Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1228
“For we, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith” Galatians 5:5.
IT may seem remarkable that Paul, who was once the strictest of Pharisees, should become the most ardent champion of the doctrines of Salvation by Grace and Justification by Faith. How large a portion of the New Testament is given up to his writings—and the most prominent subject in all that falls from his pen is righteousness by faith. Did not the Lord show great wisdom in selecting as the chief advocate of this Truth of God a man who knew the other side—who had worked diligently under the Law, who had practiced every ceremony, who was a Hebrew of the Hebrews—and had profited above many under the Jews’ religion, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of the fathers?
Paul would know, right well, the bondage of the old system, and having felt its iron enter into his soul, he would more highly prize the liberty with which Christ makes men free! He was also a man of great learning—he was at home in every part of the Old Testament and, consequently, the quotations which he makes from it are innumerable. He also understood the Rabbinical method of spiritualizing and used it against his old associates, turning the Old Testament allegories into a battery in defense of New Testament principles.
He knew how to take the story, as we have seen, of Hagar and Sarah, and to find in it an argument for the doctrine which he desired to defend. It was well that a man who had been, in spirit, a Pharisee and in education equal to the most learned of the Jewish doctors, should be engaged by the Spirit of God to defend the glorious principles of Salvation by Grace. Moreover, Paul was a man of very powerful mind. Has the Christian Church ever had in her midst a man whose arguments are so keen, so subtle, so profound and yet so clear? He dives to the very bottom of things, but he never darkens counsel by mysticism.
Like the eagle, he soared aloft and his piercing eyes did not fail him as he gazed on the sun. He was amazed by the Revelations he beheld, but he was not dazzled. He spoke some things hard to be understood, which the foolish have wrested to their destruction, but they had to do his teaching great violence before they could pervert it. His intimate acquaintance with Divine things and the logical conformation of his mind, combined with an immovable decision of character and a flaming ardor of soul, made him, in the hands of God, the fittest conceivable instrument for the Divine purpose. He was wisely chosen and set for the defense of the Gospel.
But why, my Brothers and Sisters, such care in selecting an advocate whose previous education and formation of mind so well enabled him to do battle for the cause? Why was the choice so carefully made? Why such a display of Divine Wisdom? I reply, because this is the point which, above all others has been, is, and always will be, most assailed by the enemies of our holy religion. Justification by Faith is the Thermopylae of Christianity! It is there that the battle must be decided by hand-to-hand fight! If that narrow pass is once carried by the enemy, then the whole of our bulwarks may be stormed! But as long as that fort is held fast, the rest of the Truths of the Gospel will be maintained.
The Lord, therefore, sent this mighty man of valor, this Saul the Benjamite—head and shoulders taller than his fellows, of sound heart and decided purpose and devout spirit—to wage war with the adversaries of Free Grace. I have said that the Truth of God has always been assailed and is it not the case? It was the clouding of this light, the almost quenching of it, which occasioned the darkness of the medieval period! It was Luther’s clear sight of this Truth and the astonishing thunders with which he uttered it, which brought about the Reformation!
And though there are other Truths of God of great importance—and we would not depreciate their value for a single moment—yet this one, whenever it has flashed forth with brilliance before the eyes of men, has always been the means of restoring evangelical doctrines and at the same time exercising a powerful influence over men’s hearts and bringing much glory to the Savior. Despite this fact, or perhaps because of it, it is still resisted. And at the present day it is op-
posed as much as ever, for you hear, continually, the remark that the preaching up of salvation by immediate faith in Christ is very dangerous and opposed to the interests of morality. It is asserted that it cannot be supposed to make men any better and will only create in them a false confidence. They say it will add to other faults the pride and presumption which grow out of an assured security.
We continually hear such observations. The present revival has set all the owls hooting and you know their note— good works are in peril and virtue in jeopardy! However well meant, I believe that at the bottom of these wonderful objections you will discover the old Popery of reliance upon good works. Human nature always did kick against Salvation by Grace, alone, and it always will! Even professing Christians raise the same objection, but they word it cautiously. They say that the preaching up of Jesus Christ as saving men immediately upon their believing in Him ignores, too much, the work of the Holy Spirit. And they affirm that a great deal more ought to be said about the preparation of the heart, the humbling and abasing of the soul, the law work, the inward sense of need and so on.