Hence, when He came, this was His one great object. Not to “found a Church”; not even to save us because we were lost, or needed salvation; but because it was the Father’s Will and desire that His people should be saved. The one recorded utterance of Christ that broke the silence of those thirty years was to bear witness of this great fact. Twelve years rolled by before we have one recorded word; and then eighteen more years passed away before another syllable is recorded. The first and only recorded utterance during those thirty years was addressed to Joseph and Mary: “Wist you not that I must be about MY FATHER’S BUSINESS?” (Luke 2:49). And when His last words were uttered on the Cross: - “It is FINISHED”, - What was it that was finished but the work which it was the Father’s Will that He should do; and the Father’s business that He came to be about? This tells us that our salvation did not depend on “the will of the flesh, or on the will of man, but on the Will of God” (John 1:13).
The lost and sinners are often exhorted: “Save your souls”; “Get right with God”; but, alas! what ignorance it displays both of God and of His great salvation. The fact that the Will of God is its source sends us back to eternity past, and to the volume of eternity’s book, in which, what is true physically of the natural birth is infinitely more true of the spiritual. So that we can truly say, as saved sinners:
“Tour eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect (not imperfect!); and in Your book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them” (Ps. 134:16). In the margin it is: “What days they should be fashioned.” Yes, He knew “the days”, “the due time”, in which it should be testified: on the Cross by the Son, and in our hearts by the Spirit. This lifts our redemption and later our salvation entirely out of the hands of man; takes our feet out of the miry clay; and sets them on the rock of God’s Will, God’s Work, and God’s Word.
To carry out that “Will”, and accomplish that “Work”, and fulfil that “Word”, the Son of God came forth from the bosom of the Father. And He accomplished all. This is why “it behooved Him to suffer” (Luke 24:46; Hebrews. 2:17). This is why “He must needs go through Samaria” (John 4:4). This is why He must “needs have suffered” (Acts 17:3). He came not to do His own will, but the Will of the Father (John 6:38). And He did it. If He did not, then it is useless for us to attempt it; or to try and supplement it wherein His work is deficient!
The channel by which God’s redemption and His salvation comes to us is “through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”(Heb 10:10). And even this body was “prepared” by the Father (verse 5). It is not through the Church, not through the Sacraments; not through any religious rites and ceremonies and ordinances; not through any “works of righteousness which we have done”; not through our prayers or penitence, tears or trials - but “through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb. 10:10). And the reality of it all, the means by which we realize this finished redemption and then our salvation, is “the witness of the Holy Ghost”, in the Word, and in our hearts. “Whereof the Holy Ghost is a witness to us” (Hebrews 10:15). Thus our Redemption and our Salvation are lifted, at once, right out of our hands. The more we consider this the more perfect and complete is the witness and the evidence.
(8) The Faith of God’s Children
For if we see that faith is the hand which takes what God gives, then we are left in no doubt about the fact that:
It is the “Gift of God” the Gather (Ephesians 2:8)
It is the “Grace” of Christ (Galatians 3:22), and
It is the “Fruit” (Galatians 3:22), and “Word” and “Will” of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12: 9-11).
Our readers must amplify, and dwell upon, all these three-fold Scriptures, and feed on the precious Truths which they reveal. We can only collect and present them: we can do no more, Each must feed upon them for himself. We ourselves are under the same great necessity.
(9) The Hope of God’s Children
If we have a good hope through Grace,
It is owing to the Father’s “abundant mercy” (1 Peter 1:3).
It is Christ Himself “who is our hope” (1 Timothy 1: 1).
It is “through the power of the Holy Ghost” that it abounds in us (Romans 15:13).
(10) The Love of God’s Children
If we speak of love, and if we are the objects of Divine Love (Ephesians 1:4), then
We are Loved by the FATHER; for it is His Love which is shed abroad in our hearts (Romans 5:5).
We are Loved by the SON who Loved us and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 5:25, etc.,)
We are Loved by the SPIRIT, by which Love we are to strive together in prayer (Romans 15:30).
(11) The life of God’s Children
If we possess eternal Life, then
Our hope of it is based on the fact that GOD (the Father), that cannot lie, promised it before the world began (Titus 1:2).
Our possession of it is because the Life which God has given to us “is in His SON (1 John 5:11).
Our enjoyment of it is secured to us by the fact that it is wrought in us by the power of the SPIRIT (John 6:63).
(12)The Comfort of God’s Children
If we are, in any measure, are enabled to enjoy the consolations of the Gospel, it is because the Whole Godhead is engaged in our behalf to bring us to the blessings wherewith we are blessed in and through the Son.
It is the FATHER of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforts His children in all their tribulations (2 Corinthians 1:3,4).
It is the LORD JESUS CHRIST who was sent on purpose “to comfort all that mourn” and “heal the broken-hearted” (Isaiah 70:2; Luke 4:19).
It is the HOLY GHOST who gives “Rest” to all who walk in “the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 9:31).
Oh what a God we have! Oh what a God to know! How important is the Word which thus reveals Him to us; not in the form of a creed to be rehearsed, but in all the blessed activities put forth
FOR us
TO us, and
IN us;
In the provision He has prepared for us Himself; conveyed to us in Christ; and shed abroad in us by the Holy Spirit.
From all this we learn that the Salvation about which the multitude so glibly talk and sing is not some wretched thing to be obtained or produced by us, but is a grand reality.
Wrought FOR us by God the Father.
Wrought TO us by the Son
Wrought IN us by God the Holy Ghost.
It is a Redemption that begins our Salvation in which our every want is supplied; our warfare is accomplished, our sin cancelled, our preservation sure, fleshly ordinances abolished, and final triumph assured. It is a Salvation secured by the FATHER’s eternal Love, by the SON’s Redeeming work, and by the SPIRIT’s regenerating power to the working of our Salvation. It is a Salvation in which GOD THE FATHER is the children’s portion; GOD THE SON is their title to that portion, and GOD THE SPIRIT is the power to read their title clear, and to enjoy their blessed portion. It is Eternal Salvation; for the FATHER will never forsake them (Heb. 13:20), the SON is always with them (Matthew 28:20), and the SPIRIT is ever in them. It is a Salvation which is well called “the Way” ( John 14:6; Acts 9:2; 18:26; 19:9; 22:4,22; 24:14), for
THE FATHER’S voice is heard behind, saying: This is the Way; walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21).
THE SAVIOR’S voice is heard before, saying: “I am the Way, No man comes to the Father but by Me” (John 14:6).
THE SPIRIT’S voice is heard within, witnessing of the voice of the Father and of the Son.
What is the revelation of this wondrous provision for?
It is all to bring a poor lost sinner unto God. “Through Him (CHRIST), we have access by one SPIRIT to the FATHER (Ephesians 2:18; 3:12; Romans 5:2).
“Christ has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might BRING US TO GOD” (1 Peter 3:18).
Yes! to GOD. Not to a Church, not to a priest, not to Sacraments, not to Ordinances, not to anything short of Himself. Not only is He “the Way” to God, but He leads us in the Way; and actually brings us to God. Through Him we, who “were once far off, are now made nigh” (Ephesians 2:13).
“So near, so very near to God,
Nearer we cannot be;
For, in the Person of His Son,
We are as near as He.”
This is the intercourse or intimacy revealed in marriage and the cleaving unto the husband and the wife the one to the other.
Yes, “through Him”; not through a Church: by one Spirit, not by a sacrament: brought to the Father, and not unto “a state of salvation”. Yes, “through Him”. through Christ, we have access; and “by one Spirit”. Without the work of Christ the Will of the Father would not have been done for us. Without the witness of the Spirit the Father’s Grace would not have been known by us; and the Son’s Love would have had no charm for us.
Of the Spirit’s witness we sing:-
“And every virtue we possess,
And every victory won,
And every thought of holiness
Are His alone.”
“By one Spirit we both have access”; i.e., both Jew and Gentile. And it is “by one Spirit” that, both “the Son of God” was led through suffering, and “the many sons are brought to Glory” (Hebrews 2:10). See our other blog "God Has only One Way for Us All" for a study on the "The Holiest of All" written by Andrew Murray an exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, for more detail.
· The Son was begotten by pneuma hagion (Luke 1:35, Matthew 1:18).
He was anointed by the Spirit of the Lord (Isaiah 51:1, Matthew 3:10).
He was led by the Spirit into trial (Matthew 4:1).
By the Spirit he cast out devils (Matthew 12:28); and
By the Spirit He offered Himself to God (Hebrews 9:14).
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