Knowing the True, and Doing the Right
“To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” — . Acts xxvi. 18.
SOME additional “words of the Lord Jesus,” addressed to the stricken persecutor near the gate of Damascus, i I have been preserved for us in the defence before Agrippa. i The design of the Lord in calling this man is clearly and k minutely specified, — “To open their eyes, and to turn them H i from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto I i God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inherit- 1 3 ance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” % 8 Limiting our view, in the first instance, to the description here given of the saving change wrought in the man at his conversion, we find that it consists of two parts, — the enlightenment of the mind, and the renewing of the life. These two parts may be separately expressed, but they cannot separately exist. They may be expounded as successive topics; but they must be gained together as parallel attainments. You do not first get your eyes opened, and thereafter your heart and life turned round; neither do you practically turn first, and intelligently observe afterwards. The opening helps you to turn, but the turning also helps you to open. In the Christian life, true understanding and right action go together, as the right and left side of a living man. The regeneration is made up of truth and righteousness. Like the rays of light and rays of heat which proceed in company from the sun, they may be distinguished by philosophical analysis, but can never be separated in fact. The more that I actually turn from the power of Satan, the more do I intelligently perceive and appreciate God’s truth; and the more I know of God’s truth in my mind, the more do I turn from wickedness in my life. An artist may first paint a man’s body, expressing the form and action of every limb, and thereafter attach the head; or he may portray first the countenance, with the expression of every feature complete, and thereafter represent the body. But there is a great difference between the methods of nature and of art. The man was not made as he was painted. From the dim deep of non-existence, the being emerges, minute, but not mutilated. Head and body are small and shadowy at first, but head and body are both there, and both grow together unto perfection. So grows also the new man. It is not first the body of right life brought to perfection, and thereafter the spiritual understanding attained; nor is the spiritual understanding first attained, and thereafter the body of a right conduct added. Both, and both together, emerge in embryo, under the great Creator’s hand, and both grow together, up to the stature of a perfect man in Christ, — a man who knows God’s will, and therefore does it does it, and therefore knows it. Having once stated the necessary connection and reciprocal influence of these two, we may now consider them separately in succession.
To open their eyes, although a figurative expression here, scarcely requires any exposition. It is that aspect of the Spirit’s regenerating work which concerns the knowing of saving truth. It is the work of regeneration as it affects the understanding: it is that unction of the Holy One which enables the renewed to know all things that God has revealed for his own glory and men’s good. The practical turning, on the other hand, being perhaps more difficult of comprehension, is here more fully expressed. There is only one turning; but you turn from two things, and toward two things. At least two expressions are employed to indicate what you turn from, and as many to indicate what you turn to, —
From Darkness and the power of Satan;
To Light and God. The things on this side seem two; and the things on that side seem two; yet on either side there is substantially only one. God and Light do not here represent separate and different objects; for God is Light: Darkness and the power of Satan do not here represent separate and different objects; for the power of Satan is Darkness.
According to the word of Christ the Master, the foremost part of the servant’s work is to turn men from darkness and the power of Satan. When the Saviour’s word goes forth upon the world, it finds all standing with the face to darkness and the back to light, therefore the foundation of all
2 H true preaching is, Turn; “Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?” was the key-note of Old Testament preaching; and, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” was the harbinger of the gospel in the fulness of time.
Observe how and where we obtain the information that we are all at first in sin and under condemnation: it is not announced by an angry J udge; we gather it from the breathings of a compassionate Redeemer. It is a Friend who tells us the terrible truth that we are lost in our own sin; we should, therefore, all the more willingly take it in, and take it home. He who tells us knows all the case. He knows what is in man to deserve the sentence; and what is in God to inflict it. “Hear ye Him.”
Suppose a captive in an inner prison, with many successive circles of strong walls around him; and suppose further that he has never been led or carried through these outer gates, but has been born and reared within the fastness. If he is led out at last into liberty, he will discover the number of the retaining walls, and the thickness of each. The discovery will be pleasant, although it is the discovery of the strength of his prison, when his escape first reveals the depth of his bondage.
Thus the man whom the Son of God makes free discovers the strength of his prison-house. It is in going out of it that you learn how deep and dark it is.
In the spiritual darkness, Satan’s power is put forth: that power seeks the darkness, and the darkness favours that power. The two work to each other’s hands.
When you turn from the darkness, it is to the light: when you wrench yourself out of the tempter’s power, it is to come to God. Perhaps some are thinking about this grand decisive change. They are afraid of remaining in the darkness; but, alas! they are also afraid to come to the light: they are afraid of being longer in the power of Satan; but there is one thing of which they are still more afraid, and that is, to come near to God.
The prodigal was for a long time unhappy after his money was all spent; when the pleasures of sin were exhausted, he endured its miseries many a day, because he dreaded more to be seen at home a beggar, and to meet an angry father’s face, than to endure hunger, and filth, and nakedness in a foreign land. Perhaps some of our readers are in the condition of the prodigal during that interval between the time when he fell into beggary, and the time when he fell on his father’s neck. You are not easy where you are. The darkness is now dreadful; but the light, with all your sins upon you, is more dreadful still. Satan’s chain is heavy; but you would rather bear it than go right into the hands of the living God. Blessed are those prodigals who are brought the length of the grand decisive turning, “I will arise and go to my father.”
To the filthy in his filthiness, the prospect of being exposed in the light is dreadful: to the rebellious who has broken his father’s heart, the prospect of meeting his father is more formidable than all the miseries of his condition. But when he turns, all is changed; when he is 1 1 clothed in the fairest robe, he need not shrink from the light of his father’s dwelling, or the glance of a brother’s eye; when he lies on the Father’s bosom, deep in the Father’s 3 unfathomable love, he will no longer think it dreadful to come to his Father.
The second portion of this verse describes the privileges ii obtained in conversion. These are pardon and the inheriti ance. The gift, like the work, is twofold; it removes from A a believer what he deserves, and bestows upon him the M, deserts of his Redeemer. The birthright of condemnation is taken away, and the birthright of sons is conferred. Christ has taken your portion and you obtain his. The text teaches substitution in both its parts.
The pardon and the inheritance go together. Those who are not forgiven have no inheritance among the sanctified; and those who have no inheritance among the sanctified are not forgiven. No human being is forgiven and then left outcast; no human being is admitted to the inheritance unforgiven. None with his sins standing to his own account is admitted among the children; none of the children have their sins standing to their own account. Both, or neither. Christ is not divided. Hereafter a heaven awaits the holy; here the holy ripen for heaven.