The Lord's Supper
(No. 2872)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25,1904.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON A LORD'S-DAY EVENING IN
THE AUTUMN OF 1861.
"For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you proclaim
the Lord's death till He comes." 1 Corinthians 11:26.
This solemn ordinance has been instituted and perpetuated to
commemorate the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, but there is no
ordinance to commemorate His life. One reason for this is because His
death implies His life–when you commemorate His death, you testify
that He lived. Another reason is that the Christian's life, better than
any ordinance, is the proof that Christ lived and the testimony to this
world how He lived. A Christian should so act that worldlings would be
compelled to ask, "By what power, by what energy, is he actuated to
live in a style so superior to that of his fellows?" The answer he
should always be prepared to give is something like this, "I live thus
because Christ so lived and it is no more I who live, but Christ who
lives in me. The love of Christ compels me, so that I am sweetly and
blessedly compelled to live, not unto myself, but unto Him who loved me
and gave Himself for me." The proof that Christ came into the world
should be that His followers are holy! Let their character be blameless
and harmless, their conduct so devoted and so full of self-sacrifice
that it shall be a constant memorial of that Redeemer whose name they
profess. If the mind of Christ is in His people, it will make them so
far superior to other men that it must be inferred that some superior
energy is in them and that superior energy is none other than the love
of Christ.
They should also so live that if any ask them how Christ lived, they
may be able to say–not in words, for that might encourage pride, but
in effect–"He lived as I live." It has been well said that ungodly men
do not read the Bible, but they read it as it is translated into the
lives of Christians. The actions of Believers are, to the worldling,
the means of judging what our religion really is. Men of the world do
not sit down and study our creeds, but they trade with us in the common
business of life–and if we trade dishonestly, they judge that our
creed is wrong and that our religion is not true. They do not wade
through our Bodies of Divinity to balance our arguments and test their
value by the rules of logic–they have a shorter and more practical
test than that. If our religion makes us upright in our conduct towards
others and compels us to fear God in all that we do, then they
pronounce our religion to be good. But if, on the contrary, we profess
that we believe in Christ and yet can habituate ourselves to foul and
degenerate behavior, they at once conclude that our religion is a thing
of nothing. Brothers and Sisters, I repeat it, that Christ did not
institute a memorial of His life because He would have yoube the living
memorials of Himself. He has not left us any ordinance in which His
acts, His words, His thoughts can be set forth before the eyes of men
in visible signs–He has done better than that for He has made you to
be His signs and ordinances! "You are My witnesses," says the Lord. If
the Spirit of God is in you, you are the testifiers to the world of the
holiness and the purity of the Character of your Lord!
Our text tells us that the Lord's Supper was instituted by Christ as a
memorial of His death. I am going to speak, first, concerning that of
which the ordinance is a memorial–Christ's death. Then, to point out
how the ordinance itself shows forth the Lord's death till He comes.
And then, thirdly, to show how we, in this ordinance, rather than the
ordinance itself–that we, in the ordinance, do show the Lord's death
till He comes.
Allow me to observe, however, that the retrospect gives us only one
aspect of this ordinance, for it also distinctly holds out a very
blessed prospect. We are taught, as often as we celebrate it, to look
for our Lord's Second Coming. Our text contains a very strong and a
very lively anticipation of His Second Advent and of His
Personal'advent, too. Many
persons say that Christ is certainly coming again, but that He is
coming spiritually. This way of putting the matter seems to me to be a
subterfuge. A man who is already here cannot be said to be expected to
come. And it is certain that Christ is, at this moment,
spiritually-present with His people. His own declaration is, "Where two
or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of
them." He is never absent, spiritually, from His Church. He still walks
among the golden candlesticks. I cannot see, therefore, how it can be
consistent with the ordinary meaning of language to say that He is to
come spiritually.
My Brother, you believe that Christ is to come spiritually. Suppose
that is true, what will be the result? Why, the Gospel will be better
preached, more sinners will be converted and may I not also add that
the ordinances will be better observed? Do you think that if Christ
should come spiritually into this world, as you say He will, this
ordinance would be taken away? "No," I think I hear you say, "certainly
not. If Christ shall come spiritually, Believers will be more attentive
to His commands than they ever have been–they will be still more
strictly obedient to His Word and will." Just so, but my text says they
are to show His death, "till He comes." That seems to me to infer that,
when He comes, the ordinance will be no longer observed. When He is
here in Person, I can see adequate reasons why the memorial of His
First Advent should be dispensed with. But if His Second Advent is not
an absolute reality, I can see neither Scriptural nor logical reasons
why this ordinance should cease to be observed at His spiritual coming,
whatever that expression may mean!
It is well for us to always be "looking for that blessed hope and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ." There
are some who say that Dr. Watts did not believe this Doctrine, but he
has expressed it most triumphantly in his paraphrase of Scripture where
he writes–
"Nor does it yet appear
How great we must be made.
But when we see our Savior here,
We shall be like our Head.
A hope so much Divine
May trials well endure,
May purge our souls from sense and sin
As Christ the Lord is pure."
I. First, I have to try to show you WHAT THE LORD'S SUPPER SETS FORTH.
It sets forth "the Lord's death."
There is no ordinance to set forth His birth. The Roman Catholic Church
invented a feast day and called it Christ-Mass and other churches have
imitated the custom–but there is no ordinance, delivered unto us by
the Lord Jesus, or His Apostles, to commemorate His Nativity! Nor do I
find, in the Scriptures, any record of an ordinance to commemorate His
circumcision, or His first preaching, or His riding in triumph into
Jerusalem, or even any ordinance to commemorate His Ascension into
Glory. We generally regard the keeping of the first day of the week as
a commemoration of Christ's Resurrection and of His appearance to His
disciples when He showed them His pierced hands, feet and side. But
even that can scarcely be called an ordinance. So, of all that Christ
did or suffered, there is no ordinance enjoined upon us but that which
relates to His death. Now, why is this?
It is, first, because it was for His death that Christ was most
despised. Therefore, for His death let Him be most honored! It was the
Cross of Christ that was His shame–it was to the Jews a stumbling
block and to the Greeks foolishness. And it is here that the enemies of
Christ always begin their attacks. They deny His Divinity because He
died. They mistrust His power to save on the very ground for which we
are able to trust to it–because He died. Usually, the battle against
Christ and His Church rages most fiercely around His Cross. His
adversaries, led by the great master-spirit of evil, all seem to say,
"Fight neither with small nor great, save only with that great Doctrine
of the Atonement, for that is as a king in the hosts of Israel." Those
who preach the accursed crusade against Christ have, for their
watchword and rallying cry, "Against His Cross! Against His Cross!"
Therefore it is, most blessed Master, that You have provided this
ordinance to be, as it were, a shield to Your own Cross, so that, if
every minister should cease to preach Your atoning death, the silent
bread and the voiceless wine should, louder than a thousand thunders,
tell the world that Jesus died and that only through His broken body
and His poured-out blood, sinners receive eternal life!
Christ's death, too, is chosen for special celebration because it is
the most important part of all that He did or suffered. We would not
depreciate His life, His Baptism, His work, or His Resurrection, but
His death is the center of all.
All the Doctrines of the Gospel revolve around Christ's death as the
planets revolve around the sun! Take away the sun from the solar system
and you have dislocated everything. All the stupendous wheels would
cease to move. Remove Your Cross, O Christ, and the keystone of the
arch of the Truth of God is gone! Take away Your death, O Jesus, and it
is death to all that You have taught, for all that You teach derives
life from the fact that You have died! O my dear Brothers and Sisters,
whatever errors may creep into the Church, they will be important only
as they mar the luster of the Cross! I think it is the bounden duty of
every Christian to be ready to die for the Truth of God. You know that
our forefathers readily gave their lives for the defense of Believers'
Baptism. Still, not in the least depreciating Believers' Baptism, I say
that if it is worthwhile for one to die for that, it is worthwhile for
tens of thousands to die, in one tremendous hecatomb, in defense of the
fact that Jesus died! As this is the chief point of the adversaries'
attack, so must we always regard it as the most important bastion of
defense! Here, Christian, turn your eyes the most frequently. Here let
your thoughts dwell the most intensely. Here lies the source of all
your hopes! Here you shall find the wellspring of all your joys! Think
it not unimportant, then, that Christ has given to His death so solemn
and yet so simple a memorial.
I think the Master also appointed this ordinance because His death is,
after all, the most comforting thing in the whole Gospel system. Where
do you go, you of the weeping eyes, when your heart is breaking–where
do you go for comfort but to the place where comfort was not–namely,
to the Cross of the dying Savior? Where do you go, poor breaking Heart,
when the woes of this life swell and gather till your soul is near to
bursting–where do you go but to that spot where misery reached its
climax? It is strange that the masterpiece of misery is also the
masterpiece of comfort. The darkest spot in the whole world is yet the
source of all our light! The dying of the Savior gives us life! His
wounds heal us! His agonies bring us peace! His tortures yield us ease!
The Good Shepherd knew that if His sheep desired to have green
pastures, they would find them at the Cross, so He appointed this
ordinance to bring them there. Well did He understand that if they
would lie down beside the still waters, they must come to that place
where the blood flowed from His blessed brow, and hands and feet, and
side.
You have said with the spouse, "Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His
mouth," and He does it in this ordinance. You have sometimes asked Him
to bring you into His banqueting house and that His banner over you
might be love. But that banner has never floated from any mast but the
Cross and, therefore, He has brought you there. You have asked that you
may sit under His shadow with great delight and that His fruit may be
sweet to your taste. This is His fruit–His broken body and His shed
blood–so He brings you here. You have said, "I will go up to the palm
tree, I will take hold of the boughs there." Your Lord knows that you
cannot do this except you view His Cross as that palm tree, springing
up in a desert land and bearing all manner of delightful fruits. You
will need no further arguments, Brothers and Sisters, to convince you
of the wisdom and tenderness of Christ in bequeathing to you this most
comforting ordinance that so His death may be held in perpetual
remembrance!
II. Now I go on, in the second place, to show you HOW THE BREAD AND
WINE IN THIS ORDINANCE SET
FORTH THE DEATH OF CHRIST.
You can hardly fail to notice how the ordinance is adapted universally
to keep in memory the fact it commemorates. You recollect what happened
to the woman who looked back after she came out of Sodom. The Lord
would have us "Remember Lot's wife," so He turned her into a pillar of
salt. But that memorial is only to be seen by those who pass that
particular spot. Now, suppose that the Master had said to His
disciples, "Erect for Me a bronze column. Let it be in the form of a
cross and write upon it that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried"? It
would not have appealed to our observation anything like so forcibly as
this ordinance, which is not restricted to any time or place. This
memorial has been seen in the darkness of the catacombs of Rome, where
only a tiny taper afforded light to the worshipping assembly. This
memorial has been seen among the heather on the Scottish hillside where
the lightning flash lent its kindly beam to the minister as he read the
Sacred Word. This memorial is seen, today, in the far-off isles of the
sea. From North to South, from East to West, this is the standing
memorial of Him who died! Better than storied urn, or animated bust, or
rare marble, or precious metals, or jewels unrivalled for their worth
is this blessed memorial because it can be seen everywhere, in every
land!
This is also an admirable memorial seeing that it is perpetual
Monuments of brass wear out. The teeth of Time devour the rugged
granite, itself. Though you build, for a king, a monument like the
pyramids of Egypt, yet shall his name be forgotten and even Pharaoh may
lack a wise man to decipher the inscriptions on his tomb and recount
the story of his
mighty acts. Not so is it with this blessed ordinance–it can never
wear away, it is always new. I may say to it, "O sacred Eucharist, you
have the dew of your youth!" This memorial is as fresh, more than 1,800
years after its institution, as it was when, in the upper room, the
disciples first celebrated it in anticipation of their Master's
approaching death! So, when centuries have followed centuries, and Time
himself shall have become bald and his scythe shall have lost its
edge– when yon sun shall have grown dim with age and the moon shall be
pale with fading weakness–even then shall this ordinance be as fresh
and as new as ever! It is perpetual because the command of our King
cannot be repealed! It is never to be set aside till the need of
testimony shall have passed away–till Christ Himself shall come to
reign among men!
And, oh, what a simple memorial this is! Priest of Rome, go to your
sacristy and put on your millinery–your red, your blue, your silver,
your scarlet and your fair white linen–play the harlot, for such you
are before the eyes of men in all your wanton fineries! Prove yourself
to be the true descendant of her of Babylon by the gaudiness of your
apparel! But know, O priest, that we need none of your enchantments for
the right observance of this ordinance! You sons of toil, you can come
here with your garments still covered with the dust of your labor. What
need we to fulfill to the letter our dear Master's own injunctions?
What but a piece of bread and a cup of wine? Oh, how shamefully have
men mimicked this ordinance! How they have invented strange devices to
make that appear wonderful which was wonderful enough in itself,
because, like everything sublime, it was simple and majestic in its own
simplicity!
This simple ordinance has sometimes made me smile at the useless
artifices of the foes of Christ. I have smiled at the thought that our
Master has given us a memorial so simple that we can observe it even
when our adversaries are most opposed to us. I have broken the memorial
bread and sipped the wine in Venice, beneath the Austrian sway, where,
to have held a public Protestant service would have involved
imprisonment! But how could they have stopped us? There were four of us
in our own inn–might we not do there as we pleased? No one knew why we
needed a small piece of bread and a cup of wine–and we four sat around
the table and I avow that it was as much the Lord's Supper as it is
when thousands of us assemble here to keep the sacred feast!
If we were in Rome itself, in a room at the Vatican, though the Pope
himself were in the next room, we might observe this blessed ordinance
and he would never know that we had done so unless we chose to tell
him! How could he deny us bread? That would be scant hospitality! And
how could he deny us wine? And having bread and wine, we need no altar
and we need no priest. Wherever two or three Christians are met
together, there may they celebrate the Supper of their Lord! It is as
valid without a minister as with one and just as really the Lord's
Supper though there are no ordained presbyters or learned Doctors of
Divinity to preside at the table! Blessed memorial of the death of
Jesus, they cannot put an end to you! We can laugh to scorn all the
priests and the soldiers of Rome. If we had built a memorial pillar,
they might have pulled it down. The sons of Moab might have stopped up
our wells and cast down our towers, but who can destroy this simple
ordinance? Persecution would no more avail to put an end to the Lord's
Supper than would the swords of Pharaoh's soldiers have availed to put
an end to the plague of flies! The craft or skill of man can never put
an end to the simple memorial of bread and wine–all that he can do is
but to parody or pervert it.
I think, too, that this is a very blessed memorial. The broken bread
sets forth the broken body of our Lord and the wine, being separate
from the bread, shows how His blood flowed from His body. The sign
itself most touchingly sets forth the refreshing qualities of the blood
which flowed from His head, hands, feet and side. The point I want to
emphasize is that Christ has instituted a memorial of His death which
requires, to carry it out, Christian hearts and, therefore, hearts full
of love to Him and faith in Him. If you wish your name to be
remembered, you may say, "It is my desire that men should keep my
birthday." So they may and, in a hundred years' time, the recollection
of the fact of your birth will have dwindled down into a mere fable!
How many institutions we still have, the origin of which we do not
know? But suppose you could have an institution kept up only by those
who love you and suppose, in addition, that you had the power to always
preserve in the world some hearts that would love you? What a blessed
memorial that would be! In coming to the Table of our Lord, we meet not
as a company of men who have no regard for Christ, no compelling love
to kindle our passions to a flame! Why, His very name makes our hearts
leap for joy!–
"Sweeter sounds than music knows Charm me in Immanuel's name."
His death is, to us, the most delightful topic of meditation. We come
not to the Table of our Lord as the slaves of Pharaoh were flogged to
build the pyramids, but we come cheerfully, joyfully, delighted to
remember Him, feeling it to
be less a duty than a privilege and far more a pleasure than merely a
service. This Supper is, virtually, the outward and visible sign of ten
thousand times ten thousand broken hearts that have been bound up,
tearful eyes that have been made to flash with holy joy, aching
consciences that have been eased and hearts that could sooner cease to
beat than cease to love! So it is, indeed, a blessed and choice
memorial of our Savior's death which can never be forgotten by His
loved ones. III. Now I come to my last point, and that is, perhaps, the
most practical–HOW YOU AND I ARE TO SHOW
OUR REDEEMER'S DEATH IN THIS SUPPER.
Some people are very particular about the way in which the Lord's
Supper is administered, but, as long as everything is done decently and
in order, I think that should be enough for us. I was staying, once,
with a gentleman–a Dissenter–who had become more than a little
formal. He was telling me that he had done a great deal of good in his
parish and, among other excellent things, he recounted one with an air
of enthusiasm which made me laugh. He said, "When I came here, these
people used to bring the wine for the sacrament in a black bottle and,
as I am sure that I could not celebrate the Lord's Supper if the wine
came from a black bottle, I have provided something better." I thought
it would have been a great deal better if he had asked the people
whether they had brought black hearts, for a black bottle does not
signify much–but a heart that is not right in the sight of God is the
thing that needs to be taken away. If you and I have our hearts right,
we need not mind how simple the mode in which the ordinance is
administered!
But now, what are you and I to do in observing this ordinance? We are
to show the Lord's death. Then, if we are to show it, we must show it
to somebody. To whom? Why, first, to ourselves. My soul, be not content
unless, in the bread, you discern the Lord's body for yourself. Do not
eat and drink, as the Apostle says, "unworthily, not discerning the
Lord's body." Take heed, O my Soul, that you are not satisfied with
eating the bread unless, by faith, you realize that the body of Christ
was offered up for you–unless your faith can so participate in the
merit of that Sacrifice that the eating of the bread becomes to you a
lively picture of your participation in the results of Christ's death!
Mind, too, that the wine sets forth His blood to you. Brothers and
Sisters, these symbols are but as the veil before the Holy of
Holies–you must look beyond the symbols to that which is within the
veil–or else, of what use are the signs to you? The bread is nothing,
the wine is nothing–that which the bread sets forth is everything/Feed
on that! That which the wine portrays is everything–see to it that you
are a partaker of that!
What multitudes of professors are quite content with the outward sign!
I fear that the Lord's Supper, through being so grossly misused, has
deceived many. See how eagerly they send for a clergyman when they lie
dying! Men who have scarcely ever entered a church or chapel in their
lives–men who fear not God and have no saving interest in the death of
Christ–desire to have this bread in their mouths at the last! Let that
dying impenitent know this bread shall be a swift witness against him!
Not being born of God and having no right whatever to this ordinance,
he ate and drank unworthily and so ate and drank condemnation to
himself! If any of you have imagined that this ordinance can save your
souls, let me correct that error at once! It may ruin them, but it
cannot save them! You must get right away to Christ, right away from
this ordinance. It is not as unrenewed sinners, but as saints–as
Christ's disciples, as His saved ones–that you are to partake of this
feast! You must come to Christ first, as a sinner, just as you are.
I have read, or heard, sermons which proved that the minister was not
at all clear which was Christ–the bread upon the Communion Table or
the Savior upon the Cross. There is a sermon upon this text–"Come unto
Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you
rest"–in which the preacher invites his hearers to come to the Lord's
Table. That is the very worst place to which they could come! They must
first come to Christand then, after they have found acceptance in Him,
they may come to His Table. But they must not be invited to His Table
until they have come to Him and trusted in His atoning Sacrifice! The
Lord's Supper is a curse, not a blessing, to unbelievers, so let none
of us think of feeding upon Christ in the sign until we have Christ in
reality in our hearts.
Next, we are to show Christ's death to others. Some of you will be
spectators while the rest of us are observing this ordinance. As we
shall, in one great host, break bread together, we shall say to you,
"We do, each of us, believe that Jesus died for our sins, according to
the Scriptures. We have put our confidence in His death as making
reconciliation for us before God. We personally avow our own vital
faith in Him and we declare to you, whatever may be your judgment
concerning Him, that He is all our salvation and our desire." The very
poorest among the communicants will be a preacher. When you, dear
Friend, take the bread and the wine, you will preach a sermon. I
believe that the word used here has in it, in the Greek, the idea of
preaching. You will say, by partaking of this ordinance, "I believe in
Jesus Christ, in His broken
body and His poured-out blood." I hope that will be an appeal to the
consciences of you who will be looking on at the ordinance, asking you
whether you also believe in Christ–and though the appeal will be a
silent one, I pray you to answer, "Yes," or, "No," to it. As you see us
partake of the bread and the wine, imagine that you hear a voice coming
up from the Communion Table and saying to each one of you, "Soul, Soul,
when will you, too, believe in Jesus? When will you cast yourself on
Him, that He may be your All-in-All?"
Nor, by this ordinance, do we set forth Christ's death only to
ourselves and to others, but also to God Himself. We do, as it were,
plead the merit of Christ's broken body and shed blood every time we
observe this ordinance. We bring before God, not a sacrifice, as though
the one Offering needed to be repeated–but a memorial of the finished
and perfect Sacrifice which was once and for all offered for the sins
of men. Brothers and Sisters, it is a solemn thing to think that every
time we come to the Communion Table, we bring before the Eternal Father
the memorial of the death of His only-begotten and well-beloved Son!
We bring that memorial, too, before the holy angels hovering, as they
undoubtedly are, over every Christian assembly. We say to each of them,
"He who was seen of angels" is our hope! Tell the glad tidings through
all the golden streets that the death of Christ is still remembered in
this lower world! Speed on your swift wings to Heaven and let it be
known in your glorious dwelling place that there are men and women,
saved by the precious blood of Jesus, meeting to commemorate His
death."
And, Brothers and Sisters, in this ordinance we show Christ's death
even to the devils in Hell. There is nothing which they fear so much as
the death of Christ. The breaking of the bread and the pouring out of
the wine are like the flaunting of a victorious banner in the face of
the beaten foe. It is the flashing before the eyes of Satan of the
sword that smote him in the days of old and that will make him tremble
again even now! Earth and Heaven and Hell are gathered around us as we
meet at the Table of our Lord and we poor, puny men become a spectacle
unto the three worlds. We are said to be men wondered at, but how much
more wonderful is that which is visibly set forth in this
ordinance–the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ!
O my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I pray you to see to it that you
now show His death to your own conscience. Does it accuse you? Then,
show it the wounds of Christ and it shall be well with you. Does the
Law of God condemn you? Show it your bleeding Master and it will at
once absolve you. Show Christ's death to your unbelief and, surely, it
will vanish away. Show Christ's death to your heart and, surely, it
must melt with love to Him. Show Christ's death to the weeping eyes of
your repentance and the tears shall be wiped away and you shall see
your pardon bought with blood! Show Christ's death to the weak,
Leah-like eyes of your faith and it shall strengthen them till they
shall see even the hidden mystery and discern the substance which, by
mortal eyes, cannot be seen. Show Christ's death to your wretched and
miserable spirit that has been troubled and burdened with the cares of
this world and it must leap for joy, and cast all its burdens away!
Show the death of Christ to your old sins which have been coming back
to you, today, and it will drive them all away. Show Christ's death, in
fact, to the eyes of your heart, the eyes of your emotions, the eyes of
all your powers of body and soul–and thus you shall be like he who
said, "I shall see Him," though you shall not need to add, as he did,
"but not now." You may say, "I shall behold Him," but you will not need
to spoil it by adding, as Balaam did, "but not near," for Christ shall
bring you into His banqueting house and His banner over you shall be
love!
Sinner, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and remember that He said, "He
that believes and is baptized shall be saved." Saint, come to the Table
of your Lord and feast upon the emblems of His dying love, remembering
that blessed are they who believe on Him, for there shall be a
performance of those things which were told them by the Lord.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ROMANS 8:18-39.
Verse 18. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Paul made "the sufferings of this present time" into a matter of simple
arithmetic and careful reckoning. He added them all up and saw what the
total was. He seemed to be about to state a proportion sum, but he gave
it up and said that the sufferings were "not worthy to be compared with
the glory which shall be revealed." Did they stand as one to a
thousand? No, otherwise they had been worthy to be compared! Did they
stand as one to ten thou-
sand–or one to a million–or one to a million of millions? If so, they
would still have been worthy to be compared– but Paul saw that there
was no proportion whatever between them. The sufferings seemed to be
but as a single drop and the glory to be as a boundless ocean!
"Not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in
us." That glory is not yet fully revealed. It is revealed tous, but not
yet inus. What, then, shall we do in the meantime? Why, wait with
patience and bear our appointed burden until the time comes for us to
be relieved of it–wait, however, with hope–wait, too, as we must,
quietly enduring the pains and pangs which precede so glorious a birth!
In this respect, we are not alone, as the Apostle goes on to say–
19-22. For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the
manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to
vanity, not willingly, but by reason ofHim who has subjected the same
in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain
together until now. We live in a world that is under a curse–a world
that was made subject to bondage through human sin. What does this cold
mean? What do these fogs mean? What do the general mourning and sighing
of the air all through the winter mean? What do the disturbances,
convulsions and catastrophes that we hear about on all hands mean? It
is the creation groaning, travailing, waiting–waiting till there shall
be a new Heaven and a new earth, because the former things shall have
passed away.
23. And not only they, but ourselves, also, which have the first fruits
of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for
the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Our soul has been
delivered from the Curse. The redemption of the soul is complete, but
not yet that of the body. That must suffer pain and weariness and even
descend into the tomb, but its day of manifestation shall surely come!
At the appearing of our Lord from Heaven, then shall the body itself be
delivered and the whole creation shall also be delivered, so we wait in
a travailing condition–and we may well be content to wait, for these
pangs within us and around us all signify the glorious birth for which
we may wait in hope.
24, 25. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope for
what a man sees, why does he yet hope for it? But if we hope for that
we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. This is our attitude
and our condition now– waiting for the glory which is to be revealed
in us and accepting the sorrow which is appointed to us as an
introduction to the joy which is to come to us, mysteriously, through
it. But while we are waiting, we are not without present comfort.
26. Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities for we know not what
we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit Himself makes
intercession for us with groans which cannot be uttered. You must, I am
sure, as children of God, often have felt that Spirit within you
groaning in prayer what you could not express. How often have you risen
from your knees feeling the utter inadequacy of words to express the
desires of your heart! And you have felt that you had larger desires
than you have been able to interpret. There have been mighty pangs
within you telling of the Presence of this wrestling Spirit.
27. And He who searches the heart knows what is the mind of the Spirit
When you do not know your own mind, God knows the mind of the Spirit
and that is the very essence of prayer. He "knows what is the mind of
the Spirit,"
27. Because He makes intercession for (or, in) the saints according to
the will of God. Whatever the Spirit of God prompts us to pray for, is
according to the mind of God, for it is not possible that the Holy
Spirit should ever be otherwise than in perfect accord with the Divine
Father. The eternal degrees, if we could read them, would convey to us
the same Truth as the impulses of the Spirit in our heart. And this is
the true explanation of prayer–that what God intends to do, His Spirit
leads His people to ask Him to do and thus there is no conflict between
the eternal Predestination of God and the earnest entreaties of His
people. They are, in fact, the outcome of that very Predestination.
28-30. And we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom
He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren.
Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He
called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also
glorified. These great Truths of God must never be separated. Any one
of these things being true of us, it is most certain that the rest are
also true. Now, my dear Brothers and Sisters, you cannot read God's
foreknowledge, neither can you enter into the secrets of
Predestination, but
you can tell whether you are called, or not. You can know whether you
are justified by faith, or not. And if you get hold of those links, you
have got a grip of that endless chain which is firmly fastened to the
granite rock of eternity past and which is also fastened to the rock of
the glorious eternity which is yet to be revealed!
31-33. What shall we then say to these things? If God is for us, who
can be against us? He that spareddnot 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? God that
justifies?For so we think it ought to be read. That is another
question. Can God lay anything to our charge after having justified us?
Will He contradict Himself?
34. Who is he that condemns?There is only One who can, for there is
only one Judge, and that Judge is Jesus. So, the Apostle puts it again
in the form of a question–shall He condemn us?
34. It is Christ that died, yes rather, that is risen again, who is
even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
Shall He condemn us? It is altogether impossible!
35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
orswordl What a long list of ills! They seem to make up a Jeremiah's
roll of sorrow. Can they separate us from the love of Christ? They have
all been tried–have they ever succeeded?
36. As it is written, For Your sake we are killed all the day long, we
are accounted as sheep for the slaughter But did they succeed in
separating saints from the love of Christ even in the days of
martyrdom?
37-39. No, 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.
"Therefore, comfort one another with these words."