Of course the original reference of the text is to the whole series
of great promises given in the Old Testament. These, says Paul, are
sealed and confirmed to men by the revelation and work of Jesus
Christ, but it is obvious that the principle which is good in
reference to them is good on a wider field. I venture to take that
extension, and to ask you to think briefly about some of the things
that are made for us indubitably certain in Jesus Christ.
And, first of all, there is the certainty about God's heart.
Everywhere else we have only peradventures, hopes, fears, guesses
more or less doubtful, and roundabout inferences as to His
disposition and attitude towards us. As one of the old divines says
somewhere, 'All other ways of knowing God are like the bended bow,
Christ is the straight string.' The only means by which, indubitably,
as a matter of demonstration, men can be sure that God in the heavens
has a heart of love towards them is by Jesus Christ. For consider
what will make us sure of that. Nothing but facts; words are of
little use, arguments are of little use. A revelation, however
precious, which simply says to us, 'God is Love' is not sufficient
for our need. We want to see love in operation if we are to be sure
of it, and the only demonstration of the love of God is to witness
the love of God in actual working. And you get it--where? On the
Cross of Jesus Christ. I do not believe that anything else
irrefragably establishes the fact for the yearning hearts of us poor
men who want love, and yet cannot grope our way in amidst the
mysteries and the clouds in providence and nature, except
this--'Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us,
and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.'
The question may arise in some minds, Is there any need for proving
God's love? The question never arose except within the limits of
Christianity. It is only men who have lived all their lives in an
atmosphere saturated by Christian sentiment and conviction that ever
come to the point of saying, 'We do not want historical revelation to
prove to us the fact of a loving God.' They would never have fancied
that they did not need the revelation unless, unconsciously to
themselves, and indirectly, all their thoughts had been coloured and
illuminated by the revelation that they profess they reject. God as
Love is 'our dearest faith, our ghastliest doubt,' and the only way
to make absolutely certain of the fact that His heart is full of
mercy to us is to look upon Him as He stands revealed to us, not
merely in the words of Christ, for, precious as they are, these are
the smallest part of His revelation, but in the life and in the death
which open for us the heart of God. Remember what He said Himself,
_not_ 'He who hath listened to Me, doth understand the Father,' but
'He that hath _seen_ Me hath seen the Father.' 'In Him is yea,' and
the hopes and shadowy fore-revelations of the loving heart of God are
confirmed by the fact of His life and death. God _establishes_,
not 'commends' as our translation has it, 'His love towards us in
that whilst we were yet sinners Christ died for us.'
Further, in Him we have the certainty of pardon. Every deep
heart-experience amongst men has felt the necessity of having a clear
certainty and knowledge about forgiveness. Men do not feel it always.
A man can skate over the surface of the great deeps that lie beneath
the most frivolous life, and may suppose, in his superficial way of
looking at things, that there is no need for any definite teaching
about sin and the mode of dealing with it. But once bring that man
face to face, in a quiet hour, with the facts of his life and of a
divine law, and all that superficial ignoring of evil in himself and
of the dread of punishment and consequences, passes away. I am sure
of this, that no religion will ever go far and last long and work
mightily, and lay a sovereign hand upon human life, which has not a
most plain and decisive message to preach in reference to pardon. And
I am sure of this, that one reason for the comparative feebleness of
much so-called Christian teaching in this generation is just that the
deepest needs of a man's conscience are not met by it. In a religion
on which the whole spirit of a man may rest itself, there must be a
very plain message about what is to be done with sin. The only
message which answers to the needs of an awakened conscience and an
alarmed heart is the old-fashioned message that Jesus Christ the
Righteous has died for us sinful men. All other religions have felt
after a clear doctrine of forgiveness, and all have failed to find
it. Here is the divine 'Yea!' And on it alone we can suspend the
whole weight of our soul's salvation. The rope that is to haul us out
of the horrible pit and the miry clay had much need to be tested
before we commit ourselves to it. There are plenty of easygoing
superficial theories about forgiveness predominant in the world
to-day. Except the one that says, 'In whom we have redemption through
His blood, even the forgiveness of sin,' they are all like the rope
let down into the dark mine to lift the captives beneath, half of the
strands of which have been cut on the sharp edge above, and when the
weight hangs on to it, it will snap. There is nothing on which a man
who has once learned the tragical meaning and awful reality and depth
of the fact of his transgression can suspend his forgiveness, except
this, that 'Christ has died, the just for the unjust, to bring us
unto God.' 'In Him the promise is yea.'
And, again, we have in Christ divine certainties in regard to life.
We have in Him the absolutely perfect pattern to which we are to
conform our whole doings. And so, notwithstanding that there may, and
will still be many uncertainties and much perplexity, we have the
great broad lines of morals and of duty traced with a firm hand, and
all that we need to know of obligation and of perfectness lies in
this--Be like Jesus Christ! So the solemn commandments of the ethical
side of Divine Revelation, as well as the promises of it, get their
'yea' in Jesus Christ, and He stands the Law of our lives.
We have certainties for life, in the matter of protection, guidance,
supply of all necessity, and the like, treasured and garnered in
Jesus Christ. For He not only confirms, but fulfils, the promises
which God has made. If we have that dear Lord for our very own, and
He belongs to us as He does belong to them who love Him and trust
Him, then in Him we have in actual possession these promises, how
many soever they be, which are given by God's other words.
Christ is Protean, and becomes everything to each man that each man
requires. He is, as it were, 'a box where sweets compacted lie.' 'In
Him are hid all the treasures,' not only of wisdom and knowledge, but
of divine gifts, and we have but to go to Him in order to have that
which at each moment as it emerges, we most require. As in some of
those sunny islands of the Southern Pacific, one tree supplies the
people with all that they need for their simple wants, fruit for
their food, leaves for their houses, staves, thread, needles,
clothing, drink, everything--so Jesus Christ, this Tree of Life, is
Himself the sum of all the promises, and, having Him, we have
everything that we need.
And, lastly, in Christ we have the divine certainties as to the
Future over which, apart from Him, lie cloud and darkness. As I said
about the revelation of the heart of God, so I say about the
revelation of a future life--a verbal revelation is not enough. We
have enough of arguments; what we want is facts. We have enough of
man's peradventures about a future life, enough of evidence more or
less valid to show that it is 'probable,' or 'not inconceivable,' or
'more likely than not,' and so on and so on. What we want is that
somebody shall cross the gulf and come back again, and so we get in
the Resurrection of Christ the one fact on which men may safely rest
their convictions of immortality, and I do not think that there is a
second anywhere. On it alone, as I believe, hinges the whole answer
to the question--'If a man die, shall he live again?' This generation
is brought, in my reading of it, right up to this
alternative--Christ's Resurrection,--or we die like the brutes that
perish. 'All the promises of God in Him are yea.'
II. And now a word as to the second portion of my text--viz. man's
certitudes, which answer to God's certainties.
The latter are _in_ Christ, the former are _through_ Christ. Now it
is clear that the only fitting attitude for professing Christians in
reference to these certainties of God is the attitude of unhesitating
affirmation and joyful assent. Certitude is the fitting response to
certainty.
There should be some kind of correspondence between the firmness with
which we grasp, the tenacity with which we hold, the assurance with
which we believe, these great truths, and the rock-like firmness and
immovableness of the evidence upon which they rest. It is a poor
compliment to God to come to His most veracious affirmations, sealed
with the broad seal of His Son's life and death, and to answer with a
hesitating 'Amen,' that falters and almost sticks in our throat.
Build rock upon rock. Be sure of the certain things. Grasp with a
firm hand the firm stay. Immovably cling to the immovable foundation;
and though you be but like the limpet on the rock hold fast by the
Rock, as the limpet does; for it is an insult to the certainty of the
revelation, when there is hesitation in the believer.
I need not dwell for more than a moment upon the lamentable contrast
which is presented between this certitude, which is our only fitting
attitude, and the hesitating assent and half belief in which so many
professing Christians pass their lives. The reasons for that are
partly moral, partly intellectual. This is not a day which is
favourable to the unhesitating avowal of convictions in reference to
an unseen world, and many of us are afraid of being called narrow, or
dogmatisers, and think it looks like breadth, and liberality, and
culture, and I know not what, to say 'Well! perhaps it is, but I am
not quite sure; I think it is, but I will not commit myself.' All the
promises of God, which in Him are yea, ought through Him to get from
us an 'Amen.'
There is a great deal that will always be uncertain. The firmer our
convictions, the fewer will be the things that they grasp; but, if
they be few, they will be large, and enough for us. These truths
certified in Christ concerning the heart of God, the message of
pardon, the law for life, the gifts of guidance, defence, and
sanctifying, the sure and certain hope of immortality--these things
we ought to be sure about, whatever borderland of uncertainty may lie
beyond them. The Christian verb is 'we _know_,' not 'we hope, we
calculate, we infer, we think,' but 'we _know_.' And it becomes
us to apprehend for ourselves the full blessedness and power of the
certitude which Christ has given to us by the certainties which he
has brought us.
I need not speak about the blessedness of such a calm assurance,
about the need of it for power, for peace, for effort, for fixedness
in the midst of a world and age of change. But I must, before I
close, point you to the only path by which that certitude is
attainable. '_Through_ Him is the amen.' He is the Door. The truths
which He confirms are so inextricably intertwined with Himself that
you cannot get them and put away Him. Christ's relation to Christ's
Gospel is not the relation of other teachers to their words. You may
accept the words of a Plato, whatever you think of the Plato who
spoke the words. But you cannot separate Christ and His teaching in
that fashion, and you must have _Him_ if you are to get _it_. So,
faith in Him, the intellectual acceptance of Him, as the
authoritative and infallible Revealer, the bowing down of heart and
will to Him as our Commander and our Lord, the absolute trust in Him
as the foundation of all our hope and the source of all our
blessedness--that is the way to certitude, and there is no other road
that we can take.
If thus we keep near Him, our faith will bring us the present
experience and fulfilment of the promises, and we shall be sure of
them, because we have them already. And whilst men are asking, 'Do we
know anything about God? Is there a God at all? Is there such a thing
as forgiveness? Can anybody find anywhere absolute rules for his
life? Is there anything beyond the grave but mist and darkness?' we
can say, 'One thing I know, Jesus Christ is my Saviour, and in Him I
know God, and pardon, and duty, and sanctifying, and safety, and
immortality; and whatever is dark, this, at least, is sun-clear.' Get
high enough up and you will be above the fog; and while the men down
in it are squabbling as to whether there is anything outside the
mist, you, from your sunny station, will see the far-off coasts, and
haply catch some whiff of perfume from their shore, and see some
glinting of a glory upon the shining turrets of 'the city that hath
foundations.' We have a present possession of all the promises of
God; and whoever doubts their certitude, the man who knows himself a
son of God by faith, and has experience of forgiveness and guidance
and answered prayer and hopes whose 'sweetness yieldeth proof that
they were born for immortality,' _knows_ the things which others
question and doubt.
So live near Jesus Christ, and, holding fast by His hand, you may
lift up your joyful 'Amen' to every one of God's 'Yeas.' For in Him
we know the Father, in Him we know that we have the forgiveness of
sins, in Him we know that God is near to bless and succour and guide,
and in Him 'we know that, though our earthly house were dissolved, we
have a building of God.' Wherefore we are always confident; and when
the Voice from Heaven says 'Yea!' our choral shout may go up 'Amen!
Thou art the faithful and true witness.'