THE BLESSINGS
THE BLESSINGS FLOWING FROM THE COVENANT OF GRACE
"He will ever he mindful of his covenant." Psalm. 111:5
In the Covenant of Grace, entered into by the three Divine persons in the one Jehovah, before the world began, is treasured up every blessing. Sinners are "redeemed with the precious blood of Christ who was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world." "The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." "He has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world." "God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." Such are the inspired declarations of Peter, John, and Paul.
The first blessing which the God of all grace bestows upon a ruined world is, the gift of his SON. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
The second blessing which flows to us through the Son is, the gift of the HOLY SPIRIT. "I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of Truth."
The third blessing which is imparted to us through the Holy Spirit is, the gift of the SCRIPTURES. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." "Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." "When the Spirit of truth has come," said Christ to his Apostles, "he will guide you into all truth." "He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said unto you."
The fourth blessing which we receive from the God of mercy is, the gift of a NEW HEART. "A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." "I will give them one heart, and one way."
The fifth blessing which believers in Jesus shall finally enjoy is, the gift of ETERNAL LIFE. "The gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." "Father glorify your Son that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him." "Come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." "These go into life eternal." O Blessed Savior, you have said, "My sheep shall never perish," "I give unto them eternal life."
By death and hell pursued in vain,
To you the ransomed seed shall come;
Shouting, their heavenly Zion gain,
And pass through death triumphant home.
The covenant made with Adam was broken through disobedience, but the covenant of grace in Christ Jesus is an everlasting covenant. All its requirements have been fulfilled through the incarnation, obedience, and death of the Son of God, and therefore cannot be disannulled. It is perfect, comprising every blessing; and eternal, perpetuating those blessings. Nothing can prevent the final salvation of the believer but these two things, either God's turning away from him, or his departing from God. Now infinite love has assured us, that neither of these shall ever happen to his redeemed people.
This assurance is contained in these blessed words; "I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." Here salvation is secured. God in his sovereign love will not turn away from the objects of his redeeming grace. He has pledged himself by this promise, which shall be accomplished when all his sons are brought, through Christ, by the Spirit, into his kingdom and glory.
The way whereby they are kept from final apostasy, to which the degenerate heart is continually prone, is by the fear of God being put into it as a holy preserving principle. Hence arise those exhortations to fear, which are scattered throughout the sacred volume. This holy fear is the beginning of wisdom; and is sweetly blended with hope and love through the whole of the believer's experience. Many precious promises are annexed to this state of filial fear. It is a new covenant blessing. Thus we find that the eighth chapter to the Romans, which describes the believer's privileges and character, begins with, "No condemnation" and ends with "no separation." "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"
How happy, then, ought the believer to be, when he thus views the nature of that covenant, which by faith he embraces, as containing the foundation of hope, and the fountain of felicity; for Christ is the sum and substance, the sun and center, of this covenant. Believing in Jesus, he obtains the Spirit of truth, the Comforter; and finds this blessed Spirit to be the Witness, the Seal, the Pledge of every blessing.
Oh! that I could feel my cold bard heart renewed in righteousness, and filled with faith and love. I seem like a lifeless corpse in the midst of living bodies; like ice in the midst of summer's heat. Oh! that I could feel something like vitality and warmth in religion.
Lord, pity a poor, miserable, wretched worm of the earth. You could crush me in a moment, and send me down quickly into hell. And in so doing you would be infinitely just, and your goodness remain unimpeached. But oh! cast an eye of pity upon my soul. You know my miserable state, and my complete inability to save myself from the power of the least transgression. I am tied and bound with the chain of my sins, let the pitifulness of your great mercy loose me. Pour down your blessed Spirit upon me. Deluge the earth with showers of blessings. Cause the living waters to flow in copious streams through all the desert places of the earth, until every heart be divinely changed, until all acknowledge you to be the Lord.
The need of prayer for the Holy Spirit's influence is allowed by all who hold the truth as it is in Jesus, but the attention of Christians in general, is not sufficiently drawn to this important subject. "Those who honor me I will honor," stands upon record in the word of God. We honor the Father, when we honor the Son. And we honor the Father and the Son, when we honor the Spirit. It would be daringly presumptuous in a poor worm to talk of honoring the Almighty, if he had not condescended to declare himself honored by our unworthy praises. "Whoever offers praise glorifies me."
We live in a day of great religious exertion. There is a sacred movement in the Christian Church, which bespeaks some important issue. But what are all our labors, if unaccompanied by the divine blessing? Paul may plant, and Apollos water, but God only gives the increase. No zeal, however great; no love, however ardent; no eloquence, however persuasive; no sacrifice, however costly, can ever win over a rebellious soul to Christ, if the Holy Spirit withholds his convincing, converting grace. This is a truth which should be engraved on all our religious institutions. The more we cease from man, and trust in God, the more will success appear.
Hence arises the necessity of uniting in humble prayer, that the Great Head of the Church would be graciously pleased to fulfill his own promise; "If I depart, I will send him unto you," and "he shall abide with you forever." Oh! that this divine promise may have its full accomplishment; then the weakest efforts will become powerful in operation, and God shall be glorified throughout the earth.
The reason, perhaps, why so little spirituality exists among professing Christians, is owing to their not honoring the Spirit in his office-relations. He is the Sanctifier, as well as the Comforter. All means are like 'clouds without water', unless He imparts the holy influence. When He descends in gentle dews upon the soul, then the seed of the word takes root, grows up, and bears much fruit. We should therefore never read the Scriptures, hear the gospel preached, engage in pious conversation, or enter upon meditation or secret prayer, without imploring the gracious influences of the divine Spirit.
The Holy Spirit descended upon our Lord in the semblance of a dove. The 'dove' is the emblem of purity and love, and is remarkable for its timidity. So all in whom the Spirit dwells are noted for their love and purity. But every deviation from these graces, grieves the Holy Spirit. Like the timid dove, he then retires and withdraws his comforts from the soul which dares to indulge in contrary vices. This is strikingly declared by the Apostle in the fourth chapter to the Ephesians, where the grieving of the Spirit is described as in consequence of hatred, anger, and impurity being allowed to agitate and pollute the soul.
O! how rich in blessing is the covenant of grace! No past sins, however great, will be any obstacle to our obtaining pardoning mercy, if we only have grace to believe on the Son of God. We are commanded, yes invited, to look and be saved; to come unto Christ just as we are, because "the whole need not a physician, but those who are sick. Jesus came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
If we tarry until we're better,
We shall never come at all.
Nothing but unbelief will exclude us from the blessings of the covenant of grace, and from the benefits of Christ's death. "He who believes shall be saved." "Him that comes to me I will never cast out." All who truly believe, will cordially love and fear God. Love, when first implanted in the heart, does not always produce such violent emotions as the common passion of fear. Fear has been compared to a cannon ball, which at first moves with great speed, but as it proceeds, gradually loses its force, until at last it falls spent to the ground- while love resembles the needle, which increases in velocity, the nearer it approaches the magnetic attraction.
The unregenerate man cannot love Jesus. He sees no beauty in the Savior. The lovely character of Jesus, as delineated in the Gospel, is to such a person like a beautiful picture hung up in a dark room. Its beauty cannot be discovered, until light is admitted; nor fully seen, until the room is sufficiently filled with its rays. The application is plain and practical.
The regenerate love to contemplate the character of God, revealed to us in Christ Jesus, with all the high mysteries of his grace as unfolded to us in the work of redemption. This view of infinite love, when connected with the knowledge of our own state and character, as perishing sinners, will tend to melt our hearts, inflame our love, excite our obedience, and transform us into the image of Christ. The work being a divine work, we must daily supplicate the gift of the Holy Spirit, who alone can take of the things of Christ and show them unto us.
How lovely does the character of our Redeemer appear in his interview with the woman of Samaria, when sitting on Jacob's well. How great was his benevolence and condescension, his tenderness and forbearance, his love and gentleness, in leading this benighted woman to a feeling conviction of her sinful state; and then to an acquaintance with those blessings, which he, as the Savior of the world, was ready to bestow. "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give me to drink; you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water." Alas! she neither saw the beauty, nor felt the need, of this precious spiritual blessing, until Jesus probed the wound, and convinced her that he was the Messiah.
Like the divine Redeemer, we should be always ready to seize every opportunity of doing good; for opportunity, well improved, is the golden spot of time. Our Lord knew the character of this Samaritan woman, but he did not reproach her with it. His question and subsequent answer were designed to remove the veil from her mind. With eagerness she made her neighbors acquainted with the joyful news, that she had found the Christ. They heard for themselves, and believed in the Lord. Was not this a blessing flowing from the covenant of grace? "God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."
What a striking contrast between wrath and mercy is presented to us in Genesis and Malachi. In Genesis, we read, "The windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. In Malachi, "Prove me now herewith, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." Thus God can, with the same ease, deluge a world either with judgment or mercy. So it is with respect to spiritual blessings; the Almighty can, if he please, enlighten the whole race of mankind in a moment, by the power of his Spirit, with the same facility with which the earth is daily illumined by the beams of the sun; or, as when our sleeping dust shall be "changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye."
As the blessing is from God, we must wait upon him in humble faith and prayer, using the means which he has appointed, and firmly believing that "he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." "He that believes shall not make haste." "Tarry the Lord's leisure; be strong, and he shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord."
If we feel our hearts drawn to seek God by secret prayer, let us ever cherish this motion of the Spirit; and, if prevented, then to lift up our souls in silent yet fervent prayers, darting heavenward, as from a heart on fire. This ready following of the Spirit will increase our desires after communion with God, and make us more spiritual in the general habit and frame of our minds.
Blessed Spirit of all grace, You who are the Sanctifier and Comforter of perishing sinners, lead me to Jesus Christ; enable me savingly to believe in Him who is my only atonement for sin, the only Way of access to God. Create me anew, and lead me in the paths of righteousness.
Blessed Trinity in Unity, fill me with peace and joy. How wonderful are the mysteries of your grace! How vast the designs of your infinite love! My mind is lost in the boundless extent of uncreated goodness. Oh! how unspeakably great will my bliss be, when brought by the hand of love into the Temple above. I shall see your face; be glorified with your glory; and enjoy the blessings which flow onwards, through endless ages, from the Covenant of Grace.