

In our common version the title reads "The Epistle of
Paul, the Apostle, to the Hebrews." And the subscription
reads: "Written to the Hebrews from Italy by Timothy."
In the Canterbury revision, the title is simply "To the He-
brews," and there is no subscription. It is at once conceded
that the oldest New Testament manuscripts support the
Canterbury revision, both as to the superscription and the
subscription, and yet it cannot be denied that both are evi-
dence of an early and general conviction that Paul wrote this
letter from Italy by Timothy.

180 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

Our next question is: Who are intended by "The He-
brews?" It accords with well established usage to employ
the term "Hebrews" to distinguish Palestinian Jews from
Hellenists, or Jews of the dispersion, as in Acts 6, but the
word may also be employed to distinguish Jews from Gen-
tiles. In every case the context determines whether the
term must be understood in its restricted or general sense.
In other words, if the subject matter applies equally to the
Hebrew people, regardless of locality, we cannot fairly limit
it to the Palestinian Jews. You may not say this letter was
written to the Jerusalem Jews merely because the superscrip-
tion says, "To the Hebrews." Paul himself claimed to be
a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and yet he was not a Palestinian
Jew, but a Cilician — one of the dispersion. It cannot be
questioned that both the argument and the exhortation apply
to Jews abroad as well as to the Jews at home. We must
gather, then, from the letter itself the locality of the persons
addressed. Indeed, the superscription, no matter who put
it there, tells, us nothing more than, yea, not as much as
the letter itself. From the initial sentence to the benediction
the letter is to the Jews only, as if there was not a Gentile
in the w^orld. Nor may we in advance say that it was written
to the Jews of otie city only, that is, to Jerusalem Jews, or
Alexandrian Jews, or Ephesian Jews, or Roman Jews.
Everything in the letter is too general to admit of such an
extreme local restriction. One thing, however, everybody will
admit — it was written exclusively to Jews professing to be
Christians. Neither saint nor sinner, ancient or modern,
denies that. It being evident beyond a shadow of a doubt
that it was written to Christian Jews, the question recurs — ■
to Christian Jews, zvheref

Forgetting everything we may have heard, believed, or
read, let us go to the letter itself for light. Let us open our
book and read the following passages: 5:12-14; 6:1-3;
6:10; 10:32-34; 12:4; 13:3, 18, 19,23.

THE BOOK OF HEBREWS 181

From these passages the following facts appear :

1. The religious history of the persons addressed was well
and personally known to the writer and he to them.

2. Considerable time had elapsed since their conversion.

3. They were in a state of arrested development.

4. The writer and Timothy had labored together with and
for them.

5. They had suffered persecution when converted, were
despoiled of goods, had been made a "spectacle" by either
their own afflictions or through their compassion for im-
prisoned leaders, but had never themselves been persecuted
to martyrdom.

6. They had been particularly noted for their ministering
to the saints.

7. They were tempted to abjure Christianity and relapse
into Judaism.

8. They were called upon to pray for the writer's restora-
tion to them, and are supposed to be glad of that prospect
and of Timothy's being set at liberty, and of the prospect of
seeing the two together again.

There is absolutely nothing in any of these facts to sug-
gest Alexandrian Jews as the persons addressed. Nor did
the Alexandrian Jews ever suppose themselves to be those
to whom the letter was written. The facts also exclude the
Jerusalem or Palestinian Jews, no matter who the writer.
For example : Assuming Barnabas for the author, Timothy
does not fit; he never worked with Barnabas anywhere,
much less in Jerusalem or Alexandria. Assuming ApoUos
for the author, and Jerusalem Jews addressed, the facts will
not adjust themselves. He could not have written to Jeru-
salem Jews the passage at 13: 19, 23; and the passages at
6: 10 and 12 : 4 could not fit the Jerusalem Jews. From the
beginning the Jerusalem Christians had resisted unto blood.
It was the martyr church of the New Testament, and but
recently James, the brother of our Lord, had been murdered.

182 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

From the beginning they had been ministered unto by the
churches abroad, and had never themselves so ministered,
and there is no New Testament evidence that they were in
danger of apostasy. Assuming Apollos to be the author
and Alexandrian Jews addressed, it is simply incredible that
his own people received a letter from him and never attrib-
uted it to him at any time in their history.

All of the passages exactly fit the known history of the
Christian Jews of Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Achaia, and
the Christian Jews of no other place. They did know
Timothy, They had been persecuted and despoiled of goods
when they were converted. They had been made a spectacle
in their own afflictions and in their compassion for impris-
oned leaders. They had not themselves been persecuted to
martyrdom. They were in a state of arrested development,
and from the beginning had been under the fire of tempta-
tion to apostatize, as is evident from letters written by Paul,
Peter, Jude, and John. They had been and were yet noted
the world over for ministering unto the poor saints of Jeru-
salem and Judea.

There is absolutely nothing in the letter to limit its ad-
dress to one town or city. The context does not favor one
church a great majority of which were Jews. On the con-
trary, some of the exhortations can be better understood by
supposing the Jewish Christians addressed to be in the
minority, and staying away from the church meetings be-
cause the pastors were Gentiles or the Gentile element pre-
dominated. The author, therefore, voices the conviction
rather than a dogmatic assertion —

It is impossible that this letter was written to Jews either
at Jerusalem, Alexandria, Rome, Ccesarea, or Syrian An-
tioch.

All of them are out of the question. No one of them
ever claimed for a moment to be the recipient of the letter.
Moreover, at the most probable date of this letter all Judea

THE BOOK OF HEBREWS 183

was seething in revolt against Rome, like a boiling pot, and
in no condition to receive a letter from any one. Therefore,
in answer to the question, "To whom addressed ?" my reply
is. To the Jewish Christians of Asia Minor and Greece. Of
course this answer includes pro-consular Asia as a part of
Asia Minor. There are much stronger arguments on the
persons addressed that can be better cited under other heads.

The Occasion of the Letter. — On this point there is abso-
lute unanimity. Indeed, the whole trend of the letter leaves
no room for doubt. These Jewish Christians, wherever they
were, were in eminent danger of abjuring Christianity alto-
gether and relapsing into Judaism. That this may be evident
let us open our book and read the following passages:
2: 1-3; 3:6, 12-14; 4: 1, 2, 14-16; 10:19-36; 12:1-3, 12-17.

Here again the context forbids the idea that the persons
addressed were Palestinian Jews. The New Testament his-
tory nowhere indicates that the Jerusalem church was in
danger of abjuring Christ altogether and totally relapsing
into Judaism. The evidence is indeed abundant that many
of them desired to make Gentiles become Jews in order to
become Christians, and that others, while waiving this point,
yet insisted that Jewish Christians must hold themselves
aloof from social contact with Gentile Christians, but
nowhere is there a hint that they were about to abjure
Christianity altogether.

In the Sadducean persecution. Acts 3 and 4, and in the
Pharisee persecution, led by Saul of Tarsus, and in the
persecution by Herod, they had remained as firm as a rock
in their faith. When James and Jude, brothers of our
Lord, and Peter write letters exhorting to steadfastness in
faith, they write to the Christian Jews of the dispersion,
and not to the Palestinian Jews. When in the persecution
which had but recently led to the marytrdom of James,
there is no historical evidence that Jerusalem Christians were
in danger of abjuring Christianity.

184. COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

Just here comes another very forcible argument against
the idea that Palestinian Jews are being addressed. There is
not a word in the letter that supposes the danger of apostasy
to arise from witnessing the imposing ceremonies of the
Herodian temple. While indeed the letter incidentally proves
that the temple is yet standing, and while it clearly threatens
the near and utter destruction of the whole Jewish polity as
a covenant, its entire argument is based upon the ancient his-
toric Judaism as established by Moses, Aaron, and Joshua.
It is not even germane to the argument to mention the first
temple built by Solomon. It is a question of origins, of the
dignity of founders, and not of present imposing rites and
ceremonies. In other words, the argument goes to the root
of things, and not to the superficial present. From Pentecost
to the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Jews were
safeguarded against total relapse into Judaism. But not so
with the Jews of the dispersion. If addressed to the Pales-
tinian Jews, the absence of special reference to the services
of the Herodian temple is inexplicable.

Our next question inquires for the cause of the danger of
apostasy. What juncture of affairs constituted the tempta-
tion to abjure Christianity ? The letter itself explains. First
of all, the bitterness of persecution was wearing out their
patience, and the pressure of non-Christian Jews tempting
them to apostatize was very great. The Lord did not come
to avenge them, as had been promised, and they were weary
and despondent. They were losing respect for their leaders,
many of whom were Gentiles. They were absenting them-
selves from the popular assemblies. This can be best ac-
counted for if they were in the minority and the Gentile
element predominant; in such case they would not feel at
home in this mixed crowd.

In the meantime a very subtle philosophy was constantly
appealing to them, which has been described in letters pre-
ceding this one. The discussion against gnosticism, so

THE BOOK OF HEBREWS 185

prominent in the letters to the Colossians and the Ephesians,
is carried on in this letter. Its methods of approach were
esoteric and not exoteric. It worked privately from house
to house. It slipped and crept and slided around and whis-
pered :

"No use to go to church; you can learn better at home.
Public gatherings may suit the vulgar, 'the great unwashed/
the hoi polloi, but this philosophy appeals to the cultured few.
The Christian Messiah at best was only a lower eon, or much
shaded down emanation of God. You may accept this phi-
losophy and remain a Jew of the type of the Essenes if you
are inclined to asceticism ; or you may accept it and remain
a Jew of the Pharisee-type if you want to cling to ritualism
and the cycle of weekly, new moon, or annual Sabbaths. Or
you may accept it and turn to license and pleasure, seeing that
sin resides only in matter. This Christianity is too harsh,
rigid, and exacting. It calls on you to sacrifice everything.
Why needlessly put your head in the fire? Why give up
everything? You have waited in vain for that promised
coming of the Lord. Your own Moses, Aaron and Joshua,
and long line of prophets were greater than this Nazarene,
who, after all, was executed as a felon, and it is a shame
to become the followers of a publicly convicted and executed
felon. Christianity is impractical. Humanity cannot endure
its requirements."

It will be shown later in the exposition that this letter was
especially intended to controvert this many-sided philosophy
of blended Jewish and heathen elements ; that its arguments
closely follow and connect with the letters to the Colossians
and Ephesians, and is itself closely followed by and con-
nected with the letters of Jude and Peter addressed to the
same people and called forth by the same emergency. This
writer, and Jude, and Peter, recognized the same danger of
apostasy, the same lack of patient endurance, the same temp-
tation to deny the Lord Jesus Christ, and the despair about

186 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

His second advent. And so did John, last of all, long after
the temple had fallen, write his letters and the book of Reve-
lation to the same people. Indeed, this emergency called
forth all of John's writings. In other words, the provoca-
tion to apostatize was the old-time Jewish reluctance to pay
the cost of a spiritual religion, whose rewards were in another
world; to endure its privations in this life; to patiently wait
for the Lord. All the exhortations in the letter are on this
line. And here again we find another strong argument against
the thought that it was written to the Jerusalem Jews. The
gnostic philosophy originated in the Lycus valley of pro-
consular Asia, and spread over the section to whose people
this letter was addressed. There is no evidence that the
Jerusalem Jews were ever tempted to apostatize through this
philosophy.

We now come to the questions : Who wrote the letter to
the Hebrews, when did he write it, and where ? Just where,
in order of time, is its place among the New Testament
books ? And in what language did he write it ? Again dis-
claiming dogmatism, the author here expresses in one sen-
tence an answer to all of these questions thus :

// was written in Greek, by the Apostle Paul, near the close
of the first Roman imprisonment, just after the Letter to the
Ephesians, and was addressed exclusively to professing Jew-
ish Christians in Asia Minor and Greece. It completes the
group of letters of the first Roman imprisonment.

In order to account for Timothy's imprisonment and re-
lease, the reader will please look at the beginning of Philip-
pians, Philemon and Colossians. In all three of these Tim-
othy is associated with Paul at Rome, as the author of the
letters. But when we look at the beginning of the Letter
to the Ephesians we do not find Timothy's name associated
with Paul's. There is no evidence that he had left Rome, and
unless he was imprisoned at this juncture, there is no fair
way to account for his not being associated with Paul in

THE BOOK OF HEBREWS 187

the Letter to the Ephesians. He was speedily released after
that imprisonment, however, and in the Letter to the He-
brews, following the Letter to the Ephesians, it is announced
that Timothy has been set at liberty, and when we take up
the first Letter to Timothy we can see how the subscription
may have been added : "Written from Italy to the Hebrews,
by Timothy."

While not contending for the superscription and subscrip-
tion as a part of the original text, I am thoroughly convinced
that both express facts, and generally recognized at the time
they were appended to the letter.

Without arguing another matter at all, the abiding con-
viction is expressed that the letter is not a translation from
a Hebrew original, nor is it a treatise, speech or sermon by
Paul which has been used substantially by another writer,
but clothed in his own style and language. There is only one
mind in the letter. It is not a composite work. It is not Luke
or Clement or Timothy working out the thoughts of Paul.
The author of the thoughts is the author of the style and of
the words. Any attempt to make Luke the author because
some parts of the letter resembles Luke's style fails from the
fact that the parts which make it resemble Luke's books are
matters originally coming from Paul and merely quoted by
Luke. Undoubtedly Paul fixed Luke's style on these points.

The letter is a careful and elaborate composition through-
out. The arguments, each followed by exhortation, extend
down to verse i8 of the last chapter. It is a calm, quiet,
painstaking, deliberately prepared document, and yet a gen-
uine epistle. It grows out of preceding letters. Not as II
Corinthians grew out of I Corinthians, but as Romans grew
out of Galatians, and as Ephesians grew out of Colossians.
Having written a special letter to the Colossians against the
gnostic heresy, he wrote a circular letter elaborating the same
line of thought, which letter we call Ephesians. And having
written the Letter to the Ephesians addressed to the whole

188 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

body of the churches to which it was sent, it fits exactly that
he should continue the same thought or subject in a letter
addressed to the Jews only.

Careful preparation is evinced, moreover, in the studied
self -repression of the author and in the rigid restriction of
the argument to the one view-point and purpose.

While the author of Hebrews does not sign his name, for
reasons to be given later, the restraint is not with a view to
conceal his identity. He knows well to whom he writes, and
well knows that they will know him as well as if he had signed
his name in the usual fashion. It is not therefore a case of an
anonymous communication, nor of a nom de plume, to put
people to guessing at the author. A writer who wished to
conceal his identity by absence of a signature would never
say, "Pray that I may be restored to you.'* "Our brother
Timothy is set at liberty ; with whom, if he come shortly, I
will see you." And it may be said here that Asia Minor
never doubted from whom the letter came, nor did any other
place down to the middle of the second century.

QUESTIONS

X. On what points has this letter mainly evoked controversy?

2. May a book be canonical whose author is not named ?

3. Give brief statement of canonicity of this book.

4. Apart from canonicity, what questions have been widely
discussed, with divergent views?

5. Why are these questions important?

6. Tell of the title and subscription, and their value.

7. To whom was the letter addressed?

8. In what two senses may this word, "Hebrews," be employed,
and how determine in a given case which is meant?

9. Why may we not conclude that the letter is addressed to Jews
of a particular church or city?

10. To what class of Hebrews is it addressed?

11. What passages in the letter bear on the "where" of these
Hebrews, and the facts developed?

12. Show why these facts do not fit Jerusalem Jews or Alexan-
drian Jews.

13. The facts of these passages fit the Christian Jews where?

14. What the occasion of the letter, and the passages bearing on

THE BOOK OF HEBREWS 189

it, and why do these passages exclude Jerusalem Jewish Christians?

15. What other fact bears in the same direction?

16. Why does this letter make no reference to the Temple at
Jerusalem ?

17. What causes were operating at this time to provoke relapse
into Judaism on the part of Christian Jews in Asia Minor and
Greece, and which of these causes also make against the theory of
the letter being addressed to Jerusalem Jews ?

18. In one sentence give the author's view of who wrote this
letter, where, when, and in what language, to whom, and in what
group of letters?

19. Account for the reference in the letter to Timothy's being
set at liberty ?

20. Why not take the position that the thoughts are Paul's, either
written originally in Hebrew and translated by another, or that Paul's
thoughts are wrought out by another in his own style ?

21. Where do the arguments stop ?

2.2. Show how the letter is evolved from and fits into other letters.
2Z. Why is not the letter anonymous in the ordinary sense of
that word?

XVII

AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION^
Part II

THE question yet before us is, Who is the author of
this letter? External evidence is what has been
handed down by tradition or. history; internal evi-
dence is gathered from the letter itself, that is, what may be
inferred from its doctrines, historical statements, and style
— style to be used in a very comprehensive sense, including
the purity of the Greek text, rhetorical form, vocabulary,
phrases, terms of expression, etc.

The argument against Paul's authorship is based entirely
on internal evidence. A fair examination will disclose that
there is not a shred of external evidence either against Paul
or for any other man. When, in history it has been conjec-
turally attributed to others, this has been based upon some
inference from internal evidence. The external evidence, be
it much or little, is all one way. It is axiomatic that external
evidence cannot be set aside by internal evidence, unless the
latter be overwhelming, conclusive and demonstrative. In-
ternal evidence is available by comparison only, i.e., this ques-
tioned letter must be compared with history, doctrines and
style, as set forth in unquestioned sources of information.
Various names have been suggested as the possible author.
Of these the only ones worth a moment's consideration arc
Paul, Luke, Barnabas, Apollos. In the case of Apollos there
is not a scrap of his writing left to us with which to com-
pare this letter. If he ever wrote anything we do not know
it. He had opportunity to know Paul and Timothy. He was

190

INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 191

an Alexandrian Jew, an eloquent man and mighty in the
Hebrew scriptures. That is the only foundation for Luther's
guess 1500 years after the letter was written.

Barnabas left no certain literary remains with which to
make comparison. The matter of the one document attrib-
uted to him would never suggest that he wrote this great,
immortal letter. The Barnabas of Acts 14 : 37-39 and Gala-
tians 2: 13 could never have made the complete break with
Judaism that is disclosed in this letter.

Luke alone, in his gospel and Acts, leaves us a basis
for comparison. But these books present him only as a
historian, carefully tracing out what others did and said.
He himself makes no speeches, does no arguing or inter-
preting. In him appears only a hand and pen to record the
deeds and words of others. Moreover, Luke was not a pure
Hebrew, and perhaps a Gentile. In Colossians 4, he is not
reckoned among the circumcision. He, if wholly a Gentile,
is the only one writing a Bible-book. The author of this
letter was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. The parts of Luke's
books which most nearly resemble this letter are reported
speeches of Paul, or matter that he derived from Paul. In
Paul's case there is no lack of documentary matter with
which to make comparison. But in making comparison, ob-
jectors to Pauline authorship have not only ignored the va-
riety of Paul's style, but have based their conclusions upon
the distinction between Hebrews and only a part of Paul's
writings — mainly his letters to the Galatians and Romans.
They fail to discriminate between Paul's method and style
in writing to Gentiles and in writing to Jews exclusively.

We go very far toward the settlement of this question
when we understand the full extent of the Pauline literature
with which Hebrews must be compared. We must take all
of the thirteen conceded letters of Paul, and of the reported
speeches in the Acts and even Stephen's speech, supposedly
reported to Luke by Paul.

m COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

Apart from Hebrews, these books give us our knowledge
of Paul's life, doctrines, and styles. It is admitted at once
that if from any or all of the books involved in the compar-
ison, it could be proved that Paul died before the Letter to
the Hebrews was written, that, of course, would settle the
case against the Pauline authorship. But there is no such
proof. It is impossible to fix either the exact date of Paul's
death or the writing of this letter. It would be something
in a negative way if it could be shown that this letter could
not be made to fit well into the period of Paul's life. But
it is quite easy to find one period of Paul's life into which it
fits exactly, and another period where it could possibly fit.
It fits all round just after the Letter to the Ephesians, as
the closing letter written in Paul's first Roman imprisonment.
A case could also be made out, but not so strong, that it
follows II Timothy. This would make it the very last of
Paul's letters.

A critic like Luther gets his idea of Paul's doctrines and
style from Galatians and Romans, ignoring the fact that
not all of Paul's doctrines nor all of his styles are confined
to these two books. A statement on the case of authorship
is about this : The field against Paul. It is the only way to
make any kind of a plausible showing against him.

The opposition breaks down when it attempts to support
the claim of any other one name.

It maintains a precarious standing by alternatives only,
saying, "The author was Barnabas, or Luke, or Clement, or
Apollos, or some other man." Limit the issue to Paul
against Barnabas alone, or any of the others, and there
would be no case worth trying.

Moreover, the opposition breaks down when attempt is
made to secure a consensus of judgment on the internal evi-
dence. The ground continually shifts as taken by individual
objectors like the location and formation of loose desert
sand driven by contrary winds. What one objector to Paul

INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 193

regards as quite conclusive, another concedes to be very
questionable. It is like the testimony of expert doctors in
a case at court. The expert in a specialty is the most incom-
petent of all witnesses out of his particular line ; he cannot
generalize. "Ne sutor ultra crepidemf Of all men he has
the least judicial mind. His dependence upon presupposi-
tions, his contempt for external evidence, his conceit of his
own power to dissect the most ancient documents, or to put
aside as worthless the most ancient traditions, may qualify
him for special pleading, but never to be a safe juryman or
a sane judge.

Inasmuch as all of the argument against Paul's author-
ship is based upon internal evidence, it may be well to submit
a fair statement of these objections as developed from time
to time in the history subsequent to the apostles, i.e., all of it
worth considering as a reply thereto. They may be summed
up under the following heads :

1. The absence of his name in either the address or fare-
well. The force of this objection is strengthened by the fact
that his name does appear in the address of his genuine
letters, and after I Thessalonians, for reasons stated, his
autograph is appended to them at the close.

2. The author of Hebrews at 2 : 3 concedes that he was
not an apostle, but derived his gospel second hand from the
apostles, whereas Paul's gospel was independent, original,
and first hand. To put the objection in other words, who-
ever wrote Galatians i : 11, 12 could not have written He-
brews 2 : 3. Dr. Farrar ventures to call this decisive against
Paul's authorship.

3. The severity of two passages, Hebrews 6:4-8 and
10:26-31 is not apostolic, and their doctrine of apostasy
not Pauline. These two passages underlie the opposition of
more critics to Pauline authorship than all others. Some,
in the early centuries, rejected the letter because they sup-
posed that the first of these passages favored the Novation-

194 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

ists. The supposed teaching of apostasy in these passages
was one of the chief causes of Luther being unwilHng to
receive the letter as Paul's. Tertullian, in trying to make
Barnabas the author, does so in the very chapter in which
he quotes Heb. 6 : 4-8.

4. It is objected that the style — the word style here used
in its comprehensive sense — is un-Pauline; that it is an
Alexandrian style, evincing such an acquaintance with Philo
as was not possessed by Paul. On this ground of style,
Origen, while conceding Paul's virtual authorship, attributes
the form of the composition to an unknown amanuensis.
Erasmus, the great scholar in the beginning of the Reforma-
tion time, declared the style of Hebrews wholly unlike Paul's,
and Luther, on the same ground, after being disturbed by
the passages, 6 : 4-8 and 10 : 26-31, and recalling Acts 18 : 24-
28, made the first guess known to history that ApoUos was
the author. It has become quite fashionable now to count
Luther's guess, made 1500 years after the letter was written,
a demonstration.

5. The absence of certain favorite terms of Paul, e.g.,
"justify" (Greek dikaiod) used so often in Galatians and
Romans, and the use of "purify" (Greek katharizo) instead,
and the infrequent use of Sateria — Salvation.

6. The relative purity of the Greek.

On one or the other or all of these internal grounds, some
learned men, while attributing the doctrine and thought to
Paul, have assigned the composition and rhetorical form to
an amanuensis, while others have denied to Paul any con-
nection with the authorship. Let us consider these objections
seriatim :

I. It is admitted that the absence of Paul's name in either
the address or farewell is contrary to his custom, and cer-
tainly calls for rational and adequate explanation. When
once, however, the explanation is sufficient, the absence of
the name constitutes a strong presumption of Paul's author-

INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 195

ship. For example, while no good reason can be assigned
why Apollos should omit his name, if he was the author, the
reasons of Paul's omission of his name, under the circum-
stances, are very strong. Let us consider these circumstances.
Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. This letter is exclu-
sively to the Jews. Its whole line of argument designedly
stops short of his own call and testimony. To make it thor-
oughly effective, to strike from it an embarrassing complica-
tion, he must utterly repress any allusion to his own mission,
never acceptable to Jewish minds. In other words, he ^ust,
in this case, rigidly carry out one of the great self-reprtoo.ng
principles of his life so forcibly expressed by himself else-
where : "To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain
Jews. I am become all things to all men that I may by all
means save some" (I Cor. 9:19-23). The object of the
letter is to prevent Christian Jews from abjuring Christian-
ity and relapsing into Judiaism. The argument is limited to
this view. Gentiles are not considered. Hence as Paul
writes he does not write as the apostle to the Gentiles. The
argument is necessarily shut up to proof anterior to his own
call, and apart from his own special mission. His usual offi-
cial signature or any appeal to his own testimony would
unnecessarily complicate his problem and prejudice its
solution. His problem, hence, is not "Shall Gentiles become
Christians ?" or "Shall they become Jews in order to become
Christians ?" or "Shall Jews admit Gentile Christians to social
fellowship?" but it is "Shall professing Jews abjure Chris-
tianity altogether and return to strict Judiaism ?" Therefore,
not being an apostle to the circumcision, he omits his name
and apostleship, but being a Jew he has the feeling of a Jew —
that intense desire to speak and write to his brethren accord-
ing to the flesh, expressed so forcibly in his other letters.
The man who wrote Rom. 9: 1-5, 10: 1-3, I Cor. 3:5 and
9 : 19-23 would not hesitate to suppress himself and his signa-
ture in this case in order that his arguments might stand upon

im COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

their Jewish merits, unhandicapped by official signature
which would necessarily introduce a view of the case not at
all within his purpose or the scope of his argument, and this
self-repression is a marked characteristic of Paul. Its deli-
cacy in this case surpasses that displayed in Philemon 8.
This man always preferred to be a home missionary, and had
to be choked off that line of work. He kept turning his face
toward Jerusalem against both divine and prophetic inter-
diction (see Acts 22:13-21 and 21:10-13). In all the
history of missions, if perhaps we except Jonah's case, there
is not another so remarkable — a man burning as with
unquenchable fire to be a home missionary, but divinely
thrust out and whipped into being a foreign missionary.

2. The second objection to Pauline authorship is based
on Heb. 2 : 3 which reads, "Which salvation having at first
been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by them
that heard." This language does not concede that the author
was not an apostle, nor does it intimate that he derived his
own gospel of salvation from others. It simply affirms that
Christ first spoke His own gospel of salvation, and that it
was confirmed to the Jews by the original apostles, after the
gifts at Pentecost, all of which was literally true before
Paul's conversion and call. His own call and independent
gospel did not concern Jews, to whom exclusively he is now
writing, and whom he is addressing strictly on a line that
would appeal to them. Under such circumstances to say
that it is unlike Paul to omit reference to his call and gospel,
contradicts a striking incident of his life, for he makes sub-
stantially the same statement under like circumstances at
Pisidian Antioch, as reported in Acts 13:31. What is there
in one case more than the other ? Compare them fairly. It
is true in Hebrews he says that the gospel spoken by our Lord
was confirmed to us by them that heard it. Addressing
Jews only at Antioch he says : "He was seen for many days
of them that came up from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now

INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 197

His witnesses." This does not intimate that Paul himself had
not seen the risen Lord, nor that he was not now a witness.
In both cases and for the same reason he omits reference to
himself. Then, if he at Antioch of Pisidia, addressing Jews
only, might refer exclusively to the confirmation of Christ's
resurrection by the testimony of the twelve, without impugn-
ing his own independent testimony, which he does not there
even mention, why may he not, in a letter to Jews only — a
letter whose argument designedly stops short of his own call
to the Gentiles — refer to the same kind of confirmation of
the gospel, without disparagement of his independent gospel
and testimony? In other words, with equal propriety, he
might be the author of Acts 13 : 30, 31 and of Heb. 2 : 3, 4.
We may always distrust an inference that is decisive to Dr.
Farrar when it comes to historical criticism.

3. The objection to Pauline authorship based on the pas-
sages 6:4-8 and 10:26-31 arises solely from the objectors'
questionable interpretation of these passages. It is an
assumption merely that the severity complained of in them
is not apostolic. It is many times paralleled in the words of
our Lord and in the teachings of Paul elsewhere. More-
over, it is no easier to find apostasy here than in many
unquestioned utterances of Paul. When we come in the
exposition to interpret these passages, it will not be difficult
to show that there is nothing here to contradict the final
preservation and perseverance of the saints. This objection
is on a line with Luther's going off at a tangent against the
Letter of James because he misunderstood its import.
Neither James nor Hebrews is "an epistle of straw."

4. The objection based on style in its broadest sense is
equally inconclusive. The most indeterminate method of
proving authorship known to literature is the style method.
All historical critics, like other experts, lose the power of
generalization in the narrowness and depths of the rut into
which specialism leads them. A blind mole burrowing is an

198 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

authority on earth-worms, but is no judge of landscapes or
mountain scenery. Let it be repeated as proverbial that a
specialist is unsafe on a jury or the bench.

A man, by a life devoted to microscopic details concerning
a very small matter, may become an authority on the variety
of humming birds, and might be able to prove ultimately
that the sprigs of down on a mouse's tail are more numerous
than the stickers on a grasshopper's hind leg, but that would
not qualify him to judge of the spiritual beings of the cosmos.

We have seen the result when style adepts have turned
themselves loose on Junius, Shakespeare, Homer, or Milton.
Each one is able to prove to his own satisfaction anything he
chooses, but let him not hope to convince his brother adepts.
Each of them has his own demonstration, equally worthless.
How easy to prove in this way that the author of **I1
Penseroso" could not have written "L' Allegro." They
forget, if they ever knew, that a genius possesses many
styles, and adapts his vocabulary to each new theme, yea,
even his turns of expression.

Paul was the loftiest genius among men. Compare the
rugged fiery style of the Letter to the Galatians with the
apostrophe to Love in I Cor. ij, and the mighty logic of
Romans with the sweet humility and tact of Philemon.

In the first case it is like comparing Niagara Falls with
Lake Tahoe, and in the other the Himalaya range with a
violet in a hedge-row. The man who delivered the address
before Agrippa, the address on Mars Hill, and who wrote
Romans, Philemon, I Cor. 13, was a master of all styles and
vocabularies. And why should not a cultured Jew, reared
in the university city of Tarsus, graduated from the Rab-
binical School at Jerusalem, familiar with the Greek poets.
Rabbi of a Hellenist Synagogue in Jerusalem — why should
he be ignorant of Philo and Alexandrian literature? The
Mediterranean is not very broad, and Alexandria was in
constant touch with Tarsus, in literature as well as trade.

INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 199

We may safely take for granted that Paul knew more about
Philo and Alexandrian literature than all of his critics put
together.

5. We now reply to the fifth serious objection to Pauline
authorship, towit : The use, or nonuse, of certain words.

(i) It is conceded that Hebrews does not use the word
"justify" — dikaioo, so often used in Galatians and Romans —
and does use "purify — katharizo — but the reason is obvious :
Justification was the theme of Galatians and Romans, or the
salvation for us. Sanctification is the theme of Hebrews, or
the salvation in us. Paul's words correspond to his theme,
e.g., he uses the word "law" — nomos — seventy-five times in
Romans because, as the correspondent to justification, he
needs it, but does not use it in I and H Thessalonians, H
Corinthians, Colossians, Titus, and H Timothy, because he
does not need it. If the absence of the word "justify" from
a letter disproves Pauline authorship, then he was not the
author of I and II Thessalonians, II Corinthians, Philip-
pians, Philemon, Colossians, and Ephesians. And while he
does not use katharizo — purify — in Romans and Galatians,
because not needed, yet he does use it where the same sense
requires it quite as many times in II Corinthians, Ephesians,
and Titus, as in Hebrews. "Justify" is a legal term relat-
ing to Christ's work for us. "Purify" is a Holy-Spirit-term
applying the work of Christ in us. Unfortunately some
critics get their one idea of Paul's style and words from his
discussion of the legal aspects of salvation in Galatians and
Romans, making that alone the standard of his style and
vocabulary.

The letters of the first Roman imprisonment make a great
advance in the development of the plan of salvation. In the
same way they argue against Pauline authorship because of
the infrequent use of soteria — salvation — in Hebrews, though
Romans uses the word five times, to seven in Hebrews, and
all his other letters use it nineteen times.

200 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

6. And where will the narrow argument based on the
relative purity of the Greek in different compositions, com-
posed at different times and under different circumstances,
lead us ? It would certainly lead us to deny that the author
of John^s gospel was also the author of the Apocalypse, and
the same argument would distribute the New Testament
books among many unnamed authors, reverse all established
dates and annihilate all historical evidence. A dim-eyed Jew,
rapidly writing in great sprawling letters to the Galatians —
writing in the hand of fiery speech off-hand, in a foreign
tongue — would hardly turn out the same kind of Greek in
the calm, carefully prepared treatise to the Hebrews. Let
a professor of Greek in an American college today, while
on a trip away from his books, stirred by profound emotion,
write rapidly off-hand an impassioned letter in Greek — write
it as if he were talking — and afterwards in the quiet of his
study, with grammar and lexicon at hand, prepare care-
fully, without haste, a labored and dispassionate treatise in
Greek for a literary magazine, and then let him submit these
two documents to one of these infallible experts and hear
this verdict: "It is impossible that one man wrote both.
The author of No. i struggles in embarrassment to express
himself in an unfamiliar tongue. His sentences are ragged,
elliptical and faulty. The author of No. 2 thinks in Greek.
His Greek is like a polished shaft of Parian marble chiseled
by the sculptor. His vocabulary is abundant and choice.
His argument is articulated, his periods well rounded, and
his style superbly rhetorical. No amount of external proof
could convince a cosmopolitan scholar that the same man
wrote both, however much it might mislead an uncultured
provincial/* Lo ! Sir Oracle, the Owl !

All the objections based on vocabularies, on methods of
quotation, on phrases and terms of expression, are not only
utterly inconclusive against Paul, but there can be made out
a much stronger case for him than against him on these very

INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 201

grounds, as we see in the "Speaker's Commentary" in the
introduction to Hebrews.
The case of Paul may be briefly stated thus :

EXTERNAL EVIDENCE

The external evidence is cumulative and threefold : Scrip-
tural, Documentary, and Traditional.

Scriptural. — The first scriptural evidence is derived from
II Pet. 3: 15: "And account that the long suffering of our
Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also,
according unto the wisdom given to him, wrote unto you."
If this testimony be relevant it is decisive. The argument
for its application to the case is substantially this :

1. Peter wrote his first letter to elect Jews of the disper-
sion in five provinces of Asia Minor (I Pet. 1:1).

2. His second letter was to the same people (H Pet. 3:1).

3. In this second letter he says, "Our beloved brother
Paul hath written to you"

4. The particular topic discussed by Peter, concerning
which he alleges agreement with Paul, is the emphatic topic
in our Letter to the Hebrews, namely, the long suffering of
our Lord in delaying His advent, which delay was tempting
them to apostatize.

5. Peter distinguishes this letter of Paul to the Hebrews
from all his other letters.

6. The most probable date of Peter's second letter allows
ample time for his knowledge of the Letter to the Hebrews.
Indeed, Peter's letter shows evident acquaintance with the
group of Paul's letters written during his first Roman im-
prisonment, and designedly supplements Paul's great argu-
ment against the Gnostics.

7. If our Letter to the Hebrews be not the one which
Peter attributed to Paul, then Paul's letter is lost. The only
escape from this argument would be proof that Peter him-
self never wrote the second letter attributed to him, but this

^02 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

would be only a nominal escape, since somebody wrote that
letter and the direct testimony as to Paul writing to the
Hebrews remains. Whatever may be the merits of this argu-
ment as to Peter's testimony, it is certain that Peter never
said, *'Our beloved brother Barnabas, or Apollos, or Clement,
or Luke, hath written unto you."

The second scriptural evidence is the constructive testi-
mony of Paul himself derived from a comparison of the last
paragraph of the Letter to the Hebrews with certain passages
in the letters to Timothy. Hebrews closes with the announce-
ment that Timothy is at liberty and about to visit the people
addressed in that letter, and that Paul expected to be
acquitted and restored to them, perhaps accompanying
Timothy. Now, later after Paul's release in I Tim. i : 3 and
n Tim. 1 : 15 we find that Paul and Timothy were together
in Ephesus, the metropolis of Asia. The fit is like that of a
glove on the fingers or the feathers in a dove's tail.

The third scriptural evidence is based on H Tim. i : 15-18.
The strange fact is disclosed that Paul was not welcomed in
Ephesus, that all Asia had turned against him, and but for
the ministering care of one family, the household of Onesiph-
orus, Paul would have suffered there, and there seems to
be a hint that his very life might have been in danger.
Timothy knew of these ministrations of Onesiphorus and
when Paul went away he was constrained by exhortation to
remain in Ephesus to see if he could not right matters there.
Now, in some way we must account for this sudden revulsion
of sentiment against Paul — a revulsion that amounted to a
revolution. We can easily understand how a Gentile convert,
under the influence of the Gnostic heresy, would naturally
hate a man who exposed that heresy in the letters to the
Colossians and Ephesians, but something more is necessary
to account for the sudden sweeping opposition of Jewish
Christians to Paul. This Letter to the Hebrews, and it alone,
accounts for so great a revolution of sentiment. The case

INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 203

was about this : Not only all Palestine, but the dispersion as
well, was seething at this time with a revolt against Rome.
That awful struggle had already commenced which in two
or three years would terminate in the total destruction of
Jerusalem and of the temple, and the utter overthrow of
the entire Jewish polity. The prophetic denunciations of
Moses (Deut. 28: 47-68, of Daniel (Dan. 9: 26, 27), and of
our Lord (Matt. 23:29-39; Luke 19:42-44), were now
massed in an awful menace and hanging over Jerusalem as
a storm-cloud of wrath about to burst upon the holy city
and people. Everywhere, at home and abroad, a frenzy
possessed this doomed people. Their patriotism impelled
them to stand up for their old order, the holy city and the
sacred temple, and to become implacable foes to those who,
in their judgment, slighted these holy things.

At this juncture of intolerant frenzy came Paul's Letter
to the Hebrews, plainly announcing an eternal severance of
Christianity from Judaism. Far beyond anything in other
letters, it calls for a final break between the old and the new
covenant, and foreshows the speedy overthrow of the entire
Jewish polity. Its covenant is annulled, its heavens are
shaken, and the whole system has become as worthless as
the perishing shell of a nut whose kernel has sprouted into
a new tree. Its great leaders — Abraham, Moses, Aaron,
Joshua, and David — are overshadowed by a greater Lord,
of whom they are but feeble types. To unconverted Jews
such a letter at this juncture was as a spark of fire to a
powder magazine, and the undeveloped Christian Jew,
always leaning back toward Jerusalem, could not stand
before the pressure, and so all Asia was turned against Paul.
He was outlawed and banned. It became treason to give
him shelter, food, or drink. His very appearance would
stir a mob into a most lawless and fanatical outbreak of
violence.

In such a view of the case we can understand the unselfish

S04 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

devotion of Onesiphorus, who, having previously at Rome
shared Paul's sufferings, now with his household shelters,
surreptitiously hides away and ministers unto this hunted
man when he attempted to join Timothy at Ephesus. It is
fairly inferable from II Tim. 4: 13 that Paul's escape from
Asia Minor was a flight, leaving behind in his hurry at Troas
his cloak and books or parchments.

If it be objected that this argument in supporting Paul's
appearance again in Ephesus flatly contradicts his own
prophecy in Acts 20 : 25, the reply is a flat denial of contra-
diction. Both the prophecy and the history are true and
only apparently contradictory. We find in the case of Abra-
ham (Rom. 4: 18-21 and Heb. 11 : 17-19) an illustration of
apparent conflict betwen history and prophecy. We may
find another case of the unbelieving captain described in
II Kings 7:1, 2, and 17. So here he did indeed return to
Ephesus, but the elders of that church from whom he parted
in tears at Miletus, saw his face no more.

Documentary. — ^As one example only of documentary evi-
dence, we cite the fact that in all the early manuscripts of
the New Testament — the Alexandrian, the Vatican, and the
Sinaitic — the epistle to the Hebrews is not only grouped with
Paul's letters, but is placed between the Ephesians and the
pastoral epistles. This indicates a widespread consensus
among the learned in favor of the Pauline authorship.

Traditional. — It would go far beyond the limits of this
chapter to cite all the traditional evidence, but we do give
the earliest traditions. Clement of Alexandria, a.d. 165-220,
preserved the tesitmony of Pantenus that the Letter to the
Hebrews was written by Paul. Pantenus almost touched the
times of the apostles. The testimony of Origen, 186-253 a.d.,
is also very striking. He says, "Not without good reason
have the men of old times handed down this letter as Paul's."
Here Origen speaks simply as a witness as to what is tradi-
tion. His declaration is clear that the men of old times

INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 205

handed down this letter as Paul's. As a critic on internal
evidence he may attribute the style to an amanuensis.

When we come to consider the internal evidence, it will
then be appropriate to give the views of Origen, the critic,
to the effect that while the doctrine and thoughts of the
letter are Pauline, its composition was by an unknown scribe*
This view of what was tradition prevailed throughout the
East, and particularly in the section where lived the people
addressed. Asia Minor never attributed the letter to any-
body but Paul.

While some critical views, as to internal evidence con-
jectured, have attributed this letter to others than Paul, there
is not a shred of traditional evidence, fairly considered,
against Paul and in favor of any other man. It is admitted
that while at first this letter was received as apostolic at
Rome, i.e., in the Western churches, yet later for about two
centuries, on internal grounds alone, the Pauline authorship
was questioned, but by the meeting of the Council of Laodi-
cea and of Carthage, the consensus swung back to Paul. It
is a little remarkable that, whether in earlier or later times,
historical critics, influenced by what they conceive to be
internal evidence, have questioned Paul's authorship, as time
passes the pendulum swings back, and like the temporary
quiverings of the magnetic needle which finally settles in a
definite position pointing to the north, so always the judg-
ment returns to Paul as the writer of this letter.

INTERNAL EVIDENCE

The internal evidence in favor of the Pauline authorship
may be briefly stated thus :

1. On all hands everywhere the doctrines and thought are
attributed to Paul ; even many, who suppose an amanuensis,
Luke, or ApoUos, or some other, say that whoever wrote it
expressed Paul's thought in his own style.

2. Vocabulary. — There are in this letter more than fifty

206 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

Greek words, all of them found elsewhere in Paul's letters or
speeches, but found nowhere else in the New Testament.

3. There is also a large number of words in this letter fre-
quently used elsewhere by Paul, but seldom used by any other
New Testament writer. In the same way it would be easy
to cite a long list of phrases and modes of expression in this
letter to be found elsewhere only in the speeches and letters
of Paul.

4. Metaphors. — The metaphors employed in this letter are
various. Some domestic, some architectural, some pugilistic,
some theatrical, some nautical, some medical, some based on
the races in the Isthmian games, and all these metaphors we
find used by Paul in similar constructions in his letters and
speeches elsewhere.

5. Quotations. — Any student of Paul readily sees that
certain Old Testament passages had fixed themselves on his
mind. This is evidenced in his speeches and other letters.
In this letter these are the very Old Testament passages
which he quotes. The coincidence is not only remarkable as
to the passages quoted, but in the method of citing the Old
Testament and in his ways of viewing and handling religious
truth. There is not here and now time and place for a critical
reply to the objections on internal evidence, but it is cer-
tainly safe to say that taking internal evidence alone, an
argument can be made for Paul's authorship far stronger to
a judicial mind than anything that can be made out against
him.

6. The strongest argument for Paul on the internal evi-
dence is found in the closing paragraph of Heb. 13: 18-25.
In every word and phrase and idea this paragraph is Pauline.
It is impossible to make it apply with any degree of plausibil-
ity to any other author. We have only to compare it with
the methods of closing in his other letters to note its refer-
ence to Timothy, to his request for prayer that he may be
restored to them, its harmony with the conceded history of

INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 207

Paul's previous life and labors, and particularly with dove-
tail exactness it fits into the group of Paul's letters which
preceded this closing letter of the first Roman imprison-
ment, in order to be assured of Pauline authorship.

Having examined many authorities and studied thousands
of pages of controversy on this subject, the author is thor-
oughly settled in his mind that Paul, and no other, is the
author of the Letter to the Hebrews; that it concludes the
group of letters written during the first Roman imprison-
ment, following Ephesians, elaborating the doctrines set
forth in the preceding letters against Gnosticism, properly
introducing the pastoral letters, and that it was addressed
to the Jews of Asia Minor and Greece.

QUESTIONS

r. What the two kinds of evidence in determining authorship,
and what their relative value?

2. How only is internal evidence available?

3. How does this fact alone affect the suggested names of
Apollos, Barnabas and Luke?

4. What other and decisive argument against Luke?

5. What capital error usually committed by critics opposing
Pauline authorship?

6. What the full sources of matter confessedly derived from
Paul must be considered in the comparison?

7. What one proof would be decisive against Paul, and why
cannot it" be given ?

8. What a fair statement of the case of authorship, and on
what points does this case against Paul break down?

9. Name under six heads the strongest arguments against
Pauline authorship.

10. What the reply to them seriatim?

11. What the nature of the external evidence for Pauline author-
ship, and what its three classifications?

12. State the argument on the first scriptural evidence in support
of Paul's authorship ; the second ; the third.

13. What documentary proof tends to the same conclusion ?

14. Give substance of traditional evidence coming from the East.

15. State the case in the West, citing authorities up to the
Reformation,

16. How was the question reopened in the Reformation-period,
and what the position of Erasmus, Luther, and Calvin respectively?

17. State in substance the internal evidence favoring Pauline
authorship.

XVIII

ANALYSIS OF HEBREWS AND OUR LORD'S
SONSHIPS

BEFORE commencing the exposition of this remark-
able letter, I wish to refer briefly to commentaries
suitable to English students. I commend, heartily,
"Jamieson, Faussett and Brown," brief but critical and
trustworthy, though dissenting from it, however, in the
persons to whom the letter is addressed. I commend very
heartily "The Speaker's Commentary." Its introduction is
superb, indeed, the best I have seen, though I differ from
this "Commentary" as to the persons addressed in the letter.
I commend, with some reservation, "The Pulpit Commen-
tary," particularly its homiletical part. Farrar, in "The
Cambridge Bible," is as usual sharp and erratic. Of course,
as a radical critic, he dissents from authorship by Paul.
Edwards, in "The Expositor's Bible," is weak. In "The
American Commentary," Kendrick follows the radical critics
in his introduction, and gives an easy flowing translation of
Hebrews. I have never regarded Kendrick as occupying the
first rank on the matter of soundness of judgment in inter-
pretation.

ANALYSIS OF HEBREWS

I. Introduction, answering the questions :

1. Who wrote it?

2. In what language?

3. Where written ?

4. What the circumstances of the writer?

5. When written ?

6. To whom?

7. The occasion, or circumstances of those addressed.

208

ANALYSIS OF HEBREWS 209

8. Of what group of letters is it a part, and what its place in
the group ?

9. What its character and style ?
10. What its theme?

II. The Mediator of the New Covenant Is the Son of God,

1:1-9

1. By eternal subsistence. In His pre-existence : (i) "The efful-
gence of God's glory and very image of His substance." (2)
'Through whom also He made the worlds." (3) "Upholding all
things by the word of His power."

2. In His incarnation

(i) "The First-born." "Made purification of sins."

3. In His resurrection

(i) "Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee." "When
He again bringeth His first-born into the world." (2) "Sat down
at the right hand of the majesty on high." "Thy throne, O God, is
forever and ever." (3) "Anointed with the oil of gladness above
His fellows."

III. Superior to the Material Universe, i : 10-12

1. He created and upholds it.

2. He is changeless ; it changes.

3. He dissolves it by fire at His final coming (i: li, 12, and II
Pet. 3:4-12), and recreates it (Rev. 21:1).

IV. Superior to All Old Testament Prophets as a Revealer

1. Their revelation fragmentary, diverse, incomplete.

2. His revelation complete, and closes the canon of scripture.

3. It is a gospel of salvation — theirs a promise.

y. Superior to Angels — Good and Bad

1. To good angels: (i) In His threefold Sonship He is the
object of their worship. (2) In His expiation of sin. (3) In His
inheritance. (4) In His enthronement. (5) In His anointing with
the oil of gladness. (6) In their subordination of service. (7) In
His confirmation of them for their fidelity in ministering to the
heirs of salvation. (8) In His gospel as compared with the law
disposed by them. (9) In the higher penal sanctions of His gospel
over the penal sanctions of the law. (10) In the gospel's better
accrediting than the law. (11) In His sympathetic priesthood.
(12) In His becoming a brother to them whom they only serve.

2. To bad angels: (i) In His successful resistance to Satan's
temptation, both in the desert and in Gethsemane. (2) In His com-
plete victory over Satan and all his demons on the cross. (3) In
delivering Satan's victims. (4) In His final judgment of them.

yi. Greater than Moses, the Mediator of the Old Covenanc

1. The builder of the house greater than the house.

2. The Son in the house greater than the servant.

«10 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

3. The house built by the Son greater than the house built by
the servant.

4. Neither Moses nor the people led out of bondage by him ever
reached the earthly promised land, but Jesus enters the heavenly
promised land, saying, "Here am I and the children thou hast
given me."

VII. Greater than Joshua, the Captain General of Israel

The rest into which Joshua led his generation was imperfect and
temporary, but Jesus entered the true rest of redemption.

VIII. The Seventh Day Sabbath

Commemorating the rest after creation (Gen. 2:2, 3), and com-
memorating the temporal deliverance from Egypt (Deut 5:4-15),
and of the imperfect rest of Joshua (Heb. 4:8), was nailed to fiie
cross of Christ and blotted out (Col. 2:14, 16, 17), and forever
superseded by another day — the Christian's Sabbath — "Sabbath-
keeping" (Sabbatismos) that remaineth to the people of God,"
commemorating the resurrestion-rest of Christ's finished work of
redemption (Heb. 4:8-10).

IX. Greater than Aaron the High Priest

1. In descent from Judah, not Levi.

2. After the order of Melchizedek.

3. Sinless, whereas Aaron was a sinner.

4. Aaron died, but He ever liveth to intercede, and therefore is
able to save to the uttermost all that come to God through Him.

5. In sympathetic touch with His people.

X. The General Superiority of the New Covenant Over thi

Old Covenant (Heb. 8: 5 to 10: 18)

1. In its better promises.

2. In its better surety.

3. It is the substance of which the other was the shadow.

4. Written on the heart instead of tablets of stone.

5. In the dignity and intrinsic merit of its one great expiatory
sacrifice, offered once for all.

6. This one expiation blots out sin and its remembrance; the
multitude of the others, oft repeated, only passed sin over till this
one came.

7. In the personal and experimental knowledge of God possessed
by all members of the new.

& All the members of the new arc priests unto God, having a
supwior festival and better non-expiating sacrifices (13:1013,
15, 16).

9. The old broken repeatedly by one of the parties to it, and
disregarded by the other.

10- The old in its city, its tabernacle, and all its appointments
and sacrifices and priesthood and ritual and ordinances forever

ANALYSIS OF HEBREWS 211

taken away. The new abideth forever, thoroughly kept by its surety,
and so provides for all its members that they, when fully saved,
will forever keep it.

XI. All the Worthies of the Old Testament Times

Won their victories by faith— the great first principle of the new
covenant (Heb. ii).

XII. The Encouragements to a Successfxjl Race
Under the new far exceed those of the old (Heb. 12: 1-17).

XIII. The Outcome of the New

Far better and more glorious (Heb. 12:18-24). The covenant-
argument has its climax in chapter 12 and closes at 13 : 16. The
Mediator-argument finds its climax in 13 : 8.

XIV. Closing Words (13: 17-25)'

The one theme of this book is : Christian Jews should hold
fast to the profession of their faith in Jesus Christ, steadily
going forward to maturity, and not relapse into Judaism,
because the new covenant, mediated by our Lord, forever
supersedes, and on all points is infinitely superior to the old
covenant given through the disposition of angels and medi-
ated by Moses.

The argument and exhortation rest on the nature, person,
and office of our Lord in relation to salvation, and on the
excellencies of the new covenant mediated by Him. So
resting, the argument naturally commences with the dignity
and worth of the Mediator as contrasted with all other intel-
ligences, and then develops the excellencies of His covenant.

Jesus the Messiah is the one hero of the book from start
to finish. The arguments, each followed by appropriate
exhortation, commence with verse i, reach the climax as to
the covenant in chapter 12, and close with the priesthood of
all Christians and the superiority of their festivals and of
their non-expiatory sacrifices, at Heb. 13: 10, 15, 16. The
climax on the Mediator is reached at 13:8.

The Mediator of the new covenant is first presented to
view in His threefold Sonship to the Father :

2ia COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

1. The Sonship of His pre-existence, i.e., prior to time and
creation of the universe. He was the Son of God by eternal
subsistence, or, as this book expresses it, "being the efful-
gence of His glory and the very image of His substance."
The activities of this substance are thus expressed:
"Through whom He also made the worlds," and His prov-
idence after their creation, "upholding all things by the word
of His power." Eternity of being, creation, providence, set
forth His essential deity and overthrow the false concep-
tions of the Gnostic philosophy concerning eons, which at
this very time is one of the active causes tending to apostasy.
On this point, as on others, the book fits into the preceding
letters of the first Roman imprisonment, rounding up their
argument, and prepares for the interfitting of subsequent
New Testament books. We cannot, except by violence to
the system of correlated revelation, disrupt it from this con-
nection. But it is the evident purpose of the book to connect
His first Sonship with the second and third Sonships, reach-
ing the climax of the argument as to Mediator in verse 8 of
the last chapter: "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and
today, yea, and forever."

2. Son of God by procreation of the Virgin Mary — His
"first-born." Compare Luke i : 35 and H Sam. 7 : 14. This
chapter expresses the work of this Sonship in four distinct
offices :

(a) Prophet : "Hath at the end of these days spoken unto
us in His Son" (1:2).

(b) Both priest and (c) expiating sacrifice: "When He
had made purification of sins" (1:3). Other parts of the
letter give elaborate details of His priesthood and vicarious
sacrifice, which will be considered later.

(d) King: "I will be to Him a Father and He will be to
me a Son" (latter clause of 1:5). This is a quotation from
n Sam. 7. The verses immediately before it are: "When
thy days are fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I

ANALYSIS OF HEBREWS «15

will set up thy seed after thee, that shall proceed out of thy
bowels, and I will establish His kingdom. He shall build a
house for my name, and I will establish the throne of His
kingdom forever" (H Sam. 7: 12, 13).

It is this promise to David which influenced him more than
all other words of God to him, and evoked the matchless
72nd Psalm ; occasioned the kingdom prophecies of Daniel,
Zechariah, and Micah, and the testimonies so elaborately set
forth in the gospel of Matthew, on the King and kingdom.
But so far, the allusions are to the King and His birth, and
in the setting up of His kingdom, and the constitution of His
church before His death. It is the King building and estab-
lishing and not His reigning after His exaltation. The w^ord,
"first-born," belongs to the second Sonship, i.e., so far as it
relates to His first coming into this world, and not "the
bringing in again."

3. The Son of God by His resurrection: "Thou art my
Son, this day have I begotten thee." "And when He
again bringeth in His first-born into the world." The first
passage, i : 5, first clause, is a quotation from Psalm 2, and
by Paul himself, is expounded as applying to His resurrec-
tion at Acts 13:33. The other passage: "When He again
bringeth in His first-born into the world," needs careful con-
sideration. It means that as He brought Him first into the
world by His incarnation — His birth of the Virgin Mary — so
He brought Him into the world the second time at His resur-
rection. It means that when He died on the cross He left
the world and His spirit ascended to the Father, as in Luke
23 : 46 — "And Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, 'Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit,* and having said this He
gave up the spirit."

Here arises a series of crucial questions : Where did the
spirit of Jesus go when separated from His body, why did
it go there, and how long did it stay there, and leaving there,
where did it next go, and for what purpose, and how long

n^ COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

did He remain at this second place, and for what purpose,
and then where did He next go and why, and where is He
now, and what doing, and how long will He remain, and
then where will He go, and for what ?

The answers are: His spirit went to heaven; He went
there as High Priest to sprinkle on the mercy seat the blood
shed on the cross and make atonement for sins ; He remained
there in the interval between His death and resurrection ; He
then returned to the earth for His glorified resurrection-
body, and remained on earth comforting and instructing His
disciples for forty days, and then He again ascended to
heaven, soul and body, and sat down at the right hand
of God, crowned King of kings and Lord of lords, and
there He reigns as King and makes intercession as High
Priest until His third and final advent to raise the dead and
judge the world and then turn over the kingdom to the
Father.

Let us note very carefully the following points :

1. At His first advent He assumed the body of His humil-
iation to become the sacrifice for sin. At His second advent
He assumed the body of His glory for reigning and inter-
ceding in heaven. At His final advent He will assume His
mystical body, the church, for its glorification forever.

2. When His body died, His soul, negatively, (a) did not
descend into (Gehenna) hell. His descent into hell was on
the cross, soul and body, during the three hours of darkness ;
(b) His soul did not go into hades considered as a place, in
order to preach a gospel unto the wicked dead, nor to deliver
Old Testament saints from a half-way prison, but, positively,
according to Leviticus i6, entered heaven to make atone-
ment in the Holy of Holies for offering and pleading the
merit of His expiating blood. On that great day of atone-
ment (Lev. i6) there was continuous action. Immediately
after the death of the vicarious sacrifice, the high priest,
with the warm blood, parted the veil which hid the holy of

ANALYSIS OF HEBREWS ^15

holies. This blood of the typical vicarious sacrifice cleanses
the typical sanctuary and makes atonement. There is no
halt in the proceedings; the action is continuous. So this
letter will tell us how Jesus passes through the veil — that is,
by the death of His body — and enters into the Most Holy
Place beyond the veil and cleanses with His own nobler blood
the true sanctuary and makes atonement.

To make this clear, let us repeat : One of the greatest ques-
tions of New Testament theology is : How was the soul of
our Lord employed in the interval between His death and
resurrection? Some make hades an intermediate place be-
tween heaven and hell (Gehenna), divided into two compart-
ments— Paradise for the good, and Tartarus for the wicked.
This they call "the middle life" They contend that all Old
Testament saints are side-tracked in Paradise, and that all
the lost of Old Testament times are side-tracked in Tartarus
until the final judgment and that the same disposition is now
made of the souls of good and bad. See J. R. Graves'
"Middle Life," Bishop McTyiere's sermon in "Methodist
Pulpit, South," afterwards regretted, as I am informed,
and Bishop Hobart's (Episcopal) funeral sermon on a
brother bishop, and the interpretation of the creed: "He
descended into hell (hades).

On this theory some contend, by a misinterpretation of
I Pet. 3:19, 20 ; 4:6, that the disembodied soul of Christ,
between His death and resurrection, was employed in preach-
ing a saving gospel in Tartarus to those who perished in the
flood. Others, citing apocryphal books, contend He entered
into Paradise and announced to the souls of the saints rest-
ing there the finishing of His work for their salvation, and
that He took out with Him, when He left, the souls of Abra-
ham and other Old Testament saints. On similar lines is
based the Romanist theory of Purgatory. When we come
to interpret I Pet. 3:19, 20 ; 4 : 6, all these theories will be
examined in a special chapter. Just now our concern is to

^16 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

establish positively where He was and how employed in the
interval between His death and resurrection.

The answer is suggested by His own words on the cross :
"It is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."
And He gave up the spirit, intensified by the recorded
prodigy : "The veil of the temple was rent in twain from top
to bottom" (Luke 23:45) with this comment in our letter:
"Which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure
and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil ;
whither as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become
a High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek"
(Heb. 6: 19, 20) ; "But into the second the high priest alone,
once in the year, not without blood, which he offereth for
himself and for the errors of the people: The Holy Spirit
thus signifying that the way into the holy place hath not yet
been made manifest while the first tabernacle is yet standing.
But Christ having become a High Priest of the good things
to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle,
not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, nor
yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through His
own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, hav-
ing obtained eternal redemption. For Christ entered not
into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the
true, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face
of God for us." (Heb. 9:7, 8, 11, 12, 24) ; "Now where
remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Hav-
ing, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holy Place
by the blood of Jesus" (Heb. 10: 18, 19). Here it is evident
that the veil which hid the holy of holies typified Christ's
body. When His body died that veil was forever rent.
Through this rent body He entered the heavenly Holy of
Holies and there offered His own expiating blood an offer-
ing through the eternal Spirit, hence in 12:22-24, the last
glorious thing the Christian comes to is "the blood of sprink-
ling," not on his heart as applied by the Holy Spirit in

ANALYSIS OF HEBREWS 217

regeneration, but that blood sprinkled on the mercy seat in
the heavenly sanctuary.

It has been objected to this view that Jesus said to Mary
after His resurrection: "I have not yet ascended to my
Father," but that refers to His ascension in His glorified
body, and not in His disembodied spirit. His body could not
be raised until His spirit had made atonement in heaven,
hence it said: "Now the God of peace who brought again
from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood
of an eternal covenant, even our Lord Jesus."

I once heard a preacher say that Jesus never sprinkled
that blood on the mercy seat in heaven until His ascension in
His risen body forty days after His resurrection as described
in Acts 1 : 10. I asked him two questions :

1. "If the high priest in Leviticus i6 waited forty days
after the sacrificial goat was slain to take the blood into the
sanctuary ?"

2. "How the body of Jesus could be raised until the blood
of the covenant was on the mercy seat ?"

It was through his rent body, not His risen body that our
Forerunner reached that sanctuary. When He expiated sin
on the cross it was necessary that He offer the blood in the
sanctuary for atonement. So long as the blood remained at
the cross it could not be made efficacious. It must be accepted
to become a propitiation. The mercy seat was the place of
propitiation. Therefore when His body died, His soul imme-
diately passing through the veil — a rent body — entered into
the heavenly sanctuary to make His expiation effective in the
salvation of men. It was the culmination of the whole
process of the work of His second Sonship.

His third Sonship starts at the resurrection. He was
brought to life through the blood of the everlasting covenant
accepted in heaven. This makes clear the passage which
Milton misunderstood: "And when He again bringeth in
the first-born into the world He saith : *And let all the angels

218 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

of God worship Him.' " His soul was out of the world and
in heaven. He must be brought into the world again to
obtain and inhabit His risen and glorified body, which is His
second advent, as our souls must come from heaven with
Him at His third and final advent, to obtain and inhabit our
glorified bodies (I Thess. 4: 14). And as the angels had
worshiped Him in His second Sonship (Luke 2:9-14;
Matt. 4: 11-20) so now in His third Sonship — His risen and
glorified humanity — God says, "Let all the angels of God
worship Him." You may rest assured that all of Psalms 2
and no apply to His third Sonship as expressed in this first
chapter and affirmed in Acts 4 : 23-28, and in many other
New Testament passages.

I once had a friendly private controversy with a Campbell-
ite who affirmed that there could be no law of pardon till
Jesus became the Son of God, which took place at His resur-
rection, and therefore Acts 2 : 38 was the first law of pardon
under the new covenant, and so all gospel cases of pardon
must not be considered. I told him that his fallacy consisted
in ignoring the second Sonship, and that in all His Sonships
sinners were pardoned, and that the plan of salvation was
one plan from Abel to the final judgment, as the eleventh
chapter of this book abundantly shows. It is to this third
Sonship that His heirship and His anointing with gladness,
and His session at God's right hand, all belong. He was
appointed heir because of the reconciliation He accomplished
in His second Sonship, so our lesson declares (1:4), and
the great passage in Philippians 2:6-11. So testify also
Psalms 2 and no. Equally clear also His anointing with
gladness 1:9; 12:2, which will be considered more par-
ticularly in another connection.

3. Superior to the Universe (i : 10-12). — We must note
that in all the first two chapters the arguments connect with
Philippians, Colossians and Ephesians in a demonstration
against the Gnostic heresy concerning creation and eons.

ANALYSIS OF HEBREWS 219

Here our Lord's pre-eminence over the universe appears
from:

(i) He created it. (2) His providence upholds it. (3)
His eternity and immutability. (4) He dissolves it at His
will.

On this last point the reader will recall the process by
which the chaotic matter of the earth was reduced to order
(Gen. 1:6-10) by the creation of the atmosphere separat-
ing the waters above from the waters below, and then sep-
arating the waters below from the land, and how this process
was reversed in bringing about the flood (Gen. 7:11;
7: 17-24), and then renewed in restoring the old condition
after the flood (Gen. 8 : 2, 3) . That was a memorable muta-
tion, and showed God*s control over the ordinary course of
nature. He will recall His covenant with Noah, pledging
continuity of the order of nature, and safeguarding against
another water dissolution while the earth remaineth (Gen.
8:22; 9:8-17).

But here in our lesson is predicted a more remarkable
mutation — a dissolution by fire (Heb. i : 11, 12). And no
reliance on what is called "the settled course of nature" will
avail against this dissolution. Soon after this letter Peter
wrote to the same people his great argument on the same
line (H Pet. 3: 1-13), and reminded the Christian Jews of
Asia Minor of this very letter of Paul (H Pet. 3: 14-16).
Jesus is sovereign over nature's course, which He established,
and in it brings mutation at His will.

4. Greater as a Revelator than all the Old Testament
Prophets (1:1, 2) :

( 1 ) In all His Sonships He is a revelator of the Father —
the visible of the invisible God. The effulgence and image
in His first Sonship, so in His second Sonship (John 14:
8, 9), and so in His third Sonship.

(2) In the teaching of His prophetic office. Their reve-
lation was fragmentary, infrequent, diverse, incomplete

2^0 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

(i : I, 2), and often beyond their own understanding (I Pet.
i: 10-12).

(3) His revelation illumines theirs, dispels its mysteries,
and completes the canon of the scripture.

(4) It unfolds in panorama the events of all time touching
the kingdom of God, until the great culmination (see Rev.
1:1, and throughout the book).

QUESTIONS

1. What commentaries named on this book, and how com-
mended ?

2. Give the main points of the author's analysis.

3. What the theme of this book?

4. On what does the argument and exhortation rest?

5. How does the argument naturally commence, what does it
develop, who the hero of the book, and what the terminals of the
several arguments?

6. What the threefold Sonship of Jesus Christ, the Mediator of
the new covenant?

7. What His work in the first Sonship, and how expressed?

8. Against what heresy are the first two chapters especially
directed, with what preceding letters does this argument connect,
and into what subsequent N. T. books by other writers does it fit?

9. What the activities of our Lord in His second Sonship?

10. What the activities of our Lord in His third Sonship?

11. How many advents of our Lord into the world, and what the
purpose of each?

12. What was Jesus doing between His death and resurrection?

13. What heresies concerning the place where our Lord's soul
went, and His work between His death and resurrection, and what
the scriptural and other grounds relied on to support them?

14. What distinguished advocates of these theories?

15. State at length the author's argument as to what Jesus was
doing between His death and resurrection?

16. In what particulars is our Lord superior to the material
universe?

17. On what ground do men of science reject miracles?

18. Show from Genesis the process of the established order of
things, and in one remarkable instance this reverse of this process,
and its restoration.

19. What second mutation, according to this letter, awaits the
heavens and the earth, and what the means of its accomplishment?

20. Prove from Peter in a letter subsequent to this how men's
reliance on the continuity of the order of nature will be swept away
by this second mutation.

21. Show how in this letter of Peter to the same people addressed
in Hebrews, he identifies this letter as Paul's.

22. In what particulars is our Lord superior to O. T. prophets?

XIX

CHRIST'S SUPERIORITY OVER ANGELS
GOOD AND BAD

Scripture: Heb. i : i — 2: 18

IN the first chapter on the exposition of the Letter to
the Hebrews, we considered Christ in His three Son-
ships, showing that the Son of God by eternal subsist-
ence, being the effulgence of God's glory and the express
image of His substance, and in that pre-existent state
created the universe and all of these intelligences, and having
created them He upholds them by His providence. Then
we considered His second Sonship, when He became the
Son of God by birth of the Virgin Mary in order to make
purification for sins, and in that incarnate state He did make
purification for sins. That in His third Sonship He was the
Son of God by His resurrection. We then followed His
ascent into the heavens, in His disembodied spirit, presenting
His blood as the basis for the atonement which He there
made, followed by His exaltation a royal priest to the throne
of the universe and His session there ruling and interceding.
We then considered Christ's superiority over the universe,
that in the beginning He created it, and in His unchangeable-
ness and the changeableness of the universe.

We then considered Christ's superiority over the prophets
of the Old Testament. They did give us a revelation as far
as the Old Testament goes, but it was a fragmentary and
diverse revelation. But the revelation He gave us completes
theirs, and completes the canon of the scriptures, and so
He is superior to all the prophets.

COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

So we come now to a new line of superiority : His supe-
riority over the angels, good and bad. The question arises,
Why introduce the angels in this discussion? Because the
old covenant was given by the disposition of the angels,
and inasmuch as the object of this letter is to show the
superiority of the new covenant over the old covenant, it
is necessary to show that Christ is superior to the angels.
That accounts for the introduction of the angels into the
discussion.

Then arises our second question : On what points is Christ
superior to the good angels? Evidently He is superior to
them in His pre-existence as the image of God and the
effulgence of His glory, because that was before there were
any angels. Then He is superior in that He created the
angels as well as other intelligences of the universe ; creator
is greater than creature.

But these are not the points of superiority upon which
this letter principally dwells. It is His superiority in His
second and third Sonship, not His first, that is emphasized.
This superiority is that of the incarnate man, or God-man,
and what He did in His incarnation. No angel ever made
expiation of sin. It was impossible that an angel could
make an expiation for the sins of man. But Jesus, whose
deity in the flesh was recognized by the angels, and who
was worshiped by the angels in His humanity, did in that
humanity by sacrifice of himself make purification for the
sins of the world — for the sins of His people. And our text
tells us that because He made purification for the sins of the
world and is seated on the right-hand of the majesty on
high, He has obtained a more glorious name than the angels.
For a little season in His second sonship He was lower than
the angels, but in that second Sonship, having expiated the
sins of the world, and having been exalted into heaven. He
obtains a greater name than any angel ever had. In other
words, as expressed in a previous letter "The name that

CHRIST SUPERIOR TO ANGELS

is above every name," "King of kings and Lord of lords."
High above all principalities and powers, He received that
excellent name.

In arguing upon that name, Paul takes up the beginning
of the exaltation of Christ, and says, "Unto what angel
did He ever say, 'Thou art my son — this day have I begotten
thee ?' " referring to His resurrection. No angel is the Son
of God in that sense. And then He says again, "When He
bringeth again His only begotten Son into the world," as
He does at the resurrection in order to obtain His risen
body, "let all the angels of God worship Him," that is. He
is the object of angelic worship as the risen Savior of men.
He carries on the thought further — that He is not only risen,
but He attains to the state above the angels because God
said to Him, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever."
He never said that to an angel. And on that throne upon
which He now sits — not the throne upon which He sat
before He was manifested and became a man, but the throne
upon which the risen Jesus sits today — on that throne He is
superior to all angels. And Paul quotes Psalm 104:7:
"And of the angels he sayeth, Who maketh His angels winds
and His ministers a flame of fire : but of the Son He saith,
Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; and the sceptre
of uprightness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast
loved righteousness and hated iniquity." That is the next
point of the superiority.

The third point of the superiority is that, being so exalted
to that throne, He is anointed with the oil of gladness above
His fellows. Knox said that when he died, if his heart were
examined, this writing would be found on it: "Scotland."
And I feel that stamped on my innermost being, ineffaceably
on the tablets of my memory forever, are two pictures : One
is Christ, the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,
the saddest man that ever lived. And the other is Christ
anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows, the

224 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

gladdest man that ever lived, as it is presented again later
in this book: "Who for the joy that was set before Him
endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God," Heb. 12:2. This
was a recompense of gladness beyond that any other being
in this world will enjoy. In Luke 15 we have some beautiful
illustrations of this gladness of Christ :

A sheep is lost. Whose sheep? The Shepherd's. Who
goes after the sheep ? The Shepherd. Who finds the sheep ?
The Shepherd finds it. What does the Shepherd do when
He finds it? He rejoices over it. Whose is the greatest
joy over the finding of the lost sheep ? His is the greatest joy.
When it says there is joy in the presence of the angels over
one sinner that repenteth, it does not mean that the angels
were glad, but that there was joy in their presence. It is
the Savior that is glad — the one that saved the sheep.

Then there is the woman who lost the coin. Whose was
it? Hers. Who found it? She. Which was the greater
joy, hers or the neighbors' whom she called to share it?
It was hers. She called in her friends and they rejoiced
with her, but their joy was not equal to hers.

In the last parable, the lost son, whose son was the
prodigal? That old father's. Whose was the joy when
that prodigal son came home? It was the father's joy.
When it is said that Jesus was anointed with the oil of glad-
ness above His fellows it means the same thing as what is said
in Isaiah 53 : "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and
shall be satisfied." If His joy be so great over one sinner,
who can measure the height, and depth, and breadth of the
gladness of Jesus Christ when that great multitude — that
uncountable number out of every nation and tribe and tongue
— gets safely home to heaven and God? We are glad if a
sinner is converted under our ministry, but we are not as
glad as Jesus is. I have no doubt the angels are glad, but
they cannot have the joy that Jesus has, because angels

CHRIST SUPERIOR TO ANGELS 225

did not make us, angels did not die for us, and angels did
not make atonement for us. Let us never forget this point
of superiority of Christ over angels. As Paul elsewhere
expresses it : "The gospel of the glory of the happy God,"
I Tim. i: ii.

The superiority is evidenced again in 1:14: "Are they
not all ministering spirits sent forth to do service for the
sake of them that shall inherit salvation?" Theirs is a
subordination in service. They did not save men, but
they have a subordinate service of ministering to the
saved.

The next point is a very fine one. The law was given
by the disposition of the angels, and it had very high penal
sanctions. But the gospel was given by Jesus Christ, and
it has a higher penal sanction; the superiority is in the
higher penal sanction. Commencing at chapter 2 : "There-
fore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things
that were heard, lest haply we drift away from them. For
if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and
every transgression and disobedience received a just recom-
pense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great
a salvation? which having at first been spoken through the
Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard." The
point is that the punishment for rejecting the gospel is far
beyond the punishment for rejecting the law. When we
get to chapter 10 the thought is brought out this way : "For
if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge
of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins,
but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierce-
ness of fire which shall devour the adversaries. A man
that hath set at nought Moses' law dieth without compas-
sion on the word of two or three witnesses : of how much
sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy who
hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted
the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an

ne COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of
grace?" First, he has trampled under foot the Son of God.
This is sin against the Father, and is pardonable. Second,
he has counted the blood of the everlasting covenant an
unholy thing. That is sin against the Son, and is pardon-
able. Third, he has shown despite unto the Spirit of grace.
That is sin against the Holy Spirit and hath never forgive-
ness. By so much as the light under the gospel is superior
to the light under the law, by that much is the responsibility
greater and the penalty severer. Why did Jesus say: "It
shall be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom
and Gomorrah than for the cities around the Sea of Galilee?"
Because the cities around the Sea of Galilee heard the gospel
from the lips of Jesus, and Sodom and Gomorrah did not
hear that. In the final judgment men are judged according
to the light they have had. It is on that account that the
man who rejects Christ will be condemned in the final judg-
ment by the men that repented at the teachings of a prophet
— an unwilling prophet — a prophet who preferred to see
them swept away, but Jesus is greater than Jonah. Thus
at the last great day the Ninevites shall condemn those who
refused the gospel. So also the queen of Sheba, who came
from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the derived
wisdom of Solomon, shall condemn those people who re-
jected the gospel — rejected the original and underived wis-
dom of the greater than Solomon, Matt. 12 : 41, 42.

The next point of superiority is that the gospel is better
accredited than the law was accredited. That is set forth
in this passage: "Was confirmed unto us by them that
heard; God also bearing witness with them, both by signs
and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the
Holy Spirit, according to His own will." All we have to
do in order to get at this point is to contrast the miraculous
prodigies at the giving of the law on Mount Sinai with the
miraculous confirmation of the gospel when the church was

CHRIST SUPERIOR TO ANGELS 2^7

baptized in the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. There
were the gifts of the Spirit ; there was the power to speak
with tongues, to heal the sick, to raise the dead. By that
much is Christ superior to angels.

The next point of His superiority is presented in 2 : 5 in
these words : "For not unto angels did He subject the world
to come, whereof we speak. But one hath somewhere
testified, saying, What is man that thou art mindful of him,
or the Son of man, that thou visitest Him? Thou madest
Him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst Him
with glory and honor, and didst set Him over the works of
thine hands: thou didst put all things in subjection under
His feet." That says that Jesus, in His humanity, for a
little season lower than the angels because of the work
that He did, will have subjected to Him the world to come.
That never was subjected to the angels. And what is the
world to come? It is the world after the general judgment.
Then will be fulfilled what is said in Psalm 8. Christ, as
the Second Adam, enters into the possession of all the
authority and dominion conferred upon the first Adam. The
first Adam in his temptation lost all in a garden, turning it
into a desert. Christ, resisting temptation in a desert, con-
verted it into a garden.

Paul goes on to show that we do not yet see all things
subjected to Him. But we do see this much — that Jesus
Christ, who in His flesh tasted death for every man, has
been set upon the throne of authority in heaven and is wait-
ing until that full promise shall be carried out, that all things
shall be subjected unto Him, as it is expressed in I Cor. 15 :
"He must reign until all His enemies are put under His
feet." That will put us into the world to come, and the last
enemy that shall be destroyed is death. Death is not de-
stroyed yet. Christ is up there reigning and bringing about
the subjection of the world to come. In Psa. 1 10 we have
this : "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right

228 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." When every
enemy is put under the foot of Christ, all of our enemies are
put under our feet, for Christ does not do that simply for
himself ; He does it for humanity ; He does it that all who
are under Him may sit down with Him on His throne, and
every enemy is to be put under their feet.

And that leads us to the next point of superiority. Com-
mence at verse lo: "For it became Him for whom all
things, and through whom all things, in bringing many sons
unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect
through suffering. For both He that sanctifieth and they
who are sanctified, are all of one, for which cause He is
not ashamed to call them brethren." The angels were not
His brethren, but more scripture is quoted in confirmation
of it: "I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the
midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee." "I will
not sit off and sing my song by myself, but I will sing it in
the congregation," is the thought.

Now comes a very important question — to know when
He did declare His name among the brethren, or sing among
the brethren. The only place I know of in the New Testa-
ment so far is at the Lord's Supper, where with His church
memorializing His death for the sins of His people ; at the
conclusion of that service "they sang a hymn and went out."
The hymn that they sang is what is called in the Psalms the
great Hallel, or Hallelujah song. We find in the book of
Psalms certain ones called Hallelujah songs. They were
appointed to be sung at the festival of the Passover, this
being the type of Christ causing the angel of death to pass
over us. The Jews had sung that Hallel for ages at the
annual Paschal . festival. So we know the hymn He sang
when they went out from the Lord's Supper.

And that proves that there was a church in existence then.
In the church He sang.

The great fulfillment, however, will be when all of the

CHRIST SUPERIOR TO ANGELS 229

redeemed are gathered together, as described in Revela-
tion 19. Then is when they sing in the great congregation,
the glory church: "Hallelujah! Hallelujah! The Lord God
Omnipotent reigneth. Let the earth rejoice. Hallelujah!
Hallelujah !" That is the final fulfillment. The one in the
church-nucleus at the Lord's Supper was a foretaste of it — •
a prefiguring of the one in the glory-church. In that world
to come, presented to us in Revelation 21 and 22^ after the
last enemy is destroyed — our enemy, Christ's enemy — ^that
world is not subjected to the angels, but we have a glorious
picture of the New Jerusalem coming down out of the heav-
ens from God. Oh ! the light of it, the joy of it ! That is
the world to come. But the thought is even finer than that.
He has superiority over the angels not merely because the
world to come is subjected to Him and to His people, but
because He gets nearer to us experimentally than an angel.
Angels are fellow-servants, but we are brethren of Christ.
The angels minister to us, but they have not the sympa-
thetic touch, that is, Gabriel is not my brother — he is my
fellow-servant, but not my brother. Christ is my brother,
and that leads us to the last point of superiority as expressed
in the end of that chapter, where he says, "wherefore it
behooved Him in all things to be made like unto His breth-
ren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest
in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the
sins of the people. For in that He himself hath suffered,
being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted."
The angels cannot get close to you like that; they are not
priests; they do not pass through that suffering and that
temptation as He did ; He took our place. We are born of
woman ; so was He. We have the helplessness of childhood ;
so had He. We confront hunger, cold, contradiction of
sinners ; so did He. And because He had these expenences
that no angel ever did have. He can help us where no angel
can. I have presented twelve special points of superiority

230 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

over angels, and I am not through yet, because they are the
points of superiority over the good angels.

We come now to consider His superiority over the bad
angels, and let us see what they are: First, He success-
fully resisted all of Satan's temptations, principally in the
wilderness and in Gethsemane — two capital points at the
beginning and ending of His earthly life. He successfully
resisted Satan at the threshold of His public life. The first
Adam did not. He fell. He was tempted in the Garden
and turned it into a desert ; Christ was tempted in a desert
and turned it into a garden.

The second point is His victory over Satan on the cross.
Chapter 2 : 14 reads : "Since then as the children are par-
takers of flesh and blood, He also himself, in like manner,
partook of the same ; that in death He might bring to naught
him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." It was
His mission to destroy the works of the devil. In these two
conflicts He defeated Satan. In the three hours of darkness
on the cross when God forsook Him, and Satan and all of
his demons shut out every light in the heavens, hovered
around Him and fought Him to the death — there He ob-
tained His final superiority over Satan. We learned in the
Letter to the Colossians that He triumphed over the princi-
palities of power on the cross and made a show of them
openly.

The imagery is that of a Roman general returning from a
successful war over a national enemy of the Roman Empire
and accorded a triumph therefor. His head crowned with
laurels, in a snow-white chariot, drawn by snow-white horses,
he comes to receive his crown. There is paraded before
him the trophies that he won in the war — the jewels, the
gold, the fine raiment. There come after, tied to his chariot
wheels, the princes and nobles of that conquered land. And
so he makes a show of them openly.

Moreover, He delivers all Satan's captives — strips him

CHRIST SUPERIOR TO ANGELS 231

of all his spoils. The idea of His superiority advances in
the 1 6th verse: "For verily not unto angels doth He give
help, but He giveth help to the seed of Abraham." Our
common version disguises that and says : "He took not on
Him the nature of angels." That is not the thought. His
superiority over the bad angels is asserted in His excluding
them from participation in salvation. He did not come down
to this earth to save the devil and his demons — He came to
save the spiritual seed of Abraham — and the devils are ex-
cluded from any participation in that salvation. Here comes
up the question, "Does God love a sinner in hell ?" the point
of which is that wherever God loves. He loves remedially —
His love is active. He does not love a fallen angel. "For
verily not to angels doth He give help." No part of salva-
tion for any fallen angel. So when sinners finally reject
Him they go to a place prepared for the devil and his angels
and share their doom. If we strip His love of remedial
activity, we take away the love itself.

The last thought of His superiority over the angels is this
(This book does not present it, but I bring it in to make the
arguments complete) : Not only does He judge these fallen
angels at the last great day, but He causes His people to
judge them: "Know ye not that the saints shall judge
angels?" They are those who kept not their first estate,
but are cast down in chains of darkness and are awaiting
the last great day of judgment.

So over bad angels we have found these points: First,
His successful resisting of Satan's temptation. Second, His
victory over Satan and his demons on the cross. Third, the
deliverance of the prey that is in the hands of Satan, who
has to turn loose all those that he had reigned over, for
Christ plucks them out of his hand. Fourth, His exclusion
of them from participation in salvation. Fifth, his final
judgment of them and causing His people to judge them.

g32 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

QUESTIONS

1. Why introduce the angels in this discussion?

2. What two points of superiority of our Lord over the angels
not especially discussed in Hebrews ?

3. What the particulars of our Lord's superiority over the good
angels as discussed in this book? (See analysis.)

4. What the particulars of our Lord's superiority over the bad
angels? (See analysis.)

5. Prove that Jesus in His threefold Sonship was worshiped by
the angels.

6. Show His superiority in His expiation of sin.

7. Show His superiority in His inheritance.

8. Show His superiority in His enthronement.

9. Expound our Lord's anointing with the oil of gladness, and
illustrate by three parables in Luke 15.

10. Show His superiority in their subordination of service.

11. Show it in His confirmation of the angels.

12. Show it in His gospel compared with the law.

13. What two passages in this letter exhibit the higher order of
the penal sanctions of the new covenant, and what the application
of the second to the sin against the Holy Spirit?

14. Show this superiority in the fact that the gospel is better
accredited than the law.

15. Show it in His sympathetic priesthood.

16. Show it in His becoming a brother to them whom the angels
only serve.

17. Show His superiority over bad angels in His temptations.

18. Show it in His victory on the cross.

19. Show it in His delivering Satan's victims.

20. Show it in His final judgment of them.

21. What the Greek word for "congregation" in 2 : 12, when was
this prophecy first fulfilled, when the last and larger fulfillment,
what hymn was sung at the first fulfillment, and what the bearing
of the first fulfillment on the institution of the church in Christ's
life-time on earth?

22. What the difference in meaning between the common ver-
sion rendering of 2 : 16 and the revision, and what the bearing on
the question, "Does God love a sinner in hell ?"

23. What the meaning of "world to come" in 2 : 5 ?

XX

CHRIST GREATER THAN MOSES AND JOSHUA,

AND THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH GREATER

THAN THE JEWISH SABBATH

Scriptures: Heb. 3 and 4

THIS discussion commences at chapter 3. The "where-
fore" refers to statements made in the preceding
chapter, and particularly to the latter part of chap-
ter 2, which opens the discussion of Christ's priesthood, a
matter that will again be taken up at length. It was intro-
duced there simply in connection with the argument showing
the superiority over angels.

"Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly call-
ing," that is, who have been called from heaven to the world
to come. It may be called heavenly because the call issues
from heaven, and because the call is to heaven. In view of
what has been said, "consider the Apostle and High Priest."
An apostle is one sent to bear witness to the truth and to
teach the truth, as expressed in chapter i — "hath in these
last days spoken unto us through His Son." Jesus was the
one sent to be the prophet. "Consider the Apostle and High
Priest of our confession, even Jesus." That is to say, when
one makes a profession of religion, he makes an open con-
fession before witnesses that Christ is his prophet, his sacri-
fice, his priest, his judge and his king. Paul is making an
appeal to that first ceremonial qualification of church en-
trance— confession first, then baptism. Before you were
received into the church you made a public profession or

£3S

234 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

confession of Christ as your Savior. So see what you are
to consider — even Jesus.

What are we to consider about Him? "He was faithful
to Him that appointed Him, as also was Moses in all his
house." He is preparing to institute another comparison.
These Jews were about to abandon Christianity and go
back to Judaism, and this whole letter is to show the folly
of such a course. One reason for their going back was their
undue magnifying of Moses. In one particular Christ and
Moses are alike — they were both faithful to the One who
appointed them.

But we come to a point of difference : "For He hath been
counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by so much as
He that built the house hath more honor than the house."
That is the first point of distinction between Christ and
Moses. Moses is a part of the house, but Christ built the
whole house. The house he is talking about is the antitype
of the tabernacle — the true church, the church of which
every converted man in the world from the beginning of
time to the end of time will be a member. That is the
house that Jesus is building. "He is counted worthy of more
glory than Moses by so much as He that built the house
hath more honor than the house, for every house is builded
by some one, but He that built all things is God." Again,
"Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant,
for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be
spoken, but Christ is a Son over His house." That is the
second point of distinction — Moses was only a servant in
the house, while Christ was a Son over the house.

Already in Colossians and Ephesians we have pointed out
how Christ was head over all things to the church, whether
as an institution, a particular church, or the church in glory.
Christ is over even the typical shadows of the Old Testa-
ment. But to show you what house He has in mind He
says ! "Whose house are we." This accords with a previous

CHRIST GREATER THAN MOSES 265

statement to the Corinthians : "Ye are God's building ;" "ye
are the Temple of God" — the spiritual house which Christ
built. So here : "Whose house are we, if we hold fast our
boldness and the glorifying of our hope firm unto the end."

That is to say, whosoever does not presevere unto the end
is not God's.

"He that overcometh is heir to all things." All through
this epistle he discusses religion in two distinct views : First,
of profession; second, of reality. Only those who possess
the internal reality really belong to Christ, and are a part of
this house. "Whose house are we, if we hold fast our bold-
ness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end."

This letter uniformly presents the doctrine of the final
perseverance of the saints, not from the starting point in
profession, hut in the outcome. He only is a true Christian
who is faithful unto death.

The earthly church consists of professors. Whether pro-
fession was true or false is determined by the issue. He
illustrates by quoting that remarkable Psalm of David — the
95th: "Today, if ye shall hear His voice, harden not your
hearts, as in the provocation, like as in the day of the trial in
the wilderness, where your fathers tried me by proving me,
and saw my works forty years ; wherefore, I was displeased
with this generation, and said, They do always err in their
hearts : But they did not know my ways ; as I sware in my
wrath, they shall not enter into my rest."

It is very important to notice the significance of this pas-
sage. These two thoughts in it are: First, God had an
ostensible people whom He led out of Egypt toward a country
ahead of them — a place promised to the believing and faith-
ful as a land of rest. The majority of them never got there — •
they were always erring in their hearts, and did not know
God's way. They did not have the true faith, and because
they did not they were destroyed on the way.

The second thought is : That as were the fathers so were

g36 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

the descendants in David's day, therefore the Psalmist said
to them: "Today, if ye hear His voice, harden not your
hearts with unbelief, as your fathers did when they pro-
voked God in the wilderness." This whole book shows that
whoever failed in getting the good rest, failed from lack of
faith. They did not have a faith that would stick. It was
a temporary faith, which did not take hold of the power of
the world to come.

We may readily foresee Paul's application: "You pro-
fessing Hebrews, I call your attention to the reason your
fathers failed in the wilderness and also their descendants
in David's time; they professed outwardly, but apostatized
because they were without true, persistent faith in God.
Like them, you have professed, but it seems that some of
you will fall short through unbelief." The church on earth
cannot see and judge the heart. They receive members on
credible profession.

Hence the exhortation : "Take heed, brethren, lest haply
there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbeHef
in falling away from the living God : but exhort one another
day by day so long as it is called today." That is to say,
there comes a time in every man's life when his opportu-
nities cease. With most people that time is at death, but
with those who happen to sin against the Holy Ghost, it
ceases before death. Jesus had that thought in His mind
when, weeping over Jerusalem, He said: "Oh, if thou hadst
known the day of thy visitation !"

When a man is in doubt as to his status — and sometimes
good people do doubt their status in the sight of God — ^you
may rest assured that the status is not determined by their
doubt or confidence. You may be so confident that never
a shadow of doubt rolls across your mind, or you may be
so far gone that, like the Laodiceans, there is never a sense
of need. That is false confidence. Or you may be appre-
hensive when there is no need to be so. He calls attention

CHRIST GREATER THAN MOSES 237

to this : "Lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitful-
ness of sin." Sin is exceedingly deceitful, and whenever a
man imagines that he is exempt from being imposed upon
by sin he is apt to get into trouble. For instance, sin will
tell a man : "You are a little out of the way, but not much —
you can get back easily. I only ask you to step over here
and walk in the shade instead of upon the hard, hot high-
way." He is beguiled and deceived — ^beguiled until finally
his heart is hardened, and he is insensible to warning
impression. Let us get that thought clearly before us.

A lady once determined to get up early in the morning,
and so bought an alarm clock. She set the alarm for exactly
6 o'clock, and when it rang she got up. The next time when
she heard it ring she waited a little while before getting up.
The next time she waited a little longer, and while waiting
she fell asleep. After that it never disturbed her.

Whoever disregards an alarm soon quits hearing it.

If we go toward a light it gets brighter ; if we go from it,
it gets feebler. If we go tQward a fire, we get more and
more of its heat, while if we go away from it, we lose the
power of its heat. Sin blunts the conscience. Take Nero,
for instance. When a young man he would weep if he
stepped on a worm and crushed it unthoughtedly, but after
continual indulgence in sin and crime he could dance and
make music over his mother whom he had murdered, and
could actually enjoy driving between parallel lines of burn-
ing Christians. That is what is meant by hardening the
heart. "Take heed, lest through the deceitfulness of sin,
you shall be hardened in unbelief." Their unbelief was
arising largely from the fact that Christ did not come when
they thought He ought to come. It had been preached to
them that He was coming, and they had fixed dates for His
coming, but as date after date failed, they began to disbelieve
the whole thing.

"We become partakers of Christ if we hold fast our

238 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

boldness and the glory of our hope firm unto the end."
There is your solution. You want to know whether you
are a partaker of Christ. You are if you hold fast to the
end. If before you get to the end you turn loose and quit,
you are not a partaker of Christ. I repeat the old proverb :
"When you see a star fall you may know it is not a star."
That expresses the thought exactly. Stars do not fall.
Meteors fall, and they look like stars, but if one falls it is
not a star. We are partakers of Christ if we hold fast to
the end.

He repeats David's exhortation, and he uses it a great deal
more before he gets through. "While it is said. Today if
ye shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the
provocation. That fits this case just as well as the people
of David's time, or the people in the wilderness. Some,
through lack of true faith — through unbelief — did not get
there, and it will be so in your case." "For who, when they
heard, did provoke? Did not all they that came out of
Egypt by Moses ? And with whom was he displeased forty
years ? Was it not with them that sinned, whose bodies fell
in the wilderness ? And to whom sware he that they should
not enter the rest, but to them that were disobedient? And
we see that they were not able to enter in because of their
unbelief." Moses had charge of that crowd. "Let us fear,
therefore, lest haply a promise being left of entering into the
rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it.
For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us,
even as also they: but the word of hearing did not profit
them, because it was not united by faith with them that
heard. For we who have believed do enter into that rest :
even as He hath said. As I sware in my wrath they shall
not enter into my rest, although the works were finished from
the foundation of the world." There we see the point of
his exhortation. Never from the beginning of this letter
until the emd does he vary from this thought — that final

CHRIST GREATER THAN MOSES 239

apostasy is decisive proof that they were never Christians.
This brings us to a new item in the analysis :

CHRIST SUPERIOR TO JOSHUA

As Christ is superior to angels and Moses, so He is supe-
rior to Joshua. Joshua indeed led the people into the earthly
promised land, but the conquest was not complete. Through
unbelief they left much territory in the hands of their ene-
mies, which plagued them for generations, and ultimately
brought about their loss of the whole land, as Moses had
foreshown. Joshua indeed secured for the people a rest at
the end of his wars (Josh, ii : 2^), but the rest was not the
true rest. It was only temporary, as the dark period of the
Judges shows. So that in summing up the work of Joshua,
great as it was, we find these defects :

1. It led to an earthly Canaan.

2. This Canaan was not all conquered.

3. The rest attained was only temporary.

But our Lord, the Captain of our Salvation, leads to a
heavenly Canaan. His conquest is complete. His rest is
glorious and eternal. In this connection, the author passes
to a new thought — a comparison of memorials, which brings
us to consider another item of the analysis :

THE SABBATH-KEEPING OF THE NEW COVENANT

The whole matter is found in 4 : 4- 11. The interpretation
is confessedly difficult, and the best of scholars differ widely
as to the import. The reader will understand that the views
now presented are not urged dogmatically, but are offered
for fair consideration along with variant views. Take them
at their intrinsic value and form your own judgment. First
of all, read the whole passage carefully and particularly,
and note the following words in the original :

I. The word "rest" — Greek, katapausis, at 3 : 11, 18; 4:1,
3>8, 10, II.

^40 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

2. "The seventh day" — Greek, hehdome, 4 : 4.

3. "Another day" — Greek, alia hemera, 4 : 8.

4. "Sabbath-keeping" — Greek, Sabbatismos, 4 : 9.

The difficulty of interpretation has resulted from three
causes :

1. A failure to note the contrast between the "seventh day"
in verse 4, and "another day" in verse 8.

2. In translating Sabbatismos in verse 9 as if it were
katapausis. Uniformly in all the context when the apostle
means "the rest" in any sense he uses the katapausis. The
change to Sabbatismos is inexplicable if he means the same
thing. But Sabbatismos is a verbal noun, and means "the
keeping of a Sabbath," and so explains the contrast between
"the seventh day," as appointed of old, and "another day"
foretold in the prophetic Psalm.

3. In arbitrarily referring the pronouns, "0/* autou and
autos in verse 10 to the Christian, instead of to Christ as the
true antecedent.

In the deliberate judgment of the author there is no justi-
fication for any one of those three things. The idea of the
context is :

1. God rested after creating the world, and appointed the
seventh day to be kept in commemoration.

2. The prophets foretold "another day" instead of the
seventh, to commemorate a greater rest, following a greater
work than creation.

3. Into this greater rest Joshua never led the Jewish
people.

4. But our Lord, having finished the work of redemption
on the cross. He himself rested from the work on the first
day of the week, as God had done from His own on the
seventh.

5. To this cross He nailed the whole typical Sabbatic cycle,
taking it away, Hos. 2:11; Col. 2: 14-17.

6. Therefore, in commemoration of the glorious rest fol-

CHRIST GREATER THAN MOSES 241

lowing the greater work of redemption there remaineth a
Sabbath-keeping to the people of God. The reader is urged
to re-read the last sermon in my first book of sermons for
full discussion of this point.

7. It was necessary for the argument, to show the Jew
who was glorying in his Sabbath day, that the Christian
had a greater Sabbath day.

He closes the chapter with this statement : "Having then
a great High Priest, who hath passed through the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession."
We confessed faith in Christ ; they confessed faith in Joshua,
were led into the promised land, and in the book of Joshua
we are told that they had rest. But it was a very temporary
rest, and was not the real Promised Land that the man of
faith saw all of the time. Abraham saw far beyond Canaan.
He never got as much of that land as he could cover with
his foot. He sought a city which hath foundations, and
whose builder and maker is God. Another reason is that
our High Priest is touched with the feeling of our infirmities
because He has been in all points tempted as we are, yet
without sin.

Now comes the exhortation : "Let us therefore draw near
with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive
mercy and may find grace to help us in time of need." The
whole letter has this end in view — ^to stir up, to put to full
test what is worked in you. If you are God's child you will
hear the exhortation and hold on. If you are not God's
child, your heart will become hardened in unbelief, and you
will turn loose and go back.

24^ COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

QUESTIONS

Ik

1. In what particulars is Christ superior to Moses ?

2. What the two distinct views of religion in this book?

3. What Paul's application of these views to the ones addressed
in this letter ?

4. What his exhortation based thereon ?

5. What of the Christian's doubts relative to his status?

6. What the warning relative to the deceitfulness of sin?
Illustrate.

7. What the evidence that any one is a partaker of Christ as
taught in this book?

8. Of what exhortation of David does Paul make frequent use
in this letter, and what the point of his exhortation ?

9. In what particulars is Christ superior to Joshua?

10. What the crucial Greek words in chapter 4 bearing on the
change of the Sabbath day?

11. What the three causes constituting the difficulty of inter-
pretation ?

12. Can there be a Sabbath day, not the seventh?

13. Who the antecedent of the pronouns, "he," the first "his" and
"himself" of 4 : 10, and what the argument therefor ?

14. What the several historical backgrounds of the seventh-day
Sabbath?

15. What the historical background of the Christian Sabbath?

16. Paraphrase Heb. 4:9, 10 so as to bring out the meaning.

17. What scriptural proof that the seventh-day Sabbath and all
its cycle of Sabbaths was abrogated ?

18. What name was given the Christian Sabbath, and what the
proof of its observance?

19. What Paul's exhortations in the closing part of this chapter,
and what the application of each?

20. What the purpose of the letter as seen from the closing part
of this chapter?

XXI

JESUS CHRIST, HIGH PRIEST OF THE NEW
COVENANT, GREATER THAN AARON,
HIGH PRIEST OF THE OLD
COVENANT

Scripture: Heb. 4: 14— 8: 5

THE Letter to the Hebrews is an inspired exposition
of the Sinaitic covenant, and particularly of the book
of Leviticus. Our analysis and exposition of the
Sinaitic covenant (Ex. 19: i — 24:9) shows that this cove-
nant consisted of three distinct elements :

1. God and the normal man, or the moral law (Ex. 20:
I-17) as a way of life ; not simply an obligation but a condi-
tion of life — they that do these things shall live, they that do
them not shall perish.

2. God and the Nation, or the ordinances that set forth
the principles of civic righteousness (21:1 — 24:9); in
obedience to which the nation lives, and in disobedience dies.

3. God and the sinner, or the Law of the Altar (Ex. 20:
22-26), or the way of the sinner's approach to God in order
to find mercy.

We learn that all subsequent statutory legislation in the
Pentateuch was developed from these constitutional elements
or principles. Deuteronomy was developed from the first
and second, and from the third was developed the last six-
teen chapters of Exodus, all of Leviticus, and most of the
legislation in Numbers. The Altar part, or God and the
sinner, was typical of the new covenant, and contained in
figures the way of grace and mercy, and revealed the only

US

244. COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

way by which Parts i and 2 could be kept. Hence it was the
most important element of the Sinaitic law.

In the Pentateuch we find also these elements of the law
of the sinner's approach to God :

1. The sanctuary, holy of holies, or a place where the
sinner might find God.

2. A means of approach to God in the sanctuary, or
vicarious, expiating sacrifices placating the divine wrath
against sin.

3. A mediator to go between the sinner seeking mercy, and
God bestowing mercy. This mediator, or priest, took the
blood of the vicarious expiation and carried it behind the
veil and offered it upon the mercy seat, where God dwelt
between the cherubim. That mediator, on the basis of that
offered blood, made intercession for the people.

4. Times in which to approach God are set forth elabo-
rately in that book — daily, weekly, monthly, annually, septen-
nially, and every fiftieth year. Those were the times that
they could go before God, but the heart of Leviticus, as well
as the heart of Hebrews, was a particular time, towit : On
the great day of atonement, when the people appeared be-
fore God to receive through an offering presented by the
priest, the remission of their sins, we find a prescribed ritual
that gave the steps involved.

5. Then we find what place there was for penitence, faith,
and prayer. We find penitence to indicate that the man
approaching God came as a confessed sinner. We find faith
set forth by the laying on of hands upon the head of the
victim — the victim to take his place. We find the prayer-
part to be the petitions that went with the high priest and
were presented by him when he made the offering. All that
is presented in the book of Leviticus.

So we find that the sanctuary of God was that part which
was called the holy of holies, and that there God was visibly
manifested, according to all Jewish interpretation, in the

CHRIST GREATER THAN AARON M5

Shekinah of fire between the cherubim on the mercy seat.
We find the victims to be bullocks, goats, and lambs. We
find the mediator to be, and particularly upon the great day
of atonement, Aaron. We find the sacrifices constantly re-
peated every year ; on the great day of atonement the priest
had to go for the people, carrying the names of the tribes
on his breast-plate, going for them into the holy of holies.
In the Letter to the Hebrews, which expounds the Altar-
part of the Sinaitic covenant, Paul does not discuss the
temple of Solomon, nor of Zerubbabel, nor of Herod, but the
tabernacle of Moses, because his plan is to go back to origins,
and to the dignity of founders. It would have been incon-
gruous if after discussing angels, Moses, Aaron, and the
prophets, he had skipped to the ritual of the Herodian temple.

He makes this argument: As Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, is greater than the prophets, greater than the angels,
greater than Moses, greater than Joshua, so He is greater
than Aaron. We do not discuss in this chapter superiority
of the new covenant over the old, but the superiority of
Jesus Christ over Aaron as high priest.

In some respects Aaron and Jesus Christ are alike —
neither one took the honor to himself, Aaron did not appoint
himself high priest to go before God, and Jesus Christ did
not appoint himself to be mediator. The Father appointed
them. Aaron was one of the people. Christ was like
Aaron in that respect — He was one of the people. He took
upon himself the nature of man and became as one of those
who became His brethren.

So we have not yet arrived to the point of discrimination
between Christ and Aaron, but we do now come to the
dividing line : Aaron being a priest under the covenant made
upon Mount Sinai, was himself of the tribe of Levi. Jesus
Christ did not belong to that tribe. He was of the tribe of
Judah, therefore the priesthood of Christ does not come
within the law of the covenant established by Moses on

246 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

Mount Sinai. It was not His office to go to the temple at
Jerusalem and there officiate as priest. He had no such
place there. That is a distinction. It shows that the Priest-
hood of Christ must be according to an entirely different
covenant, otherwise He would have to be a son of Levi to
be a priest.

In getting to this point of distinction, Paul takes up a frag-
ment of the history of Genesis, about an ancient king of
Jerusalem — Melchizedek. Before Abraham had any posses-
sion there, this man was both a king and a priest of God —
before the call of Abraham, before the segregation of the
Jewish nation, when there was no distinction between Jew
and Gentile. He had no pedigree of which there is any rec-
ord, but when we come to Aaron's time, no man could offici-
ate as an Aaronic priest unless he could trace his Levitical
descent. Melchizedek had no such genealogy, and therefore
in a genealogical sense he is said to be without father or
mother, and held his office as king and priest directly from
God. He was recognized as greater than Abraham, the
father of the Jewish people, for when Abraham was return-
ing from the victory over Chedorlaomer he paid tithes to the
king of Salem and received a blessing from him.

In the days of the Psalmist a reference is made to that his-
tory : "The Lord hath sworn. Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek." This makes another distinction
— Christ, not Aaron, was made priest by oath of God. So a
distinction between Christ and Aaron is that Aaron is after
the order of Levi and his priesthood is under the Mosaic
covenant made upon Mount Sinai, and Jesus Christ is a priest
after the order of Melchizedek anterior even to Abraham,
much less Moses, and greater than Abraham, receiving tithes
from the whole Jewish people in the person of Abraham, and
inducted by the oath of God. It shows, too, that no scripture
is of private interpretation. The prophets spoke and wrote
as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, and when you go to

CHRIST GREATER THAN AARON Wl

interpret a passage of scripture which the Holy Spirit in-
dited, you get the meaning through the illumination of the
Holy Spirit.

The next point is that when Aaron, under the Levitical law
was preparing to offer a sacrifice for the sins of the people,
he must first offer for himself because he was a sinner, and
before he offered for others he must himself be cleansed;
but this Man was holy, "tempted in all points as we are
tempted, yet without sin." That distinction in character is
very strong between the two persons — between the two or-
ders of priesthood. Aaron was a sinner ; our priest was not
a sinner. No man ever convicted Him of sin.

Then Aaron died and could not continue to live to inter-
cede for the people, but this priest ever liveth to make inter-
cession for His people.

We now take up the general superiority of the New Cove-
nant, and it embraces lo, 1 1, and 12 of the items of the analy-
sis, only in expounding this I will follow a more orderly and
logical method than we have in the analysis. This section
extends from 8: 5 to 13 : 16, and it even includes one verse
of chapter 7.

So far, our exposition has had to do with the person and
most of the offices of the Mediator of the new covenant,
but here we contrast the covenants themselves. Notwith-
standing the previous statements of the elements of the
Sinaitic covenant, we must restate them here briefly in
order to clearness in this exposition. The old covenant is
set forth in Ex. 19 to 24:11, and consists of three distinct
elements :

1. The decalogue, or God and the normal man.

2. The fundamental principles of civic righteousness, or
God and the theocratic nation.

3. The altar, or God and the sinner, or the law of the sin-
ner's approach to God.

From the first and second elements are derived a part of

248 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

Numbers, and all of Deuteronomy ; from the third element,
God and the sinner, or the law of the altar, are derived the
last 1 6 chapters of Exodus, the whole of Leviticus, and a
part of Numbers.

Our first question now arises : What are the faults of the
old covenant, for our text says that God found that old cove-
nant faulty. If we know what the faults are, we can then
consider the superiorities of the new covenant. Evidently
the one supreme fault of the first and second elements, that
is, the moral code and the national code, was the inability of
a fallen, sinful people to keep the law, as a way of life for
the individual, or a way of life for the nation. The reason
is that the moral element was written outside of the people
and on tablets of stone ; they had no internal personal knowl-
edge— spiritual knowledge — of the law. So written, it dis-
covered sin and condemned sin, but there was nothing in it
to overcome this inability and render the obedience effica-
cious. The normal man — Adam before his fall, and his
descendants — could have kept the decalogue if he had not
fallen and corrupted their nature derived from him, could
have constituted a successful theocratic nation. But after
the fall no lineal descendant from Abraham, nor circumcision
of the flesh, could impart a new nature.

And now what the faults of the third part of that covenant
— that is, the Levitical code — the last three chapters of Exo-
dus, the whole of Leviticus, and a part of Numbers? The
faults of that element were :

1. It was in whole and in all its parts but a shadow merely
of heavenly things to come ; in its nature and in its intent it
was only transitory and educational.

2. The lack of intrinsic merit in the expiating sacrifices
to atone for sin.

3. The emptiness of its non-expiatory sacrifices arising
from the want of the heart back of them.

4. Conforming to it could never relieve the conscience

CHRIST GREATER THAN AARON U9

from the sense of sin, guilt, and condemnation, and give
peace and rest.

5. The dependence of the sinner on human go-betweens,
or third parties in making offerings, and in the administra-
tion of cleansing ordinances, the limitation of one fixed place
to meet God, and the further limitation of set times in which
to meet God — that is, the sinner could not for himself directly
approach God at all times, in all places, and in all
emergencies.

From these faults what our text declares necessarily and
inevitably followed, towit : "They continued not in my cove-
nant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord." Their whole
national history is but the record of a series of breaches of
the covenant on their part, and of God's disregard of them on
His part. They broke the covenant first in the very shadow
of Sinai, before its tablets were completed, in the matter of
the golden calf. They broke the covenant again at Kadesh-
barnea, and the whole generation of adults were disregarded
and perished. They broke the covenant again throughout
the period of the judges, and at the close of that period their
rebellion culminated in the rejection of God as King, and
in the demand for a human monarchy. After that monarchy
was established, the ten tribes broke the covenant at the very
start in erecting the calves to worship at Dan and Bethel,
and kept on breaking it without cessation until they perished.
The Judah-part of the monarchy, while more faithful than
the ten tribes, repeatedly broke the covenant, and finally, at
the downfall of the monarchy by Nebuchadnezzar, they were
swept away. The hierarchy which, through the clemency of
Persia, succeeded the monarchy and continued throughout
the Grecian and Roman supremacies, repeatedly violated the
covenant, and the culmination of their rebellion was in the
days of our Lord when they rejected Him and killed the
Prince of Glory, bringing upon themselves the terrible denun-
ciation in Matthew 21-23 — the gravest judgment that was

250 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

ever assessed against a people. This on account of the faults
in that covenant. In every period of their probation they
broke it and disregarded it.

This review of the faults enables us to sum up in one
sweeping, inclusive generality the superiority of the new
covenant, towit: Our text says, ^'It was enacted on better
promises" so that our next question arises : What are these
better promises ? Here it is all important to make no mistake.
H we do not discern these better promises clearly and retain
them permanently in our hearts, we will utterly fail to master
the priceless lessons of this book. Notwithstanding the im-
portance of discerning and retaining these promises, what a
sad thing it is, that if the preachers of Christendom were
called up and asked to state what these better promises are,
probably not more than one in a hundred could give them cor-
rectly, and three-fourths of so-called Christendom have never
seen them. I will give them to you in the next chapter.

QUESTIONS

1. Hebrews is an exposition of what covenant, and what O. T.
book in particular?

2. Where is the record of the old covenant, and what its con-
stituent elements ?

3. What subsequent parts of the Pentateuch developed from
each of these elements?

4. What the elements of the law of the sinner's approach to God,
and what the particulars of each?

5. What do we find as to the sanctuary, the victims of sacrifice,
the mediator, the times and the work of the high priest under the old
covenant ?

6. Why does the author of the Letter to the Hebrews discuss the
tabernacle of Moses and not the temple of Herod?

7. In what respects are Aaron and Christ alike?

8. In whatparticulars is Christ greater than Aaron? (See analysis.)

9. Who was Melchizedek, and how does he illustrate the order of
Christ's priesthood?

10. What the faults of the first and second elements of the old
covenant?

11. What the faults of the third element of the same covenant?

12. From these faults what necessarily and inevitably followed,
and what particular illustrations of this in the history of God's
people, Israel?

13. Sum up in a sweeping generality the superiority of the new
covenant and show its importance.

XXII

THE BETTER PROMISES OF THE NEW
COVENANT

Scripture: Heb. 8 : 6 — lo : 39

THE promises of the new covenant are as follows:
I. The Promise of the Holy Spirit to renew and
sanctify their souls and glorify their bodies, in order
to enable them ultimately to keep God's law individually, and
to become collectively a holy nation for God's own posses-
sion. The first promise, then, relates to the work of the Holy
Spirit.

2. The Promise of a Surety, who would stand for them
until the work of the Spirit is completed. For instance, say
you were converted, you were regenerated, and yet, even
though regenerated, your soul is not yet sanctified, your body
is not yet prepared so that the entire man, body, soul and
spirit, will perfectly keep the law of God. You need a surety
to stand for you until the Spirit's work is completed, and
so that is the second promise as expressed in 7 : 22 : "J^sus
hath become the surety of a better covenant."

3. The Promise of one Expiatory Sacrifice, whose dig-
nity and intrinsic merit and all-sufficiency would, when once
offered, really and forever atone for sin.

4. The final and glorious advent of our Lord, not as a sin-
offering but as judge of the world.

5. The Priesthood of Every Subject of the Covenant, thus
forever dispensing with the human go-betweens, or third
parties, and enabling him (the sinner) to approach God
directly for himself at all times, in all places, and in all emer-

^51

252 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

gencies, and the substitution of spiritual sacrifices for all the
cumbersome non-expiating sacrifices of the old covenant, so
that each Christian, himself a priest, offers these spiritual
sacrifices. You see, the promise has relation to two kinds
of sacrifices, one expiatory sacrifice, and then spiritual sacri-
fices that take the place of the old covenant non-expiating
sacrifices — for instance, all meat-offerings, and all the un-
bloody offerings of the old covenant.

6. A glorious Outcome into a Heavenly Country and a
heavenly city, and eternal rest, peace, and joy, into ever-
lasting companionship with God and with all the holy angels.

7. A Better Festival. We will have a good time when we
get to that better festival. How proud was the Jew of his
festivals, the great annual feasts. We find that immediately
after the consummation of the covenant in Exodus, that a
covenant-feast was held, and that Aaron, Moses, and Joshua,
and the elders went up on the side of the mountain and
feasted and held communion with God. But the new cove-
nant has a better festival.

I will briefly restate these :

1. The promise of the Holy Spirit.

2. The promise of a surety who will stand for them until
the work of the Spirit shall be completed.

3. The promise of one expiatory sacrifice.

4. The promise of our Lord's final advent, not as a sin-
offering.

5. The priesthood of every subject of the new covenant,
and the substitution of spiritual sacrifices that this priesthood
would offer.

6. The glorious outcome in heaven.

7. The better festival.

These are the better promises of the new covenant, and it
is our business now to show from the text in detail the very
scriptures which embody these seven better promises, and
therefore we commence at the prophecy of Jeremiah quoted

THE BETTER PROMISES ^53

in chapter 8 : "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I
will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with
the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I
made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the
hand to lead them forth out of the land of Egypt ; for they
continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith
the Lord. For this is the covenant I will make with the
house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, (now we
come to the first promise), I will put my laws into their
mind, and on their heart also will I write them." This is the
internal writing contrasted with the law externally written
on stone, and is by the Holy Spirit, and is equivalent to
regeneration, as Paul expresses it in II Cor. 3:3: "Ye are an
epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but
with the Spirit of the living God ; not on tables of stone, but
on tables that are hearts of flesh." The connection on that
passage is as follows :

"Who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant;
not of the letter [that is, of the letter traced on the tables of stone],
but of the Spirit ; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. But
if the ministration of death, written and engraved on stones, came
with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly
upon the face of Moses for the glory of his face ; which glory was
passing away : how shall not rather the ministration of the Spirit be
with glory? For if the ministration of condemnation hath glory, much
rather doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For
verily that which hath been made glorious hath not been made glori-
ous in this respect, by reason of the glory that surpasseth. For if that
which passeth away was with glory, much more than which remain-
eth is in glory. Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness
of speech [that is, simplicity of speech], and are not as Moses, who
put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel should not look
steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away: but their
minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the
old covenant the same veil remaineth, it not being revealed to them
that it is done away in Christ. But unto this day, whensoever Moses
is read, a veil lieth upon their heart. But whensoever it shall turn
to the Lord, the veil is taken away [As he will be in the final deliver-
ance of all Israel]. Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, and transformed
into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the
Spirit."

^54 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

This passage should very solemnly impress upon our
hearts that the first great promise in the new covenant
relates to the writing inside of us by the Spirit of God.

The regeneration in its quickening, or renewal, part (and
it always consists of two parts ; the second one we will bring
out presently) makes alive and gives a holy disposition to
the mind, inclining to love God and desiring to obey. They
did not keep that old covenant; they continued not in it.
Why ? They did not have the heart to do it. Thus regenera-
tion is the antitype of circumcision.

Some people talk about baptism coming in place of cir-
cumcision. Let us consider what Paul says of circumcision :
"For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly ; neither is that
circumcision which is outward in the flesh ; but he is a Jew
who is one inwardly ; and circumcision is that of the heart,
in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men
but of God." So that spiritual circumcision qualifies one
to be a true subject of God.

As an example of this writing on the heart under the new
covenant, take Acts 2, where Peter preached that great
sermon on the Messiah that day when the Holy Spirit came
down. That is the Spirit of promise (we are on the first
promise of the new covenant) : "Tarry ye at Jerusalem,
until I send ye the promise of the Father." On that day
while Peter was preaching, the record shows they were
"pricked in their heart" and cried out, "Men and brethren,
what shall we do?" There is the handwriting on the heart.
A much more marvelous example is yet in the future — earth
never saw anything like it. It is in the salvation of the
whole Jewish nation in one day by the Spirit's regenerating
power. The Jewish nation stood at Sinai, and the law was
written on tables of stone, outside of them, and affected
them not.

There will come a time when the same Jewish nation, in
their 'descendants, will he gathered together from all the

THE BETTER PROMISES 26fi

countries of the earth where they have been dispersed, and
in the flash of an eye God will write the new covenant on
their hearts.

Ezekiel discusses it in the famous 36th and 37th chapters
of his prophecy, where he says, "Not for your sakes do I
do this, but for my own name sake I will gather you together
out of all the nations where you have profaned my name,
and I will take away your stony heart and give you a heart
of flesh, and I will put my Spirit within you, and then you
will keep my commandments." In order to show the stu-
pendous nature of that writing on the heart a picture of it
is given in the imagery of "the valley of dry bones" — very
many and very dry. God asked the prophet the question :
"Can these dry bones live?" "Not by any human power,
Lord, thou knowest." Then said God, "Stand over them
and prophesy." "What shall I prophesy ?" "Say, Come, O
Spirit, and breathe on these slain." And the Spirit came
and breathed on the slain, and the bones lived, and stood
up a great army. I have selected these two examples because
one, i.e., the 3,000 Jews saved at Pentecost, is the first fruits,
and the final salvation of all Israel is the harvest.

There is a striking reference to this harvest in the closing
part of Zech. 12 and verse i of Zech. 13. After referring
to their barrenness in their dispersion, he says, "In the last
days it shall come to pass that I will pour out on my people,
Israel, the spirit of grace and supplication, and as soon as
that comes upon them they shall mourn as one mourning
for his first-born; they shall look upon Him whom they
pierced, with an eye of faith, and in that day shall be a
fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness." I cannot
help wishing that I could live to see it. Isaiah, in talking
about it, says, "Hath the earth ever heard of such a thing?
Has anybody ever seen such a thing, that a nation is born
in a day ?"

Let's see how Paul continues his discussion of this promise

256 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

of the Spirit. What is the result? "And I will be to them
a God, and they shall be to me a people," i.e., "When they
are regenerated, I will be to them a God in reality, and they
shall be to me a people in reality." Let*s see how this is
expressed elsewhere. In I Pet. 2 : 8 we have this statement :
"A stone of stumbling, a rock of offence was Christ, for
they stumbled at the word, being disobedient, whereunto
they were also appointed. But ye [that is, ye new-covenant
people] are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people for God's own possession," as here in Hebrews he
says, "I will be their God and they will be my people."
How does Paul elsewhere express the same thought? In
Tit. 2 : 14 he says, "He gave himself for us, that He might
redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a people
for His own possession, zealous of good works."

The result, then, of the work of the Holy Spirit is that
God in reality becomes their God, and they become in reality
His people. That leads us to consider the culmination of
that very thing. The Spirit's work is not completed at once.
We are God's people now, because we are regenerated ; but
suppose we turn to the culmination of this covenant as pre-
sented in Rev. 21 : 3: "And I heard a great voice out of
the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His people,
and God himself shall be with them, and be their God ; and
He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death
shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying,
nor pain, any more ; the first things are passed away." So
that when He says, as the first result of that regenerating
work, "I shall be their God, and they shall be my people,"
it means His being our God as we now are, and His being
our God when we are perfect in heaven. That is the first
result of the Spirit's work.

The Second Result. — Let us consider the passage quoted
from Jeremiah, verse 1 1 : "And they shall not teach every

THE BETTER PROMISES ^57

man his fellow-citizen, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to
the greatest of them." That is the second result. This per-
sonal spiritual knowledge of God is a characteristic of the
subjects of the new covenant. Paul thus expresses the
same thought in the Letter to the Romans, 8: 14 — it is very
important — "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
these are the sons of God. For ye received not the spirit
of bondage again unto fear; but you received the spirit of
adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit him-
self beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children
of God : and if children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint-
heirs with Christ."

To every subject of the new covenant there comes an
experimental knowledge of God. In the light of this per-
sonal experience witnessed by the Holy Spirit, an ignorant
Negro is more than a match for the most highly cultured
and educated infidel. I heard of such a case. The infidel
said, "That is all foolishness ; there is no such thing inside
of you." The old Negro said, "You ought to say. There
is no such thing as yoii knows of.' "

The humblest son of earth, with that internal, personal
knowledge of God that comes through his regeneration, is
stronger than the greatest infidel or the strongest demon in
hell.

A reason then is assigned attesting the character of this
knowledge. Let's see what it is. He says, "For I will be
merciful to their iniquities, and their sins will I remember
no more," Heb. 8: 12. There he is referring to their sub-
jective knowledge — the effect on their conscience — ^that He
had been merciful to their iniquities, and that He will not
remember these iniquities any more forever. This means
that the sense of guilt and condemnation awakened by the
Spirit's conviction of sin is followed by a sense of peace
and rest through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, so that

£58 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

being justified by faith we have peace with God, and the
sins being thus removed never more trouble the conscience.
God has forever blotted them out; as far as the East is
from the West He has removed them.

Knowing this, I have employed it as a test in the inquiry
room. Three preachers once came to me, bothered over a
certain case ; they could not tell whether he was converted
or not, and wanted me to talk to him. I sat down by him
and put these questions : "Have you a sensitive conscience ?"
"Yes, sir." "Does that conscience trouble you on account
of sins?" "Yes, sir." "Do you remember when the sense
of guilt and condemnation as a sinner first came on you."
"Well, yes, I do." "Do you remember what became of it?"
"Well," he says, "when I believed on Jesus Christ it just
fled away like a cloud." Here comes my crucial question:
"In your present trouble of conscience on account of sins,
does your conscience go back to take up the burden of those
old sins before you were converted, or does it take up the
burden of the sins committed since that time?" He said,
"The sins committed since I became a Christian." "Sir, if
you were not converted, it would go back and take up that
old burden and emphasize that as the chief burden."

That is one of the best tests I ever saw. "I will be merci-
ful to their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no
more" — "I never will bring those sins up against you." A
man's justification is instantaneous and forever, and that
peace that comes in justification will outlast all the stars in
the heavens. That burden never can be assumed again.

So far, I have referred to the promise of the Spirit as
the first promise of the new covenant, and we have con-
sidered the work of the Spirit in one element of regenera-
tion only — the renewing, or quickening, or making alive —
but there is another element of the Spirit's work that is
brought out clearly in the next chapter, as follows : "For if
the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprink-

THE BETTER PROMISES 259

ling them that have been defiled, sanctify unto the clean-
ness of the flesh : how much more shall the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without
blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works
to serve the living God ?"

That element of regeneration is the application of the
blood of Christ to the soul. Some believe I am cranky on
the two elements in regeneration. Take Ezek. 36 : 25-27,
"And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be
clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols,
will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and
a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart
of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause
you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep mine ordi-
nances, and do them." David brings out the two elements :
"Purify with hyssop" — ^you see, that water of purification
was sprinkled with hyssop — "wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow, and renew a right spirit within me" — that is the
other part of it.

To the same eflfect is Tit. 3:5, 6 : "Not by works done
in righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to
His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regenera-
tion, and renewing of the Holy Spirit." So the first thing —
the washing, or cleansing and renewing — comes from the
application of the blood of Christ; the Spirit does that in
regeneration — that's just where faith takes hold. The Spirit
regenerates in the sense of renewing, or first cleanses and
then renews — that is the order. There can be no renewal
brought about until the Spirit applies the blood of Christ,
and then He renews the nature. That is exactly what is
meant in John, "Except a man be born of water and Spirit,"
which means except that a man be cleansed by the blood
of Christ and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter
the kingdom of God. The two together make the new birth.

260 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

or, as it is expressed in the Letter to the Ephesians : "Christ
also loved the church and gave himself for it, that, having
cleansed it by the washing of the water through the Word,"
and then goes on to tell that He makes it holy, without
blemish, in love.

Let the reader study that passage in Numbers concerning
the red heifer, and how her ashes are mingled with water,
making lye, thus making the water of cleansing which repre-
sents the application of Christ's blood.

QUESTIONS

1. What the promises of the new covenant?

2. What the work of the Holy Spirit under the new covenant?

3. What scriptures show this first promise, and what other scrip-
tures show its fulfillment?

4. What the relation of the conversion of 3,000 at Pentecost and
the conversion of the Jews as a nation?

5. What the first result of this work of the Spirit, and how is this
thought elsewhere expressed in the N. T. ?

6. What the second result, and how is this thought elsewhere
expressed by Paul?

7. Explain the difference in experimental knowledge between the
subjects of the two covenants, 8: 11.

8. What the illustration by the author?

9. What reason is assigned attesting the character of this knowl-
edge, and what its meaning?

ID. How would you apply 10 : 17 as a test in an inquiry room to
determine a case of doubtful conversion?

11. What the two distinct elements in regeneration?

12. Show these two elements in Ezek. 36 : 25-27.

13. Show the same in Titus 3:5.

14. Also in Jno. 3 : 5.

15. Eph. 5 : 2^.

16. What O. T. type of applying the blood of this one sacrifice,
and where found? Explain fully.

XXIII

THE PROMISE OF THE SURETY AND OF THE
SACRIFICE

Scripture: 8:6 — 10:39

WE have seen in the preceding chapter that the coming
of the Holy Spirit is the first great promise of the
new covenant, that is, in the order of Paul's argu-
ment, and that the objects of the Spirit's work is to secure
a perfect obedience to the law. That this is accomplished
by (i) regeneration in its two elements, cleansing by the
application of Christ's blood to the sinner and by renewing
the mind; (2) by certifying in the experience of its sub-
ject the remission of sins and Sonship; and (3) by complete
sanctification of the soul and the glorification of the body.
The second great promise of the new covenant is
The Surety of the New Covenant. This doctrine is thus
expressed : "By so much also hath Jesus become the surety
of the better covenant." That is in 7 : 22, but because this
is the second idea, or High Priest idea, or the suretyship
of Jesus, discussion was deferred when we were on chap-
ter 7 until we came to the first, or legal, idea of the surety-
ship, so as to present the two together. Webster thus defines
the legal idea : "In law, one that is bound with and for
another," and he cites the words of Judah to Joseph : "Thy
servant became surety for the lad to my father" (Gen.
44:22), and further says that the surety is compellable to
pay the debt of the original debtor. The legal idea is even
stronger when the surety becomes an instant substitute for
the original debtor by having the debt charged to the surety

^61

26S COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

and the debtor released. In this case there is remission
to the debtor before the surety actually pays the debt to
the creditor. For instance, Paul writes Philemon concern-
ing Onesimus: "But if he oweth thee aught, put that to
mine account; I Paul writeth with mine own hand I will
pay it." This is a legal bond assuming the debt, and Onesi-
mus is legally released when the debt is transferred to
PauFs account, though it may be quite a while before Paul
pays it. As the author of Hebrews expresses the thought
elsewhere : "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto
himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses'' — He is
putting them to the account of the surety, not reckoning
their trespasses to them. Or, as in the case of Abraham
himself: "And he believed in Jehovah, and He reckoned
it unto him for righteousness." In this way only could the
sins of the Old Testament saints (see chapter ii) be re-
mitted and consciousness of remission given by the Holy
Spirit before the expiation of sins was made to God on
the cross. As our old "Philadelphia Confession of Faith"
expresses it (Art. 8, Sec. 6) : "Although the price of re-
demption was not actually paid by Christ till after His
incarnation, yet the virtue, efficacy, and benefit thereof was
communicated to the elect in all ages successively from the
beginning of the world, in and by those promises, types,
and sacrifices wherein He was revealed and signified to
be the Seed of the woman which should bruise the serpent's
head ; and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
being the same yesterday, and today, and forever." That is
what our Baptist Articles of Confession say. One cannot
be a sound theologian if he fail to master this legal idea of
the suretyship of our Lord. It is precisely at this point
that many great heresies have arisen, two of which I now
state :

I. That Old Testament saints, after death, were side-
tracked into a half-way place until after Christ's death, and

PROMISES OF THE SURETY 263

then He announced to them their dehverance, and took them
with Him into heaven — a conceit derived from uninspired
apocryphal books, written in part, perhaps, before Christ
came, and the rest after His death, yet this error prevails
with many till this day.

2. The second heresy is very modern, and is most thor-
oughly set forth by Mr. Ezell, a Campbellite preacher, in
a book which treats the new covenant as Christ's last will
and testament which could not become effective until after
Christ's death, his object being to shut off consideration of
all cases of pardon as recorded in the gospels as not now
applicable, and make Acts 2 : 38 the one and only "law of
pardon." His argument is based on Heb. 9: 16, 17. Before
a will or testament is effective there must of necessity be
the death of him that made it. On which we remark (i)
that the Greek word, diatheke, means "covenant," and the
only place in the Bible where it may be translated "testa-
ment" is in Heb. 9: 16, 17, which would show, not that the
new covenant is a will, or testament, but that in one point
only a will is analogous to the covenant, namely, there must
be a death to ratify it. He takes a will to illustrate this one
point of the covenant. The fallacy of his whole argument
lies in his failure to see that through the surety of the new
covenant being accounted in God's mind "a Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world," the benefits of the covenant
may accrue to any believer before the debt is actually paid
God-ward, as our argument has just shown, and as the
whole of chapter 1 1 will demonstrate.

The second idea of the suretyship is based on the passage
showing the high priesthood of Christ, who, by ever living
to intercede for His people, secures the remission of sins
committed after justification, as the legal idea of surety-
ship secured the remission of sins committed before justi-
fication. Hence the conclusion of the author of Hebrews:
"He is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto

g64 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

God through Him, seeing He ever liveth to intercede for
them." The first idea of surety covers all past sins up to
justification, as we see clearly set forth in Rom. 3 : 25, and
the second idea covers all sins to the uttermost — that is,
after justification until we pass out of the world. This entire
argument is in Rom. 8 : 33-39, where he says, "Who can
lay any charge to God's elect?" First, Christ has died for
us; second. He is risen; third, He is exalted to the right
hand of the majesty on high ; fourth, He ever liveth to inter-
cede for us. And that passage in the first letter of John:
"And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous" * * * "If we say that we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."
We see the double idea of a surety — the legal idea, covering
sin up to justification, and the High Priest idea, covering sin
after justification.

Let us compare some Old Testament verses that bring
out the idea of the surety. First, the prayer of Job : "Give
now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself ;" second, Psalms
119: 122: "Be surety for thy servant for good; let not the
proud oppress me ;" third, the prayer of Hezekiah when he
was so sick: "Like a swallow or a crane did I chatter;
I did moan as a dove ; mine eyes fail with looking upward :
O, Lord, I am oppressed, be thou my surety/' We see that
every one of these, in a dark hour, desired a surety that is
above human power ; they wanted a divine surety.

We now come to the third great promise of the new
covenant, as set forth in Heb. 10: 1-18, that is —

The One Expiating Sacrifice. — This scripture contrasts
them by first showing that the law was merely a shadow
of the substance that was to come. As the poet, Campbell,
expresses it in the words of the wizard warning Lochiel
before the battle of Culloden :

" 'Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore,
And coming events cast their shadows before."

PROMISES OF THE SURETY S65

If early in the morning on a bright day one starts toward
the West, he casts his shadow before him, the sun is behind
him and the shadow before him. And just so the real
things in heaven cast before a model or rough outline like
a shadow. And that constituted the typical part of the old
covenant — it was the shadow of the reality in heaven. That
is the first point.

The second point is that the constant repetition of these
shadows year by year, say on the great day of atonement
every year, could not make those who drew nigh to God
perfect.

His third idea is that sacrifices without intrinsic merit
cannot take away sin — "it is impossible for the blood of
bullocks and goats to take away sin." The blood of a brute
cannot, take away a human sin, and the principle involved
in that declaration is very far-reaching. We may apply that
principle this way : It is impossible on account of the lack
of intrinsic merit that the water of baptism, or the bread
and wine of the Lord's Supper, shall take away sin.

The next point is the testimony of the prophets, and the
prophet he cites here is David in Psalm 40, but he quotes
this from the Septuagint, which in the second line gives a
different idea from the Hebrew — and gives the true idea,
too. Let us consider Psalm 40, commencing with verse 6 :
"Sacrifice and offering thou hast no delight in." The trans-
lation of the Hebrew reads : "Mine ears hast thou bored."
But Paul says, "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but
a body didst thou prepare for me," and Paul follows the
Septuagint in quoting ; there is not so very much difference
in the two meanings. When a man voluntarily preferred
slavery under the old law, his ear was nailed to a post as a
badge of slavery; or the literal Hebrew, "Mine ears hast
thou digged," which might mean "ears to hear." That is
the old scripture idea ; but the Septuagint idea is : "And a
body hast thou prepared for me." And that agrees with

266 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

Luke 1 : 35 : "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and
the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee ; where-
fore also the holy one which is begotten shall be called the
Son of God." And it is in perfect harmony with John i :
"And the Word that was God was manifest and became
flesh" — incarnate, took on body. And it is in perfect accord
with what we have already found in Hebrews 2: "Since
then the children are sharers in flesh and blood. He also
himself in like manner partook of the same, that through
His death He might bring to nought him that had the power
of death, that is, the devil ;" and it is still more clearly brought
out in I Peter, where he says: "Who His own self bare
our sins in His body upon the tree." So that the quotation
from the Septuagint gives the Spirit-idea: "Sacrifices and
offerings thou wouldst not, but a body didst thou prepare
for me." According to the prophecy of Isaiah: "What
unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices ? saith Jehovah :
I have had enough of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the
fat of fed beasts ; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks,
or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before
me, who hath required this at your hand, to trample my
courts ? Bring no more vain oblations ; incense is an abomi-
nation unto me; new moon and Sabbath, the calling of
assemblies, — I cannot away with the iniquity and the solemn
meeting. Your new moon and appointed feasts my soul
hateth ; they are a trouble unto me ; I am weary of bearing
them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide
mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I
will not hear; your hands are full of blood" (Isa. i : 11-15).
That is the testimony of one of the prophets. David in
Psalm 40 : "Sacrifice and offering thou hast no delight in ;
mine ears hast thou opened : burnt-offering and sin-offering
hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I am come ; in the
roll of the book it is written of me ; I delight to do thy will,
O my God."

PROMISES OF THE SURETY 267

But I want to give you the testimony of other prophets,
including David in another place, as to the relative merit
of the Old Testament and the New Testament sacrifices.
First, Psalm 51 : "For thou delightest not in sacrifice, else
would I give it; thou hast no pleasure in burnt-offerings.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a
contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Note here
that the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite
heart. Second, a passage from Samuel, the prophet (I Sam.
15 : 22, 23) : "And Samuel said, Hath Jehovah as great
delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the
voice of Jehovah? Behold, to obey is better than to sacri-
fice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." Samuel is
talking to Saul. Third, that remarkable prophecy in Jer.
7 : 22 : "For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded
them in the day that I brought them out of the land of
Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices: but this
thing I commanded them, saying, Hearken unto my voice,
and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and
walk ye in all the way that I command you, that it may
be well with you." Fourth, the prophecy from Hos. 6: 6:
"For I desire goodness and not sacrifice, and the knowledge
of God more than burnt-offerings. But they, like Adam,
have transgressed the covenant ; there have they dealt treach-
erously against me." Fifth, the passage from Micah 6 : 6-8 :
"Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah, and bow myself
before the high God? Shall I come before Him with burnt-
offerings, with calves a year old ? Will Jehovah be pleased
with thousands of rams, or with ten-thousands of rivers of
oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the
fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ?"

My object is to foHov\r out the thoughts of the author of
Hebrews here in order to shov>' that the prophets of the
Old Testament, who were the true spirtual interpreters,
understood that these Old Testament offerings were to

268 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

cease; they never had any doubt in their minds about it,
and indeed some higher critics contend that God never meant
for Moses to institute sacrifices at all — in which the higher
critics are far astray. But it does make plain this point:
That there was preparation of mind for a new covenant,
in which the better sacrifice should take the place of the
shadowy sacrifice of the old covenant.

Let us look at Isa. 53 in order to get the true idea of the
sacrifice ; here is a description of it :

"For He grew up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out
of the dry ground : He hath no form nor comeliness and when we
see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He was
despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief, and as one from whom men hide their face He was despised,
and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our grief and car-
ried our sorrows, yet we did not esteem Him stricken, smitten of
God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions ;
He was bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace was
upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep,
have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and
Jehovah hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed,
yet when He was afflicted He opened not His mouth ; as a lamb that
is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before His shearers is
dumb, so He opened not His mouth. By oppression and judgment
He was taken away, and as for His generation, who among them
consider that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the
transgressions of my people to whom the stroke was due? And
they made His grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His
death; although He had done no violence, neither was any deceit
in His mouth. Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise Him: He hath put
Him to grief : when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure
of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the travail of
His soul, and shall be satisfied : by the knowledge of himself shall
my righteous servant justify many; and He shall bear their iniqui-
ties," Isa. 53:2-12.

That is a picture of Christ, and it is as good a picture of
Him as one who lived in His time could have painted. I
present one other idea of this sacrifice — the leading sacrificial
idea of the old covenant — the festival lamb, or Passover
lamb, whose blood was sprinkled on the door-posts to secure
the passing over of the angel of death. In I Cor. 5 : 7 Paul
says: "Christ, our Passover Lamb, is sacrificed for us/*

PROMISES OF THE SURETY 269

and in John i : 29, John the Baptist sees Jesus coming and
points at Him and says, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sins of the world."

A last thought on the sacrifice is this — that Christ's offer-
ing is repeatedly stated in this book to be once for all, in
contrast with the year by year sacrifices of the Old Testa-
ment; He would never die but the one time. He would
make but one expiation of sin by His death, and then take
a seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and ever
live to intercede for us.

Just here I must call attention to a heresy of the gravest
character — the Romanist heresy of the doctrine of the Mass.
They say that whenever their priest consecrates the wafer
and the wine, that he actually creates God, and that in the
offering of that wine and bread there is a real sacrifice of
the Son of God. That is fixing upon Him what He expressly
declared should not be — that there would be no repetition
of this sacrifice — that it was to be once for all. They tell
their people that when they take the wafer on their lips
(the priests do not give them any of the wine ; they just
give them the wafer) that they masticate God, and they
base it upon that word of our Lord when He held out the
bread : "This is my body, broken for you," whereas, there
is no clearer meaning of the verb "to be" than the sense of
represent. For instance, in Genesis, Joseph says, "The seven
lean kine and the seven poor ears of corn which you dreamed
about, are seven years of famine." There is the verb "to be"
— "are" that is, they represent seven years of famine. When
I go into a picture gallery and say, "This is Washington, that
is Webster, that is Henry Clay," I do not mean to say that
my word creates these men, but that the pictures represent
thert\.

/ do not know of any other heresy equal to this one.

And they expressly declare that whoever denies that that
action of the priest does create God, and that whoever denies

270 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

that there is a real sacrifice of Christ every time the priest
consecrates these elements, will not be saved. And they
expressly declare in the Council of Trent that no man can
be saved who does not believe what they teach on this subject.

That is what is called trans-substantiation — a change of
substance. Trans-substantiation — that is the name of their
doctrine — that there is in the elements of bread and wine
a real person and blood, hence they carry these elements
in procession, and they teach that as they carry them, who-
ever does not kneel down and worship them sins against the
Holy Ghost. That is what is called the "Procession of the
Host," which one must adore as God, and if he does not
believe that, he will go to hell. That is the teaching of
every Romanist in the world.

The Lutheran doctrine also contradicts the statement here
of the sacrifice of Christ once for all. Luther denies that
there is a change of substance. He calls his doctrine "Con-
substantiation" — not trans-substantiation. He says that every
time the Lord's Supper is observed there is in the elements
the real presence of God, and His favorite illustration is
this: "I take a piece of iron — cold, dark iron — and put it
into the fire, I do not change the substance, but when I take
it out there is something in it that was not in it before — and
that is heat — and it looks different from what it did before ;
so it is practically the same thing." And Luther bases his
arguments upon exactly the same scripture, thus : " This is
my body.' When we consecrate the bread, there enters
a real presence of a person that was not in it before, just
like putting the iron into the fire puts heat into it that was
not in it before." And this doctrine of Luther split the
Reformation into the German camp and the Genevan or
French camp. The Huguenots denied the doctrine of con-
substantiation on the principle of Christ's sacrifice once for
all. The Prince of Hesse Cassel was very much disturbed
over the divisions of the Protestants, so he invited Luther

PROMISES OF THE SURETY S71

and Melancthon on one side, and Zwingli and Ecolampadius
on the other side, to meet in his palace and discuss this until
they could come together — and they were about like some
juries — the longer they discussed it the wider apart they
were. So in order to keep down a row, Philip of Hesse,
knowing that Zwingli was fiery and that Luther was fiery,
put Ecolampadius to debate with Luther, and put Melanc-
thon to debate with Zwingli. But, after they had debated
for a while, the two fiery men left their mild opponents
and rushed up to each other. Luther said, "I affirm, in the
words of the Bible : 'This is my body,' " to which Zwingli
replied: "You quote a Latin translation, and I oppose it
with the doctrine: Ascendit in Coclum; His body cannot
be in two places at the same time." They had a time of it.
That is one of the most interesting incidents of the Reforma-
tion— that fight between Zwingli and Luther.

QUESTIONS

1. Explain the surety of the new covenant.

2. What Webster's definition of "surety," and what his illustra-
tion of its use?

3. Under what conditions is the legal phase of this subject
strongest, and how does Paul illustrate this thought?

4. What bearing has this on the remission of the sins of O. T.
saints ?

5. What the article of faith in the old Philadelphia confession
of faith on this point?

6. State and elaborate two heresies arising at this point.

7. What the second idea of suretyship, and what the N. T.
scriptures proving it?

8. What O. T. scriptures bear on the idea of the surety?

9. Explain "the shadow," or "the pattern," or "copy," character-
istic of the old covenant, and cite a poetic illustration (10: i).

10. Expound Heb. 10: 1-14, bringing out clearly the dignity and
intrinsic merit of the one great vicarious sacrifice of the new cove-
nant, citing parallel passages in both Testaments.

11. Apply the logic of 10 : 4 to the doctrine of baptismal remission
or other sacramental means of salvation, and cite the Campbellite
and Romanist views.

12. What distinct ofRce of our Lord involved in Heb. 10: 5-7?

13. What the striking testimony of the prophets on the inefificacy
and transitory character of the sin-offerings of the old covenant?

g7a COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

14. Where do we get the true idea of sacrifice in the O. T., and
how is it expressed there?

15. What the great type of the one sacrifice in the Pentateuch,
and what the N. T. identification of it?

16. What New Testament festival of the altar (Heb. 13:10)
commemorating this one sacrifice, and where, in another letter, does
Paul enforce this close communion?

17. What the difference in effect on sins between the one sacri-
fice, once for all, of the new covenant, and the many sacrifices, oft
repeated, of the old covenant?

18. Apply the logic of 10 : 12-14 to the Romanist Transubstanti-
ation and the Lutheran Consubstantiation, and cite on the latter the
debate between Luther and Zwingli.

XXIV

PROMISES OF THE NEW COVENANT

Scripture: Heb. 8 : 6 — lo : 39

THE fourth promise of the new covenant is that all
Christians shall be priests unto God, and shall directly
offer to Him spiritual, non-expiatory sacrifices, any-
where, at any time, and in all places. The negative value
of this promise is itself incalculable. It forever sets aside
and dispenses with :

1. The old covenant's on^ /j/ac^ of meeting God. Whether
tabernacle, temple, earthly Jerusalem, or land of Canaan,
their mission and sanctity are ended forever. Holiness no
longer attaches to any of them. All are as empty as the
sepulchre of our Lord. The efforts of the Crusades to
recover a city and land no longer holy was a foolish quest.
As says our Lord himself to the woman of Samaria:
"Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when neither in this
mountain (i.e., Gerizim, the site of the Samaritan temple)
nor in Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father * * * The
hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall
worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the
Father seek to be His worshipers. God is a Spirit: and
they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth,"
John 4:21-24.

2. It dispenses with all the third party — human go-
betweens — that officiated between the soul and its God. The
Greek and Romanist priestly hierarchies of human go-
betweens, and all their imitations in other denominations,

^73

274 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

are sinful degenerations into the obsolete and superseded
old covenant.

3. It sets aside all the doctrines of consubstantiation and
transubstantiation, which in any form affirms and repeats
and adores a real expiatory sacrifice in the memorial supper
of our Lord, or attaches saving efficacy to the memorial rite
of baptisrn. In other words, connecting two and three, it
sweeps away the whole system of sacerdotalism which makes
the office of a human third party necessary to the salvation
of the sinner.

4. All the Old Testament Sabbatic cycle, whether 7th
day, lunar, annual, 7th year, or 50th year — the limited fixed
times in which to come before the Lord.

5. All the Old Testament non-expiating sacrifices.

6. Israel according to the flesh as the people of God.

POSITIVELY

I. It affirms a spiritual Israel, every one of whom is a
priest unto God. In the book of Hebrews this doctrine is
embodied in the phrase : "church of the first-born" (12 : 23),
which means that the Old Testament type, which gave to
the first-born of a family the right of primogeniture, includ-
ing the authority of priesthood, and which was exchanged
for the tribe of Levi, is fulfilled in each one born of the
Holy Spirit under the new covenant. In other words, every
one born of the Holy Spirit is a priest who may at all times
in all places and under all emergencies go for himself directly
to God.

The doctrine of this new and spiritual Israel — a people
for God's own possession — is elsewhere presented by Paul,
II Cor. 6: 17 — 7: i and Titus 2: 14. Here the language of
Peter is the most explicit: "Ye, as living stones, are built
up a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer up
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ
* * * Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy na-

THE NEW COVENANT PROMISES 275

tion, a people for God's own possession, that ye may show
forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of dark-
ness into His marvelous light." To these we may add:
"And He made us to-be a kingdom, to be priests unto His
God and Father; to Him be the glory and dominion for-
ever and ever. Amen," Rev. i ; 6. "And makest them to
be unto our God a kingdom and priests, and they reign
upon the earth," Rev. 5:10. "Blessed is he that hath part
in the first resurrection; over these the second death hath
no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ,
and shall reign with Him a thousand years," Rev. 20 : 6.
2. The Spiritual Sacrifices of the New Covenant :

(a) Our own selves : "I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacri-
fice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service."
And concerning the Macedonians Paul says, "And this, not
as we had hoped, but first they gave their own selves unto
the Lord, and to us through the will of God," H Cor. 8 : 5.

(b) Contribution to Christ in His cause and people. We
recall the case of the Philippians : "And ye yourselves also
know, ye Philippians, that in the beginning of the gospel,
when I departed from Macedonia, no church had fellow-
ship with me in the matter of giving and receiving but ye
only ; for even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto
my need. Not that I seek for the gift, but I seek for the
fruit that increaseth to your account. But I have all things
and abound : I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus
the things that come from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a
sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God," Phil. 4: 15-18.

(c) The testimony of this letter: "Through Him then
let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is
the fruit of lips which make confession to His name. But
to do good, and to communicate forget not, for with such
sacrifices God is well pleased," Heb. 13: 15, 16.

(d) All the testimonies from the prophets introduced in

276 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

the last chapter (See Job 17: 3; Psa. 119: 122; Isa. 38: 14;
I Sam. 15:22; Psa. 51: 16, 17; Isa. i: 11-17; Jer. 7:21-23;
Hos. 6:6; Micah6:6-8).

But this idea of the priesthood of all Christians is so
closely associated with another thought that we cannot sepa-
rate them. One of the passages cited says, "A royal priest-
hood;" another says, "He has made us a kingdom and
priests," while this letter says, in commenting on the service
of the Christian priesthood, "Wherefore, receiving a king-
dom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we
may offer service well pleasing to God with reverence and
awe." Everything relating to the old covenant was shaken,
and soon, in the destruction of Jerusalem, would pass away
forever. But this royal priesthood would continue — ^this
kingdom would never be moved. As Daniel prophesied, the
kingdom set up by the God of heaven would be an ever-
lasting kingdom and would never pass to another people.
Or, as our Lord expresses it : "The gates of hell shall never
prevail against the church He established. These priests
are all kings, and their kingdom is eternal.

The fifth great promise of the new covenant is the final
advent of our Lord to raise the dead and judge the world.
The passages in this letter are very striking: "So Christ
also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many,
shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait
for Him unto salvation."

1. On this passage particularly note the negative: "apart
from sin," i.e., not this last time as a sin-offering. That
was the object of His first advent. There is no gospel to
be preached after this final advent — no intercession — for
He vacates the mediatorial throne and the high priest-
advocacy.

2. "Not forsaking our own assembling together, as the
custom of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much
the more as ye see the day drawing nigh. * * * For ye

THE NEW COVENANT PROMISES 277

have need of patience, that, having done the will of God,
ye may receive the promise," Heb. lo : 25-37.

Here the speediness of His coming is emphasized, as in
very many other New Testament passages. But it is not
"quickly" as man counts, but "quickly" as He counts, "with
whom a thousand years is as a day." As Peter declares :

"Knowing this first, that in the last days mockers shall come with
mockery, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the
promise of His coming? for from the day that the fathers fell asleep,
all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
For this they wilfully forget, that there were heavens from of old,
and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water, by the Word
of God by which means the world that then was, being overflowed
with water, perished : but the heavens that now are, and the earth,
by the same Word, have been stored up for fire, being reserved
against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But
forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as
a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not
slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness ; but is long-
suffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that
all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as
a thief ; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,
and the elements shall be dissolved with a fervent heat, and the
earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing that
these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons
ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and ear-
nestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the
heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt
with fervent heat? But according to His promise, we look for new
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," II Pet.
3:3-13.

It was the apparent tardiness of His coming, as men
judged, that was tempting these Asia-Minor Jews to apos-
tatize. And it is in this very connection and on this precise
point that Peter bears the direct testimony of Paul's author-
ship to this letter : "And account that the long suffering of
our Lord is salvation ; even as our beloved brother Paul also,
according to the wisdom given to him, wrote unto you," H
Pet. 3:15.

3. He comes in His last office, not as a prophet, sacrifice,
priest, and not even as king to continue His mediatorial
session at God's right hand, for He will turn over the king-

278 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

dom to the Father (I Cor. 15 : 24, 25), but He comes as judge
to wind up earth's affairs.

(a) In the dissolution of the material universe: "And
thou, Lord, in the beginning, didst lay the foundation of the
earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands: they
shall perish, but thou continuest; and they shall wax old
as doth a garment; and as a mantle shalt thou roll them
up, as a garment, and they shall be changed ; but thou art
the same, and thy years shall not fail," Heb. i : 10-12. "But
immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall
be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the
stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens
shall be shaken," Matt. 24 : 29. "And I saw a great white
throne, and Him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth
and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for
them" (Rev. 20: 11) ; and particularly: "But the heavens
that now are and the earth, by the same word, have been
stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judg-
ment and destruction of ungodly men. * * * But the day
of the Lord will come as a thief, in which the heavens will
pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dis-
solved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that
are therein shall be burned up," H Pet. 3:7, 10.

(b) In the everlasting punishment of the wicked: "For
if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge
of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins,
but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fierceness
of fire which shall devour the adversaries. A man that hath
set at naught Moses' law dieth without compassion on the
word of two or three witnesses ; of how much sorer punish-
ment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden
under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of
the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing,
and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we
know Him that said : Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will

THE NEW COVENANT PROMISES 279

recompense. And again, The Lord shall judge His people.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,"
Heb. 10:26-31.

"For the land which hath drunk the rain that cometh
oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for
whose sake it is also tilled, receiveth blessings from God;
but if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh
unto a curse ; whose end is to be burned," Heb. 6\y, 8.
"How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
which having at first been spoken through the Lord, was
confirmed unto us by them that heard," Heb. 2 : 3. "See
that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped
not when they refused him that warned them on earth,
much more shall not we escape who turn away from Him
that warneth from heaven: whose voice then shook the
earth, but now He hath promised, saying. Yet once more
will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the
heaven. * * * For our God is a consuming fire," Heb.
12 : 25, 26, 29.

4. In the better resurrection of the righteous : "Women
received their dead by a resurrection : and others were tor-
tured, not accepting their deliverance ; that they might obtain
a better resurrection" (Heb. 11 : 35), and the consummation
of their salvation : "For not unto angels did He subject the
world to come, whereof we speak. * * * And again I will
put my trust in Him. And again. Behold, I and the chil-
dren God hath given me. * * * For ye have need of pa-
tience, that, having done the will of God, ye may receive
the promise," Heb. 2:5, 13; 10: 36. On two and three as
simultaneous : "The men of Nineveh shall stand up in the
judgment with this generation and shall condemn it; for
they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, a
greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South shall
rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall con-
demn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear

^80 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

the wisdom of Solomon : and behold, a greater than Solomon
is here," Matt. 12 : 41, 42. "But when the Son of man shall
come in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then shall
He sit on the throne of His glory ; and before Him shall be
gathered all the nations; and He shall separate them one
from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from
the goats; and He shall set the sheep on His right hand,
but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto
them on His right hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. * * * Then shall He say also unto them on
His left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal
fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels. * * *
And these shall go away into eternal punishment; and the
righteous into eternal life," Matt. 25 : 31-46. "And to you
that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord
Jesus Christ from heaven with the angels of His power in
flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not
God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus: who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruc-
tion from the face of the Lord and from the glory of His
might, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and
to be marvelled at in all them that believed (because our
testimony unto you was believed) in that day," H Thess.
1 : 7-10. "And I saw a great white throne, and Him that
sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled
away ; and there was found no place for them. And I saw
the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne ;
and books were opened ; and another book was opened, which
was the book of life, and the dead were judged out of the
things which were written in the books, according to their
works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and
death and hades gave up the dead that were in them, and they
were judged every man according to their works. And
death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. And if any

THE NEW COVENANT PROMISES 281

was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into
the lake of fire," Rev. 20: 11-15.

QUESTIONS

1. What the fourth promise of the new covenant?

2. What the negative value of this promise?

3. What its positive value ?

4. What passage in the book affirms the first element of positive
value ?

5. Cite passages from other New Testament books supporting
this view?

6. What new and additional idea attaches to this priesthood,
what the proof of it, and what the conclusion therefrom?

7. What the spiritual sacrifices offered by this new priesthood?

8. What the fifth great promise of the new covenant?

9. What passage shows the negative object of His coming, and
what the explanation of it?

10. Cite the passages which emphasize the speediness of His
coming ?

11. Is this a speediness in man's sight or God's sight, and what
the proof from Peter?

12. Prove from Peter on this point that Paul wrote the Letter to
the Hebrews.

13. In what offices does He not come, and the resultant doctrines?

14. In what office does He come?

15. What, without citing passages, the three objects of His final
advent ?

16. What passage in this book shows the effect of His coming on
the material universe, and what correlative passages from other
books ?

17. What passages from this book show that He comes to judge
and punish the wicked ?

18. What the passages in this book which show that He comes
for the consummation of the salvation of the righteous?

19. Cite passages from other New Testament books that the sal-
vation in glory of the righteous is simultaneous with the everlasting
punishment of the wicked.

20. In view of the fourth promise, will there ever be a restora-
tion of the Jews, as Jews, and a restoration of the earthly Jerusalem
and its temple worship?

21. What then, is the meaning of the restoration of the Jews as a
nation?

XXV

THE HEROES OF FAITH
Scripture: Heb. ii : i — 12: 17

ALL the great heroes of the past achieved their glory
and immortality by faith, the distinctive and conquer-
ing principle of the new covenant, which especially
laid hold upon new covenant promises. Indeed, this section
is introduced by a reference to the fifth great promise of the
new covenant just discussed. Chapter 10 closes thus: "For
ye have need of patience, that, having done the will of God,
ye may receive the promise. For yet a little while, He that
Cometh shall come, and shall not tarry. But my righteous
one shall live by faith ; and if he shrink back, my soul hath
no pleasure in him. But we are not one of them that shrink
back unto perdition; but of them that have faith unto the
saving of the soul," Heb. 10 : 36-39.

Here is the promise — the speedy coming of the Lord.
Here especially they have need of patience. These Asia-
Minor Jews were suffering great afflictions, trials and perse-
cutions. Their oft promised Lord delayed His coming to
deliver them. They were tempted to give up all hope of the
promise. The exhortation is that a justified man must live
by faith. If he shrink back God has no pleasure in him —
that a true Christian does not shrink back unto perdition, but
has faith unto the saving of his soul.

To illustrate his thought, Paul calls the roll of their illus-
trious dead and shows their patience of faith and their stead-
fastness, not only under greater trials than any of these
people were subjected to, but held on unswervingly, though

THE HEROES OF FAITH 283

they knew that the promise would never be fullilled in their
day. He appeals to heroic history. History not only teaches
lessons and imposes obligations, but summons all the mighty
dead as witnesses of the present, and encouragers to present
fidelity. The author of Hebrews has that creative faculty —
the imagination — and makes the history live before us. The
heroes are quickened, come out of their graves, and as sym-
pathetic spectators, crowd the amphitheatre of our race-
course. They beckon, they clap their hands, they wave their
crowns and shout: "Don't faint! Don't fall! Come on!
Come on, and win the race !"

He opens the discussion, not so much with a technical
definition of faith as a description of its nature : "Faith gives
substance to things hoped for." That is his first idea. Let
us illustrate : A debtor offers in payment of his debt a cer-
tified check for the amount due. That check is not money,
but serves as money. The creditor's acceptance of the check
gives substance to it. He knows the bank on which it is
drawn and the trustworthiness of the cashier's certificate.
The debtor does not need to show him the bullion in the bank
that makes it good. A promise that is adequately assured
and guaranteed may be used as cash in the money market.
So the future things promised in the new covenant, like the
coming of our Lord, excite our hopes, and faith, resting on
the guaranty of the promise, gives present substance to the
things hoped for. By faith thus exercised, the powers of
the world to come are here.

His second idea is that faith is a conviction of things
unseen. The invisible thing may be past, present, or future.
But God's word certifies its reality. Faith takes God at His
word and is a conviction that the word is true, though not
demonstrable to the carnal senses. We may not see it — for
faith walks not by sight — it may not be audible nor pal-
pable, but God said it, and it's true. In all the examples to be
cited one or the other of these ideas of faith is evident.

284? COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

His third idea is that God himself bears witness whenever
such faith is exercised, and this divine witness-bearing,
realized in our experience, is a confirmation, or assurance,
to the believer which justifies his faith and gives experi-
mental rest and peace to him, for as says the text "Therein
the elders had witness borne to them."

His fourth idea is that —

Such faith confers an earthly immortality: "By it, he being
dead, yet speaketh" That voice never becomes silent. Faith
makes the believer an orator, a poet, a prophet forever. The
voices of unbelief die utterly away.

In this glorious chapter we shall see other virtues of faith :

1. In two cases it has secured translation over the river of
death, and will again, on a mightier scale at our Lord's
coming.

2. It always pleases God, and without it God cannot be
pleased.

3. It brings salvation — sometimes temporal, always
eternal.

4. It both conquers and condemns the world.

5. It sustains under a privation or torture.

6. It is a spiritual telescope, bringing the invisible and
heavenly world into clear view, and the spiritual microscope
discerning God's providence in the fall of a sparrow.

7. It confers potency on impotency.

8. It staggers not in unbelief, though the dead must be
raised to fulfill the promise.

9. It has the spirit of prophecy, foretelling future events.
ID. It is the principle by which great decisions are made.

11. It divests of all fear except the fear of God.

12. It is the principle of obedience, progress, and sancti-
fication.

13. It overcomes the insuperable and achieves the impos-
sible. It passes seas and rivers dry-shod, crumbles the walls
of hostile cities, subdues kingdoms, obtains promises, stops

THE HEROES OF FAITH 285

the mouths of lions, quenches the power of fire, escapes the
sword, waxes vaUant in fight, accepts spoHation of goods,
wanders unawed in mountains, and sleeps undisturbed in
dens and caves of the earth.

14. It understands origins, and destinies, and the super-
natural— all beyond the ken, and outside the realm of human
science and philosophy.

15. It controls the life, being the eye and ear and hand and
heart of the soul.

We now take up, in order, the cited examples of its power :
I . "By it we understood that the worlds have been framed
by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made
out of things which appear." That is, it learns more in the
first sentence of the Bible than all human science and phi-
losophy ever discovered, towit : "In the beginning God cre-
ated the heavens and the earth." To create is to bring into
being without the use of pre-existing material. That one
sentence answers all atheism, pantheism, stoicism, Epicurian-
ism, agnosticism, materialism. In this first example "faith
is the conviction of things unseen." No man was there to
witness. We take it on God's word. He alone being pres-
ent, reveals the past. We do not ask science or philosophy
to account for the universe. The scientist and philosopher
were not there.

We prefer to accept the testimony of the infinite eye-wit-
ness and agent rather than the peurile fancies and contra-
dictory conjectures of finite absentees.

ABEL AND CAIN ( 1 1 : 4)

This is the first recorded case of saving faith on the one
hand, and of unbelief rejecting the gospel on the other hand.
The case is every way notable :

I. These were probably twin brothers — the first born of
woman.

£86 COLOSSIANS, EPHEStANS, HEBREWS

2. The mother's hopes turned to Cain, believing him to be
the promised seed that would bruise the serpent's head.

3. The Lord dwelt between the Cherubim as a Shekinah,
or sword-flame, on the newly established throne of grace,
at the east of the lost Paradise to keep open or shut, the way
to the tree of life.

4. A way of approach to God had been appointed through
sacrifices, both expiatory and non-expiatory, the latter non-
acceptable when not based on the former.

5. From the throne of grace two ways divided : The way
of faith, and the way of Cain. In one or the other the whole
human race has walked.

6. The expiatory sacrifice proclaimed its oflferer a sinner,
seeking mercy through a propitiation. The non-expiatory
without the other announced its offerer as denying himself
to be a sinner in need of atonement, and acknowledged only
the necessity of a thank-offering.

The record shows both men coming before the Lord with
sacrifices, and Jehovah's accepting the one and rejecting the
other. Here we need to read the Genesis history of the
transaction, and then the New Testament interpretation :

1. The text says (verse 4) Abel had faith, i.e., he looked
to the unseen Antitype of his propitiatory sacrifice and
gave substance to what he hoped for.

2. This sacrifice was more excellent than Cain's.

3. God's witness assured his faith. This was an internal
witness of the Holy Spirit to his spirit.

4. God bore witness by fire to the excellence of his offer-
ing, as in the case of Gideon (Judg. 6:21) and David
(I Chron. 21 : 26), and Elijah (I Kings 18: 38). This was
an external witness.

5. By his faith, though dead, he yet speaketh. The excel-
lence of this sacrifice consisted in its confession that he was
a sinner, approaching God in the appointed way for propitia-
tion of sin, by the blood of a vicarious sacrifice. Again

THE HEROES OF FAITH 287

this letter teaches that the blood of our Lord sprinkled on
the heavenly mercy seat speaketh better things for us than
the blood of Abel's typical lamb (12: 24).

The Apostle John, in commenting on the Genesis history,
goes deeper into the origin of the case : "Not as Cain was of
the evil one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he
him? Because his works were evil and his brother's right-
eous." His context plainly attributes the difference in the
actions of the two brothers to the difference in the filial rela-
tions, not to Adam and Eve, but to God and the devil. Abel
was born of God, and Cain was a child of the devil. The one
following his spiritual origin, believed, loved, obeyed. The
other, following his spiritually devilish origin, did not be-
lieve, did not obey, but hated and murdered his brother.
Jude, the brother of our Lord, warned these very hesitating
Jews of the dispersion that denying the Lord is "going in
the way of Cain." As has been said before, from that first
altar scene, two ways diverge :

1. The way of Abel, followed by Seth, Methuselah, Noah,

2. The way of Cain, followed by the other antediluvians,
who perished in the flood.

3. After the flood, all the world-population, descendants
of Noah according to the flesh, diverge according to their
spiritual descent. It was so in Christ's time, who said : "Ye
are of your father, the devil." It is so now. Spiritual descent
alone determines the way we follow.

THE CASE OF ENOCH

This case is remarkable in its bearing on the fifth promise
of the new covenant. From the Genesis history we learn the
turning point in the life of Enoch. He was sixty-five years
old, and a child had just been born to him. A revelation
from God caused him to name the child "Methuselah," which
means that the world would be destroyed when this child
died. And indeed the flood came the very year, and perhaps

S88 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

the very day, that Methuselah died. The revelation made a
profound impression on Enoch's mind. He was converted,
and from that time on walked with God. Two cannot walk
together except they be agreed. Enoch was reconciled to
God and companioned with Him all the rest of his life on
earth. His faith was remarkable in two directions :

1. It went beyond the flood, beyond the first advent of our
Lord, even to His final advent and the very purposes of that
advent. The spirit of prophecy came on him, and he spoke
concerning the last scene in the drama of time : "And to these
also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying.
Behold the Lord came with ten thousand of His holy ones,
to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly
of all their works of ungodliness which they have ungodly
wrought, and for all the hard things which ungodly sinners
have spoken against Him," Jude 14, 15.

2. It was yet more remarkable in its effect on himself.
Genesis says, "Enoch walked with God three hundred years.
And he was not, for God took him." The text in Hebrews
explains "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not
see death, and he was not found because God translated him ;
for he hath had witnesses borne to him that before his trans-
lation he had been well-pleasing unto God," Heb. 11:5. His
faith here evidently laid hold on the fifth promise of the
new covenant — the final advent of our Lord — for it is only
at that advent that all living Christians are glorified without
death, as explained by Paul elsewhere : "Behold, I tell you a
mystery : We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed,
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump :
for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible
must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immor-
tality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorrup-
tion, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall
come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed

THE HEROES OF FAITH 289

up in victory. O, death, where is thy victory? O death,
where is thy sting?"

Here the apostle describes a harvest. But Enoch and
EHjah, by mighty anticipatory faith, were first-fruits. Look
at that word, "translated," derived from the compound Latin
word, trans — "across" or "over," and ferro, the irregular
verb "to bear," or "to carry" — he was borne across, or over,
the river of death. The principal parts of this verb are
transferro, transferre, transtuli, translatum.

As in all the other cases, Enoch had witness borne to him
that he was well-pleasing to God — a double witness : First,
internal assurance by the Holy Spirit ; second, external wit-
ness in his translation. Enoch, therefore, was the first man
who ever entered heaven in both soul and body. An apoc-
ryphal book has been attributed to him, which is discussed
in the interpretation of the book of Jude.

QUESTIONS

1. What promise of the new covenant introduces chapter ii ?

2. How does chapter ii illustrate the introduction?

3. What creative faculty is employed in the method of using this
history ?

4. What metaphor concludes the argument?

5. State the several ideas and virtues of faith in this discussion.

6. Cite and expound the first example.

7. In the case of Abel and Cain, what the facts that make it
notable ?

8. What the five points in Abel's case?

9. In what did the excellence of his sacrifice consist?

10. Expound the reference in 12 : 24.

11. Cite John's reference to the case, and show how he goes to the
root of the matter.

12. How does Jude use the case?

13. In the case of Enoch, what and when the turning point in
his life?

14. What the result on his life?

15. Show the two remarkable characteristics of his faith?

16. In what two ways was witness borne to Abel ? To Enoch?

XXVI

THE HEROES OF FAITH
(Continued)

Scripture: Heb. 1 1 : 6-40

WE commence this chapter by glancing back to the
witness borne to Enoch, with the broad affirma-
tion: "Without faith it is impossible to be well-
pleasing unto God, for he that cometh to God must believe
that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that seek
after Him."

This affirmation not only condemns atheists who say there
is no God, and deists, who, while admitting His existence,
deny His revelation in the Bible, and all who deny, from any
cause. His providence and supernatural intervention by
miracle and answer to prayer, but it also condemns all hy-
pocrisy, ritualism, formalism, or other perfunctory obedience
and worship on the part of those who, however orthodox in
profession, yet in heart and life deny Him. Its teaching is
on a line with a previous exhortation that as our High Priest
is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, having been in
all points tempted as we are: "Let us therefore draw near
with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive
mercy, and find grace to help in every time of need." That
is no religion at all, whatever its guise, which does not avow
and practice the doctrine that there is a throne of grace and
mercy, approachable directly, at any time or anywhere, by
any member of the human race in this life and free from the
unpardonable sin, and that God hears and answers prayer
according to a supernatural, spiritual law, which is above

890

THE HEROES OF FAITH ^91

what is called the course of nature as defined by human
science.

At the beginning of a great meeting in Waco I preached a
series of sermons on "He that cometh to God must believe
that He is, and a rewarder of them that seek Him," and
applied it particularly to the Holy Spirit, pressing the ques-
tions : Do you believe there is a personal Holy Spirit ? Do
you believe He is present? Do you believe He is a prayer
hearing God?

Noah. — "By faith, Noah, being warned of God concerning
things not seen as yet, moved with godly fear, prepared an
ark to the saving of his house ; through which he condemned
the world, and became the heir of the righteousness, which
is according to faith," Heb. 11:7. The order of events here
are:

1. God, by special revelation, warns Noah of the destruc-
tion of the world by a flood.

2. He commands him to prepare an ark according to a
given plan for the preservation of his house and such animals
as were necessary to repopulate the earth after the subsi-
dence of the flood.

3. Noah believed God's revelation and obeyed Him in
every particular.

4. The flood came according to the warning, and Noah
and all with him in the ark, human and other animal life,
were saved and did repopulate the earth. See Gen. 6: 13;
9:19; and compare I Pet. 3:19-21 and 4:6, and H Pet.
3:1-15, and Matt. 24:37-39.

This stupendous achievement of faith is remarkable from
at least these considerations :

1. The event predicted was unseen and unforeseeable by
human wisdom.

2. It was contrary to all antecedent human experience, and
contrary to the established order of nature.

3. It was on a scale of magnitude to stagger credulity.

^92 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

4. Its alleged reasons were on moral and not natural
grounds.

5. It called for great and long-continued labor and great
expense. The ark approximated the Great Eastern in size
and tonnage. The various supplies to sustain its occupants
for a year added enormously to cost and labor.

6. The one matter of isolating from their fellows and
assembling in the ark at a particular date the required pairs
and sevens of animals was wholly beyond unaided human
power.

7. The jeers and scorn of an unbelieving world added
greatly to the difficulty of obedience.

This book declares :

1. That in all this course, Noah was led by faith.

2. That by this faith he became an heir of righteousness.

3. That by it he condemned the unbelieving world.

4. That believing God, he was moved by fear.

Men are influenced by motives. The hope of reward and
the fear of punishment influence all men. In my youth I
read the great sermon on Noah by Andrew Fuller, of Eng-
land. It brought out the greatness of the faith of Noah as
did no other sermon I ever read. It made a profound and
lasting impression on my mind. This is the Andrew Fuller
whose exposition of Genesis I commend. The case of Noah
was a worthy background for the exhortation of this letter.

Abraham and Sarah. — This case is every way worthy of
note, because Abraham is called "The father of the faithful,"
and his faith declared to be the model faith for all the future,
fixing the standard to which even the faith of our day must
conform. All of us are required to "walk in the steps of his
faith." A faith that will not take steps, moving out and for-
ward— "from faith to faith," "from grace to grace," "from
strength to strength," "from glory to glory," is no faith at all
in a gospel, saving sense.

THE HEROES OF FAITH ^93

It is not denied, but claimed, that the faith by which we
are justified is one definite act, at a given moment of time.
But it is also claimed that the justified one shall live by his
faith. Justification is instantaneous, but sanctification is
progressive, and we are sanctified by faith as well as justi-
fied. So that while it will always be true that one act of faith
justifies us all at once and once for all, yet that faith does
not then and there go out of business, but lives, moves, steps
out unto every development of sanctification. There are no
degrees of faith laying hold of justification, but it is in the
realm of sanctification that faith is little or great, swift or
slow, hesitating or unstaggering, commendable or censurable.
It is in this light we examine the model faith of Abraham,
citing four distinct events in his history:

1. His Call While in Ur of the Chaldees. — ^Two scriptures
need to be connected with this text : the words of Stephen
(Acts 7:2), and Gen. 12:1. The common version correctly
renders Gen. 12: i : "Now Jehovah had said." As there is
no pluperfect tense in the Hebrew, we translate the Hebrew
past tense into the English pluperfect when the context
demands it. The revision makes his call originate in Haran,
and nullifies a half-dozen scriptures, including the preceding
context.

This was a call to a promised place, not only yet unseen,
but one he would never see in this life. By faith he obeyed
God, not knowing whither he went. This first vision of God
turned him from idolatry and put him on a pilgrimage. It
answers to that part of our experience expressed by contri-
tion and repentance, but has not yet found peace in accept-
ance of a Savior. So Bunyan makes his contrite pilgrim
leave the City of Destruction and set out to find a heavenly
country, but yet burdened with unpardoned sin for a part
of the way, until he comes to the cross. So far there is
indeed faith, but faith in a what and not in a whom.

2. This faith did not rest on the land of Palestine; that

S94 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

would be only swapping Ur for Syria. He dwelt in tents in
that land, moving continually as a sojourner, not possessing
a foot of ground there as a home, because he looked for the
celestial city. So, in our experience we are dissatisfied with
this world and long for a heaven of rest, even before we are
converted.

3. But now we come to the great definite transaction of his
life — one famous star-light night. The circumstances were
these : He had just returned to Hebron from his victory over
the five kings and from his tithe-paying to Melchizedek,
priest of the most high God. His mind was greatly troubled
on three points :

( 1 ) His maintenance, seeing he had refused to accept even
a shoe latchet of the spoils or compensation from the rescued
king of Sodom.

(2) He was full of the reaction of fear after his triumph.
He was only a stranger in the land with only 300 men —
shifting pasturage from time to time by sufferance of the
Canaanite nations, who might at any time turn against him
and spoil him of his wealth — and by his intermeddling had
incurred the hostility of powerful kingdoms.

(3) He was old, his wife was barren, and his slave was his
heir. Suddenly an unearthly visitor enters his tent. And
here the record (Gen. 15 : 1-6) introduces a number of new
words and phrases occurring for the first time in the Bible :

(a) "The Word of the Lord," or "The Logosr Why
need John go to Philo for his Logos, when he could so easily
find it in Gen. 15? (b) "Shield," (c) "believe," (d) "im-
puted for righteousness." We know this "Word of Jehovah"
was a person, and "the Logos" for He was visible. "He
came in a vision," not in a sound, as a common word would
do. He was visible, audible, palpable. "He brought Him
forth." This was a person. Abraham saw Him, and hence
after the Logos was incarnate. He said, "Before Abraham

THE HEROES OF FAITH ^95

was I am * * * Abraham saw my day — ^he saw it and was
glad."

Let us note this remarkable interview between Abraham
and his Savior : "Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield." In
other words, "be not afraid of the enmity of the five kings of
Mesopotamia, nor of the uprising of Canaanite nations, nor
of Egypt, nor of Philistia. I, as a shield, am between you
and all foes." In Ephesians we are commanded to take with
us the shield of faith, not faith as a shield, but God, the
shield, which faith grasps and interposes to catch all the fiery
darts of Apollyon. "I am thy reward," "Blessing, I will
bless thee." God insured to him basket, store and cattle, and
safeguarded them from the spoiler. "Thy servant shall not
be thine heir," but potency shall come on thy impotency and
on the barrenness of thy wife. By supernatural power a son
of promise shall be born of thee. From him shall come the
Messiah. Then the Logos took him by the hand and led him
out of the tent to look upon the star-spangled sky of an Ori-
ental night, saying to him, "More than the stars of heaven,
more than the sand-grains on a world-circumference of ocean
beach — ^more than all these shall be thy seed." Then Abra-
ham, looking not on children of the flesh, but on the countless
multitude of spiritual children "saw Christ's day — he saw it
and was glad." The record says, "He believed on Jehovah,
and it was imputed to him for righteousness." Then and
there was Abraham justified. He now believed on a person
and not a proposition. "I know whom I have believed,"
says Paul. But this justifying faith that entered his heart
that night once for all, also becomes the living principle of
his life "My justified one shall live by faith."

(4) So we come to the great trial of that faith in his later
life — the one unique experience, unshared in some features
by any other man. He is commanded to take Isaac, the child
of promise, his only and well-beloved son by his wife, and
offer him up as a sin-offering. This commandment seemed

296 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

to be squarely against the promise : "In Isaac shall thy seed
be" — "sacrifice Isaac." The great events of the trial are
these:

1. His faith did not stagger at the apparent clash between
command and promise, but argued : Both are true and right
and in harmony. God will fulfill the promise by raising
Isaac from the dead.

2. Abraham alone, of all men, was made to experience, in
some degree, the feelings of the Father in giving up Jesus
to die for men.

3. Isaac alone, of all men, was to share somewhat the
experience of our Lord in submitting voluntarily to a vica-
rious death as a sin-ofifering at the hands of the Father.

Isaac blessing Jacob and Esau. — It is evident that Isaac
personally preferred to bestow the blessing of primogeniture
on Esau, but against nature and by faith he bestowed it on
Jacob.

Jacob blessing Ephriam and Manasseh. — Joseph brought
his boys to Jacob for a blessing, so placing them that Jacobus
right hand would rest on Manasseh, the elder, and so bestow
the greater blessing. , But Jacob, too dim-eyed for earthly
sight, yet seeing by faith, crossed his hands and put the
greater blessing on the head of Ephriam, the younger.

Joseph. — "By faith he gave commandment concerning
his bones." The elements of his faith were :

1. He believed the word spoken to Abraham, that his
people would be enslaved for a long time in Egypt, though it
was then against human probability.

2. He believed that after a long servitude God would
deliver His people and take them to Canaan, the promised
land, and so commanded that his bones be taken with them.

3. He believed in the resurrection of the dead, else why
be concerned about his body? Mere animals care nothing
for the dead body of their kind. Birds care nothing for the
shells out of which they were hatched, nor snakes for the

THE HEROES OF FAITH 29T

skins they shed. The reader should read Melville's great
sermon on "The Bones of Joseph."

The Case of Moses. — This case Is very remarkable on
many accounts

1. The faith of his parents, (a) Pharaoh's law required
all male children to be cast into the Nile when born. Their
faith saw in the child a great future, so they hid him three
months.

(b) When hiding was no longer possible they were not
afraid of the king's command, but by a faith which used
means they put him in a water-proof vessel, and placed him
in the rushes in the brink of the Nile.

(c) They stationed his sister to watch the outcome, and
so engineered it that his own mother should nurse him for
Pharaoh's daughter.

(d) In the time they kept him, they instructed him in the
revelations and promises of their religion and so safeguarded
him when he entered the palace. So Lois and Eunice safe-
guarded Timothy, in that from a child he was instructed in
the holy scriptures. Thus all Christian parents should bring
up their children in the nurture and admonition of God.

2. The Faith of Moses Himself. — At a great turning point
in his life, his faith enabled him to make a wise, decisive
choice "And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians ; and he was mighty in his words and works. But
when he was well nigh forty years old, it came into his heart
to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. And seeing one
of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him
that was oppressed, smiting the Egyptian and he supposed
that his brethren understood that God by his hand was giv-
ing them deliverance, but they understood not," Acts 7 : 22-25.
"By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called
the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to share
ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleas-
ures of sin for a season ; accounting the reproach of Christ

298 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked
unto the recompense of reward," Heb. 1 1 : 24-26. On these
passages note:

1. That a revelation from God came to Moses. This we
infer from "it coming into his heart to visit his people," and
from his supposition that they would understand that he
was their deliverer. There is no record in his history prior
to this time that he was appointed deliverer. Nothing but a
revelation from God can account for the tremendous and
instantaneous change in him,

2. It has been said that religion is only for children and
weak-minded women.

But here is a mature man, the best educated of his age,
"learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" a man of
affairs, mighty in words and works, occupying the highest
social position, even a prince of the greatest nation then on
earth. All pleasures bidding for his enjoyment of them,
uncounted riches at his disposal, who, not on an impulse, but
on mature reflection, carefully weighing the moral qualities
of human action and pushing his investigations to the eternal
outcome, deliberately refuses all earthly honor, pleasures,
and treasures, and casts in his lot with a generation of
despised slaves.

Such unnatural conduct, reversing every worldly maxim
and motive — indeed such a revolution — calls for an adequate
explanation. We desire to know the principle guiding his
choice, and the ulterior motive prompting his action. The
text says, "by faith he refused" one set of things ; "by faith
choosing rather" the opposite set of things; "by faith ac-
counting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treas-
ures of Egypt." Faith, then, was the principle by which he
chose. The text then lays bare his motive, the considera-
tion influencing his life, towit : "for he looked unto the recom-
pense of the reward." He had come to the forks of the road
of life. On one way were earthly learning, pleasures, treas-

THE HEROES OF FAITH 299

ures, palaces and power, with a royal sepulchre in the
Pyramid of Cheops. On the other was social and literary
downfall, ill-treatment, reproach, the desert, poverty, weari-
ness, toil and an unknown grave on which mortal eye would
never rest. But over that flower-bordered way was written :
"The way of sin," and over all its allurements was written
again : "Only for a season," and at the end of the way loomed
up the dark and eternal recompense of the reward. That
way was like Niagara — ^very insidious in its ever-increasing
suction, and the boom of fall just ahead.

Over every foot of the unpleasant way was written : "The
way of righteousness and the company of the people of God,"
and over all its horrors was also written : "Only for a sea-
son," and at the end of the way was the glorious, eternal
recompense of the reward. Faith, then, in making this
choice, was the exercise of the highest reason. Other great
men, like Washington, Gladstone, Robert E. Lee and Stone-
wall Jackson, have exercised this highest expression of rea-
son. Here was no weakness of puerility, no mere sentimen-
tality, no gullibility, no fanatical superstition. Moses, hav-
ing chosen the reproach of Christ, and cast in his lot with the
people of God, is now a Christian — a justified man. So
far, his faith appears as the principle of choice. But —

2. "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of
the king: for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible."
This refers to his flight into Midian and desert life of prepa-
ration for forty years more.

3. "By faith kept the passover," looking beyond the symbol
and memorial to "Christ our Passover Lamb to be sacrificed
for us."

4. "By faith he passed through the Red Sea as by dry
land." So the end of his life, the faith which justified him
once for all, lived and conquered over every opposing
obstacle.

We may here pause to inquire, after the lapse of thou-

SOO COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

sands of years, if the results, now apparent, justify the wis-
dom of the choice of Moses.

Where now are the pleasures, and treasures, and glory,
and learning of ancient Egypt? All forever gone. Her
Pyramids are empty, her Sphynx is dumb, her oracles are
dead, the wood of her palaces is wasted, and the stones have
crumbled, and a nation of degenerate slaves crouches amid
her ruins, or zvanders over her deserts. But look at the monu-
ments of Moses. His Pentateuch talks in all languages, and
underlies all the legal codes of the highest civilisations. His
poth Psalm echoes at all funerals, and his song of deliverance
at the Red Sea is one of the hymns of heaven, Rev. 15:3.

We content ourselves in this discussion with the elabora-
tion of the great cases of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and
Moses, covering the rest of the examples cited with questions
that follow.

QUESTIONS

1. What does the affirmation in 11 : 6 condemn?

2. What an essential characteristic of any religion, without which
it is no religion at all ?

3. What the order of historical events in the case of Noah?

4. What facts constitute Noah's faith a stupendous achievement?

5. What the resultant declarations of the text concerning Noah?

6. Who preached one of the world's greatest sermons on the
faith of Noah, and what other great work did he write?

7. Why is the case of Abraham specially noteworthy?

8. Distinguish be.tween (i) Some belief before saving faith,
(2) Saving faith, (3) Sanctifying faith.

9. What four events of Abraham's life are selected for illustra-
tion?

ID. Illustrate Nos. i and 2 of these events by Bunyan's pilgrim.

11. In what chapter of Genesis do we find the account of Abra-
ham's justification, how do you prove it, and what the new words in
that chapter ?

12. Where does John get his Logos in the first chapter of his
gospel ?

13. State the circumstances of the visit of the Logos to Abra-
ham, and what three senses attested Kis presence,

14. Is faith itself a shield? If not, what, and what then faith's
relation to the shield?

15. What the great trial of Abraham's faith, and show how com-
mand and promises were in apparent conflict.

16. What the three great events of this trial?

THE HEROES OF FAITH SQl

17. How is it evident that Isaac blessed Jacob with the right of
primogeniture by faith ?

18. How is Jacob's faith evident in blessing Ephraim and
Manasseh.

19. What the elements of Joseph's faith?

20. Who preached a great sermon on Joseph giving command-
ment concerning his bones?

21. Why the difference between men and brutes in caring for
the dead body?

22. State the elements of the faith of the parents of Moses.

2Z. What the first great element in the faith of Moses, and what
the scriptures giving an account of it?

24. What noteworthy things in these passages?

25. What the principles by which Moses made his choice, and
what the consideration or motive?

26. Show from this case of Moses that faith was highest reason
in rejecting one way and choosing the other.

27. Cite other great men of history who have found faith and
the highest exercise of reason.

28. How do you prove that Moses, at this time, was justified?

29. What exploits of his faith after justification are cited?

30. Judging from the viewpoint of today, what the evidences of
the wisdom of the choice of Moses?

31. What exploits of faith are cited from the period of Joshua?

32. Who preached a great sermon on Rahab's faith, and what his
text?

Ans. : Spurgeon. Text, "The Scarlet Thread."

2,Z- Who of the judges are cited as heroes of faith?

34. Consider the list of achievements in 11 : 33-38, and prove that
Samuel "wrought righteousness."

35. Prove that David "subdued kingdoms and obtained promises,"
"escaped the edge of the sword," "waxed valiant in fight," "wander-
ing in deserts and mountains and caves and holes of the earth."

36. In whose case was "stopped the mouths of lions ?"
Z7. In whose "was quenched the violence of fire?"

38. What woman "received her dead raised to life?"

39. Recite the case from the Maccabees of the martyred mother
and her children?

40. What noted prophet was "imprisoned?"

41. Who was "stoned?"

42. Who "sawn asunder?"

43. Who "went about in sheepskins?"

44. On 1 1 : 39, 40 answer : ( i ) What is meant by "not receiving
the promises?" (2) What is meant by "some better things concern-
ing us?" (3) When will they and we be made perfect together?

XXVII

THE OUTCOME OF THE CHRISTIAN'S LIFE

Scripture: Heb. 12: 18-24

THE sixth great promise of the new covenant is the out-
come of the Christian's Hfe, 12: 18-24. This para-
graph is the cHmax, but not the end of the argument
of this letter. The thought has been touched more than once
already, but here is gathered in a correlated group the sum
of all detached antecedent teachings. Here is not one star,
but a constellation more luminous and alluring than the
Pleiades. Indeed, it is a vivid contrast between two oppos-
ing constellations — "The sweet influences of Pleiades" vs.
"The bands of Orion," for it presents both negative and
positive aspects, to wit : What the Christian is not coming to,
and what he is coming to.

Verses 18 to 20 tell us that the Christian is not coming
to Mount Sinai, i.e., to the old covenant, ministered by angels
and mediated by Moses, with its terrors of voice, earthquake,
tempest, fire, darkness and trumpet, so awful that even Moses
feared exceedingly and trembled — a mountain whose touch
was death and whose yoke gendered to bondage and death.
Elsewhere Paul has declared that this mountain, as an alle-
gory, "answereth to Jerusalem that now is; for she is in
bondage with her children," Gal. 4:21-25. Indeed, Gal.
4:21-31 parallels our paragraph and demonstrates Pauline
authorship of this letter. At the giving of the law, the
trumpet of heaven which marshalled the angels, waxed
louder and louder until its awful peals smote the people with
terror — an unearthly trumpet sound that earth never heard

30S

OUTCOME OF THE CHRISTIAN'S LIFE 303

before and will not hear again until the final advent, when
again it marshals the angels to attend our Lord for gather*
ing the elect and for burning the tares, and not, according
to Negro theology, to wake the dead. (See Matt. 13:30,
38-43, 49 ; Matt. 24 : 31 ; I Thess. 4 : 16 for the meaning of the
trumpet.) The outcome of the old covenant is death, to
which the Christian never comes, for "Our Savior, Jesus
Christ, hath abolished death and brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel," and himself said, "I am the
resurrection and the life * * * Whosoever liveth and be-
lieveth in me shall never die."

If we construe the word "come" in "ye are not come" and
"ye are come," in the present or perfect tense, the meaning
is : "Ye are not come unto the old covenant as a regime, but
to the new covenant as a regime." But it is the prophetic
present, or perfect, and represents the outcome or destiny.

THE PARTICULARS OF THE OUTCOME

I. To a definite place. "But ye are come unto Mount Zion,
and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem."
This accords with the statements in chapter 11 : 10: "For
Abraham looked for a city which hath foundations, whose
builder and maker is God," and 11 : 14-16: "For they that
say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after
a country of their own. And if indeed they had been mind-
ful of that country from which they went out, they would
have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better
country, that is, a heavenly ; wherefore God is not ashamed
of them, to be called their God, for He hath prepared for
them a city." On the same line speaks our Lord : "In my
Father's house are many mansions ; if it were not so I would
have told you ; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I
go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive
you unto myself; that where I am there ye may be also.
And whither I go ye know the way," John 14: 2-4. And in

804 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

the Apocalypse of John we have these precious words as to
the conditions there : "And I saw a new heaven and a new
earth; for the first heaven and the first earth are passed
away ; and the sea is no more. And I saw the holy city, new
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made
ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a
great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle
of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they
shall be His people, and God himself shall be with them, and
be their God. And He shall wipe away every tear from their
eyes ; and death shall be no more ; neither shall there be
mourning nor crying, nor pain any more ; the first things are
passed away," Rev. 21 : 1-4. "And I saw no temple therein,
for the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb are the temple
thereof. And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the
moon, to shine upon it ; for the glory of God did lighten it,
and the lamp thereof is the Lamb. And the nations [of the
saved] shall walk amidst the light thereof, and the kings of
the earth bring their glory into it. And the gates thereof
shall in no wise be shut by day (for there shall be no night
there) and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the
nations into it : and there shall in no wise enter into it any-
thing unclean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie ;
but only they that are written in the Lamb's book of life,"
Rev. 21 : 22-27. "And he showed me a river of water of life,
bright as crystal, preceding out of the throne of God and
of the Lamb, in the midst of the street thereof. And on this
side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing
twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month : and
the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
And there shall be no curse any more, and the throne of God
and of the Lamb shall be therein: and His servants shall
serve Him, and they shall see His face, and His name shall
be on their foreheads. And there shall be night no more;
and they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun ; for the

OUTCOME OF THE CHRISTIAN'S LIFE 305

Lord God shall give them light ; and they shall reign forever
and ever," Rev. 22: 1-5.

It was this Paradise regained that Paul was himself per-
mitted to see : "I must needs glory, though it is not expedient ;
but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I
know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the
body I know not : God knoweth), such a one caught up even
to the third heaven. And I know such a man (whether in the
body, or apart from the body, I know not — God knoweth),
how that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeak-
able words, which it is not lawful for man to utter," II Cor.
12: 1-4. And it was concerning this place and condition he
also said : "While we look not at the things which are seen :
for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things
which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if the
earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a build-
ing from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the
heavens," II Cor. 4: 18 — 5 : i.

We need to impress our minds with the fact that all finite
beings must have a place, whether in the body or out of the
body — only the infinite is omnipresent — and that the clear-
ness of our conception of heaven much affects our life. Many
Christians live far from God and are unhappy, and prone to
backsliding, because their conception of heaven is so vague
and misty. They do not lay hold of the powers of the world
to come. Dr. Chalmers, in his greatest sermon, on "The
Expulsive Power of New Affections," says substantially:
"Oh, if some island of the blessed could be loosed from its
heavenly moorings and float down the tide of time so that
we could just once behold the serenity of its skies, the tran-
quility of its pcace^^if just once we could inhale the aroma
of its flowers, catch the sheen of the apparel of its inhab-
itants—just once have our hearts ravished with the melody
of its musio— tbca ttcver again would we oount this world
our hom€."

SOB COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

I once heard at a great camp-meeting a thousand happy
voices singing that old time Methodist hymn:

"Have ye heard, have ye heard, of that sunbright clime,
Undimmed by sorrow and unhurt by time;
Where age hath no power o'er the fadeless frame;
Where the eye is afire and the heart is aflame :
Have ye heard of that sunbright clime?"

The effect was electrical and the impression uneflfaceable.

I stood by the bed-side of a once gifted, but nov^r broken-
hearted viroman, from whose life all earthly joy had been
cruelly snatched away — and crushed and dying, but with face
illumined, she said, "Old time friend and schoolmate of my
happy girlhood, have your people sing to me." "And what
would you have us sing?" "Sing to me of heaven." And
so we sang,

"Oh ! sing to me of heaven
When I am called to die;
Sing songs of holy ecstasy
To waft my soul on high."

Her face shone as the face of an angel, and in a low, sweet
voice she repeated the last stanza, and whispered,

"Let music cheer me last on earth,
And greet me first in heaven."

And so her soul passed upward in a gentle sigh.

We recall the ecstasy of martyred Stephen ; "But he, being
full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven,
and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right
hand of God, and said. Behold, I see the heavens opened,
and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God,"
Acts 7:55, 56.

THE COMPANIONSHIP OF HEAVEN

2. Our companions there forever are of three classes:

Angelic, human and divine. Let us consider them in order :

(i) "To an innumerable company of angels." All those

OUTCOME OF THE CHRISTIAN'S LIFE 307

ministering spirits who, since the throne of grace was estab-
lished, have served the heirs of salvation. Jacob saw them
in his dream at Bethel, descending and ascending the ladder
which reached from heaven to earth, which ladder was our
Lord himself, John 1:51. Cherubim and seraphim, which
constitute the chariot of God, and overlook the mercy seat,
and sing, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty." They
hover over our assemblies on earth, and are instructed in
the manifold wisdom of God as the church unrolls and
reveals that wisdom. They gather the elect for glory, and
the wicked for destruction.

(2) Human companionship in heaven. The "heaven" of
the text must be considered as the place where the disem-
bodied souls of the saints now go, and in the references to
the human companionship there are five distinct ideas :

(a) The first idea relates to them individually.

(b) The second idea relates to their sanctified state. Both
these ideas are in the expression : "The spirits of just men
made perfect."

(c) The third idea relates to their official character while
on earth, "first-born" — this has been explained as meaning
that every regenerate man possesses the right and office of
primogeniture constituting him a priest unto God.

(d) The fourth idea relates to them as having been an
organized assembly, or the enrollment of the "first-born"
ones into a church — Greek, ekklesia. The third and fourth
ideas are in the phrase : "Church of the first-born who are
enrolled in heaven." This is a back reference to their church
life as a business body on earth.

(e) The fifth idea relates to them collectively in heaven,
and is an entirely new one. These churches of the first-
born ones on earth, enrolled in heaven, are in their disem-
bodied state, no longer business bodies, but have become a
"general assembly" — Greek, panegyris. Here the apostle,
following the idea of Greek civic or state bodies, each an

508 COLOSSIANS, :ePHESIANS, HEBREWS

independent business body, beholds them gathered in one
great assembly, not for business or war, but for joyous fes-
tivity. Let not the Spartan ekklesia "come with arms to the
panegyris" "The panegyris and ekklesia of the first-born
who are enrolled in heaven."

The author utterly repudiates any interpretation of pane-
gyris which makes it a festive assembly of angels. There is
not an allusion in the Bible to angels keeping a festival, but
the references are abundant to the festival of the saints in
heaven, as will be shown when we come to the seventh great
promise of the new covenant.

These several ideas restated are as follows

1. When we die we go at once to heaven and become a
companion of every saint whose death preceded ours. We
will know then, not in part, but as we are known. We will
recognize and enjoy Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, and all the
prophets, and all the apostles, evangelists, and martyrs. We
will enjoy the companionship of Spurgeon, Bunyan, and
every other faithful preacher or layman. We will, like
David, go to our own dead children, our sainted father,
mother, brother, or sister.

2. We ourselves, completely sanctified in spirit, will join
the spirits of all the justified now made perfect.

3. On earth we were not only a priest unto God, offering
spiritual sacrifices, but —

4. Were enrolled in heaven as belonging to an organized
business body — an ekklesia.

5. There we will be a member, not of a business body, but
gf a general assembly — panegyris — an assembly, not for
war as on earth, but for a festival of eternal joy.

We now enjoy the companionship of every imperfect saint
of our acquaintance. We now enjoy our church relations,
offering jointly with our brethren assembled in worship,
spiritual praises as priests unto God. We now enjoy our

OUTCOME OF THE CHRISTIAN'S LIFE 30^

gatherings for co-operation in Christian work and warfare,
whether in district associations, state conventions, national
conventions, or international assemblies, for the promotion
of the cause of our Redeemer, but then and there, when
earth's business is ended and its warfare has ceased, we
join the general assembly of all the saints who have crossed
the flood and there are ready to welcome those who follow,
"till all the ransomed church of God are saved to sin no
more."

Dr. Talmage tore his rhetoric to tatters in a vain attempt
to describe the home-coming of the Federal army — a million
men — at the close of the Civil War, as they passed in one
grand review, company by company, regiment by regiment,
brigade by brigade, division by division, army corps by army
corps — infantry, cavalry, artillery — drums beating, bands
playing, cannon thundering, flags floating, and cheer after
cheer saluting. But how shall all that compare with the
grand review of the redeemed, which John saw in vision
from Patmos? "After these things I saw, and behold, a
great multitude, which no man could number, out of every
nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing
before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white
robes, and palms in their hands ; and they cry with a great
voice, saying, "Salvation unto our God who sitteth on the
throne, and unto the Lamb. * * * These are they that come
out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes,
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore
are they before the throne of God ; and they serve Him day
and night in His temple : and He that sitteth on the throne
shall spread His tabernacle over them. They shall hunger
no more, neither thrist any more ; neither shall the sun strike
upon them, nor any heat : for the Lamb that is in the midst
of the throne shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them
unto fountains of waters of life : and God shall wipe away
every tear from their eyes," Rev. 7 : 9, 10, 14-17.

310 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

3. Divine Companionship. — "Ye are come to God, the
Judge of all * * * to Jesus, the mediator of the new cove-
nant." The desire of the ages to see God has been baffled
by the statement: "No man hath seen God at any time, or
can see Him." Job cried out : "O that I knew where I might
find Him and talk to Him face to face as with a friend!"
Philip prayed : "Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth."
But it is the promise of the new covenant that we shall see
God. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
The spirits of the just made perfect do see Him. They come
to Him: "Oh that my words were now written! Oh that
they were inscribed in a book ! That with an iron pen and
lead they were graven in the rock forever ! But as for me,
I know that my Redeemer liveth, and at last He will stand
up upon the earth; and after my skin, even this body, is
destroyed. Then without my flesh shall I see God, whom I,
even I, shall see on my side, and mine eyes shall behold, and
not as a stranger," Job 19: 23-27. Not only so, but in our
glorified bodies we shall see Him : "And they shall see His
face, and His name shall be in their foreheads," Rev. 22 : 4.

The spirits of the just made perfect shall see Jesus, the
mediator of the new covenant. We never saw Him in the
flesh — that "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" —
but when we die we shall see Him anointed with the oil of
gladness above His fellows. Then with Paul elsewhere we
may say : "Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent
from the Lord;" for us "to die is gain, for when we are
absent from the body we are present with the Lord."

Not only so, but when absent from the body we come "to
the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things for us
than the blood of Abel." This does not mean the application
of the blood of Christ to our hearts — that is done in regenera-
tion— ^but it means that we come, when we die, to the Holy
of Holies in heaven and see where Christ's blood, shed on
earth for expiation, was sprinkled on the mercy seat in

OUTCOME OF THE CHRISTIAN'S LIFE 311

heaven for atonement, in the interval between His death and
resurrection.

We now need to understand the meaning of "which
speaketh better things for us than the blood of Abel," i.e.,
the blood of Abel's typical lamb, which could not possibly
take away sin. Yet Spurgeon in a great sermon on this text,
construes it to mean Abel's own blood which Cain shed,
according to Gen. 4: lo, 11 : "And He said. What hast thou
done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from
the ground. And now cursed art thou from the ground,
which hath opened its mouth to receive thy brother's blood
from thy hand." The great preacher draws a vivid picture
of the evicted soul of Abel rushing into heaven and crying :
"Vengeance! Vengeance, O God, on my murderer!" But
our Lord's blood cries: "Father, forgive them; they know
not what they do."

I wish I could close my discussion here, but inexorable
duty requires, at least, an outline of the outcome of the
impenitent sinner:

1. He, too, when he dies, comes to a place — "a place pre-
pared for the devil and his angels."

2. The conditions of that place are foreshown by our Lord
in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Luke 16: 23-31.
A place of intolerable thirst and torment, so far from the
water of Hfe. Between this place and the place of the
righteous is a deep impassable gulf, a place of unanswered
prayers, a place not only unreachable by agents of mercy in
heaven or in earth, but a place from which no mission can
be sent to earth to warn loved ones not to join him there.

3. It, too, has its human companions — all liars, thieves,
gamblers, extortioners, covetous men, adulterers, and
idolators.

4. It has its angelic companions — the devil and his
dem.ons, whom the impenitent in life preferred to God and
holy angels. Ah ! "Wide is the place, and deep as wide, and

312 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

ruinous as deep, while over head and all around, wind wars
with wind, and storms unceasing hurl the lightning bolts
of wrath, and remorse, the undying worm forever gnaws/*
The outcome — the outcome of the path whose steps take
hold of death and hell!

QUESTIONS

1. What the climax of the argument in this letter?

2. State the negative outcome of the Christian's life.

3. Cite the particulars, without the scriptures, of what the Chris-
tian comes to.

4. Give scriptures on the place.

5. Give the scriptures on the conditions of the place.

6. Why do many Christians live so unhappily, so unprofitably,
so prone to backsliding?

7. Quote Dr. Chalmers.

8. Quote the great Methodist hymn.

9. Give the scriptures on the angelic companionship.

10. What the several ideas on the human companionship?

11. What the scriptures on coming to the Father and seeing Him?

12. On coming to the Son? In the passage from Job 19 on seeing
the Redeemer, which version is correct, common or revised? In
other words, does Job expect to be "without his body" or "in his
risen body" when he beholds his Redeemer ?

13. Explain "coming to the blood of sprinkling," and do you agree
with Spurgeon?

14. State the particulars of the sinner's outcome, by way of
contrast.

XXVIII

THE BETTER FESTIVALS

Scripture: All References

SO far as the Letter to the Hebrews is concerned, I quote
two passages of scripture — 12 : 10 : "We have an altar
whereof they have no right to eat that serve the taber-
nacle." The other passage is just one word of chapter 12:
"You have come to the general assembly" — the Greek word,
panegyris, which means a festive assembly, that is, an
assembly not for business, and not for war, but for joyous
festivities.

The theme of this chapter is the seventh great promise of
the new covenant, towit : The Christian's festivals superior
to the old covenant festivals. I divide this into four heads :

First, the feasts of supports. The sacrifices of the altar that
went to the support of the Old Testament priesthood, and it is
to that that our first passage quoted refers : "We have an
altar whereof they have no right to eat that serve the taber-
nacle." To show the meaning of that first thought, we will
turn to in our study I Cor. 9: 13, 14, which presents the
same thought exactly : "Know ye not that they that minister
about sacred things eat of the things of the temple, and they
that wait upon the altar have their portion with the altar?
Even so did the Lord ordain that they that proclaim the
gospel should live of the gospel." One of the accusations
made by Jews against Christians was that their covenant
made ample provision for their priesthood — those who were
set apart exclusively to the service of God. Now, it is
promised them by this passage (I Cor. 9: 13, 14 and Heb.

313

314 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

13:10) that Christianity has a better provision for its
ministers than the Jews had for their priesthood — that it
comes by a special ordinance of the Lord that they who
preach the gospel shall live of the gospel. In the old covenant
the things that were for the Levites to eat were never
sin-offerings ; these sin-offerings had to be entirely consumed.
They would not eat of part of that, but some burnt-offerings
were not sin-offerings. Of these they had a part and also of
meal-offerings, the parts of the crop and the parts of the
flock, and the parts of the increase, the tithing; that por-
tion was made for the support of the Levites and the priests.
It is the object of the apostle to claim that Christianity
makes a better provision, not based upon an ad valorem tax,
nor a certain amount of specified increase, nor a certain
portion of each burnt-offering, nor a sin-offering; nor a
certain portion of the thank-offering, nor of a meal-offering ;
but a general ordinance of Jehovah that one whose life was
consecrated to the preaching of the gospel must live of the
gospel. That is the first thought.

The second thought is the family, or memorial feast of
the passover. In the book of Exodus we have an account of
the establishment of the passover, and of the feasts of
unleavened bread, and of the lamb, and of bitter herbs. In
the Letter to the Corinthians, Paul discusses these feasts
and what the Christian has to take the place of them, using
this language : "Purge out the old leaven that ye may be a
new lump, even as ye are unleavened. For our passover
also hath been sacrificed, even Christ : wherefore let us keep
the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of
malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of
sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you in my epistle to have
no company with fornicators, not at all meaning with the
fornicators of this world, or with the covetous or extor-
tioners, or with idolators, for then must ye needs go out
of the world. But as it is, I wrote unto you not to keep

THE BETTER FESTIVALS 315

company, if any man that is named a brother be a forni-
cator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a reviler, or a drunk-
ard, or an extortioner; with such a one no, not to eat."
I Cor. 5:7-12. That is the first exclusion in the institution
of the Lord's Supper — an exclusion of church members
whose lives are at war with their profession. We are to come
to that feast in sincerity and in truth, each one examining
himself as to his faith in Christ; and we are to partake of
that feast shut off, not from outside evil-doers, for they are
not in it at all, but from such as are members of the church
who are extortioners, liars, thieves, idolators; from men
whose lives are outrageous in sin — with such do not eat.

Whereas the Jew kept that feast as a family, our family
is the church. They kept the feast, each family apart — the
Christians keep this feast as a church family, every church
having jurisdiction that can exclude from participation in
that feast all unworthy. Thus they celebrate that memorial
feast of our Lord. That is the first exclusion, that is, exclu-
sion from the inside. I now show that outsiders cannot par-
take of this feast, and I give a passage from I Cor. 10: 15 :
"I speak as to wise men ; judge ye what I say. The cup of
blessing w^hich we bless, is it not a communion (or participa-
tion) of the blood of Christ? And the bread which we
break, is it not a communion (or participation) of the body
of Christ ? Seeing that we who are many, and are one bread,
one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Behold,
Israel after the flesh: have not they that eat the sacrifices
communion with the altar? What say I then that things
sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything;
but I say that the things that the Gentiles sacrifice, they
sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I would not that
ye have communion with demons. Ye cannot drink the cup
of the Lord, and the cup of demons ; ye cannot partake of
the table of the Lord and of the table of demons."

You see in that part in the Christian festival there is no

316 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

open communion with false worship. It is a close com-
munion document. Here is the table: it is the Lord's, not
mine. If it were mine I could put it out under a tree in the
yard, or in the cellar, or in the field, or in the house. If it
were mine I could invite anybody to eat with me that I
pleased, but it is the Lord's table, and the cup is the cup of
the Lord, and the Lord must say who shall partake of this
feast.

In such a place as Corinth, where there were inter-mar-
riages, it was the easiest thing in the world for a woman,
who was a Christian, to be approached by her husband, who
was an idolator, who might say, "Let us partake together;
you come and eat my feast with me and I will eat your feast
with you." Here comes the injunction — it is not a participa-
tion of husband and wife — it is a participation in the blood
and body of Christ, and we cannot take the cup of the Lord
and the cup of the demons, for idolators do worship demons
— their oracles are demon oracles. So that is the second
thought of the Christian festival. We now come to the —

Third thought : the love feasts. From the Old Testament,
just after the covenant on Sinai was ratified, we have this
record: "Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab, Abihu,
and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God
of Israel ; and there was under His feet as it were a paved
work of sapphire stone, and as it were the very heavens for
clearness, and upon the nobles of the children of Israel He
laid not His hand, and they beheld God and did eat and
drink" (Ex. 24:9-11).

That feast of joy was celebrated after the ratification of
their covenant. In Jude 12 he refers to Christian "love
feasts" this way (he is talking about those that deny the
Lord Jesus Christ and that go in the way of Balaam for
hire, or in the way of Korah by gainsaying) : "These are
they who are hidden rocks in your love feasts when they feast
with you, shepherds that without fear feed themselves;

THE BETTER FESTIVALS 317

clouds without water carried along by winds ; autumn trees
without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; wild
waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame ; wandering
stars for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved
forever."

There is a feast after the ratification of the new covenant.
It is called a love feast. In Acts 2 this love feast is used in
contra-distinction from the Lord's Supper. I will first take
the passage about the Lord's Supper : "And they were con-
stant in their attendance on the public teachings of the
apostles, and in contribution, in the breaking of bread, and
in prayers." Breaking of the bread there refers to the ordi-
nance of the Lord's Supper. "And all that believed were
come together and had all things common ; and they sold their
possessions and goods, and parted them to all, according as
any man had need. And day by day, continuing steadfastly
with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home,
they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart,
praising God, and having favor with all the people."

Out of that passage in Acts, and the one in Jude, grew up
after apostolic days "love feasts" of a somewhat different
order. They would have that feast at the time they had the
Lord's Supper, making a common meal of it, and would
sometimes extend the feasting unto excess, as I have known
Negroes to do. I saw a Negro love feast once. Their com-
munion-wine was a jug of whisky, and their unleavened
bread was stacks of pies arranged along the side of the wall,
and they would drink the whisky and eat those pies, and join
hands and have a regular hallelujah dance. Church history
tells much about these love feasts. The Methodists have
founded spiritual love feasts. They do not give bread to
eat, or wine to drink, but have a soul-feast.

The point that I am making is that in the joy that came
to the old-covenant people after the blood of the sacrifice
had been sprinkled, and the covenant had been ratified, the

318 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

representatives went up into the mountain in the presence
of God and had their feast in His presence. So the Chris-
tians, after the ratification of their covenant, came to the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and
had their feasts and their spiritual communion.

I come now to the fourth thought. In the Old Testament
there were general or national feasts — not family feasts, like
the Passover, but the feast of the tabernacles and the feast
of Pentecost. Once every year they would come up and live
in tents, and Jerusalem would have millions of people in it
from every part of the world. The Jews would come up in
general assembly. It was an exceedingly joyous time with
them with all the dispersion coming from the ends of the
earth. What is there in the Christian covenant superior to
that? It is expressed in Hebrews 12 in that word, panegyris
— a general festive assembly. Paul strictly follows the Greek
custom in the use of words. Each particular Greek State
was an independent civic government, an ekklesia, but every
four years say, the entire Greek nation would come together
in a general assembly — a panegyris — that was the name of
it. They did not come together to make war on each other :
"Let not the Lacedamonians come up to the panegyris with
arms in their hands." They had feasts and games and great
joy. The apostle seizes upon that refinement of Greek
thought to show that as each church here on earth has its
Lord's Supper, so there will be a general assembly of all
the people of God — not for the transaction of business, for
business is done ; not for war, for war is over — but they
come together in heaven in a great festive assembly.

I give some of the passages that bear out this idea. There
must be something more than a reference to the Lord's
Supper in Luke 22 : 28-30 : "But ye are they that have con-
tinued with me in my temptations ; and I appoint unto you
a kingdom, even as my Father appointed unto me, that ye
may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom ; and ye shall

THE BETTER FESTIVALS 319

sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." In
Matthew 8 : 1 1 Jesus says, "Many shall come from the East
and the West, the North and the South, and shall recline at
the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of
God." That panegyris seems to be in his mind. In Luke i6
we have a picture of a single person coming up from death
and joining that panegyris: "And it came to pass that this
beggar [Lazarus, starved to death on earth, hungering for
even the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table] died,
and he was carried away by angels into Abraham's bosom."
The thought is based on the posture of reclining at a feast
that as at the Lord's Supper, John leans his head against
the bosom of the Lord, so that poor starved-out man on eart*h,
as soon as he dies, goes to the great heavenly festival and
rests his head upon the bosom of Abraham, while that rich
man, who fared sumptuously every day here on earth, as
soon as he died, woke up in hell, burning with consuming
thirst and hunger. But Lazarus goes to the panegyris — the
general assembly. Let us consider one more passage on it.
In Matt. 26, where our Lord has just instituted the Lord's
Supper and is holding the cup in His hands after they had
participated in it. He says, "I shall drink no more of this
fruit of the vine until I drink it new [not as it is now] in
the kingdom of God." That is a clear reference to the same
thought. In other words, the idea of heaven is : Warfare is
ended, privation is ended, and the widely scattered people
of God are brought into a general assembly. Of course this
imagery here is spiritual ; it refers to the joys of redemption
of God's people — not isolated and imperfect — but assembled
and glorified.

Let us now restate briefly these four thoughts of the
festival. The first thought is that while the Jew had an
appointed provision for his priests and Levites of which a
Christian could not partake, so our Lord made provision for
His ministers that no Jewish priest could share, towit:

320 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

"They that preach the gospel shall live by the gospel."
Second, that as the Jew had his love feasts, so the Christian
has his agapae, for social and religious enjoyment. Third,
that as the Jew had his passover family- feast, the Christian
has his Lord's Supper, or church- feast. Fourth, that as the
Jew had his national festivals every year when all Jews
came together, the Christian will have his panegyris, when
all Christians of the universe shall come together in one
great festive assembly.

QUESTIONS

1. What the seventh great promise of the new covenant?

2. Under what four heads is this treated?

3. What two passages are cited from Hebrews bearing on this
matter ?

4. Contrast, under the first head, the provision of the old cove-
nant for the support of its priests, with the provision of the new
covenant for the support of its preachers.

5. Under the second head what feast has the new covenant
analogous to the Jewish Passover ?

6. The Jewish Passover was a family feast. What is the Lord's
Supper ?

7. In respect to how many classes is the Lord's Supper exclusive?

8. Show what members of the church, even, are to be refused
participation ?

9. What scripture bears on its exclusiveness of outside religions?

10. What would you argue from its being "The Lord's table —
the cup of the Lord" — as bearing on invitations to participation in its
observance?

11. Under the third head what love, or joy-feast, was held after
the ratification of the old covenant?

12. What single passage names the new covenant "love-feasts?"

13. What the character of Methodist "love-feasts?"

14. Under the fourth head what N. T. passages are cited bearing
on the heavenly feast?

15. What one Greek word in Hebrews names it?

16. Distinguish between the particular Greek assemblies called
ekklesias and their general festive assembly called panegyris.

XXIX

EXHORTATIONS AND SPECIAL PASSAGES

Scripture: All References

ALL New Testament exhortation is based on antecedent
statement of doctrine. In Hebrews the whole letter
is a succession of doctrines and exhortations — first
a doctrine, then its application. In some respects, then, is
it a model in homiletics.

1. It shows the relation between dogma and morals. There
can be no morals apart from dogma. To leave out dogma
undermines morality.

2. Dogma, as a mere theory, is valueless. Its power lies
in its application to practical life, governing thought, emo-
tion, imagination, words, and deeds, in all of life's relations
to God, home, country, and the universe.

The present-day ministry has deteriorated in the power of
exhortation based on vivid conceptions of great and definitive
doctrines concerning God, law, sin, salvation, heaven and
hell. The first exhortation in this letter is an exhortation to
earnest attention: "Therefore, we ought to give the more
earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest haply we drift
away from them. For if the word spoken through angels
proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape
if we neglect so great a salvation, which having at the first
been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by
them that heard?" Heb. 2: 1-3. The doctrinal basis of this
exhortation is all the first chapter, setting forth our Lord's
threefold Sonship, by eternal subsistence, by His incarnation,

322 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

by His resurrection, and His threefold superiority over the
universe, over the angels, and over the prophets. The pre-
cise tendency against which this exhortation warns is to
"drift away" from great truths. Any steady lateral pres-
sure which insidiously swerves a floating object from a
given direction, and causes drifting, as a prevalent wind, an
ocean-current or undertow, rapids in a river leading to a
fall or the suction of a whirlpool. Inherited depravity, the
course of this world, the temptations of Satan, the increas-
ing power of evil habits until they become second nature —
in a word, the world, the flesh and the devil constitute the
drifting power, or trend away from salvation. The danger
of neglecting this exhortation is that we are carried away
unwittingly until there is no escape forever. The great
majority of life's irreparable disasters are brought about
by "drifting away" through "heedlessness" and "neglect."

The element of the greatness in this salvation is deliver-
ance of the entire man, soul and body, forever, from the
guilt, defilement, love and dominion of sin, into an eternal
and most blessed state of reconciliation and companionship
with God. The historical argument against any hope of
escape if this salvation be neglected is that from Sinai to
Christ's advent every word of the law disposed by angels
proved steadfast, and every transgression was justly pun-
ished. The historical instances of this penalty of the law
and of the prophets are numerous. The applied logic of this
history is as follows :

By so much as Christ is greater than angels or prophets ;
by so much as His revelation is more complete and the
light of His gospel brighter ; by so much as it is better
accredited ; by so much as it is final where theirs was transi-
tional and educational — by that much is its penalty surer and
severer.

The second exhortation, found in 3 : 8, is against "harden-
ing the heart." There is a relation between "drifting" and

EXHORTATION, SPECIAL PASSAGES 3^3

"hardening." "Drifting" precedes and tends toward "hard-
ening," which is a more dangerous state. By "hardening"
is meant a blunting of the moral perceptions, a growing
callousness to spiritual sensations, tending to the condition
of "past feeling." According to the context "an evil heart
of unbelief" operating through the "deceitfulness of sin"
causes hardening. This deceitfulness consists in miscon-
struing the grace of delay in punishment as immunity alto-
gether, as saith the prophet: "Because sentence against an
evil deed is not speedily executed, the heart of the sinner is
fully set in him to do evil."

The third exhortation is found in 4 : 1 1 thus : "Let us labor
therefore to enter into that rest." The doctrinal basis of
this exhortation is that as God rested from creation, com-
memorating it by a Sabbath day, so Jesus rested after the
greater work of redemption, commemorating it by appoint-
ing a new day for Sabbath-keeping.

The fourth exhortation, found in 4: 14, is this: "To hold
fast to our confession." The doctrinal basis is the fact that
Jesus, our High Priest, has entered into the heavenly Holy
of Holies to make atonement and intercession for us.

The fifth exhortation, 4 : 16, is to come boldly to the throne
of grace for mercy and help in every time of need. The
doctrinal basis of this exhortation is the fact that our High
Priest is touched with a feeling of our infirmities, having
been in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

The occasion for the sixth exhortation is that they were
in a state of arrested development, remaining "babes in
Christ" when they ought to have been teachers, and so not
only unprepared to receive the higher grades of Christian
knowledge, but they were unable to discern between good
and evil because their spiritual senses had not been exercised ;
hence they were continually tempted to try to rub out and
make a new start from the very beginning (See 5 : 11-14).
This reminds us of the three classes into which our Lord

324f COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

divided His flock : ( i ) Lambs, Greek : arnia, i.e., new con-
verts; (2) Sheep, Greek: probata, i.e., mature Christians;
(3) Little sheep, Greek (best manuscript) : "prohatia" i.e.,
Christians stunted in growth (See John 21 : 15-19). These
Hebrews were "little sheep."

The phrase, "by reason of use," is illustrated by the senses,
or faculties, or muscles which increase in power by use, or
go into bankruptcy by disuse. Certain Chinese families,
training the sense of touch for generations, can tell colors
of cloth fabrics in the dark by feeling. It is said also that
certain Japanese dentists, by long training of the muscles
of thumb and forefinger, extract teeth, using the hand alone
as forceps. Again, the prophet, referring to the second
nature of long continued evil habits, says, "As the Ethiopian
cannot change his skin nor a leopard his spots, so one accus-
tomed to do evil cannot learn to do well."

This sixth exhortation is to leave the first principles, not
attempting the relaying of foundations, but go on to maturity,
6: 1. The first principles of Christian oracles are the foun-
dation of repentance and faith, the teaching of baptisms, the
laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal
judgment, 6 : 2.

Repentance and faith are called a foundation because
without them one can neither be a Christian nor be saved.
Therefore the folly of attempting to relay this founda-
tion, since it is never laid but once, which Paul hypothet-
ically states thus: "For as touching those who were once
enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made
partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of
God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away,
it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance,"
Heb. 6:4-6.

This passage has several interpretations, as follows:

I. John Bunyan held that the "enlightening," "tasting,"
and "partaking" of this passage refer to illumination and

EXHORTATION, SPECIAL PASSAGES 325

conviction by the Holy Spirit which did not eventuate in
regeneration. This view the author rejects because the
passage also supposes genuine repentance as well as "illu-
mination" and "conviction," else why say it is impossible to
renew them again unto repentance f Moreover, he discon-
nects the force of "being made partakers of the Holy Spirit**
and "tasting of the powers of the world to come."

2. Dr. Wilkes, a Methodist preacher, as the author heard
him say, held that the passage certainly taught two things :
(a) A genuine Christian may lose regeneration; and (b)
if he does he can never be converted again.

3. The author holds that "the enlightening," "tasting"
and "partaking" are equivalent to regeneration, and that
the passage does teach that if regeneration were once lost
it could never be regained, because, having exhausted the
benefits of Christ's crucifixion in the direction of regenera-
tion, another regeneration would call for another crucifixion,
but Christ, as a sin-offering, dies but once — He is offered
once for all. So the passage teaches "Seeing they crucify
to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to an
open shame." It would be an open shame to Christ if a
beneficiary of His salvation should lose it and thus vitiate
the certainty of the Father's promise to Him and covenant
with Him. But that the statement is hypothetic appears
from the apostle's added words: "But, beloved, we are
persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany
salvation, though we thus speak ;" "But we are not of them
that shrink back unto perdition ; but of them that have faith
unto the saving of the soul." The object of the exhortation
is to influence the Christian to move on and not spend a life-
time at the foundation, for in any event this is folly.

To illustrate : Being present, as a visitor, at a Methodist
meeting, I was invited to talk to some of the mourners. I
approached a man who seemed to be weeping in great dis-
tress, and asked what was his trouble. His reply was, sub-

326 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

stantially : "I have been converted several times, but I always
lose it." I assured him he was mistaken on one or the other
of two points — either he was never genuinely converted, or
he had never lost it — both could not be true. He replied:
"I knozv I was converted, and I know I lost it." Then said
I : "Why are you wasting time here ; why shedding fruit-
less tears? H you are right on both points, then you are
forever lost. You have exhausted the plan of salvation.
Your only chance is for Christ to come and die again and
send the Holy Spirit again, of w^hich there is no promise,
and even in that case there is no certainty for you unless He
and the Holy Spirit should do more efficient work next time.
I don't desire to shake your positive, infallible knowledge
that you have been regenerated and that you have lost it,
but merely point out that in such case you are forever lost,
just as certainly as if you were in hell now. Here, look at
Heb. 6 : 4-6, and see that I can do you no good, and so will
pass on to cases not hopeless." "Don't leave me," he said,
"maybe I am mistaken on one of those points."

"Baptism" here is in the plural and there is a reference
here, (i) To baptism in water (Matt. 28:19); (2) To
baptism in fire, or eternal punishment (Matt. 3:10-12);
(3) To baptism in the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5); (4) To
baptism in suffering (Mark 10: 39).

"The teaching of laying on of hands" refers : (i) To con-
ferring of miraculous power by the laying on of hands of
the apostles (Acts 8: 17; 19:6) which, accrediting of the
apostles, passed away with the apostles ; (2) To the abiding
requirement of laying on of hands in the ordination (a) for
deacons (Acts 6:6), (b) For evangelists (Acts 13 :3 ; I Tim.
4: 14), and (c) For other preachers (I Tim. 5 : 22).

From a peculiar interpretation of Heb. 6: i, 2 there arose
a sect known as the "Six-Principle Baptists" who practiced
laying hands on those who were baptized as an essential part
of the form of the ordinance.

EXHORTATION, SPECIAL PASSAGES 327

QUESTIONS

1. What the New Testament method of exhortation?

2. What the method in Hebrews?

3. In what respects, then, is it a model in homiletics?

4. Wherein has the present-day ministry deteriorated?

5. What the first exhortation in this letter, and what its doc-
trinal basis?

6. What the precise tendency against which this exhortation
warns ?

7. What the causes of drifting?

8. What, in plain terms, constitute the drifting power, or trend
away from salvation?

9. What the danger of neglecting this exhortation?

10. What is your estimate of the relative proportion of life's
irreparable disasters brought about by "drifting away" through
"heedlessness" and "neglect?"

u. What the elements of greatness in this salvation?

12. What the historical argument against any hope of escape if
we neglect this salvation ?

13. Cite historical instances of this penalty (i) of the law and (2)
of the prophets.

14. What the applied logic of this history?

15. Against what is the exhortation in 3:8?

16. What the relation between "drifting" and "hardening?"

17. What do you understand by "hardening?"

18. What do we find in the context as a cause of "hardening?"

19. In what does deceitfulness consist?

20. What the exhortation relative to rest, and what its doctrinal
basis ?

21. What the exhortation relative to confession, and what its
doctrinal basis?

22. What the exhortation relative to our need, and what the doc-
trinal basis?

22). What the occasion of the exhortation relative to perfection?

24. Into what three classes did our Lord divide His flock, and of
which class were these Hebrews?

25. Expound the phrase, "by reason of use."

26. What, then, the exhortation relative to perfection?

27. What the first principles of Christian oracles?

28. Why are repentance and faith called a foundation?

29. What the folly of trying to relay this foundation, and what
the doctrine involved?

30. How does Paul hypothetically state this?

31. What the several interpretations of this passage?

32. Give an incident of the use of this passage by the author.
ZZ' What is the meaning of "baptisms" used in this passage?

34. What the meaning of "laying on of hands?"

35. What sect of Baptists arose from a peculiar interpretation of
Heb. 6:1, 2, and what their construction of "laying on of hands?"

XXX

EXHORTATIONS AND SPECIAL PASSAGES
(Concluded)

Scripture: All References

THE seventh exhortation in this book is as follows:
"Let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of
faith — let us hold fast the confession of our hope
that it waver not — let us consider one another to provoke
unto love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling
together, exhorting one another," lo: 22-25. The doctrines
that underlie this manifold exhortation are, (i) Christ has
rent the veil hiding the holy of holies by His death, and
dedicated for us a new and living way. (2) We have a
great High Priest over the house of God. (3) The day of
His final coming is rapidly approaching, Heb. 10: 19-21.

Here a question arises. Does "having our bodies washed
with pure water" (10:22) refer to water baptism, and if
so, what the bearing of the teaching? It is not clear that it
has such reference. But if it does, it strongly supports the
Baptist teaching, towit : Our souls are cleansed by the appli-
cation of Christ's blood by the Holy Spirit in regeneration.
Baptism in water only washes the body, and hence can only
externally symbolize the internal cleansing. In this way
Paul, internally cleansed, could arise and wash away his
sins symbolically in baptism (Acts 22: 16), or as Peter puts
it: "Water, even baptism, after a true likeness doth now
save us, not putting away the filth of the flesh (i.e., the carnal
nature), but the answer of a good conscience toward God,
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ," I Pet. 3:21. In

S28

EXHORTATION, SPECIAL PASSAGES 329

other words, it is a figurative salvation, and the figure or
likeness is that of a resurrection (See Romans 6:4, 5).

Paul's reason for the seventh exhortation is expressed in
the famous passage, 10:26-29, the whole of which is an
explanation of the eternal, unpardonable sin against the
Holy Spirit, very different from the gradual, unconscious
sins of "drifting" and "hardening." Its conditions and
characteristics are :

1. There has been great spiritual light and knowledge,
thoroughly convincing the judgment of the truth of the
gospel, and strongly impressing the mind to accept it.

2. It is a distinct and wilful rejection of the well known
light and monition of the Holy Spirit.

3. It is a culmination of sin against every person of the
Trinity, (a) It is a sin against the Father in deliberately
trampling under foot the Son of His love, (b) It is a sin
against the Son in counting the blood of His expiation an
unho)y thing, (c) It is the sin against the Holy Spirit in
doing despite to His grace who has furnished complete proof
to the rejector's conscience that it is God's Son who is
trampled under foot, and that the blood of His vicarious
sacrifice alone can save.

4. Once committed, the soul is there and then forever lost,
having never forgiveness in time or eternity, and knows that
for him there is no more sacrifice for sin, and expects
nothing but judgment and fiery wrath which shall devour
the adversaries.

5. Let the reader particularly note that this sin cannot be
committed except in an atmosphere, not merely of light and
knowledge, but of spiritual light, knowledge and power, and
that it is one wilful, malicious act, arising from hate — hating
the more because of the abundance and power of the light.

The eighth exhortation is, "Cast not away your boldness,"
10 : 35. The exhortation is based on appeal to their remem-
brance of the triumphs of their past experience. They had

330 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

patiently endured a great conflict of sufferings just after
their conversion; they had been made a gazing-stock both
by reproaches and afflictions cast on them, and by their shar-
ing in the afflictions of their leaders. This is evident from
the history of Paul's labors among them. There was
nothing in their present afflictions severer than those they
triumphantly endured in their earlier experience.

The ninth exhortation is, "Therefore, let us also, seeing
that we are compassed about by so great a cloud of wit-
nesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so
easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that
is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and per-
fecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him
endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that
hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against himself,
that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls," Heb. 12 : 1-3.
The imagery here is that of a foot-race, such as these people
had often witnessed in the Isthmian Games at Cornith, or
in the great amphitheatre at Ephesus. "The race set before
us" — the great example upon whom the runner must fix his
eye — is Jesus, the author (or captain) and perfecter of our
faith.
The force of the example of Jesus in 12: 2 is this:
He is set before us as the one perfect model or standard.
A joy was set before Him as a recompense of reward that
when attained would make Him the gladdest man in the
universe. For this He voluntarily became the saddest man
in the universe. Thus "the Man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief" was "anointed with the oil of gladness above
His fellows;" "He saw of the travail of His soul and was
satisfied." Here we are confronted with this double ques-
tion : Does the phrase, "author and perfecter of our faith,"
mean that Jesus first inspires and then completes our individ-
ual faith — i.e., what He begins He consummates — or that

EXHORTATION, SPECIAL PASSAGES 331

He is the Captain and completer of the faith in the sense
that His completed victory is both cause and earnest of our
own victory, as in 2: lo? The latter best accords with the
import of the Greek word, archegos, used both here and in
2:10, and with the whole context.

The word, '"witnesses," in 12: i means "martyrs'* whose
examples should excite our emulation, and accords with the
meaning and usage of the Greek word marturos, which
makes them witnesses to the truth and not spectators of
what other people may do. Moreover, the Biblical evidence
is scant, if there be any at all, that departed souls are allowed
to sympathetically intervene in the struggles of those left
behind. Yet, by rhetorical license, in the exercise of the
imagination, a poet, orator, or writer, may summon the dead
to appear before the living for dramatic effect. But we go
far when we seek to construct doctrine on rhetorical license.
What is the "besetting sin" in 12: i? It may not be the
same in all cases. It is the sin to which one most easily
yields, whether pride, lust, covetousness, anger, vanity, or
any other.

The tenth exhortation, 12:4-13, is, "Regard not lightly the
chastening of the Lord," because (i) chastening is an evi-
dence of sonship. (2) If we have borne arbitrary chastening
from earthly parents, much more we will bear disciplinary
chastening from our heavenly Father. (3) While grievous
at first, it yieldeth afterward peaceable fruit of righteousness,
if rightly received.

Here come up the Creationist theory of the origin of
human spirits and the Traducian theory. The Creationist
theory is that the spirit of every human being born into
the world is a direct creation of God, and only the body
is derived from the earthly parent. The Traducian theory
is that every child, in his entirety, spirit and body, is de-
rived from his earthly parents, begotten in the likeness not
only of bodily features, but in spiritual state, otherwise man

332 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

could not propagate his species, and every child would, in
his inner nature, be born holy, not subject to inherited de-
pravity and not needing regeneration until he became an
actual transgressor, hence needing only proper environment
and training to grow up in holiness.

The passage in question is not decisive for either theory.
God is the Father of spirits in that originally the spirit of
man was not a formation from inert matter, but a special
creation (See Gen. 2:7). Thus the whole race, body and
spirit, was potentially in the first man, died body and spirit
in him when he fell, and after his fall he "begat children
in his likeness" body and spirit.

In 12:12, 13, "hands hanging down," "palsied knees,"
and "crooked paths" refer to the physical effects of spiritual
depression or terror, the inner man acting on the outer. See
case of Belshazzar (Dan. 5:6), and recall cases coming
under your own observation in which discouragements or
despondency of the spirit enfeeble the body. Some men,
morally brave, are physically timid. A famous French mar-
shall always trembled at the beginning of battle. On one
occasion his officers rallied him on his shaking legs. He
answered, "If my legs only knew into what dangers I will
take them today, they would shake more than they do."

The eleventh exhortation, 12 : i4ff, is, "Follow after peace
with all men, and the sanctification without which no man
shall see the Lord." There are two hazards attending obe-
dience to this exhortation, against which there are specia/
cautions, as follows: (i) The springing up of a root of
bitterness to defile many. (2) The spirit of profanity, or
the despising of sacred things.

In our own experience or observation, cases arise of a
single root of bitterness disturbing the peace of communi-
ties and retarding the sanctification of hundreds.

Profanity here means, not so much swearing as it does a
Spirit of irreverence in speaking of sacred things, and some-

EXHORTATION, SPECIAL PASSAGES 333

times interested lost souls are completely side-tracked by
the levity and foolish jestings, and the questionable anec-
dotes of preachers in their hours of relaxation.

The author having often, in his early ministry, witnessed
the wounding and shocking of sober-minded Christians and
the loss of interest in awakened sinners caused by the foolish
jestings in the preacher's tent concerning sacred things, and
sometimes by obscene anecdotes, entered into a solemn cove-
nant with Dr. Riddle, the moderator of the Waco Associa-
tion, never to tell nor willingly hear a doubtful anecdote.
This covenant was made while camping out one night on
the prairie in the light of the stars.

The twelfth exhortation and its doctrinal basis are found
in 12 : 28, 29 : "Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot
be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service
well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe : for our God
is a consuming fire.

I will group in classes the exhortations of chapter 13 as
follows :

1 . Love to brethren, strangers, and those in bonds.

2. Honor the sanctity of marriage.

3. Eschew the covetous spirit.

4. Hold in kind remembrance your leaders that have
passed away.

5. Bear the reproach of Christ, even if it ostracises from
worldly cities.

6. Offer spiritual sacrifices of praise, confession, contri-
bution and prayer.

In closing this exposition there are two things worthy of
note: First, The bearing of 13:8 on the preceding verse,
which means that preachers may come and go, but Jesus
is ever the same. Second, The controversy arose over 13 : 10
— a controversy as to what is the Christian altar. Was it
the cross on which Jesus was crucified ? Then how can the
altar be greater than the gift on the altar, as Christ taught ?

334 COLOSSIANS, EPHESIANS, HEBREWS

Was it Christ's divinity on which His humanity was sacri-
ficed? This controversy was a refinement of foolishness,
because the altar under consideration is not supporting the
expiating sin-offering of which the priests were never allowed
to have a part, but the altar to which non-expiatory offer-
ings were brought, such as meat offerings, thank-offerings,
tithes, etc. Of these the priests and Levites might partake.
The meaning is simply this — that Christianity provides in
its way for the support of its laborers through the voluntary
offerings to Christ's cause (See I Cor. 9: 13, 14).

QUESTIONS

1. What the exhortation in this book relative to faith, hope and
love?

2. What doctrines underlie this manifold exhortation?

3. Does "having our bodies washed with pure water" (10:22)
refer to water-baptism, and if so, what the bearing of the teaching?

4. How do you interpret Paul's reason for this exhortation as
expressed in 10 : 26-29, which refers to the eternal sin ?

5. What the exhortation relative to boldness, and on what is it
predicated ?

6. What the exhortation relative to weights, sins, etc., what its
imagery, and what its elements?

7. What the force of the example of Jesus in 12:2?^

8. What does the phrase, "author and per f ecter of our faith," mean ?

9. What the meaning and import of "witnesses" in 12: i?

10. What the "besetting sin" in 12:1?

11. What the exhortation relative to chastening, and what its
reasons?

12. What the theories relative to the origin of human spirits, and
what the bearing of this passage on the subject?

^ 13. What the meaning and force of "hands hanging down," "pal-
sied knees" and "crooked paths?"

14. What the exhortation relative to peace and sanctification ?

15. What two hazards attending obedience to this exhortation?

16. Do you know of a case of a single "root of bitterness" disturb-
ing communities and hindering sanctification?

17. What the meaning of profanity here, and what illustration of
the effect of such profanity given?

18. In what did Esau's profanity consist?

19. What the meaning of 12: 17?

20. What the exhortation relative to grace, and what its doctrinal
basis?

21. Group in classes the exhortations of chapter 13.

22. What the bearing of 13 : 8 on the preceding verse?

23. What controversy arose over 13: 10?

24. Why was this controversy a refinement of foolishness?

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