Grace and Power: Some Aspects of the Spiritual Life

It is a fact, perhaps a significant fact, that throughout the Epistles of the New Testament, where, naturally, we find full instructions for Christians, there is only one exhortation to do the work of evangelization (2 Tim. iv. 5), while appeals to carry out the duty of foreign missions are equally conspicuous by their absence. On the other hand, the Christian life, its provisions and possibilities, its secrets and methods, its duties and responsibilities, will be found emphasized almost everywhere.

Is there any connection between the silence and the emphasis? May it not be a reminder that when the Christian life is what it should be, the duty of evangelization at home and abroad will be the natural and necessary outcome, as effect to cause, as stream to source? Be this as it may, there can be no question about the way in which the New Testament calls attention to the Christian life and demands the highest possible standard while providing the fullest possible power.

The believer’s life is described in the New Testament under two aspects: “acceptable to God and approved of man” (Rom. xiv. 18). We arc to “walk and please God” (i Thess. iv. l); to “walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing” (Col. i. lo); and to “do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (I John iii. 22). Nothing can be more inspiring than this requirement, leading us to pray, “Teach me to do the thing that pleases Thee” (Psalm cxliii. 10; Prayer Book Version).

But the life of the Christian is also to be “approved of man.” This is one of the best recommendations of the Gospel the believer claims to possess, for nothing so readily impresses and attracts those around as reality in daily living. When the Seven were appointed, one requirement was that they should be “men of honest report,” that is, “well spoken of,” men of good reputation. This feature is more prominent in the New Testament than many imagine (Acts x. 22; xvi. 2; xxii. 12; Eph. v. 15; Col. iv. 5; I Thess. iv. 12; i Tim. iii. 7). It has been said that the “Christian is the world’s Bible and sometimes they will read no other.” All the more necessary, therefore, that we should be in “favour with God and man” (Luke ii. 52) and thereby show that

“Our lips and lives express
The Holy Gospel we profess.”

This book is intended, in its first part, to call attention to some of the possibilities of Christian living; in the second, to some of its provisions, and in the third, to a few of its guarantees of protection. It embodies the substance of addresses given at various places in England and the United States.

His is preeminently a day of inquiry, of - questioning as to fundamental principles. Several years ago, mainly under the guidance of the German scholar, Harnack, the question was very rife,” What is Christianity? “Such questioning is natural and inevitable, and ought to be heartily welcomed. The Jews were expected to tell their children the meaning of the Passover whenever, the inquiry was made, ‘* What mean ye by this service?” And the Apostle Peter bids us to be ready to give a reason to every one who asks why we are what we are (i Pet. iii. 15). In matters Biblical, spiritual, and even ecclesiastical it is essential for us to be able to explain and vindicate our position. One thing, however, we must never forget, that truth is many-sided. It is like a crystal with several faces rather than like a piece of glass with one flat surface. As a diamond with various facets, so truth has its different aspects, and if only we realize this, we shall not go far wrong. Trouble arises if only one aspect is emphasized, for we are tempted to think that this is the only truth in existence.

During the Christian history there have been, perhaps, three main periods in which emphasis has been largely placed upon certain aspects of truth. During the early centuries the great thought was Christ as the Divine Redeemer. In the sixteenth century the stress fell on Christ as the Perfect Justifier. During the nineteenth century the chief point seems to have been, as it still is, on Christ the Complete Deliverer. So that we have in the early centuries, “My Saviour;” at the Reformation, “My Guilt;” and now, “My Weakness.” The Christian life is concerned with the last of these three — My Weakness; Christ the Complete Deliverer. But, of course, the other two are presupposed. It is because Christ is the Divine Saviour, and because He is the Perfect Justifier, that we are enabled to contemplate Him as our complete Deliverance from sin; and thus to consider our weakness, our bondage, our defilement, everything that touches the life of the believer in relation to sin. It will therefore be wise and well to look a little at the fundamental implications and presuppositions of the Christian life, in order that we may thence proceed from stage to stage, from strength to strength, and from glory to glory.

This can best be done by concentrating attention on one of the numerous passages that reveal the be-Hever’s life in all the divine plenitude of grace and blessing: In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father and ye in Me and 1 in you” (John xiv. 20).

I. We may think first of our Strong Protection. “I am in My Father.” This is the foundation, the relation of Christ to His Father. “What think ye of Christ? “is the question of questions to-day, and the union of the Lord Jesus Christ with His Father is the presupposition of everything. A book was published some time ago entitled •’ Jesus in the Nineteenth Century and After.” But we have to think of “Jesus in the First Century and Before;” this is where we must start.

Now, our strong protection, ‘• I am in My Father,” means this first of all: the Lord Jesus as the Revelation of truth. He claimed to come from the Father, and He said He was the truth. He promised that the truth should make His disciples free. His constant word was, “I say unto you.” This is the Lord Jesus Christ in His aspect as the Prophet of God. Truth in the New Testament means two things, veracity and reality, and Christ is and reveals both.

But it also means the Lord Jesus Christ as Redeemer from sin. He came not only to show, but to save; not only to teach, but to redeem. Sin has to be faced. We have to know what it is, and how it is to be removed. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.”

This means, in the third place, the Lord Jesus Christ in His Rule over life. He came preaching the Kingdom of God, and by this is to be understood the reign of God over human hearts and lives. His claim was absolute over men. “Come unto Me,” “Learn of Me,” “Follow Me,” “Abide in Me” — these were His constant assertions and claims.

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