"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 1 Peter 1:3 RV

THE figment of "baptismal regeneration" assumes that the new birth is peculiar to the Christian dispensation. But the striking fact that the new birth is never mentioned in the writings of the Apostle Paul, makes it plain that there is nothing distinctively Christian in the doctrine. No one who has not experienced the new birth can ever see the kingdom of God. This is a truth for all time, from the Eden Fall down to the judgment of the Great Day. But in this Christian dispensation it is merged in the higher truth of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, by which the sinner who believes becomes one with Christ.

And this truth of the oneness of the believer with Christ reminds us that the teaching of the types is in part by contrast. The sin-offerings of the law could neither take away sin, nor effect any change in the offerer. But "He was manifested to take away sins"; and the truth that Christ died for us has, for the believer, another side, namely, that "we died with Christ." (Romans 6:8, R. V.) And let no one suppose that this is an experience to be attained by a life of special saintship. The chapter from which the words are quoted was addressed to those who knew so little of grace that they could raise the question, "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?" (Romans 6:1.) It is not an experience, but a truth to be made the basis of all experience in a grace-taught life.

But there is yet another contrast here. Synonyms are few in Scripture, and the Cross means more than the death of Christ. Death was the Divine judgment upon the sin-bearer; but "the Cross" speaks also of shame and the contempt of men, poured out without measure upon Him who died. And this is the separating power of Calvary. The Israelite returned from his sin-offering to his life in the camp. To, the Christian, the exhortation comes, "Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing his reproach." (Hebrews 13:13.)1 They who "mind earthly things" are "the enemies of the Cross of Christ." (Philippians 3:18.)

But this is forgotten to-day, and the words that follow those last quoted remind us of a truth which is but little known. The pagan asceticism which corrupted the Church of the Fathers was due in part to the Gnostic error of regarding the body as an evil thing. And this error has so permeated the theology of Christendom that our translators misread the Apostle’s words, "Who shall change the body of our humiliation?" (Philippians 3:21.) "The body of our humiliation" - this outward tabernacle of God begotten - is not "vile," but holy, and should be "yielded to God as an acceptable sacrifice."

Scripture distinguishes between the sin of Eve and the sin of Adam. Words that have been used unnumbered times in every age might be applied in a special sense to the Eden Fall "The woman was weak, and the man was wicked." For, we are expressly told, "Adam was not deceived" - he sinned with his eyes wide open. But though the woman fell into transgression, she was "thoroughly deceived." (1 Timothy 2:14.)2 The devil beguiled her into believing wrong was right, as he still beguiles so many of her children. What interval elapsed before Adam fell we know not. And it is idle to speculate what might have been had he stood true to God. But this we know, that sin meant not only death and judgment for man as a moral being under responsibility to God, but that it meant also his ruin as God’s creature. And our bodies are involved in this creature ruin. And though they are within the ransom already paid, their redemption is still future. Our bodies belong to the Lord Who died for us, and they are yet to be "fashioned like unto His glorious body."

Man may thus be regarded either as a doomed sinner, or as a ruined creature. He is not only Adam’s son, but Eve’s. And while death and judgment are past for the believer in Christ, and the salvation of the soul is a present blessing, yet, as a creature, the Christian still groans under the ruin. "Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."

This is "salvation by hope." But the hope is far removed from doubt. For God has promised, and the work is His. The redeemed sinner is "foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son." (Romans 8:20-29.)

"What, then, shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:31-39.)

But this is by no means what men "say to these things." The inspired Apostle goes on to speak of great dispensational problems, mysteries of the Divine purposes for earth. He tells of the goodness and severity of God; how Israel, the covenant people, has been set aside, and Gentiles, who have no covenant, have been called to the highest place of privilege and blessing. But Israel fell through unbelief, and the Gentile stands by faith. The Gentile, therefore, shall be "cut off," and Israel grafted into the olive tree again. The devil sometimes wins the skirmish; God always wins the battle. And God’s purposes, that have seemingly been thwarted by sin, shall at last appear as part of one great plan which includes the fulfillment of them all. And the contemplation of this leads the Apostle to fall upon his knees in adoring wonder, as he exclaims,

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" (Romans 11:33.)

But there are pulpits without number in this "Christian" land that know nothing of these great dispensational truths. And even men who are Bible students, and spiritual withal, blindly pervert them into a denial, or at least a weakening: of the great revelation of grace of which they are a part. How different the Divine purpose with which they have been given us, witness the words that follow: —

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." (Romans 12:1.)

Your bodies, mark, He would thus stamp out the pagan heresy of the "vile body," which is so natural to us. For even "the body of our humiliation" is holy, and will prove an acceptable sacrifice. And the exhortation is not based upon terror or doubt, but upon "the mercies of God." For while Law thunders forth, "Thou shalt not," and points to the great white throne and the day of wrath, Grace speaks with the voice of entreaty, and appeals to "the mercies of God."

And yet a warning is needed here. Grace is not a display of Divine weakness; nor does it lead to levity in those whom it blesses. It is the crowning revelation of God’s sovereignty, and it trains men for a life of self-control and righteousness and godliness. And, as we have seen, the record of each life is yet to be unfolded at the judgment-seat of Christ. The practical exhortations which follow the entreaty lead up to the solemn warning that "Each one of us shall give account of himself to God." (Romans 14:12.) Our apprehension of the dignity and blessedness of the Christian life must not make us forget its solemnities.

But the redeemed are "fore-ordained to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." (Romans 8:29.) The glory of Christ is the supreme purpose in our redemption. While this fact brings confidence and joy to the Christian, unbelief resents it. In all "humanity gospels" man is first, not God, and redemption is only a fitting act of reparation upon God’s part for permitting sin to come into the world, or at best a sublime scheme for the elevation of the race. Such is the teaching which is popular today.

Unlike these false evangels, the Calvinistic gospel is, on its positive side, both true and Scriptural. But though Calvin’s apprehension of truth was far in advance of modern "Calvinism," it was narrowed by the theology of the Latin fathers, and especially of Augustine, by whom the great revelation of grace was never grasped. Universal redemption is utterly false; but universal reconciliation is a Divine truth. It is indeed an accomplished fact. And in virtue of it, the (lower) creation shall yet be delivered from the bondage of the corruption (to which man’s sin has subjected it) into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. But the deliverance of the creature is still future. For while the sinner receives the reconciliation when he believes in Christ, "the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God." (Romans 19:21.) And in contrast with the unintelligent groan of the creation, the groan of those "who have the first-fruits of the Spirit" is instinct with hope. And both the blind expectation of the creature and the intelligent yearning of spiritual men shall be satisfied in the day of "the manifestation of the sons of God." "Beloved, now are we the sons of God," a further word declares, "And it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." (1 John 3:2)

"When He shall appear." Here the ways divide, and what passes for "the Christian religion" definitely parts company with Christian truth. That "He shall come to judge the quick and the dead" is, no doubt, an article in the creed of Christendom. But with most men even this is unreal. And how, moreover, can it be described as a hope? The Christian has been "begotten to a living hope." And this hope is no mere dogma, no vague forecast, no "cunningly devised fable." It molds character and controls conduct." He that hath this hope set on Him purifies himself, even as He is pure." (1 John 3:3.) The grace of God that brings salvation teaches those whom it saves, and its teaching leads them to live "soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ." (Titus 2:11-13)

"I will come again and receive you to Myself" was His parting promise on the night of the betrayal. Does this point to the great day of wrath? The suggestion is absurd. But, we are told, it means the death of the believer. Here we may sadly admit that such a belief is not more false and foolish than many another that is popularly held. Death is not His coming again to us, but our going to Him. And while, for the Christian, death has no terrors - for sin is gone, and therefore it has lost its sting - it is none the less an outrage, bringing home to us the fact of our still unrepaired ruin as fallen creatures.

And while the "intermediate state" is one of rest and blessedness, consciously enjoyed with Christ, we must guard against the sentiment which connects it with thoughts of glory and "the activities of higher service above." The condition of the dead in Christ is as definitely one of expectancy as is that of the living Christian here. There can be no glory and no service until the realization of the hope to which they were begotten by His resurrection from the dead.

For the dead in Christ, resurrection is the crown and climax of redemption. The Lord Jesus Christ has triumphed over death. But more than this, He "gives the victory to us." Death therefore has no longer any claim upon His people. It is one of the "mysteries" of the faith that, at the coming of the Lord, His people then living on earth shall pass at once to glory, "with death untasted and the grave unknown." The corruptible shall put on incorruption, the mortal immortality. And "then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." (1 Corinthians 15:51-57; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17.)

Such, then, is the distinctive hope of Christianity, not pardon, not peace, most certainly not death, but the appearing in glory of Him Whom the world last saw as "the Crucified Jew," whom His people worship as enthroned at the right hand of God. For what constitutes a Christian is not accepting the Christian’s creed, but accepting Christ as Saviour and Lord. It is a question of personal loyalty and love. When the Apostle Paul took up the pen to sign the Epistle to the Corinthians, he added the solemn postscript, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be accursed. The Lord is coming." And to those, "who have loved His appearing" will be given "the crown of righteousness" in that day.

Although this is in the very warp and woof of the Christian revelation, it has, I repeat, no place in the creed of Christendom, and it is generally ignored in the teaching of the pulpit. For while the pulpit is much concerned with the Christian life and the ordinances of religion, it is strangely economical of truth that is the power of the Christian life, and to which ordinances owe their significance and value.

Even the Lord’s Supper, designed to link the coming with the Cross, is reduced to the level of the cult of the crucifix. With the majority of Christians it is nothing but a memorial of a dead Christ. It is most truly a showing forth the Lord’s death, but it is a showing forth His death till He comes. It is not with a dead Christ that we have to do. Our Lord and Saviour is the Christ who died, but who rose again, and who is alive for evermore. "Do this in remembrance of ME" is His word to all who mourn His absence and long for His return. "Surely I come quickly" are the last words that have reached earth from heaven; and "Even so, come Lord Jesus," is the response He looks for from His people. (Revelation 22:20.)