SIR ROBERT ANDERSON
Secret Service Theologian
ENTAIL OF THE COVENANT
CHAPTER
VII
THE Christian is a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And this means something altogether different from "belonging to
the Christian religion," and worshipping its "Jesus" (as they call Him),
instead of Mahomet or Buddha. For the Christian has "the faith which is in the
Son of God." l It is not a question of having a right creed, important though
that may be. For the Christian confession is not, "I know what I believe," but
"I know Whom I have believed "- a living faith in a personal Saviour and Lord.
The true effort of the Christian life, therefore, is "to grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." And this is impossible without
a reverent and spiritually sympathetic study of the Scriptures which reveal
Him.2
1 Gal. ii. 20 (R.V.).
2. 2 Peter iii. 18. The beloved disciple
"fell at His feet as dead" when he had a vision of His glory (Rev. i. 17). This
note is added after reading the following sentence in the annual report of the
London (Central) Y.M.C.A. "The main aim of the Association must be to bring
young men up against the fact of Jesus as the finest chum a man can find." Even
if this gross profanity emanated from an avowed infidel, we might deplore its
publication in a land where the Lord Jesus is worshipped as Divine. 1 See p.
20, ante. 2 John v. 40.
I have ventured to suggest that the devout
women who "brought even their babies to Him," knew Him better, and therefore
(as we would express it) were better Christians, than the disciples who sought
to keep them back. And so it may be to-day. A humble believer whose heart and
mind are steeped in the words and spirit of His teaching may be nearer and
dearer to the Lord than even the most eminent of orthodox divines.
And
if we had lived in those days, and moved in the hallowed scenes of His earthly
sojourn, should we not have hung upon His words, seeking to know His thoughts
and to understand His ways? And when we heard Him say to those hard religious
Jews of Jerusalem, "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life," 2 His
appeal would have revealed to us the God "who willeth that all men should be
saved" the God who has sworn by Himself that He has no pleasure in the death of
the wicked.1 Or if the profane thought had entered our minds that His appeal
was uttered with the knowledge that they could not come to Him, how bitterly
should we have repented of it if, with that "multitude of the disciples" who
accompanied Him in His last journey to Jerusalem, we had witnessed the outburst
of His unrestrained grief at the impending doom of that guilty people.2 Or if
we had been with Him on the fateful day when, after pronouncing scathing words
of judgment, as He turned His back for ever on the Temple He exclaimed, " O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are
sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as
a hen gathcreth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." "Ye will not
come to me" was His appeal in the earlier stages of His ministry : "ye would
not " was His lament, now that His ministry had reached its close.
1 Ezek.
xxxiii. 11.
2 Luke xix. 41, 42. " When He drew nigh, He saw the city and
wept over it, saying, ' If thou hadst known,.in this day, the things which
belong to thy peace.' " At the grave of Lazarus He shed silent tears. But the
word here used means to bewail with every outward manifestation of sorrow. The
words " in this day" (R.V.) are emphatic. It was the last day of the "69 weeks"
of Daniel ix. 25the 173,880th day from the issuing of the commandment to
build Jerusalem (Neh. ii.). Full details are given in the author's Coming
Prince, and also in Daniel in the Critics' Den.
And if such were His
yearnings over evil men who hated, and were about to murder Him, what measure
shall be set to His love for the offspring of His believing people? "The entail
of the covenant" was the theme of the opening chapters of this book; and now,
having endeavoured to clear away difficulties which embarrass the faith and
hinder the prayers of Christians in relation to their children, let us, with
unbiassed minds, resume our study of His wonderful words recorded in the
eighteenth chapter of Matthew.
l Matt, xxiii. 29-39.
Having regard to
the fact so prominently mentioned in the narrative of Mark that, when He spoke
to them, the Lord was holding a little child in His arms,2 there cannot be a
doubt that their primary reference is to little children. This is not a matter
to be decided for us by the wise and prudent; we can settle it for ourselves.
The "this little child " of verse 4 was certainly the child He called to Him as
he sat down in that Capernaum home. No less clear is the reference in verse 5
to " one such little child " And the same may be said of the " one of these
little ones" in verse 6. Then, with the "woe unto the world" of verse 7, His
teaching seems to take a wider range. But, if we had been among His hearers,
the words "one of these little ones " in verse 10 would again have turned our
eyes and thoughts to the child He was holding in His arms.1
1 As this is a
problem of evidence I speak without reserve. In the only other passage where "
little ones " occurs, the inference is that some children were present (Matt,
x. 43 ; see Dean Alford's note). These passages are to be distinguished from
many others, where paidion or tecknion is used as a term of affection, as e.g.
in John xiii. 33, and nine times in 1 John.
2 Mark ix. 36.
Let us
deal with the passage then in what is so plainly its primary reference, and we
shall find much that is of great importance and solemnity. Who of us has ever
adequately realised the special love the Saviour bears to our " dedicated "
children ? Who among us has ever given a serious thought to His awfully solemn
warning against causing " one of these little ones which believe on Me to
stumble " ?
Parents who arc constantly punishing their children are
utterly unfit to have a child at all. But there may be times when chastisement
is needed; in what spirit is it to be administered? Is it "the chastening of
the Lord" ? Among savages a malefactor is always punished in an outburst of
passionate anger. But in a civilised country we demand a tone of judicial calm,
not only in the court which tries a law-breaker, but in the discipline of the
prison where the sentence is administered. And surely we might expect that the
children of a Christian home would be treated with at least as much
consideration as is accorded to our criminals. And yet punishment is all too
commonly inflicted upon them in a fit of temper on the parent's part. And as
temper evokes temper, a high-spirited child receives its chastisement in a
spirit of passion and resentment. Or if the punishment be unduly severe, the
delinquent is completely crushed. 'Could any experience be more likely to
stumble a little child that is really trying to live the Christian life? What
wonder is it that so many "little ones that believe in Him" need to be
"converted" when they pass out of the nursery stage of life!
And what
shall be said of other occasions of stumbling - unchristian acts or words, for
instance, of which their keen eyes and ears take ready notice? We have heard
something of the care that is lavished on the children in a royal palace. What
amount of care can be excessive in the case of "the little ones" of the Lord of
glory. And if some cynically disposed reader is inclined to dismiss all this as
making too much of children, let him take heed to the warning of verse 10, "See
that ye do not think slightingly of one of these little ones." l
1 The word
is kaiaphroneo. The Lord is here referring back to His words in verse 6.
"For I say unto you (He added) that in heaven their angels do always
behold the face of My father which is in heaven." If it be to Christians young
in the faith that these words relate, is it not extraordinary that there should
not be even the faintest allusion to them in the teaching of the Epistles? And
this, moreover, in an age when so many of the Christians were recent converts.
No less extraordinary that, throughout the centuries, they should have been
ignored in Christian experience. For among the myriads of the martyrs of Pagan
and of Papal Rome, was there ever one who looked for help or comfort to an
angel! In scenes of torture, and in the hour of death, their faith and hope
were set upon the Lord Himself.
I am reminded of a conversation with a
friend now gone. When writing her name upon the fly-leaf of a book I presented
to her, I added the words of Ecclesiastes ix. 7, and she chided me with
forgetting her great sorrows. Owing to her high position in society the events
to which she alluded were, to some extent, generally known, but to me she spoke
of them without reserve. And then with a smile she went on to tell me of a loss
she had suffered in her nursery days. It was so trivial that she looked back
upon it with amusement; and yet she assured me that, at the time, she felt it
more deeply than any sorrow of her after life. For, as she said, with growing
years she had learned that the Lord was a very present help in trouble, whereas
in infancy she was thrown back entirely on herself.1
A Christian,
however young in the faith, who can draw upon the experience of the past, is
able to trust Him even when the sky is darkest. But a little child has no such
resource. How natural then, or rather, let us say, how entirely in keeping with
His care for "the little ones that believe in Him," that He should "give His
angels charge concerning them." And this is confirmed by the sequel. In Luke
xv. He used the parable of the lost sheep to silence the taunts of pharisees
and scribes : here it was addressed to His disciples to indicate His solicitude
for " the little one " who has been " stumbled." 2
1 As I explained to her,
the word "merry" in the verse is used in the old English sense (see James v.
13) ; and the Hebrew word is rendered "good" upwards of 300 times. It is the
"honest and good heart " of Luke viii. 15 ; cf. 1 John iii. 21.
2 The
language of Matt, xviii. 14 makes it clear that in the preceding verse He was
still speaking of such. The rest of the chapter deals with wholly different
subjects ; and chap. xix. 1, suggests that it records teaching given upon
different occasions.
Remembering then that, in common with all the words
He spoke during His earthly ministry, these words are eternal and can never
pass away, let us seek to rescue them from the neglect to which a mistaken
exegesis has consigned them. Not that we should indulge in "guardian angel"
talk to children. For even the highest angelsl are but "ministers of His that
do His pleasure." The little ones, therefore, should be taught to look to the
Lord Himself. And His purpose in these words is clearly to foster in us a deep
and deepening sense of the love He bears them, and of the solemnity and dignity
of the charge entrusted to Christian parents of nurturing them for Him.
1
i.e. Angels that always behold the face of God (verse 10).
Nor is it
only for some of the children of a Christian that this is true. His love and
His promises are in nowise limited. And if this should seem to be negatived by
facts, it behoves us to seek the cause in ourselves, instead of "casting the
blame on God." May it not be that, in the earlier years of married life,
children are received as from the Lord, and dedicated to Him in fulness of
faith and with watchful prayer, whereas in later years, with declining
spirituality, faith and prayer have flagged, and the birth of children has come
to be regarded as a matter of course.
Will any Christians testify that
the "dedication" of their children has been unreserved, all other
considerations being made subordinate - in a word, that in all their plans and
projects respecting them they have honoured God by giving Him the first place,
and yet that He has failed them? Most certain is it that, where there has been
failure, the cause must be found in ourselves and not in God.
That any
can think otherwise is proof of the influence which the theology of the Latin
Fathers exercises upon Christian thought.1 Assuming, as they did, from the
appalling horrors of the capture and destruction of Jerusalem, that the Jewish
race was exterminated, and that God had cast away His people, they were led to
throw the " mystery " truths of the Christian revelation into " hotchpotch"
with all unfulfilled Messianic prophecy. " The Church " was relegated to a
position akin to that which Israel was designed to hold in the bygone economy.
The truth of the Body of Christ with its heavenly calling and hope, became
perverted or obscured; and the truth of the sovereignty of grace was
practically lost.2
1 Calvin is said to have devoted twelve years of his life
to the study of their writings. That after such an ordeal his teaching should
be in the main so intensely scriptural is a signal proof of his eminence both
mentally and spiritually.
2 This great basal truth of the distinctively
Christian revelation will be sought in vain in the writings of even the
greatest of the Latin Fathers. It was lost before the age of the Patristic
theologians, and never fully recovered until the Evangelical revival of the
nineteenth century.
And the truth of the timeless, heavenly election of
this age, which, as we have seen, is inseparably allied with the supreme
revelation of " the reign of grace," gave place to a doctrine of election on
the principle of the Abrahamic covenant.
More than this, as a restored
Israel was ignored in their exegesis of Scripture, all unfulfilled prophecy
relating to the covenant people was " spiritualised " to make it applicable to
this Christian dispensation, which they regarded as " the last great eon of
God's dealings with mankind." And this erroneous system of exegesis still holds
the field in our theology, with the result that the sublime visions of the
Hebrew prophets relating to divine purposes of future blessing, both for the
covenant people and for the nations of the earth, have come to be treated as
wild exaggeration or mere hyperbole. And instead of the future which is
enfolded in these visions, attention is directed to the sad and shameful story
of the "Professing Christian Church," with no further outlook save a deepening
apostasy, leading up to the conflagration which is to bring all things to an
end.
What wonder is it if Christian thought about "the kindness and
love-toward-man of our Saviour God" has impoverished and narrowed, and if
thoughtful men of the world are sceptical about the prophetic visions and the
threatened conflagration ! This false system of interpretation leaves the Bible
an easy prey to sceptical attack.
But "God has not cast away His people
whom He foreknew." The covenant with Abraham has not been abrogated. A restored
Israel shall yet be the centre and the agency in the fulfilment of God's
purposes of blessing for all the nations of the earth. The prophecy of the
sacred calendar shall then be realised in every part of it. For the typical
festivals, all of which related to the yearly harvest, are a prophecy of the
harvest of redemption. The sheaf of the firstfruits at Passover pointed, of
course, in a special sense to Christ, and it has an incidental reference to the
redeemed of the present age, who are one with Christ. But in its ultimate
fulfilment all pertains to the covenant people.
Following Passover came
the Feast of Pentecost with its two wave loaves, typifying the two houses of
Israel. But while traditional theology concerns itself only with the saved of
the past and present dispensations, and a more intelligent exegesis takes
account also of the people of the covenant again restored to favour, the great
redemption prophecies far transcend these narrow limits. The springtime Feasts
of Passover and Pentecost marked only the beginning and progress of the
harvest. After all the fruits of the earth had been gleaned and gathered home,
there came the greatest of the Festivals when, with palm branches in their
hands, the nation assembled to rejoice before the Lord.1 And this will have its
fulfilment in the great harvest-home of Redemption when, surpassing seemingly
all limits of election and of special covenant, a palm-bearing multitude of the
saved of earth, unnumbered and innumerable, will swell the completed triumphs
of the Cross.2 And then, indeed, the Lord shall see of the travail of His soul
and shall be satisfied. And let no one suppose that this pertains to the
eternal state, and to the new earth, albeit the new earth is within the range
of the Christian's hope ; it will all be fulfilled upon this earth of ours, and
within the time-calendars of men.
1 Lev. xxiii. 40.
2 Rev. vii.
9.
In view of this glorious vista of the Divine purposes of blessing for
mankind, how can Christian parents doubt that there is full provision in the
infinite grace and love of God for all the children divinely entrusted to their
care! And so, in conclusion, I would say to every Christian parent, Remember
your children are "a heritage of the Lord";l and as, day by day continuously
you "dedicate" them to Him,2 let no misgivings or reserve weaken faith or limit
prayer on their behalf. As for thoughts about decrees of fate - unchristian
thoughts that befit the cult of Islam - let them be banished from your mind.
And above all, take hold of the words our Lord and Saviour spoke in that
Capernaum home, remembering that, even as He uttered them, He was holding in
His arms a little child, just like your own - words that, if you have ears to
hear, He speaks to you now from the throne of God :
"IT IS NOT THE WILL OF
YOUR FATHER WHICH is IN HEAVEN THAT ONE OF THESE LITTLE ONES SHOULD
PERISH."
1 Ps. cxvii. 3. 2 See p. 14, ante.
And here I would refer back
to Dr. Hamilton's weighty words quoted on p. 25.
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