CHAPTER X.

THE TRIAL OF ABRAHAM'S FAITH: THE OBJECT THEREOF JUSTIFICATION OPENED UP IN THE DIVINE NATURE AND IMPORTANCEDELAYS IN DIVINE PERFORMANCE: THE WHY AND THE WHEREFORE THE ALL-IMPORTANT DISTINCTION BETWEEN FAITH AND WORKS-THE APOSTLE'S DEDUCTIONS-FAITH IN ITS NATURE AND BLESSEDNESS-ITS PEACE-INFUSING PROPERTIES-ITS REPOSE

UPON THE FINISHED WORK OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

In order that Abraham's faith might be tried, and that the very nature and operation of faith might be handed down to every successive generation, the patriarch has to wait for thirteen years before the Lord even renews His promise concerning his seed. And we can well conceive the perplexity in which Abraham's mind was involved during that period, knowing, as without doubt he did, what the angel of the Lord had said to Hagar with respect to her posterity. But our God does not reckon time as we reckon it; neither are His thoughts as our thoughts. A great and important lesson was to be taught Abraham as to bondage and liberty, faith and works; and that lesson was to be proclaimed in connexion with him down to the remotest period of time.

As matters of the greatest possible moment were

involved in regard to Jehovah's teachings of Abraham, it would seem to us, at least, that the Lord would (so to speak) take time in His movements in order that there should be no confusion or misapprehension as to the character of the lesson in which, through His dealings with Abraham, He would instruct His Church and people. The nature of justification was to be illustrated and opened up in connexion with the patriarch. God had sovereignly and condescendingly pledged Himself to Abraham; at the same time He infused a believing confidence into the mind of the patriarch, that he should at once accept and depend upon Jehovah's word. This, as we have already said, was so well pleasing to the Lord, that "He counted it to him for righteousness." He accepted it and approved of it, as though it were actual obedience—practical homage—the most rigid personal adoption and working out of Jehovah's holy mind and will. This was Abraham's faith, and faith only, as wrought in Him by the mighty arm of the Omnipotent.

Then, in order that there should be an opportunity afforded for the more clearly discriminating between God's work and man's work, Jehovah tarries ere He performs His promise; and, in the interval, Abraham falls into that carnal course of things which we have just been considering. After thirteen years had elapsed, and not until then, the Lord renews His assurance, coupled with the declaration that it was of Sarah (Abraham's wife), and not of Hagar (the bondwoman), the child of promise was to be born. Then,

and not until then, the patriarch received "the sign of circumcision, (as) a seal of the faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised."

Mark this, reader, for it is very important. Abraham was justified, or "accounted righteous," thirteen years before he was circumcised. The Apostle, in the 4th chapter of his epistle to the Romans, lays a great stress upon this. Hence he says, "Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision."

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Circumcision was an act of the creature, performed, it is true, by the direction of God. Nevertheless, had not Abraham been justified until he was circumcised, he must, to all intents and purposes, have been justified by works; and this would be to overset the whole Gospel plan of salvation, which is grounded upon the incontrovertible fact, that "by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight;" "for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." 'Being justified freely," says the Apostle, "by His GRACE, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be the propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time, His righteousness; that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in

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Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law."

Thus writes the Apostle Paul, in the 3rd chapter of his epistle to the Romans: then, that he may enforce the matter still more emphatically and clearly, he opens the next chapter with the inquiry, "What shall we then say, that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." Then the Apostle adds, "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt; but to him that worketh not, but BELIEVETH on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his FAITH is counted for righteousness, even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." The Psalmist did not say that there was not any sin or iniquity; but he pronounced that man and his condition as blessed whose iniquities were forgiven, and whose sins were covered; and how was this to be done? By the Lord's imputing to him, or reckoning as his, the righteousness of Another. That Other was the Lord Jesus Christ, whose death atoned for the sins of His people, and whose obedience to all the holy will of

His Father is set down to the account of all who by simple faith look to and lay hold upon Him, as though His act was their act, His works their works, His righteousness their righteousness. It is theirs by imputation, theirs by transfer. Hence, says the Apostle, "Now the righteousness of God without the law [that is, without the positive obedience to the law in the sinner's own personal act and deed] is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God [i. e., the righteousness which God demands, and with nothing short of which can He be satisfied]; which is, by faith of Jesus Christ [the faith of His own begetting and bestowing, and which apprehends Him, and that righteousness or holiness or perfect purity, is] unto all and upon all them that believe." Thus it is that faith, as wrought in the heart of the redeemed sinner by God the Holy Ghost, beholds in the person and work of Jehovah Jesus that full and free salvation which he, as a sinner, needs; and by virtue of this precious faith, he is brought personally to understand and enjoy the satisfaction and the blessedness of the Apostle's declaration, “There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh [that is, the creature, through sin and infirmity, was not a match for the law], God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin [or, by a