_ABRAHAM_ (ii)
ROMANS iv. 13-25
Again we approach the name of Abraham, Friend of God, Father of the
Faithful. We have seen him justified by faith, personally accepted
because turning altogether to the sovereign Promiser. We see him now
in some of the glorious issues of that acceptance; "Heir of the
world," "Father of many nations." And here too all is of grace, all
comes through faith. Not works not merit, not ancestral and ritual
privilege, secured to Abraham the mighty Promise; it was his because
he, pleading absolutely nothing of personal worthiness, and supported
by no guarantees of ordinance "_believed God_."
We see him as he steps out from his tent under that glorious canopy,
that Syrian "night of stars." We look up with him to the mighty
depths, and receive their impression upon our eyes. Behold the
innumerable points and clouds of light! Who can count the half-visible
rays which make white the heavens, gleaming behind, beyond, the
thousands of more numerable luminaries? The lonely old man who stands
gazing there, perhaps side by side with his divine Friend manifested
in human form, is told to try to count. And then he hears the promise,
"So shall thy seed be."
It was then and there that he received justification by faith. It was
then and there also that, by faith, as a man uncovenanted, unworthy,
but called upon to take what God gave, he received the promise that he
should be "heir of the world."
It was an unequalled paradox--unless indeed we place beside it the
scene when, eighteen centuries later, in the same land, a descendant
of Abraham's, a Syrian Craftsman, speaking as a religious Leader to
His followers, told them (Matt. xiii. 37, 38) that the "field was the
world," and He the Master of the field.
"_Heir of the world_"! Did this mean, of the universe itself? Perhaps
it did, for CHRIST was to be the Claimant of the promise in due time;
and under His feet all things, literally all, are set already in
right, and shall be hereafter set in fact. But the more limited, and
probably in this place the fitter, reference is vast enough; a
reference to "the world" of earth, and of man upon it. In his "seed,"
that childless senior was to be King of Men, Monarch of the continents
and oceans. To him, in his seed, "the utmost parts of the earth" were
given "for his possession." Not his little clan only, encamped on the
dark fields around him, nor even the direct descendants only of his
body, however numerous, but "all nations," "all kindreds of the
earth," were "to call him blessed," and to be blessed in him, as their
patriarchal Chief, their Head in covenant with God. "We see not yet
all things" fulfilled of this astonishing grant and guarantee. We
shall not do so, till vast promised developments of the ways of God
have come to sight. But we do see already steps taken towards that
issue, steps long, majestic, never to be retraced. We see at this hour
in literally every region of the human world the messengers--an always
more numerous army--of the Name of "the Son of David, the Son of
Abraham." They are working everywhere; and everywhere, notwithstanding
innumerable difficulties, they are winning the world for the great
Heir of the Promise. Through paths they know not these missionaries
have gone out; paths hewn by the historical providence of God, and by
His eternal life in the Church, and in the soul. When "the world" has
seemed shut, by war, by policy, by habit, by geography, it has opened,
that they may enter; till we see Japan throwing back its castle-doors,
and inner Africa not only discovered but become a household word for
the sake of its missions, of its martyrdoms, of the resolve of its
native chiefs to abolish slavery even in its domestic form.[55]
No secular conscious programme has had to do with this. Causes
entirely beyond the reach of human combination have been, as a fact,
combined; the world has been opened to the Abrahamic message just as
the Church has been inspired anew to enter in, and has been awakened
to a deeper understanding of her glorious mission. For here too is the
finger of God; not only in the history of the world, but in the life
of the Church and of the Christian. For a long century now, in the
most living centres of Christendom, there has been waking and rising a
mighty revived consciousness of the glory of the Gospel of the Cross,
and of the Spirit; of the grace of Christ, and also of His claim. And
at this hour, after many a gloomy forecast of unbelieving and
apprehensive thought, there are more men and women ready to go to the
ends of the earth with the message of the Son of Abraham, than in all
time before.
Contrast these issues, even these--leaving out of sight the mighty
future--with the starry night when the wandering Friend of God was
asked to believe the incredible, and was justified by faith, and was
invested through faith with the world's crown. Is not God indeed in
the fulfilment? Was He not indeed in the promise? We are ourselves a
part of the fulfilment; we, one of the "many Nations" of whom the
great Solitary was then made "the Father." Let us bear our witness,
and set to our seal.
In doing so, we attest and illustrate the work, the ever blessed work,
of faith. That man's reliance, at that great midnight-hour, merited
nothing, but received everything. He took in the first place
acceptance with God, and then with it, as it were folded and embedded
in it, he took riches inexhaustible of privilege and blessing; above
all, the blessing of being made a blessing. So now, in view of that
hour of Promise, and of these ages of fulfilment, we see our own path
of peace in its divine simplicity. We read, as if written on the
heavens in stars, the words, "Justified by Faith." And we understand
already, what the Epistle will soon amply unfold to us, how for us, as
for Abraham, blessings untold of other orders lie treasured in the
grant of our acceptance. "Not for him only, but for us also,
believing."
Let us turn again to the text.
[Sidenote: Ver. 13.] =For not through law came the promise to Abraham,
or to his seed, of his being the world's heir, but through faith's
righteousness;= through the acceptance received by uncovenanted,
unprivileged faith. [Sidenote: Ver. 14.] =For if those who belong to
law inherit= Abraham's promise, =faith is ipso facto void, and the
promise is ipso facto annulled.[56]= [Sidenote: Ver. 15.] =For wrath
is what the Law works out;= it is only[57] =where law is not that
transgression is not either.= As much as to say, that to suspend
eternal blessing, the blessing which in its nature can deal only with
ideal conditions, upon man's obedience to law, is to bar fatally the
hope of a fulfilment. Why? Not because the Law is not holy; not
because disobedience is not guilty; as if man were ever, for a moment,
mechanically compelled to disobey. But because as a fact man is a
fallen being, however he became so, and whatever is his guilt as such.
He is fallen, and has no true self-restoring power. If then he is to
be blessed, the work must begin in spite of himself. It must come from
without, it must come unearned, it must be of grace, through faith.
[Sidenote: Ver. 16.] =Therefore it is on= (literally, "_out of_")
=faith, in order to be grace-wise, to make secure the promise, to all
the seed, not only to that which belongs to the Law, but to that which
belongs to the faith of Abraham,= to the "seed" whose claim is no less
and no more than Abraham's faith; =who is father of all us,=
[Sidenote: Ver. 17.] =as it stands written,= (Gen. xvii. 5), "=Father
of many Nations[58] have I appointed thee="--=in the sight of the God
whom he believed, who vivifies the dead, and calls,= addresses, deals
with, =things not-being as being.= "_In the sight of God_"; as if to
say, that it matters little what Abraham is for "us all" in the sight
of _man_, in the sight and estimate of the Pharisee. The Eternal
Justifier and Promiser dealt with Abraham, and in him with the world,
before the birth of that Law which the Pharisee has perverted into his
rampart of privilege and isolation. He took care that the mighty
transaction should take place not actually only, but significantly, in
the open field and beneath the boundless cope of stars. It was to
affect not one tribe, but all the nations. It was to secure blessings
which were not to be demanded by the privileged, but taken by the
needy. And so the great representative Believer was called to believe
before Law, before legal Sacrament, and under every personal
circumstance of humiliation and discouragement. [Sidenote: Ver. 18.]
=Who, past hope, on hope, believed;= stepping from the dead hope of
nature to the bare hope of the promise, =so that he became father of
many Nations; according to what stands spoken, "So shall thy seed
be."[59]= [Sidenote: Ver. 19.] =And, because he failed not[60] in his
(τῇ) faith, he did not notice his own body, already turned to death,
near (που) a century old as he now was, and the death-state of the
womb of Sarah.= [Sidenote: Ver. 20.] =No, on the promise of God--he
did not waver by his unbelief,[61] but received strength[62] by his
(τῇ) faith, giving glory to God,= the "glory" of dealing with Him as
being what He is, Almighty and All-true, [Sidenote: Ver. 21.] =and
fully persuaded that what He has promised He is able actually to do.=
[Sidenote: Ver. 22.] =Wherefore actually (καὶ) it was reckoned to
him as righteousness.= Not because such a "giving to God the glory"
which is only His eternal due was morally meritorious, in the least
degree. If it were so, Abraham "would have whereof to glory." The
"_wherefore_" is concerned with the whole record, the whole
transaction. Here was a man who took the right way to receive
sovereign blessing. He interposed nothing between the Promiser and
himself. He treated the Promiser as what He is, all-sufficient and
all-faithful. He opened his empty hand in that persuasion, and so,
because the hand was empty, the blessing was laid upon its palm.
[Sidenote: Ver. 23.] =Now it was not written only on his account, that
it was reckoned to him,= [Sidenote: Ver. 24.] =but also on account of
us, to whom it is sure (μέλλει) to be reckoned,= in the fixed
intention of the divine Justifier, as each successive applicant comes
to receive; =believing as we do on the Raiser-up of Jesus our Lord
from the dead;= [Sidenote: Ver. 25.] =who was delivered up on account
of our transgressions, and was raised up on account of our
justification.=
Here the great argument moves to a pause, to the cadence of a glorious
rest. More and more, as we have pursued it, it has disengaged itself
from the obstructions of the opponent, and advanced with a larger
motion into a positive and rejoicing assertion of the joys and wealth
of the believing. We have left far behind the pertinacious cavils
which ask, now whether there is any hope for man outside legalism, now
whether within legalism there can be any danger even for deliberate
unholiness, and again whether the Gospel of gratuitous acceptance does
not cancel the law of duty. We have left the Pharisee for Abraham, and
have stood beside him to look and listen. He, in the simplicity of a
soul which has seen itself and seen the Lord, and so has not one word,
one thought, about personal privilege, claim, or even fitness,
receives a perfect acceptance in the hand of faith, and finds that the
acceptance carries with it a promise of unimaginable power and
blessing. And now from Abraham the Apostle turns to "_us_," "_us
all_," "_us also_." His thoughts are no longer upon adversaries and
objections, but on the company of the faithful, on those who are one
with Abraham, and with each other, in their happy willingness to come,
without a dream of merit, and take from God His mighty peace in the
name of Christ. He finds himself not in synagogue or in school,
disputing, but in the believing assembly, teaching, unfolding in peace
the wealth of grace. He speaks to congratulate, to adore.
Let us join him there in spirit, and sit down with Aquila and
Priscilla, with Nereus, and Nymphas, and Persis, and in our turn
remember that "it was written for us also." Quite surely, and with a
fulness of blessing which we can never find out in its perfection, to
us also "_faith is sure to be reckoned_, μέλλει λογίζεσθαι, _as
righteousness, believing as we do_, τοῖς πιστεύουσιν, _on the
Raiser-up of Jesus our Lord_, ours also, _from the dead_." To us, as
to them, the Father presents Himself as the Raiser-up of the Son. He
is known by us in that act. It gives us His own warrant for a
boundless trust in His character, His purposes, His unreserved
intention to accept the sinner who comes to His feet in the name of
His Crucified and Risen Son. He bids us--not forget that He is the
Judge, who cannot for a moment connive. But He bids us believe, He
bids us _see_, that He, being the Judge, and also the Law-Giver, has
dealt with His own Law, in a way that satisfies it, that satisfies
HIMSELF. He bids us thus understand that He now "is sure to" justify,
to accept, to find not guilty, to find righteous, satisfactory, the
sinner who believes. He comes to us, He, this eternal Father of our
Lord, to assure us, in the Resurrection, that He has sought, and has
"found, a Ransom"; that He has not been prevailed upon to have mercy,
a mercy behind which there may therefore lurk a gloomy reserve, but
has Himself "set forth" the beloved Propitiation, and then accepted
Him (not it, but Him) with the acceptance of not His word only but His
deed. He is the God of Peace. How do we know it? We thought He was the
God of the tribunal, and the doom. Yes; but He has "brought the great
Shepherd from the dead, in the blood of the everlasting Covenant"
(Heb. xiii. 20). Then, O eternal Father of our Lord, we will believe
Thee; we will believe in Thee; we will, we do, in the very letter of
the words Thou didst bid Thy messenger write down here, "_believe upon
Thee_," ἐπὶ τὸν Ἐγείραντα, as in a deep repose. Truly, in _this_
glorious respect, though Thou art consuming Fire, "there is nothing in
Thee to dread."
"_Who was delivered up because of our transgressions._" So dealt the
Father with the Son, who gave Himself. "It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him"; "He spared not His own Son." "_Because of our transgressions_";
to meet the fact that we had gone astray. What, was that fact thus to
be met? Was our self-will, our pride, our falsehood, our impurity, our
indifference to God, our resistance to God, to be thus met? Was it to
be met at all, and not rather left utterly alone to its own horrible
issues? Was it eternally necessary that, if met, it must be met thus,
by nothing less than the delivering up of Jesus our Lord? It was even
so. Assuredly if a milder expedient would have met our guilt, the
FATHER would not have "delivered up" the SON. The Cross was nothing if
not an absolute _sine quâ non_. There is that in sin, and in
God, which made it eternally necessary that--if man was to be
justified--the Son of God must not only live but die, and not only die
but die thus, delivered up, given over to be done to death, as those
who do great sin are done.
Deep in the heart of the divine doctrine of Atonement lies this
element of it, the "_because of our transgressions_"; the exigency of
Golgotha, due to our sins. The remission, the acquittal, the
acceptance, was not a matter for the verbal _fiat_ of divine
autocracy. It was a matter not between God and creation, which to Him
is "a little thing," but between God and His Law, that is to say,
Himself, as He is eternal Judge. And this, to the Eternal, is _not_ a
little thing. So the solution called for no little thing, but for the
Atoning Death, for the laying by the Father on the Son of the
iniquities of us all, that we might open our arms and receive from the
Father the merits of the Son.
"_And was raised up because of our justification_;" because our
acceptance had been won, by His deliverance up. Such is the simplest
explanation of the grammar, and of the import. The Lord's Resurrection
appears as, so to speak, the mighty sequel, and also the demonstration,
warrant, proclamation, of His acceptance as the Propitiation, and
therefore of our acceptance in Him. For indeed it _was_ our
justification, when He paid our penalty. True, the acceptance does not
accrue to the individual till he believes, and so receives. The gift
is not put into the hand till it is open, and empty. But the gift has
been bought ready for the recipient long before he kneels to receive
it. It was his, in provision, from the moment of the purchase; and the
glorious Purchaser came up from the depths where He had gone down to
buy, holding aloft in His sacred hands the golden Gift, ours because
His for us.
A little while before he wrote to Rome, St Paul had written to
Corinth, and the same truth was in his soul then, though it came out
only passingly, while with infinite impressiveness. "If Christ is not
risen, idle is your faith; you are yet in your sins" (1 Cor. xv. 17).
That is to say, so the context irrefragably shews, you are yet in the
guilt of your sins; you are still unjustified. "In your sins" cannot
possibly there refer to the moral condition of the converts; for as a
matter of fact, which no doctrine could negative, the Corinthians
_were_ "changed men." "In your sins" refers therefore to guilt, to
law, to acceptance. And it bids them look to the Atonement as the
objective _sine quâ non_ for that, and to the Resurrection as the one
possible, and the only necessary, warrant to faith that the Atonement
had secured its end.
"_Who was delivered up; who was raised up._" When? About twenty-five
years before Paul sat dictating this sentence in the house of Gaius.
There were at that moment about three hundred known living people, at
least (1 Cor. xv. 6), who had seen the Risen One with open eyes, and
heard Him with conscious ears. From one point of view, all was
eternal, spiritual, invisible. From another point of view our
salvation was as concrete, as historical, as much a thing of place and
date, as the battle of Actium, or the death of Socrates. And what was
done, remains done.
"Can length of years on God Himself exact,
And make that fiction which was once a fact?"
[55] In Uganda, 1893.
[56] We attempt thus to represent the perfects, κεκένωται, κατήργηται.
[57] Read οὗ δὲ not οὗ γάρ.
[58] It is impossible to convey in English the point of the word
ἔθνη here, with its faint reference to the _Gentiles_ (in the sense
common in later Judaism), spiritually "naturalized" among Abraham's
descendants.
[59] Observe the characteristically _fragmentary_ quotation, which
assumes the reader's knowledge of the context--the context of the
stars. Compare Heb. vi. 14, which similarly quotes Gen. xxii. 16, 17.
[60] Μὴ ἀσθενήσας:--we attempt to convey the thought, given by the
aorist, that he _then and there_ was "not weak."
[61] We render this clause as literally as possible. It is as if he
would have written "On the promise of God _he relied_," but changed
the expression to one more ample and more forcible. "_His_ unbelief":
τῇ ἀπιστίᾳ. Not that Abraham _had_ unbelief actually, but he had it
potentially; he _might have_ disbelieved. In that sense unbelief was
"_his_."
[62] Ἐνεδυναμώθη: the thought is of strength summoned _at a crisis_.