|
 good brother
says on the first question:
"God does not say whether the blessing is Spiritual, National, or
Commercial. To say either is an assumption," etc.
What is this but saying, "The Promise and Oath of God does not mean
any thing—it has no application, for no one can tell what it means?"
If what the blessing is, is uncertain, then who can have any faith
in it? Paul was of a different mind from this brother on this point,
for he says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness... And the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify
the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham,
saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed," — Ga 2:6,8.
Paul’s idea, then, was, that the promised blessing is "the gospel,"
and related to the question of how men could be justified, and be
children of Abraham spiritually: hence, the blessing related to
spiritual things. If "national and commercial blessings" followed,
they were like the paper and twine the merchant uses to cover his
goods, delivered to the purchaser: they are thrown in gratis. The
idea that we cannot tell to what the promised blessing relates, is,
in fact, and "assumption" that it does not mean any thing on which
to found faith; so the promise and oath of God is of no more value
than a heathen oracle, which is given so equivocally that it may be
construed one way, or another directly opposite. Not so does the God
of Abraham deal with the children of men. He means what he says, and
says what He means. In no other way can we have a ground of faith.
LIFE BELIEVERS
FEARS
With Life believers, however, the great fear is
that our present view will uproot the idea of no future life out of
Christ, which has been a grand point with them. We confess it
modifies that view, but it does not uproot it. In the doctrine of
"No Life out of Christ," one grand and important truth of the Bible
has been overlooked. The truth we will now endeavor to set forth by
the following remarks:
FUTURE AND
ETERNAL LIFE.
Future life and Eternal life are not necessarily
synonymous, or expressions of the same import. Christ is "the
resurrection and the life." There is no future life but what comes
as a favor of God by Christ; hence, there is no future life except
such as is a blessing bestowed on him who is the subject of it, or
that is not the result of God’s love. That life is eternal to all
who have improved the present life, to form a union with Christ by
the reception of his Spirit; thus becoming "partakers of the Divine
nature." - 2Pe 1:3,4. These being raised from among the dead,
thereby become permanently " the children of God," and cannot "die
any more," or are possessed of eternal life. If others have a future
life, it is because "where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound." - Ro 5:20. And, "If through the offence of the one
(that is Adam) the many have died; much more, the grace of God, ...
by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto the many." - Ro
5:15. "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death
by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have
sinned:.. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all
men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free
gift came upon all men unto justification of life: for as by one
man’s disobedience [the] many were made sinners, so by the obedience
of one shall [the] many be made righteous." - Ro 5:12, 18, 19.
On Ro 5:19 we give the following remarks from "Dr.
Bloomfield’s Critical Notes on the Greek New Testament," edited by
the late Prof. Stuart. Dr. Bloomfield says:
"This verse is explanatory of the preceding, and oipolloi should be
rendered ‘ the many,’ which, as appears from the foregoing, is
equivalent to pantes. It is very important to attend to this force
of the Article, and to bear in mind that throughout this whole
passage it is (as Abp. Whately observes) ‘the main drift of the
Apostle to set forth the universality of the Redemption, as being
co-extensive with the evil introduced at the fall, which it was
designed to remedy.’ So the great BENTLY, in his masterly Sermon on
Popery, after quoting what is said in Ro 5:12, and the
redditio at Ro 5:15, remarks: ‘Who would not wish that our
translators had kept the Article in the version they saw in the
original? thus, ‘If through the offence of the one (that is Adam)
the many have died, much more the grace of God, by one man Jesus
Christ, hath abounded unto the many.’ By this accurate version, some
hurtful mistakes about partial redemption, and absolute reprobation,
had been happily prevented. Our English readers had then seen, what
several of the Fathers saw and testified, that oi polli, the many,
in an antithesis to the one, are equivalent to pantes , all, in
Ro 5:12, and comprehend the whole multitude, the entire species of
mankind, exclusive only of the one. So again, Ro 5:18, 19, our
translators have repeated the like mistake; where, when the Apostle
has said, that "as the offence of one was upon all men ( eis pantas
anthropous ) to condemnation, so the righteousness of one was upon
all men to justification:’ ‘for," adds he, ‘as by the one man’s
disobedience ( tou enos ) the many ( oi polloi ) were made sinners,
so by the obedience of the one ( tou enos ) the many ( oi polloi )
shall be made righteous.’ By this version the reader is admonished
and guided to remark, that the many in Ro 5:19 are the same as
pantes, all, in verse 18.’ The meaning therefore of Ro 5:18,
19, may be thus expressed (with Mr. Holden): ‘As, by Adam’s
disobedience, all men are brought into a state of condemnation; so,
by Christ’s obedience, all men are brought into a state of
justification and life; i.e., have the means of attaining that
justification which will be crowned with eternal life."‘
So much for the critical examination of this portion of Scripture.
Thus much is made evident, No man remains in death for Adam’s "one
transgression" except himself. Christ is constituted "Lord both of
the dead and the living." Ro 14:9, and that includes "the
many," or all men descended from Adam. In this respect, Jesus has
taken "away the sin of the world," Joh 1:29; so that nothing
can hold any man in death but a willful rejection of the Son of God
as the LIFE-GIVER, whom God gave, in His love, to "give life unto
the world;" for, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life." - Joh 6:33, and Joh 3:16.
Are we to admit the idea that because millions on millions have gone
down in death without ever having heard of the love of God to them,
or the provision for their obtaining life everlasting, that
therefore God has no means to reach them with the Gospel message?
Perish the thought. If there are no other means of their hearing
that message, they will as certainly be revived from the dead as
that Abraham will be revived from the dead to inherit the land
promised because he never did inherit the land promised because he
never did inherit it while in this life. So "all the families of the
earth shall be blessed in Abraham and his seed;" and literal death
is no obstacle in the way of God’s fulfilling his "Promise and Oath"
that it shall be done. If any choose to "stagger through unbelief,"
in this matter, let them enjoy the pleasure of that unbelief; but it
will not annul "the word of God," which "shall not return to" Him
"void, but it shall accomplish that which" He please; and that to
which He has sworn; and all for whom Christ died, whether dead or
living, shall hear of God’s marvelous love to them, and have the
offer of life eternal through Him, "Who gave himself a ransom for
all, to be testified in due time." - 1Ti 2:6. God’s "times and
seasons" He hath put and kept "in His own power." - Ac 1:7. If
He pleases to take "the ages to come" ( Eph 2:7) to "show the
exceeding riches of His grace," and to unfold "the unsearchable
riches of Christ," ( Eph 3:8), who of the children of men, saints or
sinners, shall say He cannot or will not do it, even though we,
short-sighted mortals, cannot see how it is to be done?
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