Understanding the Bible - Letters 1-12

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1—THE WORLD WILL NOT EXPECT HIM

 

Peter says “there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, ail things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:3-7), and ignoring the lesson of the Flood which came upon an unheeding world, Jesus uses the same parallel when He says, “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the Ark, and the Flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed (Luke 17:26-30).

 

The world will be in the position of being too busy with its own affairs: its own business, its own natural pursuits, and its own lusts, and it will have lost interest in the solid truths of the gospel of Christ. It will have a form of godliness, but it will have denied the power thereof, and it will love pleasure more than it loves God (2 Timothy 3:4-5; 4:3-4). There will be a disillusionment about it, too, for the persistent prayer for good which animates the faithful will largely have disappeared, and Jesus says, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). Men will have grown weary of crying to a heaven apparently brazen against their supplications.

 

2—IT WILL BE A TIME OF WAR AND TROUBLE

 

Jesus says so: “There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring: men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud”. (Luke 21:25-26). Daniel says so: “There shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time” (Daniel 12:1), of a time just prior to the resurrection of the dead.

 

Ezekiel says so, and in Chapters 38 and 39 gives a graphic picture of nations gathered together for war just prior to a great intervention by God, and the establishment of the kingdom of Chapter 40 and onwards. Joel says so, in briefer but similar terms (Chapter 3). Just prior to the setting up of the Kingdom of God under Jesus, nations will be engaged in war together, in a time of trouble hitherto unknown, and the turmoil will be resolved by the intervention of God through Him. 

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3—IT WILL BE A TIME OF JEWISH RETURN

 

We have already given reason to know that this must occur at some time, and it is most significant that the prophecies already noted in the last paragraph are all dated at the time when Jews will be returning to the land of Palestine. (See Daniel 12:2; Ezekiel 36 and 37; Joel 3:1-2; Luke 21:24).

 

We may not, perhaps, say that the time is ripe, but the signs of ripening cannot be mistaken. Religion has rarely been as impotent as it is now; belief in the substantial truths of the gospel has never sunk to so low an ebb; preoccupation with the things of this life to the exclusion of true worship was never so rife; with two devastating wars in a generation, disillusionment has seized the whole world. Our recent times of trouble have left everyone with the consciousness that worse may well be to come, and the uneasy feeling that the will to control its possibilities is not there. “Men’s hearts failing them for fear” might have been said with fair truth of much during the period 1939-45, but it looks like being truer still as time goes on. (These words were written very soon after the first two Atom Bombs had been dropped). And since the Balfour Declaration of 1917 Jews have been going back to Palestine in greater numbers than have been there since the second century of our era.

 

Everything points to our being within measurable distance of the culminating point of God’s purpose with the earth. We do not know the day nor the hour. But we do well to heed the warning which Jesus gives in His prophecies: “Watch ye, therefore, and pray always” (Luke 21:36). There are some, even in such a time, who will be able to “Look up, and lift up their heads, for their redemption draweth nigh”. It is of this highly important class that the concluding letter will speak. 

 

READING

 

In addition to the wide range in the notes, the following chapters should be read, some of them not for the first time: Psalm 72; Isaiah 2; 31; 60; 66; Jeremiah 31; Daniel 2; Micah 4; Zechariah 12-14; Matthew 24 and 25; Luke 21, and. both letters to the Thessalonians, where the return of Jesus is mentioned in every chapter.

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12. “UNDERSTANDEST THOU WHAT THOU READEST?”

 

Let us go back for a moment to the story from Acts 8 with which this course opened. A man was reading from Isaiah 53 the story of the Suffering Saviour and was anxious to know Who it was. The Christian evangelist, Philip, came up into his chariot and explained that it was Jesus. The upshot was that the enquirer asked the question, “See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?” and was dipped in water by Philip, and went on his way rejoicing.

 

What are the ingredients of this story? We can know now (though we could not then, before we began to read our Bibles) that the man in the chariot was a sinner, heading for the death which is the common lot of all sinners, and without hope of staying that end. We know now the pause, for we have traced the development of our sinful race from our first sinful parents, and we know what death means. No doubt this man knew this, too.

 

But the chapter which he read suggested something better. “He was wounded for our transgressions”—“With His stripes we are healed”—“The Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all”; these things give us hope of something better, if only we can find to whom the prophet refers. Surely this was behind the reader’s question: “Of whom speaketh the prophet this, of himself or of some other man?” The question was answered by Philip, and we know now what the answer was. Beginning at the same Scripture he preached to him Jesus.

 

All that we have said about Jesus lies within the scope of that preaching by Philip; the perfection of his life as an example; the giving of His body to death as a pattern of our flesh’s deserts; the offering of the Son of God as the assurance of the love of God; the Resurrection as the certainty that salvation can be assured. All this we know. It must have been something like this that Philip preached, and the Ethiopian heard.

 

The outcome was his baptism. When we first read the story we only knew that some powerful urge had moved him to an act we could not explain. But since that time we have learned that Jesus, also, was baptized, and we have read passages in which He commends that course to His disciples, and they ask it of their converts. Let us consider baptism a little further.

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THE NECESSITY OF BAPTISM

Here is the evidence, stated boldly:

(1) John was baptizing with the “baptism of repentance for remission of sins”. (Matthew 3:1-12; Mark 1:4-8; Luke 3:1-17; John 1:19-28).

(2) Jesus Himself was baptized at about the age of 30, commending it to others also with the words, “Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil righteousness”. (Matthew 3:13-17; Luke 3:21-23).

(3) When Jesus was risen from the dead, He told His apostles to go and preach among all nations, requiring baptism of those who believed their gospel. (Matthew28:19; Mark 16:15-16). While the commission of Luke does not mention baptism (Luke 24:47), the mention of “repentance and remission of sins” couples it immediately with the previous examples.

(4) The Apostles faithfully carried out this commandment. At Pentecost, “Repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of your sins” was Peter’s command, and, “They that gladly received his word were baptized” was their response (Acts 2:37-42). The converted Samaritans were baptized (Acts 8:12-13) by Philip, and so was the Ethiopian of whom we have already spoken (verses 35-40). Baptism was the act of submission of Paul when he was persuaded of the truth of Christianity (Acts 9:1-19 and 22:15-16). It was the introduction granted to the Gentile Cornelius when the faith was first extended to his race (Acts 10:44-48). When Paul’s gaoler at Philippi had been taught the gospel, he was baptized (Acts 16:33). The need for a proper baptism is brought out plainly in the cases of Apollos and the Ephesian believers (Acts 18:24; 19:1-7).

(5) It is taken for granted that baptism is the symbol of admission to the Christian community, whenever the subject is broached in the Epistles. Romans 6 (of which more will be said) assumes that all Christians are “baptized into Jesus Christ” (verse 3), and Galatians 3:27 specifically says so. 1 Corinthians 1:13-17, so far from being an argument against baptism, is an insistence that baptism must be into the Name of Jesus, and that no question of personal prestige must interfere. The difficult verse in 1 Corinthians 15:29 must surely mean that all believers are baptized, and that their baptism is a mere baptism for the dead unless Christ had been raised. In three passages other than these, baptism appears as the essential instrument whereby salvation becomes possible (Ephesians4:5; Colossians 2:12; Peter 3:21).

(6) Other passages clearly speak of baptism, though they do not mention it by name, and we can specially mention John 3:5 and Titus 3:5. The former says that unless a man is born again “of water and spirit” he cannot enter the Kingdom of God, while the latter speaks of believers as being saved, not by works but by the mercy of God, through “washing of water and renewing of Holy Spirit”. When we can see in how many of the examples already given baptism was followed by the gift of the Holy Spirit, there can be no doubt that this rebirth, or regeneration, of water is the same as baptism.

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THE FORM AND CONDITIONS OF BAPTISM

 

The case for the necessity of baptism is unimpeachable. It appears as the accepted and necessary accompaniment of conversion. But the ceremony of the “christening” of infants has interfered with our clear understanding of what the rite .means and it is therefore necessary to be more specific. Notice, first of all, that in all cases where details are given, instruction goes before baptism. It is “he that believeth and is baptized” who shall be saved, the disciples were to “teach all nations and baptize them”; the Jews at Pentecost, the Samaritans, the Ethiopian, Paul, Cornelius and the gaoler of Philippi were all taught before they received baptism. Then notice the state of mind in which those who had heard were baptized. It is variously called “believing”, being “pricked at heart”, “repenting”, and is accompanied by a keen desire to change from being unsaved to being within hope of salva­tion. All this presupposes a grown up, understanding mind definitely committing itself to a course of obedience to the will of God. It has nothing to do with an uncomprehending rite performed upon new-born children.

 

Then notice the conditions in which it was performed. Jesus went down into the water and came up again (Matthew 3:16), and John was baptizing in Aenon “because there was much water there”. The Ethiopian (who would certainly have had water in his chariot) waited until “they came unto a certain water”, and then both the baptizer and the baptized went down into it to perform the baptism (Acts 8:34-40). The word itself fully accords with these examples, for it means “to make fully wet”, and is used in the sense of “to dip”.

 

We conclude, then, that baptism in the early church required three things: (i) that the gospel should be made known to the candidate; (ii) that he should accept its message and express repentance; (iii) that he should be dipped beneath water.

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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BAPTISM

 

If this were a ceremony we cannot explain, the fact that Jesus Himself underwent it and said “Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness” would be sufficient to commend it to the obedience of all who wished to be accepted by Him. But we can explain it. We have already made plain what repent­ance is, and what is the need for it: we are sinful men and women who look for salvation from God, and see how Jesus has made it possible. We confess this and: seek to turn again to a new manner of life and a new confidence. Jesus required this of us when He said, “If any man would be my disciple let him deny himself, and take up his Cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24), and so drew a picture of a sinful band of men and women crucifying their flesh and accepting a new service.

 

It is precisely this picture which Paul draws in Romans 6 of baptism. The baptized are baptized into the death of Jesus and in this act “crucify the old man” (6:6) after the fashion of Jesus’s death. They come out of this symbolic burial raised again to a new life, in which they no longer trust in the flesh, to sin and die, but trust in God, seek to follow the righteous­ness of Christ, and look for the “gift of God” which “is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (6:23).

 

In other places (as John 3:5, Titus 3:5), baptism is spoken of as rebirth, and the force of this is now easily seen. Our fleshly heritage is no use to us, so far as eternal life is concerned, leading only to death. A new basis is needed for life, and so the disciple undergoes a ceremony of rebirth, in which he confesses himself a new-born child of God, and seeks the nurture and upbringing which such a child should have. Indeed, he is called a “new-born babe” (1 Peter 1:23; 2:2), and given the high dignity of a “son of God”, “begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). This change, not of the will of men but of God, is the change which we have shown Jesus to exemplify in His life, and it is the fundamental change.

 

It is not to be supposed that baptism works any miraculous change in the nature of the one baptized. He is still in his flesh mortal, still capable of sin, still sure to go to the grave unless prevented by the Master’s return. Baptism does not make him secure, as the Apostle Paul himself well knew (1 Corinthians 9:26-27; Hebrews 6:4-6), nor does it make him sinless (1 John 1:6-10). But a right baptism sets him in a new relationship with God. The enemy has become a friend, the alien has become a citizen (Ephesians 2:11-22). The High Priest will act on his behalf (Hebrews 4:14-16) before God. He has entered the fellowship of the sons of God, and become an heir of the promises, an heir on probation.

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THE BREAKING OF BREAD

 

The Christian disciple has been bought with a price, “not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19), and he must never forget that he stands by grace. The means has been provided whereby he shall be constantly reminded of it, for the ceremony of the Last Supper, at which Jesus broke bread (“This is my body, which is given for you”) and distributed a cup of wine (“This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for remission of sins”) has been ordained as a continual memorial of what has been done for him (Matthew 26:20-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:14-20; 1 Corinthians 10:14-21; 11:17-34).

 

From the earliest days the disciples met together to celebrate this feast, week by week on the first day (which we know now as Sunday), and it became a mark of the disciples of Jesus (Acts 2:42,46; 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:18 and 16:2). No doubt Jesus had set the example for their first-day observance in His encounter with the two disciples recorded in Luke 24:30.

 

It is impossible to perform this remembrance regularly, and not be constantly reminded of the work which has been done for the redemption of the believer, of the weakness of the flesh which needed it, and of the love of God which prompted it. It is impossible to partake of the cup of blessing, and not be reminded of the supreme blessing. “I will no more partake of the fruit of the vine till I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom”, and so look forward to the time when Jesus will be back in the earth, to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (2 Thessalonians 1:10). The Service recalls the principal points in the believer’s faith: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that Christ is the King of the Kingdom of God, ruling even now over the subjects who have made their submission to Him, and destined to rule in the time to come over the whole world.

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THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

 

So far we have dealt with principles, and there has emerged through our course a system of understanding which is the necessary preliminary to an acceptable life. We have seen our race fall from the pleasure of God, by sin, and seen ourselves share the common condemnation to death, which is the wages of sin. We have learned by a hard road, that the sanctity and holiness of God must be acknowledged, by those who would come before Him, and we have seen in the life of Jesus the supreme and perfect example of such a recognition. We have been taught how we may make that approach ourselves, and put ourselves in the position of new-born children entering upon the course of the godly life, in expectation of Judgment at the Return of Jesus, which may issue for us in the blessedness of immortality. But we have learned also that this birth is only the beginning of the new life, and not the life itself!

 

There are continual exhortations that a course so begun must be continued in the same spirit. The man who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God (Luke 9:62). The man who said, “I go, Sir”, and went not, received no credit for his profession (Matthew 21:30). The one who commenced to build a tower and left off in the middle because he had not counted the cost, was an object of scorn (Luke 14:28). To accept the yoke of Jesus is an act of deliberate, calculated submission to Him with consequence which must be faced throughout life.

 

The warnings are continual, too, against divided service. Sometimes it is the conflict between God and Mammon (the personification of selfish greed for possession) which is stressed (Matthew 6:24). Sometimes it is the conflict between Flesh and Spirit (Romans 8 throughout; Galatians 5:16-25) whereby the Christian is reminded that the flesh leads him to death, while only the revelation of God’s will through the Spirit, and the working of God’s will in his life can lead him to life eternal. Sometimes the disciples and the world are set in opposition (John 17:6-16; 2 Corinthians 6:14; 7:1), and the believer is taught that his is a lonely pilgrimage of grace amidst the multitude who do not heed, or who actively hinder, the message of the gospel of Christ.

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ARE THERE FEW THAT BE SAVED?

 

For we must not delude ourselves into supposing that the way of salvation will be popular, nor must we take the popular voice as to whether the things outlined in this course are to be accepted or not. The signs of Jesus’s coming which were given in the last letter should be sufficient warning against that, and it is clear that Jesus Himself had no illusion as to the popularity of His gospel. The multitude assented to His crucifixion then; the time of His coming will be like the time of the Flood, when few were saved; and His exhortation to His hearers was, “Enter ye in at the narrow gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it”. (Matthew 7:13-14).

 

The path of submission and humble obedience to God is not popular. We have learned too much of the lessons of Israel and the Old Testament generally to expect that it should be. Those who were acceptable to God before con­fessed that they were strangers and pilgrims, with no con­tinuing city (Hebrews 11:13; 13:14) and it is not different now, so that Peter refers to Jesus’s disciples in similar terms (1 Peter 2:11; compare Hebrews 13:14). It is cause neither for loneliness nor for pride in those who do thus respond to the message, not for loneliness, because they are more that be for us than they that are against us (2 Kings 6:16), and they who cleanse themselves from the defilements of the flesh become the temple of God (2 Corinthians 7:1; 1 Corinthians 3:16; John 14:23); nor for pride, because we have nothing which we did not receive, and we stand by grace, wherefore it becomes us not to be high-minded but fear (Romans 11:20).

 

The believers are called a people for the Name of God, taken out from the Gentiles (Acts 15:14), and it is this high office which the believer, who hears the word and is baptized, accepts and undertakes to discharge.

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“THOU SHALT LOVE THE LORD WITH ALL THY HEART”

 

We may not enlarge upon the duties of the new Christian. This commandment, with the one which is like unto it, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, repeatedly quoted in the New Testament, in Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27, Romans 13:9, Galatians 5:14, James 2:8), form the basis of it. The two cannot be separated. He who loves God must love his brother also (1 John 3 and 4). The commands are comprehensive: “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”; “The whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”.

 

Many of the Christian virtues embodied in these commandments, and elaborated in such epitomes as the “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5-7), a Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:20-49) and long sections of the epistles (such as Romans 12-15, 1 Corinthians 13, Ephesians 4-6 and many others),  are  given  general  assent,  and  are  indifferently observed  in   practice.   Many of them are applauded as magnificent, but frankly wondered at as impracticable, and there are few who would claim to have reached perfection in them—and none who could claim it truly. There is no limit to what Jesus will accept from His disciples, yet there is no walk of life, respectable or sinful, which has not contributed its quota to those who put themselves under His obedience. The “living sacrifice” to which the Christian is called is a life of constant improvement in God’s service, with God’s help. Falls are frequent, but the opportunity to rise again is provided. The more Christian he becomes, the less he is disposed to pose as an example to his fellows, and the more he becomes aware that his deficiencies can only be filled up by God in Jesus. The more, too, does he know that they are, and that it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13). The less he reckons on the fleeting delights of this life, and the more he turns all his pleasure to the service of God, and is transformed by the renewing of his mind (Romans 12:2), the more, then does he delight in the fellowship of Jesus Christ, and look for the time when He shall appear, and they who have been called His brethren now, as sons of God, will receive in His presence their final joy, and “Be like him, for we shall see him as he is”. (1 John 3:1-3).

 

READING

 

A long list of reading can be gathered from the note. No more will be added here.

 

CONCLUSION

 

It has already been said that we have only reached the beginning. A course of action has been commenced, which we believe to be the whole duty of man. Those who have thus far understood the Bible will want to continue, diligently, their reading of it, so that the whole book, which we have been obliged to treat summarily, may become their treasured storehouse of divine knowledge. The address from which the letters have been obtained, can be used for requests for all further help to this end. The outworking of this message we place, humbly but confidently into the hands of the God to whose glory it is offered.

 

A.D.N.

 

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