SIR ROBERT ANDERSON
Secret Service
Theologian
FORGOTTEN
TRUTHS
CHAPTER 4
GRACE
ENTHRONED
IT is extraordinary that any student of Scripture can miss
the clearly marked difference between the gospel of the opening clause of the
Epistle to the Romans, and the gospel specified in the characteristically
"Pauline" postscript at its close.
"Sojourners from Rome, both Jews and
proselytes," were among the multitudes who heard the Divine amnesty proclaimed
at Pentecost. And it was "to Jews only" that in those early days the word of
that gospel was preached. (Acts 11:19) In Rome therefore, as elsewhere, Jews
and proselytes constituted the nucleus and rallying centre of the Church. And
we read the Epistle to the Romans amiss, if we fail to recognize what an
important place its teaching accords to those Hebrew Christians. The word which
had won them to Christ was that "gospel of God which He had promised afore by
His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son who was born of the
seed of David." Language could not more definitely indicate that it was the
fulfillment of the hope of every true Israelite. Hence his words to the "Chief
of the Jews" in Rome "For the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain." (Acts
28:20) And, as already noticed, his answer to the charge on which he was
imprisoned was that his preaching to the Jews was based entirely on the Law and
the Prophets. (Acts 26:22)
Such, then, was the burden of his ministry to
his own people, a ministry he shared with all his brethren. But to Gentiles he
preached a gospel which he had received by special revelation. And the specific
purpose of his third visit to Jerusalem was to communicate that gospel to the
other Apostles. (Galatians 2:2) In writing to Timothy he speaks of it as "the
gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust." It
was the precious deposit which, on the eve of his martyrdom, he handed back, as
it were, to the God who had entrusted it to him. (2 Timothy 1:12) And this is
the "My gospel," of the postscript to his Epistle to the Romans. (Romans 16:25,
26)1
Here are his words "Now to Him that is able to stablish you
according to my gospel, even the preaching of Jesus Christ according to a
revelation of a mystery kept in silence through times eternal, but now
manifested, and by prophetic writings according to the commandment of the
Eternal God made known to all the nations unto obedience of faith" (or
"obedience to the faith").2
It was in grace that God made promise to
Abraham and granted him the covenant. But on the faithfulness of God it is that
we rely to keep His promise and to fulfill His covenant. It is of his "kinsmen
according to the flesh" that the Apostle speaks in the opening words of Romans
9. And of them, the Israelites, he says, "Whose is the adoption and the glory,
and the covenants and the giving of the law, and the service of God and the
promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ
came." And it was as "sons of the covenant" that the gospel was preached to
them at Pentecost. (Acts 3:25) "The promise is to you and to your children,"
the Apostle testified; (Acts 2:39.)3 for to them belonged the gospel of the
covenant. But to the Gentiles, who were" strangers from the covenants of
promise," (Ephesians 2:12) was preached the gospel of grace - the gospel of the
"mystery" truth, that grace was "reigning through righteousness unto eternal
life."
The covenants and promises to the Patriarchs neither exhausted nor
limited the grace of God to men. And though "grace came by Jesus Christ," it
was restrained during all His ministry on earth. "I have a baptism to be
baptized with (He exclaimed), and how am I straitened till it be accomplished."
Not till Divine righteousness was manifested in the death and resurrection of
Christ, could Divine grace be fully and openly revealed. That there was
forgiveness for the earnest seeker after God is not a distinctively Christian
truth at all. It was always so. But the revelation of grace enthroned far
transcends all that earlier ages knew. A parable may explain what that
revelation means. "The Lords day"4 is one of our national institutions
(for England is still a Christian country). And under English law that day is a
day of grace, on which no court of justice can deal with criminals. Let their
crimes be never so heinous, they cannot even be arraigned until the day of
grace is over. And the present age is Gods great day of grace; "He
knoweth how
to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be
punished." (2 Peter 2:9)
We have a Divine commentary upon this from the
lips of Christ Himself, when, on that Sabbath day in the synagogue of Nazareth,
He stood up to read the 61st chapter of Isaiah, and stopped in the middle of
its opening sentence. The record tells us that having uttered the words "He
sent me
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord," He closed the book and
sat down. And then, in reply to the wondering looks of all the hearers, "He
began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears."
(Luke 4:16-21) "And the day of vengeance of our God" are the words that follow
without break or pause, but He left those words unread. For till "the
acceptable year of the Lord" has run its predestined course, the coming of
"that great and terrible day of the Lord" is, through Divine longsuffering,
delayed. In view of the rejection and death of the Son of God, the only
possible alternatives were the doom of Sodom or the mercy of the gospel; and
mercy triumphed.
The Indian Mutiny was followed by an amnesty. And so long
as that amnesty remained in force, the honour of the Sovereign and Government
of Britain was pledged to the rebels that on laying down their arms they would
receive a pardon, instead of having their treasonable acts imputed to them. And
during this day of grace, God is "not imputing unto men their trespasses." Nay,
more than this - for Divine grace surpasses every human parallel - He is
pleading with them to accept the gospel amnesty. These amazing truths are
well-nigh unbelievable. And yet behind them lies another truth that is still
more wonderful: the Divine prerogative of judgment has been delegated without
reserve or limit to the Lord Jesus Christ; and He is now "exalted to be a
Saviour."
And this is the solution of the crowning wonder of a silent
heaven. God is silent because the gospel of His grace is His last word of
mercy, and when again He breaks the silence it must be in wrath. The moral
government of the world is not in abeyance, and men reap what they sow; but all
direct punitive action against sin awaits the day of judgment. For in virtue of
the Cross of Christ the throne of God has become a throne of grace. And the
silence of heaven will be unbroken until the Lord Jesus passes to the throne of
judgment.
In the ages before Christ came, men may well have craved for
public proofs of the action of a personal God. But in the ministry and death
and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, God has so plainly manifested, not
only His power, but His goodness and love-toward-man, that to grant evidential
miracles, now, would be an acknowledgment that questions which have been for
ever settled are still open. Moreover, miracles of another kind abound. For in
recent years the gospel has achieved triumphs in heathendom, which transcend
anything recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. And infidelity is thus
confronted by surer proofs of the presence and power of God than any miracle in
the natural sphere could offer. For miracles in the natural sphere are not
necessarily a proof of Divine action they are the lure by which some of the
demon cults of the present day ensnare their dupes; and the time may be near
when such signs and wonders will abound.
While therefore we dare not limit
what God may do in response to individual faith - for there is a gift of faith
- to claim a sign is to tempt God, and to leave ourselves open to be deceived
by the seducing spirits of these last days.5
This truth of grace enthroned
may be called the basal truth of the distinctively Christian revelation. And
yet, in common with certain other truths of that revelation, it was lost in the
post-apostolic age. The writings of the Patristic theologians will be searched
in vain for a clear enunciation of it. And though it flashed out like April
sunshine at the Reformation, it soon disappeared again. And, needless to say,
the Romish system is a flagrant and open denial of it.
Chapter Five
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