'By whom also we have access by faith into this grace
wherein we stand.'--ROMANS v. 2.
I may be allowed to begin with a word or two of explanation of the
terms of this passage. Note then, especially, that _also_ which
sends us back to the previous clause, and tells us that our text adds
something to what was spoken of there. What was spoken of there?
'The peace of God' which comes to a man by Jesus Christ through faith,
the removal of enmity, and the declaration of righteousness. But that
peace with God, which is the beginning of everything in the Christian
view, is only the beginning, and there is much to follow. While,
then, there is a progress clearly marked in the words of our text,
and 'access into this grace wherein we stand' is something more than,
and after, the 'peace with God,' mark next the similarity of the text
and the preceding verse. The two great truths in the latter, Christ's
mediation or intervention, and our faith as the condition by which we
receive the blessings which are brought to us in and through Him, are
both repeated, with no unmeaning tautology, but with profound
significance in our text--'By whom also we have access'--as well
as--'the peace of God'--'access _by faith_ into this grace.' So then,
for the initial blessing, and for all the subsequent blessings of the
Christian life, the way is the same. The medium and channel is one,
and the act by which we avail ourselves of the blessings coming
through that one medium is the same. Now the language of my text,
with its talking about access, faith, and grace, sounds to a great
many of us, I am afraid, very hard and remote and technical. And
there are not wanting people who tell us that all that terminology in
the New Testament is like a dying brand in the fire, where the little
kernel of glowing heat is getting covered thicker and thicker with
grey ashes. Yes; but if you blow the ashes off, the fire is there all
the same. Let us try if we can blow the ashes off.
This text seems to me in its archaic phraseology, only to need to be
pondered in order to flash up into wonderful beauty. It carries in it
a magnificent ideal of the Christian life, in three things: the
Christian place, 'access into grace'; the Christian attitude,
'wherein we stand'; and the Christian means of realising that ideal,
'through Christ' and 'by faith.' Now let us look at these three
points.