age i sree, rie ak he ee ek a ard et ay Sa a er : ; ¥ axhyiet TS te Aa yy : ; pe re (3 tit ak PAS. bis ht, ye a = 2 tot i eer: Po eetee tetesee ee ag eee ie x Za. < > : eae eyo hte ee ox m r = = rete Sees 3 “ch Treriltp eee Bese Sr Basses : pes => ries She ee = ~ x et - 2s : ; Miekoted as 75 + ees oP etary Pe nara Od pee etal Make ad gd pig et ggg? rag phe al ag ireeeee ae Siieeet sss Bpkol Be fniglote? 3 Byki Tah viet Daiwt ei Deas pew me op a ine phat honw slg el Peet 03 ; Reariesss S, N OF PRINgS> a Y May 1S 1927. CY, yy LOL OGICAL gen org 2 Hew body Incorruptible & eS o f © the Holy Ghost“) by expericice it “Word crint) Vacleanness of sin fy Re- ¢ ‘ . ~ denption = from SS Forgiveness Re- AB hee XY conciliation < € = Oy & “No other foundation” The Psychology of Saving Faith a By S. M.YROBINSON, M.D. Orlando, Florida The Christian Alliance Publishing Company 260 West 44th Street, New York, N. Y. Copyricut, 1926, sy S. Mites RoBINson _ Printed in the United States of America Chapter I. rt III. IV. Vv. VIL VIL. VIII. TX: x “ae XIL XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. CONTENTS Page TOCFEERURIE EL PA y ficlae ntt eed) Date aie ole Rte» ots 5 The Psychology of Saving Faith ...... 9 Threeness in the Word .........5000% 15 PAP SRISEIL tate wits fob tie stake ately Cx CP sis ott 28 PPLIUISUIE POT SV LATE Vinay a aver cobs! 79 Sis aia lates 34 PUTT eos L CLEA i atstawsie aie ket ae Teele ti at) 41 In the Day That They Ate Thereof .... 45 PABRI EMME NTROYALEXLSD wists acs Sona bbs, eis tohecatueant al ee 52 Redemption—The First Work of Grace PORTE OININOT ee | Ss ieteieia ares tinea ata tale 63 Reconciliation—The Second Work of israce’ Hor ‘the spinners); \ssiav sens a «5 76 Regeneration—The First Work of Grace Tre the wellevere. ili gine rt rami 86 The Renewing of the Holy Spirit—The Second Work of Grace Jn the Believer 95 The Renewing of the Holy Spirit (Con- tinued) The Believer’s Word ....... 111 The Renewing of the Holy Spirit. (Con- tinued) The Believer’s Works ...... 119 The Renewing of the Holy Spirit (Con- tinued) The Believer’s Worship .... 127 Rehabilitation — The Third Work of Grace Imithe Believer .............. LSS The Earnest of the Spirit—The Believ- ete Present: Plea verin, essree isi vcvele o/s 143 Justification—The Ground-Line of the PARR TICEUIECHON, fener RIN UO AM uae ba 154 Conclusion Sie BIOS ORO Ce eS See LS OS ORS 6 Ee 2 Digitized by the Internet Archive In 2022 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https ://archive.org/details/psychologyofsavi0Orobi_0 FOREWORD URRENT literature is giving large place to what is claimed to be a latter-day conception of the relative importance of doctrine in the religious life and it is apparent that a considerable number of sup- posedly thinking people are frankly minimizing the importance of doctrine while they emphasize the im- portance of works. If the average unbeliever, in whose behalf, pre- sumably, these gratuitous labors are being undertaken, does not find his way successfully through the maze of modern doctrine it is not to be wondered at. The multiplicity of creeds, the contradictions of dogma are enough to bewilder the seeker for Truth. But it should not be forgotten, as it seems to be by the re- formers of “religion,” that Grace saves “through faith” and faith operates through doctrine. “Except a man be born of water [always, when used as a type, standing for the word of God] and the Spirit, he can- not enter the kingdom of God.” But above all it should not be forgotten that salvation is “not of works.” This is the serious error of the self-styled “modern- ist,” who is no more modern, in fact, than the foolish Galatians who seem to have had about the same con- ception of the purpose and purport of “religion.” The revelation of God concerning His Son, which revelation we ignore at our peril, is couched in terms 5 6 FOREWORD of doctrine. We cannot fulfill the requirements of saving faith, simple though they be, and ignore the doctrines in which they are presented. Without doc- trine there is no faith; without faith there is no grace; without grace there is no salvation. To those, then, who feel themselves at sea upon the ocean of life without chart or compass, who scan the horizon of their souls with ever growing disappoint- ment and uneasiness that in the gathering darkness no beacon of certainty appears; whose appraisement of the dogmas of the sectarians and ecclesiastics is shot through with misgiving and unbelief because of the apparent contradictions therein betrayed; whom the inconsistent lives of many of the professed followers of the Lowly Nazarene even more profoundly stumble, these few lines are addressed in the hope that a pres- entation of doctrinal truth based, not upon reasonings of men or deductions of Science, but upon the text of that Word which claims to be our only authority on the subject, may serve to throw some light upon the way in which, dubiously, but honestly enough, they may be faring. In this discussion no attempt will be made to answer questions of modern infidelity. The authenticity and authority of the Bible is accepted without reservation ; what “Science” says on the subject is nothing more than the wisdom of men, which is foolishness with God. What is science today was not science yester- day and may not be science tomorrow, while the Word FOREWORD 7 of God has withstood the onslaughts of its enemies for thousands of years and still stands inviolate. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; ... —1 John 5: 9-12. we e CHAPTER I THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SAVING FAITH HESE are the days when the Devil’s hoot-owls are working overtime in their effort to frighten Faith out of her safe but sometimes dimly lighted domicile. The forces of evil seem to be getting better organized and more loud-mouthed and shameless in their antagonism to every phase of truth. Leaders of modern thought, such as instructors in the schools for the young and the heads of some of our great educational institutions, are frankly assailing the fundamentals of faith, and it is high time—if it ever was high time—for a concerted effort among those who stand for the Divinely Inspired Word to manifest some militant concern for the ultimate out- come of such persistent and brazen denials of well- nigh everything that the Book presents as truth. That this “militant concern” is being manifested in many ways and from many high and influential sources is not to be denied and is something to be thankful for; and while I do not feel that the “author and finisher of our faith’ needs any assistance in the carrying out of His Plan, it seems to me that even a very small ripple upon the surface of devout thought may indi- cate to some one that the Spirit of Truth still moves upon the face of the waters and may be used by the Spirit to the glory of His name: hence this series of studies in the practical workings of saving faith, 9 10 THE PSYCHOLOGY viewed from the standpoint of psychological cause and effect. I have chosen as a designation of the line of thought which I hope to be permitted to present to you, the expression, THe PsycHotocy oF Savine Fairu, be- cause the laws of cause and effect to which I have just referred resemble quite closely the laws of the science of psychology. I hope to be able to show you that the true psychology is to be found revealed in the Word of God, and that it has very intimate relation to the process known as “saving faith.” Having ventured the statement that the true psy- chology is to be found revealed in the Word of God, I may well be expected to substantiate that statement if I am going to make good the claim that the series of studies that J am undertaking to present to you can be rightly called THe Psycuotocy or SAVING Farru. If you were to make a careful study, as I have, of the latest application of the science referred to, you would find that, shorn of high-sounding and mystify- ing terminology, the last analysis shows the operation of its laws to be simply the operation of the laws of mental initiative. Psychology is a codification of the laws of cause and effect in the realm of thought. You think a thought; that thought is a cause which calls for an effect. The effect is the action which the thought, if it has its way with you, will produce, whether the OF SAVING FAITH 11 thought originated with you or came to your mind from some other mind as a suggestion. Let me quote the epitome of applied psychology as given us by a recent writer who claims to know all about it: “All human achievement comes about through some form of bodily activity. “All bodily activity is caused, controlled and directed by the mind. “The mind is the instrument you must employ for the accomplishment of any purpose. “Every thought you hold tends to manifest itself in action. “The action determines your relation to things. What you do, resulting from what you think, makes you what you are.” In other words, what you think, if it finds the ex- pression in action which it strives to have, will so im- print itself upon your own character that you will come sooner or later to be the creature of your own acted thoughts. How important, then, that those thoughts should be true and pure and noble, for if they are, then you will be true and pure and noble. Now listen to a prince of applied psychology speak- ing by the Holy Spirit in his letter to the Philippians, fourth chapter and eighth verse: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, what- soever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there 12 THE PSYCHOLOGY be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Also as a corollary the words of the Divine Psy- chologist : Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken*him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. —Matthew 7: 24-27. But perhaps it were just as well that we use no more time in what might be considered a one-sided contro- versy. Let what I have said pass as my excuse for designating these studies “Tur PsycHoLocy oF Sav- ING FaitH,” and let us address ourselves at once to the consideration of our subject. The line of thought upon which our studies are to be based is to be found in the statement that follows, viz., Triunity ts the substratum upon which rests creation. The great Creator has written the laws of His own Being upon all His handiwork. There is nothing strange or even new in this state- ment. It is merely another way of saying what Paul said to the Romans: OF SAVING FAITH 13 “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made...” If you were to write a book—that is to say create a book—you could not help writing yourself into it. You, yourself, would inevitably be discovered in that book. Just so the Divine Author has revealed Him- self in His creation. As long ago as 1892 one Dr. Pryse published in the late Dr. Brooks’ periodical, ‘“The Truth,” an article of some six or eight pages, consisting almost entirely of an enumeration of the suggestions of triunity found in nature. I would like to go further and say that not only does nature reveal adumbrations (as Dr. Pryse called them) of triunity, but it might be shown that animate nature has as its primal law of being the unification of three principles, and these three principles are: FORCE, DESIGN, EMBODIMENT. I shall not undertake to follow this thought into the lower realms of being. We are engaged in a study of the psychology of saving faith; but a simple illus- tration may suffice to make clear how it can be that the underlying essential of nature’s very existence is a unification of these three principles. 14 _ ‘THE PSYCHOLOGY Let us take as our illustration an ordinary chain of three links. The chain is made of iron. Please note that considerable force may be expended in an effort to rend apart the three links without success. What holds them together against such effort? Another Force. It is called cohesion—the attraction of cohesion. Please note again that this chain is a chain because of the pattern of the links. You cannot make a chain of cubes, or spheres, or anything that does not have as an essential of its design that each member of its totality is capable of encircling one or more of the other members, as one link encircles one or more of the others. This involves the principle of Design. As for the third member of this mechanical triunity, I have already stated that the chain is made of iron. The chain-thought is embodied in tron. Here we have plainly FORCE, DESIGN, EMBODIMENT. But more of this later. I have said that Nature’s Author has written Him- self into His creation just as you would inevitably write yourself into any creation of your mind. As we enter upon the study of Triunity as the sub- stratum of things in the spiritual realm, and especially in respect to the Plan of Salvation and the Psychology of Saving Faith, I will ask you first of all to look at the reflection of the Divine Author in His Revealed Word—the Bible. CHAPTER II THREENESS IN THE WORD Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. John 5: 39. T HAS been suggested in our opening chapter that triunity fills a large place in the constitution of “the things that are made,” and we undertook to exhibit one instance of its existence in the realm of the so-called commonplace. We would now also sug- gest that it is the substructure of the being of Man himself. If, then, for the sake of our argument we shall con- cede the triune nature of Man (1 Thes. 5:23), it would not seem illogical to expect that the plan by which God purposes to restore His lost son to fellow- ship and communion with Himself would be adapted to his triune need. Nor would it seem strange if we should find the only authority we have on the subject, itself claiming to be a divinely inspired revelation of the Plan, dealing largely in three-ness as a means of expressing its truths. It will not be unprofitable to give a little time to this thought. A correct view of the primary divisions of the Bible will show it to consist of three parts: “The Old Testa- ment,” “the New Testament” and “Revelation.” With- out doubt Revelation is rightly to be considered a part by itself. It is neither New Testament nor Old Testa- 15 2 16 THE PSYCHOLOGY ment, nor, in fact, a “testament” at all, inasmuch as its “force” is not established by the death of the testator. And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgres- sions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament ts of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. —Heb. 9: 15-17. I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. | —Rev. 1:18. So momentous is it in its import that it carries with it, by the word of the Lord, a blessing for him who reads or hears, and dire punishment for him who adds to or takes therefrom. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time ts at hand. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: —Rev. 1:3, 22: 18. Each one of these three parts is itself a group of three. The Old Testament we find, by the word of the Lord Himself, to consist of Law, Psalms and Prophets. And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be OF SAVING FAITH 17 fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. —Luke 24: 44. Revelation we have by Him likewise divided into “the things which thou hast seen, the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.” Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; —Rey. 1:19. In the New Testament proper we have: (1) The Gospels—the same narrative told four times ,— (2) The Acts of the Apostles, and,— (3) The Epistles. In the Gospels the Life is revealed.—See 2 Tim. 1: 10. In the Acts it is given (more than five thousand con- versions are recorded in the book of the Acts), and in the Epistles the rules for living the Life, after it is received, are elucidated. Then take the Bible as a whole. It will be found to consist of another group of three; viz., Doctrine, Revelation and Prophecy. All of its contents might be included under these three heads, using “revela- tion” in its broadest sense. And it might be well added that recognition of this classification is of no small importance as a key to its import. Then, again, Law gives the color to doctrine, Povelae tion and prophecy in the Old Testament and Grace in the New, while Power characterizes all of the Book of Revelation—another group of three. Still another group of three is suggested as the classification in God’s mind of mankind. In 1 Co- rinthians 10: 32 we have the Jew, the Gentile and the 18 THE PSYCHOLOGY Church of God as a sweeping classification of all peoples in this dispensation. Very few students of the Word have failed to notice the many recurrences of three-ness therein. A mere enumeration of these would occupy too large a part of this chapter, and no doubt prove tiresome to the reader. We will therefore undertake to name only a few of the most striking, although less frequently rec- ognized, which may serve to call to the reader’s mind many others with which he is more or less familiar. Three members of the Father trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit (1 John 5:7). Three members of the Son trinity; the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). Three members of the Spirit trinity; Life, Truth and Power (Rev. 11:11; John 14:16, 17, 26; Luke 1:35, 24:49; Acts 2:4). Three things which shall not be in Heaven; Death, Sorrow (“crying” is but sorrow’s expression) and Pain (Rev. 21:4). Three divisions of the Tabernacle; the Court, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. Three pieces of furniture in the Holy Place; the Table of Shewbread, the Altar and the Candlestick. Three articles in the Ark of the Covenant; the Tables of the Law, the Rod that budded and the Pot of Manna. Three Resurrections; (a) immediately after the resurrection of Christ, (b) at the parousia, or draw- ing near, preceding the second advent and, (c) at the OF SAVING FAITH 19 end of the Thousand Years (Mat. 27: 52, 53; 1 Thess. miaOe- Rey. 20: 12, 13): Three ascensions; Enoch, Elijah and Christ. Three receptions of the Holy Spirit; (a) on ful- filling the first requirements of faith, (b) by gift from Christ and, (c) by the filling for service (John 5: 24; John ZO: 21, 22; Acts 2: 2-4). Many of the three-groups in the Word suggest tri- unity’s component membership, as outlined in a previ- ous chapter, in a very striking manner. A few examples will suffice to show what is meant. Take, as our first example, the contents of the Ark of the Covenant (Heb. 9:4). What were they? (a) Aaron’s rod that budded; a miracle of life only, no other quality or characteristic being ascribed to the rod. (b) The tables of the Law, which contained the written words expressing God’s way of looking at sin—His attitude—showing the kind of God He is in respect of sin, and, as such, the manifestation of His spirit in the matter of sin. (c) A pot of manna, iden- tified by John 6 as a type of the body of Christ, “the true bread from heaven.” In these three articles thus cherished in the Ark of the Covenant we have in type the Life, the Spirit and the Body of Jesus Christ, the Embodied God. Take another example. In the Holy Place of the temple were three articles of furniture sacred to three uses; viz., (a) The table of shewbread, again the typical body of Christ; (b) the seven-branched candlestick, type 20 THE PSYCHOLOGY of the sevenfold spirit of God; and (c) the golden altar, upon which, instead of a life, was offered up a sweet-smelling savour; but nevertheless, the symbol of a forfeited life, as were all altars. Again, taking an illustration from the New Testa- ment—and this is, perhaps, one of the most striking instances at hand—three times the Lord dealt with thé morally unclean in woman; and of all His revelations of the sweetness of Divine mercy these are among the most profound. There was one who came to Him as He sat at meat in the house of the Pharisee. She washed His feet with her tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. The overwhelming emotion which impelled that poor soul into the glare of the lights and past the sneers of the bystanders to the feet of Jesus, there to pour out her very being in the throes of penitence, is the most striking feature of the narra- tive. The woman’s emotion, aside from the teaching of the Master, is its supreme thought. Emotion is ex- clusively an attribute of soul. It is the soul’s relation to the sin, in its repentance, that gives color to this whole story. (See Luke 7: 36-38.) | Now, notice the almost startling contrast in the case of the woman in the eighth of John taken in the act of adultery. See how insistent the narrative is upon this fact. See how perfectly calm she and all present are. She shows not in slightest degree the agony of soul so markedly emphasized in the first case, although she is to be stoned to death in conform- ity with the law of Moses. She neither weeps nor OF SAVING FAITH 21 wails. The record is almost feeble in its calmness. Supreme emphasis is placed upon the body’s relation to the sin. (If testimony is admissible as to the integrity of this narrative as an inspired part of the Gospel of John, I respectfully submit that its place in the trinity of incidents now under consideration identifies it as an integral and harmonious part of the Spirit-given record. ) Again: from Galilee to the “coasts of Tyre and Sidon” is a matter of about fifty miles; and yet Jesus went all the way there and back—at least four weary days’ journey—to cast the unclean spirit out of a little girl. In this case, aside from the extreme importance of her mother’s experience in the matter, the striking thing is that there is no bodily guilt, no emotional ex- hibition. The child herself has no relation to the in- cident except to be the beneficiary of His mercy. It is an unclean spirit with which the Lord deals (Mark 7: 24-30). ‘Another striking example of suggestiveness is found in the “pearl of the parables.” In this chapter we find not three parables, but three in one, and that one a parable of the threefold work of Redeeming Grace. (See Luke 15.) The component membership of this truth-trinity consists of (a) the lost sheep, (b) the lost coin, and (c) the lost son. In the first division of the parable that which is lost is a living thing. The shepherd has lost a life. It is 22 THE PSYCHOLOGY death that dogs the wanderer on the mountain. It is from death that the shepherd saves this lost sowl. This is a parable of the work of Redeeming Grace applied to the soul (life) and its application is to the sinner only. In the second part of the parable that which is lost is merely a piece of lifeless metal. It is of great value, but it is nothing more than a piece of insensate matter which is sought and found. This is a parable of the work of Redeeming Grace applied to the mate- rial body—a resurrection story. In the third part all that occurs from first to last in the experience of the younger brother accomplishes in him but one thing; a change of attitude. Attitude is the best other name there is for the human spirit. It is the spirit of sonship—not sonship—which was lost and is found, which was dead and is alive. This is a parable of Redeeming Grace applied to the spirit. Its application is to the wayward child of God and to him alone. Another triunity of striking importance, although at first glance not so easily discernible, is the Kingdom- trinity. We have (a) the Kingdom of God, (b) the Kingdom of Heaven, and (c) the Kingdom of David (millennial). The incident of the young ruler in Mat- thew 19: 16-28 reveals to us two members of this tri- unity’s constituency. The conversation brings out the distinction between the Kingdom of God and the King- dom of Heaven (a distinction which the parallel ac- counts do not bring out, naturally, because they do not OF SAVING FAITH 23 present the Christ story from the Kingdom viewpoint as does Matthew). Jesus says, in effect, with great difficulty may a man go into the Kingdom of Heaven; and the difficulty in this case is chargeable to the pos- session of riches. As for the Kingdom of God, it is simply impossible for a rich man to enter—go into it. In fact, it is an easier task for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. This latter statement arouses exceeding amazement on the part of His hearers. They understand Him to be stating an impossibility. They know all about the little gate set in the larger one of the city through which a camel, bereft of its burden, might, with difficulty, pass. That happy little solution of the problem (advanced by the modern “angel of light” to minify the necessity of the new birth) never occurred to them, else they had not been so amazed. “Who then can be saved?” they cry. The answer is: “With man this is impossible’—with any man, rich or poor. Only by the act of the Father “who hath begotten us again unto a lively hope” can any man’s entrance into the life-relation to the Kingdom be ac- complished. In other words, the Kingdom of God is the realm of eternal, supernatural, divine LIFE. The new birth is the only door into it. It is the soul-rela- tion to the Kingdom—‘‘Ye must be born again.” But the Kingdom of Heaven may be entered by a man, al- though with difficulty. Heaven is the place where God rules with undisputed sway. Obedience to Him is its only atmosphere and attitude. It is hard for any man to live, unaided, in the spirit of submission to God’s 24 THE PSYCHOLOGY will, especially if he be rich, but it can be done with greater or less sticcess. (Consider Nathaniel, Daniel, Elijah and most of the Old Testament saints, none of whom were in the Kingdom of God in their day, be- cause the Life had not yet been brought to light in Christ.) But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: —2 Tim. 1: 10. The Kingdom of Heaven is the attitude relation to the kingdom. There are today, as ever, those in the Kingdom of Heaven who are not in the Kingdom of God, and may never be. There are sincere, earnest souls who would accept the atonement of Jesus Christ for their sins if they had an opportunity to do so, who, through ignorance of the way or false teaching have not seen the Light of Life. Such was the scribe in Mark 12: 32-34. Such was the native African woman encountered, traveling alone, by a party of mission- aries hundreds of miles from civilization who, in an- swer to their inquiries as to where she was going, replied, “I am going to the great sea to find the true God.” Good intentions, good thinking, good actions do not evidence the possession of the Divine Life, but they may indicate the attitude relation to the Kingdom which was what Jesus recognized in the scribe. The mother of a deaf and dumb child told me the OF SAVING FAITH 25 following story: She had placed her daughter in the care of an institution for the higher education of deaf mutes and looked forward with joyful anticipation to the time when the little one, having learned the lip language, would be able to understand her when she told about the love of God in Christ Jesus. At last the time came and she began to tell the story she had waited so long to tell. Her surprise amounted almost to shock when the little one turned to her and smil- ingly said, “Why, Mamma, I always knew about God.” The millennial “kingdom of David” is simply the embodiment member of the Kingdom triunity. The “everlasting kingdom” of Daniel (Daniel 4:3) is the Kingdom LIFE and the Kingdom SPIRIT embodied on this earth in the converted Sons of Abraham, It is well to remember that the Jew is still God’s Man. These few instances of the triune groupings of thought, as given us in revelation, may suffice to make clear the meaning of the statement that the very man- ner in which the Plan of Salvation is revealed shows, in many cases, recognition of the component member- ship of triunity and the adaptation of that Plan to the threefold need of Man, the being whom God has pur- posed to save. It is not to be understood that a mere grouping of three constitutes a truth-trinity. This must consist of a unifying of three truths, the result of which is a distinct concept, as will be more particularly explained later. But a grouping of three, as above cited, at least suggests triunity, and in many cases does it in so 26 THE PSYCHOLOGY striking a manner as to be very significant. Numerous instances of these adumbrations of triunity will come to the surface in the further consideration of our sub- ject, and many others may, as already suggested, occur to the reader. In the chapters that follow we shall make reference to a diagrammatic suggestion of triunity (see frontis- piece) for the purpose of helping the mind to visualize a broad view of the several truth-trinities with which we shall deal. Of these there are seven which must be considered, and these and their relation to each other may be suggestively represented by seven equi- lateral triangles, so arranged as to present to the eye a symbolic structure, showing the place occupied by each truth-trinity considered, as well as its relation to the several others equally involved. The name of each truth-trinity—its sum-total—will occupy the center of its triangle and the names of its three members will be displayed parallel with its several sides. Reference to the diagram will show that its base line has the designation, “Son of God.” That is to say the whole work of the Anointed, as well as the believer’s relation to that work, rests upon His Divinity. No article of religion which denies or ignores that Divinity can be acceptable to God, and no professor of any kind of religion who denies or ignores that fact has any “chance” whatever of salvation. There is no other foundation upon which a saving faith can rest. And, conversely, whatever his mistakes of belief, prac- OF SAVING FAITH 27 tical or theoretical, may be, if he accepts the Deity of Jesus Christ he has at least met the first and funda- mental requirement of saving faith and there is hope for him. And, again, no matter how exemplary his practice or his profession, if he does not accept it there is no hope. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. —Acts 8: 36, 37. But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. —John 20: 31. In like manner, as will be seen later, Christ’s rela- tion to the Plan as “Lamb of God” is the foundation upon which Redemption rests. It is the life of Jesus Christ, typified by the blood, which pays the price of freedom from the bondage and penalty of sin. As Son of Man, likewise, He becomes the founda- tion of Reconciliation. Himself the propitiation— “mercy seat’ or place where mercy is to be found— His humanity alone offers the possibility of seeing our- selves, by faith, in the act of paying the penalty of our own sins and thus satisfying the Law. The difficulty of identifying ourselves with the accepted substitute is that obstacle to faith which His humanity overcomes. As Son of God He is the Revealing One. As Lamb of God He is the Redeeming One. As Son of Man He is the Reconciling One. CHAPTER iit TRIUNITY For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead; so that they were without excuse. Romans 1: 20. JANG of the passage above quoted might read thus: “For the invisible world, in- cluding even God’s eternal power and godhood, may be understood by that world which is clearly seen.” It seems evident that the teaching intended is that we are warranted in expecting to find in the world with which we are familiar an understandable reflection of God’s eternal power and godhood. With this thought in mind let us return at once to the consideration of our topic as suggested in Chapter I; viz. LRIUNITY. It is unfortunate that those who are responsible for the Church’s doctrinal concepts have never clarified the doctrine of the triunity of God, thus denying to the unbeliever one excuse for his unbelief. This doc- trine, as tacitly held by the great mass of Christian people, amounts to the statement that the three per- sons of the Divine Trinity make one person, This is an unthinkable proposition. It is equivalent to saying “three times one is one.” The correct statement is: “The three persons of the Divine Trinity make one 28 OF SAVING FAITH 29 God,” for God is not only a person but the sum-total of three persons. Let us for the time being accept this as a true state- ment and see what it involves. We find, firstly, that God is the sum-total of three persons. These three persons are Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is not Father alone, nor Son, nor Spirit alone, but all three unified in some way. Casting about for an illustration in ‘the things that are made,” let us consider a very simple illustration of three-in-oneness to be found in the equilateral tri- angle. Here we have three straight lines. They are perfectly thinkable and understandable severally; but when they are submitted to a law; viz., that the sec- ond line shall begin where the first ends and the third begin where the second ends and end where the first began, we have a triunity in the geometrical realm as perfect as need be for our present purpose. The tri- angle is not a straight line, but a unit, the sum total of three separately perfect straight lines, and demon- strates the above accepted statement of truth; viz., the three persons of the Divine Trinity, though sepa- rately demonstrable, make “one God.” Further, the triangle reveals the equal importance or value of each member of the triunity, for we find that, although greater than any one of its component members, it is nevertheless dependent for its existence equally upon the presence of all three. Take away any one of the three lines and the triangle ceases to exist. 30 THE PSYCHOLOGY If now we were to presume to name one of these three lines “The Father,” another “The Son,” and the remaining one “The Holy Spirit,’ we would have a diagrammatic presentation of the thought, the triangle standing for the unification of the three in the “one God.” | Taking a step forward, another simple illustration from “‘the things that are made” may lead us further into an understanding of triunity. Our chain consisting of three links constitutes a mechanical triunity. In these three links we find a resemblance to the triangle in this; they constitute a chain because they, too, are subjected to a law of being; i.e., the three separate links become a chain because of the way in which they are related to each other. The first characteristic of triunity as found in the triangle we find here also; viz., the dependence of the triunity upon the presence equally of all three of its members: break away one link and the chain ceases to be, for we have then one link and a couple. Another characteristic of triunity is also discernible. As we handle the chain it makes no difference which link we grasp, we are grasping the chain. Using this fact as an illustration, we may contemplate either Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, we are contemplating God. But the chain presents to our view three striking qualities or possessions inherent, which might be said to be the component membership of its being. OF SAVING FAITH 31 (1) It possesses substance. It may be made of iron, gold, silver, or any other substance of sufficient cohesive force to preserve its form and serve its pur- pose. We might give this component member of the chain-thought a name and call it “embodiment.” ‘That is to say, the chain’s creator materialized his thought in iron, silver, gold or what not. (2) Another component member of the chain’s being is the design according to which it is material- ized. A link differs greatly from a sphere or a cube. The design makes it possible for a link to encircle by its substance a portion of the substance of another link or more than one other. (3) And, thirdly, there exists in the substance of the link, no matter what that substance may be, a natural force. It is known as the attraction of cohe- sion. By it the molecules of the substance are bound and held together. That it is a force is apparent when we discover the degree of force which is necessary to rend them apart. These three qualities or possessions of the chain, considered in the abstract, we have designated in its component membership; viz., EMBODIMENT, DESIGN, FORCE. Let us refer to another of the “things that are made” for an illustration of this component member- ship in the concrete. A locomotive engine will serve 3 oe, THE PSYCHOLOGY our purpose, although it is not itself a triunity. As it stands upon the tracks, pulsing with pent-up power, it seems almost to be a living thing. Consider its mass. Iron, steel, brass, wood, and perhaps a dozen other substances combine to embody a beautiful and wonderful product of human skill and wisdom, Note the plan of its construction, that is to say, its design. It differs, so far as its embodiment is concerned, no wit from the stationary engine in a near-by boiler- house. Just such iron, steel and brass as is used to construct the one is used to construct the other; but in design the two are as wide apart, in one respect, as could well be; for while one is designed to move to and fro with great rapidity if need be, the other is designed to stand stolidly in its place and cause great wheels to revolve and numerous machines to operate. As we contemplate with admiration and wonder the mountain of substance before us in its symmetrical beauty, a begrimed little man in blue denim with an oil can in his hand climbs into the cab. A squeaky whistle toots once, twice. A lever is thrown, a throttle valve opened and the locomotive and its dozen Pull- mans glide smoothly and softly out of the train shed with steadily accelerated speed—FORCE. Triunity, then, in “the things that are made,” is not the mysterious blending of three similar things to make a single similar thing. The straight lines do not by union become one straight line. The links do not be- come one link, but something which is greater than any one of the three, or all of the three, although de- OF SAVING FAITH 33 pendent upon the presence of all three for its exist- ence; viz., a chain. And this brings us to a simple but profound state- ment. All triunity, abstractly considered, is, in the last analysis, the sum-total of the unifying of embodi- ment, force and design or their equivalents. (See Chapter I.) CHAPTER a: TRIUNITY OF MAN And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blame- less unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thess. 5: 23. (2 MAY be truly said that few passages in the Word of God are so charged with meaning as the above quotation. Its revelations are numerous, but the most striking, perhaps, is that of the triunity of Man. Much confusion of thought has resulted from the custom, which has very generally prevailed, of making no distinction between soul and spirit. Apparently in- different to the Word’s differentiation, men have gone on using the terms interchangeably, notwithstanding the Word never so uses them; for psuché (soul or life) is rarely if ever translated spirit, and pnewma (spirit) never soul or life. Some light is thrown on the subject when we consider that the word translated soul (psuché) is likewise rendered life. That is to say, soul and life are expressed by the same word in the language of the Word of God: for instance: “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (psuché).” “Is not the life (psuché) more than meat?” Here the same word is used for life. See also Matthew 10:39, Mark 3:4, Luke 9: 24, John 10:11, and many others where the Greek word psuché is likewise rendered in the English by “life.” 34 OF SAVING FAITH 35 It should be noted in passing that the Greek word psuché so translated soul or life has reference to the natural or animal life only, the supernatural life being expressed by an entirely different word, which fact will be dealt with later. Made in the “image of God,’ Man still clings to a residue of that glorious state of being. He is still a triune thing, according to the revelation of 1 Thessa- lonians 5:23 above quoted. Let us give thought, as briefly as may be, to this re- flection of the “image of God” .. . “spirit and soul and body.” One-third of his being is substantial. His body is composed of matter. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, iron, phosphorus, sulphur, soda, lime, silica and many others—in fact, the very elements which go to make up the substance of the dust from which he was taken, the air he breathes and the food he feeds upon are found as components of his body cells. Indeed, mak- ing allowance for the preponderance of the element carbon (which so differentiates the organic from the inorganic), his body is not so very unlike in composi- tion that of the locomotive which we contemplated in the previous chapter. It is organized matter adapted to his uses and competent to perform the functions of his being. These uses and functions are: (1) A habitat for soul, or life—a dwelling place— Paul’s “earthly house” (2 Cor. 5:1). (2) A means of manifestation. By its visible and 36 THE PSYCHOLOGY tangible substance it locates the personality and iden- tifies the man. (3) An engine of his will. Without the substantial body the soul’s highest impulses and purposes are merely those of abject impotence. Soul and spirit without substantial embodiment are absolutely impo- tent to accomplish a single act of any kind. Such a duo-unity (soul and spirit) is in the Word called, sometimes, soul, and again spirit, but no act of ac- complishment is attributed to it. As already pointed out, soul and life (natural) in the original Greek are the same word. Man’s psuché is the seat of his emotions—literally out-movings—or feelings. To quote Scofield: “The soul is the seat of the affections, desires, and so of the emotions. ... The word translated soul in the Old Testament is the exact equivalent of the Greek word for soul (psuché), and the use of soul (nephesh) in the Old Testament is identical with the use of the word psuché in the New Testament.” If, for the time being, we use the alternative trans- lation “life” instead of the so generally misused and misunderstood “soul,” it will aid in arriving at the thought here sought to be conveyed; viz., that life is the driving force of the body. That is to say: the body is the material engine which the life endues with the power to execute and accomplish. We note its presence in the world of sentient things by the phe- nomenon of motion. When a thing naturally endued with the power of voluntary motion moves not, the OF SAVING FAITH 37 first thought that presents itself to one’s mind is, it is dead, life has departed. Impalpable, imperceptible, mysterious, life baffles every attempt to describe it. That it is not a mew creation with each individual pos- sessor is apparent when we reflect that it is physically transmitted from father to offspring and that, thus transmitted, it is in the son identical in essence with the father’s life. If “Levi also who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him” (Heb. 7:9, 10), then through all the generations of descent the life (soul) of Levi was the soul of Abraham and of all his forbears back to Adam. And for that matter it is the very soul of Adam that drives the man-engine today as it drove it then. Life, then, is Man’s unchanged and unchangeable heritage from the beginning. May we not then, for the sake of the argument, give Life a new name? Because it is that which actuates the body which it indwells, it is like the pressure of the pent-up steam which drives the piston and turns the great wheels of the locomotive, It is a force. When we come to the consideration of the third member of the human trinity we are face to face with the necessity of antagonizing an age-old popular mis- conception as to the meaning of the term “spirit.” That popular misconception thinks of spirit as a misty, diaphanous apparition of a human form whose prin- cipal occupation may be to wait upon the wishes of mumbling mediums to the great delight of phenome- 38 THE PSYCHOLOGY nally wise “psychic researchers”; or the essence of the departed being whether demonstrative or not; or, again, in some sense the subconscious ego of being whose activities play all kinds of pranks upon the con- scious self. The fact that common parlance uses the word frequently in-exactly the right sense seems to have had no bearing upon the “popular misconcep- tion.” We have no doubt we will be perfectly under- stood when we use such phrases as “a man of noble spirit’—“a woman of gentle spirit’—‘“a spirited horse’ —‘‘a mean-spirited fellow.” We are referring, in thus speaking, to a certain differentiating attribute which is notable as far as that man, or woman, or horse, is concerned. What do we expect of a “man of noble spirit” but noble deeds, noble thoughts, noble words? What do we expect of a “mean-spirited fellow’? Not nobility in word or deed, but just the opposite. In short, the noble spirit is a noble char- acter, the mean spirit a mean character: and we may reasonably jump to the conclusion that spirit may also be translated “character.” But what is character? It is trite to say “no two persons are alike.’ But that in which one person differs from another is, most frequently, his “way of looking at things,” with all that the term implies. For instance, one person may be extravagantly fond of flowers; another, in comparison, quite indifferent to them. This difference between the two in their atti- tude toward flowers would be likely, in some degree, to characterize those persons in all their attitude to- OF SAVING FAITH 39 ward men and things, because fondness for flowers is usually accompanied by other peculiarities of char- acter not generally possessed by a person indifferent to such things. If this be true, then a man’s character might be said to be his attitude (in the broadest sense of the word). Then if spirit is character and char- acter is attitude, or one’s way of looking at things, then spirit 1s attitude. But, furthermore, your attitude—your way of look- ing at things, is the kind of person you are. It cor- responds exactly to that element in the construction of the locomotive which makes it differ from the station- ary engine; viz., its DESIGN. But the question will arise, By what authority do you thus denude spirit of its essential personality? If spirit is merely one’s attitude, or way of looking at things, or character, what becomes of the Scriptural revelation of personality as an attribute of the Holy Spirit ? The sum-total of body, soul and spirit is you. You are the person, or, say, you have the attribute of per- sonality. But your spirit is you quite as much as either your soul or your body. Any one of the three links is as much chain as any other; therefore, spirit is possessed of personality quite as much as body or soul. You speak of Shakespeare when you mean the works of Shakespeare, and you know you will be understood. As three links make a chain and the chain ceases to exist if it suffers the loss of one of its links, so the sum-total of the human trinity, the person, ceases to 40 THE PSYCHOLOGY be on the loss of one of its members; e.g., soul and body without spirit is not (legally) a person, but an imbecile. (Reason or mind is an attribute of spirit and, in fact, mind is sometimes, in the Word, used for spirit, or to express an attitude or purpose.) Soul and spirit without body is not a person, but a wraith or ghost—the duo-unity which continues to exist in the “place of departed spirits” until that place gives up its dead. (See Rev. 20: 13.) Body without soul or spirit is not a person but a corpse. If any two men could be found who would think alike, see alike (intellectually speaking), feel alike, love alike and hate alike, they would have the same spirit because these resemblances would give them the ‘ same attitude toward their environment. If I could succeed in influencing some other man to have exactly the same attitude toward his environ- ment that I have toward it, I would succeed in giving him my spirit. If, then, God would impart to me His Holy Spirit —by which is here meant the Holy Spirit of Truth— the operation which must be performed is that God must cause me, in some way, to think as He thinks, love as He loves, hate as He hates; to have, in short, the same attitude toward my environment, natural and supernatural, that He has. The Spirit of God—still limiting the term to the Spirit of Truth—is God’s attitude, and to have the Holy Spirit is to have the Holy attitude. CHAPTER V THE SUM-TOTAL Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. . . . Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Mark Lasiusto lL HE above passage is understood and acknowl- edged to be the highest and most authoritative presentation of the Divine Will in the form of a com- mandment. We can recognize in it the three component mem- bers of the Human Trinity; viz., soul, mind (synony- mous with spirit when it is used to designate not the intellect but the purpose or intent of the person) and strength (or body, inasmuch as bodily activity is here referred to, Greek ischus; force or strength). A paraphrase might be rendered thus: ‘“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy spirit and with all thy body,” and the rendering would be quite as true to the intent of the original as the accepted rendering. The point to be considered here is the fact that, in addition to the component membership of the human trinity already referred to, we have a fourth member —‘thy heart.” “Heart” in this connection is an expression which we tolerate in our thinking for lack of a better. It 41 42 THE PSYCHOLOGY does not have reference to the sturdy little bunch of muscle about the size of one’s fist located nearly in the center of the thorax, which performs such prodi- gies of labor to keep the life-blood pulsing, but to something profoundly important as a part of our- selves. So inadequate is the expression that, in the endeavor to convey the thought which it is supposed to present, we often have recourse to such expressions as “heart of hearts,” “depths of my heart,” etc. In fact, “heart” in our language stands for J, myself— EKGO—the sum-total of body, soul and spirit, just as “chain” stands for the sum-total of the three links. And just as, in the case of the chain, the sum-total has attributes which may and must be considered apart from its component membership, the EGO, I, myself, exhibits one important attribute not possessed by either body, soul or spirit separately considered; this is the power of will. Neither spirit, soul nor body wills to do. The “seat of the emotions” furnishes the motive power, just as the pent-up energy of the steam in the boiler drives the piston and turns the crank, but it is not the steam that wills to do; no more does the sub- stantial embodiment of steel and iron; no more does the design. No, it is the grimy little man in blue denim who throws the reverse and opens the throttle. He is the engine’s will to move—the Ego of the thing. It is not strange that heart is first mentioned in the greatest of all the commandments, for it is entirely possible to love, in the broad sense of the word, with spirit, with soul and with body, any or all, and yet OF SAVING FAITH 43 not with the Ego, whose very breath is self-will—love- lessness. This is the thought of Matthew 15:8, “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” But where the will has surrendered to the thraldom of love all of the rest of the being is led captive. We all know this. So heart, rightly, has first place in the great commandment. Because, then, the heart alone exercises the power of will, the heart (Ego) is the arbiter of faith. The soul may feel to believe, the spirit yield to a sense of conviction, and the body may even perform acts ‘“‘meet for repentance,’ but unless the heart says, “I will!” all avail nothing. “I will!” is the synonym of faith. The prodigal’s victory of faith was not in his father’s arms, but back in the hog pasture where he cried, “I will arise and go to my father.” “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” “My son give me thine heart.” The catastrophies of Christian experience which have so shocked the believer and elated the skeptic have generally, if not always, been due to failure on the part of the unfortunate to live the positwe life of “I will.” Trust is a beautiful accomplishment in the Chrts- tian’s development, but trust is not faith. Both have their divinely appointed uses, both have their victories and enter largely into the believer’s growth in grace, but there is a great difference between them. It 1s brought out in Exodus 14: 13-15. “Stand still and see AA THE PSYCHOLOGY the salvation of the Lord” were the words of Moses to the children of Israel as they trembled between the Red Sea before them and the hosts of Egypt behind them. “Stand still’—that is trust. But that was not God’s thought for His people that day. What He wanted was the exercise of positive faith. “Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward,” was His word to Moses. ‘Trust stands still. Trust waits to see, Faith goes forward. Trust says, “I believe’; faith says, “I will.” In the strife with principalities and powers the humblest believer’s “I will’ of faith is irresistible. The enemy has no armor which it cannot pierce, no weapon which it cannot foil. “By faith Abraham”’— “By faith Isaac’—“By faith Joseph’—“By faith Moses” (Heb. 11: 1-39). And faith is Ego’s supreme prerogative, and Ego’s alone. CHAPTER VI IN THE DAY THAT THEY ATE THEREOF In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Genesis 2:17. I WELL remember years ago being told by a Chris- tian gentleman, “There are a great many things in the Bible which are to be taken with allowance; for instance, when God said in the garden, ‘In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,’ He must have meant something else, for they did not die.” The speaker but voiced the question which has occurred, perhaps, to every reader of that portentous record. Did they die in that day, or did they not? A critical examination of the language of the orig- inal record shows that a literal translation of the Hebrew “and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul” should read “and breathed into his nostrils the breath of two lives, [Pember] and man became a living life,” the Hebrew word for life in the first instance being in the dual form, signifying two, no more, no less. There are two lives revealed in the Word, just as there are two deaths; the heavenly, divine, immortal or supernatural life (always expressed in the Greek by the word zoé), and the animal, natural or human life (Greek, psuché). If two lives were breathed into Adam at his creation it must have been these two lives. The text of the narrative warrants this conclusion. 45 46 THE PSYCHOLOGY Herbert Spencer’s definition of a perfect life; i.e., “perfect correspondence with a perfect environment,” in the last analysis resolves itself into the simple for- mula: correspondence with environment as a defini- tion of life. That is to say, if you are alive you respond, or adapt yourself, to what is going on around you. If you see light it is because you are alive to the light. If you hear sound, you are alive to sound. In short the degree in which you know, or respond to, the phenomena of the natural world about you meas- ures your degree of natural life; and the degree in which you fail to respond measures your degree of death or separation. And when you can neither hear, see, taste, smell, feel nor breathe, you are usually ready for the undertaker. The analogy is close in the spiritual realm. To the degree in which you “know” (or respond to) the phenomena of the spiritual world you are spiritually alive. “For this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). Now, we find on consideration of the record in Genesis 2 and 3, that the new man responded to both environments. He not only lived, moved and had his being in the natural realm, as do we, but he walked and talked with God, as we do not. He was the first “Son of God,” possessed of the supernatural or divine essence of being (zoé) as well as the human or animal responsiveness to the natural things about him (psuché), by the in-breathing of God. OF SAVING FAITH 47 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God. —Luke 3: 38. In this condition of duality of life Adam’s sover- eignty was complete, with one exception. He was for- bidden to eat of one certain tree in the garden. Only one test was to be made. It was a test of his loyalty to his creator and friend. He failed. With the act of disobedience came the immediate severance of his relation to the spiritual world with which he had been in such perfect correspondence. In the day that he ate thereof he was separated from God—separation is death. He died to God, the Spirit of Life, the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Power. Spiritual death then and there passed upon him and in him “upon all men.” From that day God has been the Father of a race of spiritually dead sons. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. —Rom, 5:12. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. —FEjph. 2:1. That specious sophistry which has been so empha- sized these latter days concerning the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, rests upon the falsity of a half-truth. The Fatherhood of God is Scripturally established. Jesus taught it. But the as- sumption that because God is Man’s father, and “God is spirit,’ Man, therefore, must be spiritually God’s son is Scripturally refuted. Spiritual death ends spir- 4 48 THE PSYCHOLOGY itual sonship, just as natural death ends natural son- ship. For sonship is not only a fact, it is a relation to be sustained if it is to exist. Man died to that re- lation in the ‘day that he ate thereof. The first penalty of sin, therefore, was complete separation from the spiritual environment, threefold in its effect; for in that day Man became “flesh’—a mere natural triunity. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. —Gen, 3: 22-24. And this it was which made it necessary that he should be restored to correspondence with the spir- itual environment (spiritual life) before his Divine Saviour could even begin to deliver him from the con- sequences of his disobedience. Therefore ‘Ye must be born again.” But that was not all that took place that day. Not only did spiritual death smite him, but natural death marked him for a separation quite as complete from his natural environment as the first separation from the spiritual environment. Because his life was dual, both spiritual and natural, his death must be dual. Man now comes into the world “dead in trespasses and OF SAVING FAITH 49 sins” spiritually. His separation from the natural en- vironment begins with the body’s dissolution, while the natural life (psuché) and the natural spirit (pneuma) continue to exist (that is why what we call death is so often spoken of in the Word as “‘sleep’’), a duo-unity in the “place of departed spirits,’ there to await the day of the Great White Throne and the resurrection of the hosts of the unregenerate; that day when “death and hell” shall give up their dead and the sea shall give up its dead, and the dead, great and small, shall stand before that throne and the awful tragedy of the “second death” shall fulfill the sentence of the garden. The first death and the second death are equally in- volved in the garden catastrophe, and it follows in- evitably that if Man is to be rescued from the conse- quences of his wilfulness, the Father of Love must take upon Himself the great task of saving him from the penalty of a dual death, partly in the past, partly in the future. This, the scope of the Plan of Salvation, will, when it is accomplished, restore to God’s highest creation all that was his in fact and potentially before he fell from his high estate. More particularly, the scope of the Plan must, of necessity, comprehend the following: Firstly—a work of grace which shall restore the man to correspondence with his spiritual environment, from which he is now absolutely separated by the spiritual death of the garden. This can be accom- 50 THE PSYCHOLOGY plished by one process only. The antithesis of spir- itual death is spiritual life. Entry into that life, even as the entry into natural life, is by birth. “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5; 5:24). This is the “born again” birth; the bestowal of the Divine Spirit of Life as a gift of grace. Secondly,—a work of grace which shall operate to keep the new soul (zoé) thus bestowed in a state of spiritual growth, ever developing new and more ad- vanced responsiveness to its new environment; for life’in any sphere cannot cease to function unless it be to die. This is the “more abundantly” life. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. —John 10: 10. This enlightening, educating, purifying, edifying experi- ence accomplished under the guidance of the Spirit of Truth, changing the believer’s point of view and, con- sequently, his attitude, and, therefore, his spirit toward God, toward men, and toward things is an experience of grace. Thirdly,—a work of grace which shall perpetuate for all eternity this new being’s new life and new at- titude by bestowing upon him a new habitat, a new engine of will, adequate to meet all of his require- ments in a world of supernatural forces and divinely ordained activities. This is the “house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1)—the spiritual body bestowed by a miracle of grace—the resurrection. OF SAVING FAITH 51 The fact that salvation is thus a threefold work of Grace affords us a viewpoint from which to contem- plate its laws and phenomena in an orderly manner, and, with diagrammatic aid, even to visualize, as it were, its outstanding truths. It is, then, to a thoughtful, unprejudiced, tolerant consideration of the modus operandi of this threefold undertaking of Divine Grace that the reader is humbly and hopefully invited. te CHAPTER VII THE ANOINTED For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:11. UR first view of “the Anointed” presents Him to us as “the seed of the woman.” And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and be- tween thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. —Gen, 3:15. Then through succeeding and progressive revela- tions we have Him presented as: (a) Prophet, Priest and King, a group of official titles. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. —Deut. 8: 18. And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest, For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. —Heb, 7:15, 17. I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a king- dom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion ts an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. —Dan. 7:13, 14, 52 OF SAVING FAITH 53 (b) “Son of Man,” “Son of God,” and “Lamb of God,” a group of designations indicating His func- tional relation to the Plan. And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over- shadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. —Luke 1:35. And he said unto them, that the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. —Luke 6:5. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the World. —John 1:29. ioe ie wvays. the ‘Trithovand. “the Lite a group expressing His spiritual activities throughout the operation of the Plan. Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me, —John 14:6. It may be noticed that these various designations of the Messiah are not only given to us in groups of three, but each group in its membership bears close similarity to the other groups; that is to say, it is not hard to identify the ‘““Prophet” of the first group with the “Son of God” of the second and “the Truth” of the third. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. —Mat. 17:5. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. —John 1:1. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. —John 17:17. 54 THE PSYCHOLOGY In like manner the ‘‘Priest” of the first, the “Lamb of God” of the second, and “the Life” of the third group express very closely by the manner in which they are used, the same relation to the Plan. But Christ being come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; ‘How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? —Heb. 9: 11-14. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the vail, that is to say, his flesh: —Heb. 10: 19, 20. The same is true of “King,” “Son of Man,” and “the Way.” And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon, twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. . —Mat. 19: 28. Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treas- ure in heaven: and come and follow me. —Mat. 19:21. As “Prophet” His office was to speak for the Father, representing Him and delivering His message to Man, OF SAVING FAITH 55 which work might have been done, as previously, by the simple ‘thus saith the Lord” of a human mouth- piece, but as “Son of God’ His function was to reveal the Divine Will as well as to announce it, and thereby bring a true concept of God within the reach of Man’s apprehension (the fundamental necessity of the Divine undertaking), while, at the same time, He spoke for God as a prophet. The inadequacy of all previous prophetic utterance may have been due to the lack of this functional relation on the part of the human mouthpiece. But not only did He speak the words given Him by the Father and reveal by miracle and parable the love of the Father to those privileged to witness them. Throughout all time, as “the Truth’s” incarnation, through the Holy Spirit He appeals to the hearts of men in behalf of the Lover of Souls. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew i# unto you. A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. —John 16: 12-16. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God 56 THE PSYCHOLOGY did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. —2, Cor. 5520: Most prominent, perhaps, of the three groups of titles by which He is known is the functional group, “Son of Man,” “Son of God,” ‘Lamb of God.” These designations imply three different kinds of work which the ‘Anointed’ must perform; and the record given us in the synoptic Gospels shows how carefully He differentiated them. From the beginning of His ministry until the gather- ing in the upper chamber (John 13-17) His work as Son of God, Prophet, and Truth, was to complete a revelation of the Father such as had never before been made, and has never since been augmented. He spoke the Father’s words. He lived the love-life, going about doing good. He testified always of the Father. But there came a time when that work was com- pleted and, turning his eyes heavenward, He said, “T have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. . . . I have manifested thy name to the men which thou gavest me out of the world” (John 17:4, 6). From that day He testified no more of the Father. He no longer went about doing good. He entered upon an entirely different and a new work, the priestly sac- rificial work of the “Lamb of God.” When He left that upper room for the garden it was to assume His function as the meek, unresisting sin-bearer who “opened not his mouth.” As Priest He was to offer, as the priest offers upon the altar, a life substitute for the life of the race—His own life; OF SAVING FAITH Y/ and with it to enter the Holy of Holies in behalf of Man, as did the typical high priest once a year, thus becoming Himself both the priest and the offering. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. —John 10:17, 18. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven it- self, now to appear in the presence of God for us: nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others ... but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. —Heb. 9: 24-26. His earthly work as priest was of short duration. It was only a few hours before, crying with a loud voice, He announced, “It is finished!” (John 19: 30). As already suggested, this was the earthly work of the “Lamb of God.” His heavenly high-priestly work had not yet begun. His third functional relation to the Plan of Salva- tion has never been assumed. As ‘Son of Man,” the earthly king David’s greater son He has yet to come. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine in- heritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy pos- session. 58 THE PSYCHOLOGY Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potters vessel. —Psalm 2: 6-9. I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a king- dom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. —Dan. 7:13, 14. Even more striking than His scrupulous exactness in the fulfillment of the prophecies which pertained to His humiliation and sacrifice, was His careful avoid- ance at His first coming of the fulfillment of any prophecy which in any way pertained to His function as Son of Man—the kingly function—and to His sec- ond coming. Note: (1) His refusal to pass judgment (a kingly func- tion) upon the woman taken in adultery (John 8). (2) His refusal to accept political leadership when they brought Him the penny with the cunningly de- vised query as to tribute. Political leadership was the king’s martial function (Luke 20: 21-25). (3) His refusal to adjudicate the case of the young man robbed of his inheritance (Luke 12: 13-14). This was the king’s judicial obligation. (4) The three temptations in the wilderness were each a profoundly shrewd attempt to seduce Him into the fulfillment of a prophecy pertaining to His Son of Man, or glory, advent, and thus by assuming the glory before the humiliation, thwart the Father’s Plan OF SAVING FAITH 59 and make the Church and salvation from sin forever impossible. They were especially significant of the Satanic purpose and of His own sublime devotion to His Father’s will. The first temptation; viz., to set aside the garden curse and satisfy His hunger by a miracle, would have been a direct defiance of His Father’s word as re- corded in Gen. 3:17, 19. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, say, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou re- turn unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. —Gen. 3:17, 19. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. —Mat. 4: 3. The second temptation was even more astute: Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge con- cerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. —Mat. 4:5, 6. The prophecy which He was thus tempted to ful- fill involved the manner of His second advent: And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints. —Jude 14. 60 THE PSYCHOLOGY And to you who are troubled, rest with us; when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. —2 Thess. 1:7. But the third temptation was the most subtle of all; a suggestion that He might easily avoid the cross by accepting the crown which, in fact, was His by inherent right and prophetic promise: Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high moun- tain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. —Mat. 4:8, 9. (5) But especially consider His Scripture reading at Nazareth and His answer to the messengers sent by the Baptist, and it will be observed that the reply to John’s query was a commentary upon His mystify- ing treatment of the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah. That part of the prophecy which He read was as follows: And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord és upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. —Luke 4: 16-19. When He had read thus much of the prophecy, OF SAVING FAITH 61 which referred to His Divine, love-revealing work, He closed the book and sat down, saying, “Now is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.” That portion of the prophetic utterance which he did not read was as follows: . and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called Trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your ploughmen and your vine- dressers. But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves. —Isa. 61: 2-6. What the messengers of John saw and were to con- sider the answer to their query was almost a literal fulfillment of the portion of the Scripture which He read, but not that portion which He did not read. And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another ?. When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another? 62 THE PSYCHOLOGY And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight. Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. —Luke 7: 19-23. jt enti _— ee at | ~ CHAPTER VIII REDEMPTION The First Work of Grace For the Sinner Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Hebrews 9: 12. E HAVE now to consider the first work of Grace for the dead and lost son of God, whom God is undertaking to save from the penalty of his sin. This is a preliminary or preparatory work, the object and scope of which is to provide for the great deliverance which is to follow. It does not save, it makes salvation possible. This was the “Lamb of God” work in which as a substitute for Man the anointed Man takes His place in the awful tragedy of Law-fulfillment, for not one jot or one tittle may pass until all be fulfilled. The supreme moment of spiritual testing of our Substitute was not in the wilderness, but in the garden where, before His greatly amazed soul, was unveiled the unspeakable agony which the Father, in mercy, had withheld until that hour—ithe abandonment of His Son to the separation of Sin. The anticipation of the physical suffering of the Cross, terrible as it was, must have been completely lost in the consternation which came with the discovery that, in order to fulfill the 63 5 64 THE PSYCHOLOGY will of the Father and perfect His own atoning work, He must Himself suffer not only the rending apart of spirit, soul and body in what we call death, but He must suffer the spiritual condition of the sinner—be “made sin for us” by dying also the spiritual death which would accomplish in Him absolute and complete separation from the Father. Nothing could have been more terrible to Him than this. The withdrawal of Indwelling Love, the cloud- ing of that adored face upon which the eyes of His pure soul had never ceased to feast, must have been to Him the acme of agony. No wonder we hear the startled cry, “Father! If it be possible let this cup pass from me!” Someone has expressed the thought in the following lines: Not the crazed rabble’s hate-engendered sneers, Not the far-distant, trembling women’s tears, Not the nail’s piercing nor the grave’s black fears Filled full the awfullest moment of that day. But in the cloud of sins that made His night Was the heart-breaking horror of the sight Of Infinite Love—His life—-His soul’s delight One moment, in Sin’s separation, turned away. We have already found that the first effect of sin was the intrusion of death into God’s Plan. In the day that they ate thereof death passed upon them and upon all men—the first or spiritual separation from God the Spirit of Life, God the Spirit of Truth and God the Spirit of Power—the first death trinity. This was the condition into which the whole race was OF SAVING FAITH 65 plunged by the single act of the first pair; for spir- itually dead parents could not transmit spiritual life to their offspring any more than the corrupt tree could bring forth good fruit. As one brought death upon the many, one shall likewise bring deliverance to the many, But not as the offence, so also is the free gift: for if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification, —Romans 5:15, 16. We found death of the natural body; i.e., dissolu- tion of the material embodiment of the man, to be next in order as the first member of the second trinity of death, whose final consummation, at the judgment of the Great White Throne, finally and eternally sepa- rates the Man-unsaved from his Maker. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. —Rev. 20: 14, 15. The scope of Redemption, then, as a work of Grace performed for the lost Man provides: (1) For the complete nullification of Sin’s claim upon him; that is to say, provides for his escape from the condition of spiritual death (Paul’s “so great death”) in which the Plan finds him. Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver ws ;—2 Cor. 1: 10. 66 THE PSYCHOLOGY Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. —Heb. 9: 12. (2) Makes it possible that bodily death shall be a blessing rather than a curse, a victory rather than a defeat, and,— O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. —1 Cor. 15: 55-57. (3) Provides a substitute who, for him, has passed through and experienced in his place the soul-death, thus paying the suspended penalty and perfecting, for the Man, the work of fulfilling “the law of sin and death” and setting him free therefrom. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. —Romans 8:2. Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: —1 Cor. 5:7. Three lambs and three sacrifices were required to typify, in the Old Testament, this threefold redemp- tion work; and Christ, when He entered upon His labor of love must, first of all, fulfill these three types. Exodus twelve gives us the word of God establish- ing the first type, the Passover Lamb. There are sev- eral things to be noted about this first type and its establishment which are significant. I. It was given without any reference to the Law. That is to say, Sin, as a transgression of the Law, was OF SAVING FAITH 67 not involved in the offering of the passover Lamb, for there was no Law, and “where there is no law there is no imputation of sin.” For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not im- puted when there is no law. —Romans 5: 13. II. It was a sacrifice for the whole people and, therefore, because Israel was the only people with whom God was at that time dispensationally dealing, typically for the whole world. III. It was a substitutional sacrifice; a life was of- fered up in substitution for the life of the first-born. The judgment upon the land of Egypt did not except Israel. All the first-born of the land were under that decree. And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt: And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maid-servant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. —Ex. 11: 4-6. IV. It was protective in its nature. Projected into the future, it delivered from an impending catas- trophe—some great calamity about to befall—death. In brief this typical sacrifice had no relation to sims at all, but was by God ordained as a substitutional method by which Israel might be delivered from the impending disaster by faith—faith enough to obey— without vitiating the terms of the original decree. 68 THE PSYCHOLOGY The other two types are to be found in the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus. Here we have, first, the lamb (or kid) upon which “the Lord’s lot fell’? destined to give up His life in atonement for the sins of the people. Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat—Lev. 16: 15. He was the sins-atoning lamb whose blood was to be taken by the high priest into the Holy of Holies once a year and sprinkled upon the Mercy Seat, as typifying the blood of Jesus Christ with which He was to enter “once for all,” the Heavenly Holy Place, there to “make intercessions” for His saved ones. By His blood atonement was to be made. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he ap- peared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. —Heb. 9: 24. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make inter- cession for them. —Heb. 7:25. Atonement not “‘at-one-ment.” That pretty little play upon words, unfortunately, does not express the truth. OF SAVING FAITH 69 The atoning work of Jesus Christ is a work performed for all men for all time. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; —Romans 10: 12. And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.—1 John 2:2. It is not limited in its scope to those only who accept it. It does not make God and Man “at one,” for the majority of men either never hear of it, or, hearing of it deliberately ignore it. “‘At-one-ment”’ is accom- plished by an entirely different process, as we shall see. So comprehensive and perfect was the atonement thus made that judgment for sins never appears in the judgments prophesied to take place after that of Cal- vary. Its effect was to accomplish for the Race an amount or degree of righteousness which should be enough to offset in Man’s mind (not God’s) Man’s unrighteousness. ‘This is the usual and correct mean- ing of atonement—to offset a wrong by a right which shall be sufficient to balance the wrong. Its spiritual effect corresponds exactly to the spiritual effect of paying a debt; hence it is so likened. So long as your debt is unpaid you have the debtor’s attitude—the debtor’s conscience toward your creditor. But when the debt is paid you feel entirely different; and this feeling is of great importance. Atonement has no effect whatever upon the attitude of God toward Man. God loved the Man before the world was. 70 THE PSYCHOLOGY For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. —John 3: 16. Aside from its effect upon the Man’s sense of guilt, it affects only the Law’s hold upon him; and even that is not its primary importance, for the Law’s hold might have been broken by an act of atonement not requiring “all men’ publicity. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. —John 3:14, 15. The primary purpose of the atonement is to affect the spirit of the Man himself; i.e., his attitude to- ward God, which is one of enmity and misunderstand- ing. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. —Romans 8:7, 8. Let Man realize that an amount of righteousness suf- ficient to offset his own unrighteousness has actually been performed and accepted as a consideration ade- quate to pay his debt, and the debtor’s attitude—the spirit of distrust and antagonism toward his creditor— is nullified. The burden rolls away: happy day! This is the phenomenon absolutely necessary to the consummation of God’s purpose in redeeming Man from the grasp of Sin; for unsaved Man has but one conscious relation to Sin, the moral relation of guilt; OF SAVING FAITH 71 and guilt is a thing of the spirit—a thing of attitude. Except his spirit can be freed from guilt he cannot believe in his acceptance by God as a beloved son, with- out which belief he cannot be saved, because he can- not trust God to do the rest of the work for him. Man by nature does not know that he is spiritually dead. This is impossible. But he does know that he is guilty under the Law. This is the purpose of the Law. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. —Romans 3:19, 20. This sense of guilt or unrighteousness, and its con- sequent attitude toward God, can be nullified only by a sense of righteousness. The atonement of Jesus Christ, “the lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” provides this sense of righteousness when, by faith, the Man makes that death his own. But whether he makes it his own or not, the fact of the atonement re- mains the same. The unregenerate dead who stand before the Great White Throne are not cast into the lake of fire because of their wicked works, but because they are not found written in the Book of Life. And death and hell were cast into the lake of, fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire—Rev. 20: 14, 15. The reason they are not found written in the Book of Life, furthermore, is not because of their sins— 72, THE PSYCHOLOGY the acts of transgression which they have committed, the things which they have done—but because of the one thing which they have not done. ‘They have not accepted the atoning work of their appointed substi- tute; they are unregenerate. The Book of Life con- tains the names of those only whom the Son hath quickened. Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. —Luke 10: 20. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. —John 5:21. The other goat or kid of Leviticus 16, known as the azazel, or scapegoat, was the one upon whom the high priest by physical contact ceremoniously laid the bur- den of the sins of the whole people, this burden to be borne by it away from the people into the wilderness. Note that the body of the animal thus assumed the re- lation to Sin which the people’s bodies bore—a relation called “‘uncleanness.” In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. —Zech. 13:1. His body became unclean with the sins of the people; and the separation of his body of sin from the people typihed the power of the Lamb of God to separate us from the effect of sin on the body—uncleanness—a condition. And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the chil- OF SAVING FAITH 7s dren of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. —Lev. 16:21. It is not alone sufficient for the Man’s peace of mind and freedom from the hold of the Law upon him that he should be free from the sense of guilt. His body was the instrument of unrighteousness. His body committed the transgression. It has its own particular relation to it, and that relation must be dissolved. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. —Eph. 5: 25-27. Lady Macbeth’s “Out damned spot!” is an expres- sion of the body’s relation to sin. “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin,’ as well as atones for all sins. | If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: * But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. —1l John 1:6, 7. The azazel did not shed his blood in the presence of the people, but his life, none the less, was given for them and he thus became the type of the cleansing sacrifice, the sin-bearing-away Lamb of God. With- out doubt this was the import of the word of John 74 THE PSYCHOLOGY Baptist: “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” And doubtless this reference to the yearly spectacle of Leviticus 16 was perfectly understood by the people. This, then, was the threefold meaning of the Cross: I. Redemption from the penalty of Sin, the “second death’’—the final consummation of the sentence of the garden as well as the awful destiny, under the law, of “the soul that sinneth.” This is the application of the atoning work of Christ to the psuché which still awaits execution of that sentence which has, for all the un- regenerate, been deferred until the day of the Great White Throne (Rev. 20). II. Redemption from the guilt of Sin—that hold of Sin upon the spirit which, placing Man in the position of debtor, fills his mind with the debtor’s anxiety, enmity and misunderstanding of his creditor, and makes reconciliation impossible until the debt has been paid. IiI. Redemption from the uncleanness or defilement of sin—its stain upon the body of Man; which body being an integral part of the human triune being is just as much in need of redemption from Sin as the soul or the spirit. The one word which expresses the sum-total of this threefold work of Grace performed for Man by the Lamb of God upon the Cross is “Redemption,” whose relation to the plan of Salvation may be indicated by locating it in the diagram on the left of the foundation stone, resting upon its Lamb of God side; for Re- OF SAVING FAITH 75 demption was a work of the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. —Rev. 13:8. See frontispiece. CHAPTER IX RECONCILIATION The Second Work of Grace For the Sinner And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to him- self by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ; as though God did be- seech you by us, we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye recon- ciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5: 18-20. ECONCILIATION, the second work of Grace involved in the Plan of Salvation, is the sum- total of Remission, Repentance and Forgiveness. That is to say, these three factors, so important to Man’s salvation, are but the component membership of another factor much more important than either or any two of them. This, like Redemption, is a work of Grace done for the lost Man, not in him; for while repentance, it is true, is an inward effect, it is accomplished on the initiative of the Holy Spirit. Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forebearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? —Romans 2: 4. We do not read of the sacrificial offering of Jesus Christ accomplishing the reconciling of God to the 76 OF SAVING FAITH ‘es world, that was unnecessary, but of the world to God. (See above.) The first member of this Truth-trinity to be con- sidered is Remission, from a Greek word meaning to let go, from which same Greek root we have Ephesus, the church which “let go”—forsook—its first love (Rev. 2:4). Remission is something which we have by virtue of the all-atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, fulfilling the type of the sins-atoning lamb of Leviticus 16. And not only those who believe and accept that atoning work have remission accomplished for them, but all men, whether they believe and accept or not, have the work done for them. The Lamb shed His precious blood for all sins of all men for all time (1 John 2: 2). As already pointed out, judgment for sins is never mentioned as involved in any judgment after that of the Cross, where “once for all” Jesus the Lamb tasted death “for every man.” But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. —Heb. 2:9. The blood of Jesus Christ was a perfect sacrifice, perfectly acceptable to the Father, and were it not for the guilty conscience of Man—the debtor spirit, which keeps him at enmity with God—all men would participate, to their eternal salvation, in that perfect work. The doom of the unsaved is pronounced upon 78 THE PSYCHOLOGY them not for their sins, but for their lifelessness in that day of the Great White Throne. By deliberately refusing to accept God’s testimony concerning His Son, they made God a liar and have forever placed themselves beyond the reach of His mercy. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; be- cause he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. —1 John 5:10. Because the blood of Jesus Christ is accepted in atonement for the sins of “all men,” God has “let those sins go’—remitted them. If remission alone were sufficient to bring Man within the reach of God’s grace, all men would be saved. But it is not. Remission is all on God’s side. The Life has been offered up and accepted in substitution. The Law has been fulfilled and satisfied. The unpayable debt has been paid: but Man has had nothing whatever to do with the paying. He has not even been consulted. Man is not saved because God has let go his sins. Something else is necessary. He must himself let go his sins. That is to say, he must turn from them. In order to do this, a clearly revealed process, known as “conviction of sin,’ must be carried out in his mind. I. He must be convinced that God is a righteous God. To bring this about thousands of years of human history are marked by object lessons of the righteous- OF SAVING FAITH 79 ness of God—see the whole Old Testament history of Man and note its necessity to a concept of Sin. Ii. He must be convinced that he himself is not righteous. To this end Sinai, the people Israel, the Law. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a school- master. —Galatians 13: 21-25. III. Then he must be convinced that because God is righteous He has a right to demand righteousness from His creature; and because he, the creature, is not righteous, a debt has uprisen hopelessly beyond his ability to pay. Along these lines the Holy Spirit in this dispensa- tion works to “convince the world of sin, of righteous- ness and of judgment’’—the only thing the Spirit has to do for the sinner and without which faith lacks understanding. John 3:16 presented to a man who has no conception of sin, righteousness and judgment, is a beautiful puzzle. The revelation of the love of God was not intended to be made—as it too frequently is today—without a revelation of His lawful wrath. 6 80 THE PSYCHOLOGY It must not be supposed, however, that the claim is here made that the spirit of man under conviction moves in orderly and conscious progress through the three steps toward true repentance above outlined. This is but the analysis of the method of the working Spirit to arouse faith. Conviction is not faith. “God is righteous. I am sinful. I am lost!’’ is the consciousness that bears in upon every awakened soul before it turns its startled eyes in faith toward the Cross, as the stricken Israelite in the wilderness turned his to the brazen serpent. When the goodness of God, which leads to repent- ance, has accomplished for the lost Man conviction, repentance is the result—a turning away from his sins ; and this in two senses: I. As a barrier between him and salvation. Until the sinner can see the sufficiency of the blood of Jesus Christ to atone for his sins, the debtor spirit is an in- surmountable barrier between him and his Maker. He must cease to consider his sins as standing between him and salvation before he can be saved. This is the point at which faith begins its saving operation. Faith in God as God, or in the righteous- ness, mercy and love of God, saves nobody. The faith must be in the sufficiency of the atonement of Jesus Christ the Son of God. Il. As the danger threatening his harmony with God. He must let go those practices of the natural man which transgress the law. Repentance, however, is entirely upon the side of OF SAVING FAITH 81 the sinner. He has it all to do. But he is not with- out help. That help is the spectacle of Golgotha—the Incarnate God Himself fulfilling the Law; Himself paying the debt. This awakens in the sinner’s mind a conviction that the payment must be acceptable. Thus the revelation of such unfathomable mercy and love performing for him an act which he himself could not possibly perform, overcomes his antagonism and mistrust, and he turns toward (conversion) Him whom He once feared for his sins’ sake and hated be- cause he feared. This is the divinely sought outcome of repentance. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. —Mat. 11:28, 29. Thus far two-thirds of the work of reconciliation has been accomplished in Remission and Repentance. But there still remains a most important third. This third member of the Reconciliation triunity is Forgive- ness. The same Greek word is translated both remission and forgiveness, but the difference between the two is indicated by the Saxon root of the second render- ing, which is gif—‘“to cause another to take.” Forgiveness is remission which has been taken, or which one has been caused to take. That is to say, unless God shall succeed in causing the lost Man to take—in the active sense—the remission which he has 9? THE PSYCHOLOGY accomplished for him, that remission is of none effect for salvation so far as that individual is concerned, notwithstanding it has forever wiped his sins from God’s remembrance. Only the believer has remission. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. ‘ —Acts 10: 43. Belief on the Lord Jesus Christ enables the Man to take remission and, by taking it, make it forgiveness. Only by grasping the assurance that his sins are re- mitted, because they have been actually atoned for by another, does the sense of deliverance become his. Therefore it is absolutely essential that he fix his eye of faith upon the Man who fulfilled the law in his stead. The belief that God is and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him is the first requisite of approach to God, but it does not save. It is clearly true that belief in God saves nobody. All men believe in God—some sort of God: for “He hath not left himself without a witness” but ‘Ye believe in God, be- lieve also in me.’ “There is no other name given under heaven.” Thus far in the scope of this chapter we have said very little about the prime factor in this, to some, mysterious operation of vicarious atonement. The “Gospel of the blood” has fallen into disrepute among a certain class of self-appointed leaders of the learned in these latter days, but nothing seems to have a larger place in God’s thought concerning redemption than OF SAVING FAITH 83 the Blood of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It is because the “precious blood” stands for the precious life of the Embodiment of God. In every age the “Son” has always been the embodiment of the Father-Life—the Spirit of Life. He was not only the incarnation of God by sonship, He was the incarnation of Man by the appointment of the Father, and as such had laid upon Him, as He hung there, all the sins of all men, and in addition was made sin that He might perfectly fulfill all the requirements of the God-appointed sacrifice. It has been truly said, God has never forgiven a single sin, but has executed punishment for them all on the Man of men, “the seed of the woman,” and the blood is the evidence of the transaction. Without it “there’is no remission.” And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission—Heb. 9: 22. Now, while Remission is all on God’s side and Re- pentance is all on Man’s side, Forgiveness is on both sides. God, causing the Man to take Remission, brings God and the Man together in Forgiveness: and the condition thus established between the two, which can be established in no other way, is known as Recon- ciliation, the at-one-ment erroneously ascribed to the Cross work. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to him- self by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation ; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto 84 THE PSYCHOLOGY himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ; as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ’s stead, Be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be fates the righteousness of God in him. —2 Cor. 5: 18-21. It should be pointed out that Remission is a work of Grace of which the sinner for whom it is performed may be entirely ignorant, and of which he may never avail because of that ignorance or because of wilful rejection. And repentance may have place in man’s mind without going so far as to accomplish in him all that has been implied in the above discussion of this thought, and therefore, true to the law of triunity re- quiring the presence of all three component members to constitute the triune thing Reconciliation fail of accomplishment. Witness the many instances of pseudo-Christianity which ignore the atonement while they go through the forms of repentance and reforma- tion. Regret for evil conduct is in fact repentance. One may be sorry for his evildoing and the result be a genuine reformation of conduct. But refusing to look to Him “lifted up” it may never be anything more than reformation—never anything more than a frus- tration of the Divine Purpose. Remission, Repentance and Forgiveness are all equally involved and Reconciliation is impossible with- out the effective operation of all three. The place of Reconciliation in our diagram is mani- OF SAVING FAITH 85 festly upon the human side of the foundation, for it is the human Jesus who is understandable by men. It is the uplifted Son of Man who draws all unto Him, although, sad to say, that wondrous spectacle of Love Triumphant is not always followed by the “coming” of submissive faith. “Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life” (John 5:40). CHAPTER X REGENERATION The First Work of Grace In the Believer Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John 3:5. FE} HAVE considered the first two works of Grace involved in the Plan of Salvation and have found them to be works performed for the Man, and, therefore, preliminary to salvation itself: for the latter does not begin to operate in the Man until Redemption and Reconciliation have been achieved for him. God ‘does not trust the gift of Eternal Life to an enemy any more than He consults that enemy as to the method by which He shall make him a friend. Upon the consummation of Reconciliation then, Sal- vation begins with the gift of Eternal Life—the Re- birth. Herein lies the absolute necessity of the Man ac- cepting the Divinity of Jesus Christ. His salvation begins with the gift of Eternal Life and that Life is Christ Himself (so designated time and again as, for instance, “He that hath the Son hath life’ (1 John 5: 12); ‘When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:4). 86 OF SAVING FAITH 87 The Father cannot trust Divine Sonship to one who denies that Sonship’s Divine source. The Salvation triunity is of profoundest importance and highest place in all revealed Truth. It consists of a group of three triunities (see diagram) and 1s the sum-total of RE generation, REnewing of the Holy Ghost, and REhabilitation (or resurrection), the last two being component members of the first. Each one of these three groups comprising the Sal- vation Truth-trinity is itself the sum-total of three things necessary to its completeness, the last of the three, Rehabilitation, showing, perhaps, less of the characteristics of triunity than the first and second. It is ignorance of, or indifference to, the fact that Salvation is thus threefold in its nature and operation, and that the whole work of Saving Grace is not a single act performed in the Man at conversion, which is, to a large extent responsible for such lamentable diversity of creeds among Christian people and sects well-nigh innumerable. In many cases the doctrinal differences of the Evan- gelical churches are not due so much to the asserva- tion of the disputed doctrine as to its presence in the concept where it does not belong. Salvation, then, requires for its consummation three distinct works of Grace, each limited to that member QQ THE PSYCHOLOGY of the human triunity to which it is adapted. That is to say, the Salvation Triunity consists of— (1) Newness of Soul, or Life by a gift of Grace. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God ¢s eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord—Romans 6:23. (2) Newness of Spirit by an experience of Grace. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not i the oldness of the letter. —Romans 7: 6. (3) Newness of body by a miracle of Grace. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised in- corruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. —1 Cor. 15: 51-54. (By some teachers these are spoken of as the past, present and future of Salvation.) Around these three works of Grace, the sum-total of which is Salvation, cluster all the doctrine, revela- tion and prophecy of the Word, especially the New Testament. The Greek word for soul, meaning the natural soul, is psuché, as already pointed out, which word is also rendered life; so that life and soul are identical ideas in the Greek of the New Testament. It is to be borne OF SAVING FAITH 89 in mind also, that the word for spirit, pneuma, mean- ing literally breath or wind, is never translated life, with perhaps, one or two exceptions, and these insig- nificant, but always “spirit” or its literal rendering above given. This is significant as indicating that soul and spirit are not identical in the Word of God. But psuché is not the word used in the Greek when the everlasting—eternal—soul or life is referred to. Here the Divine Author uses an entirely different word— feoeo Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ—acceptance of His substitutional work—in short, compliance with the first requirements of saving faith, is rewarded by the gift of Eternal Zoé; nothing more. The new, the Eternal, the supernatural Zoé, is the gift of God to the Man who, taking Him at His word, turns from his sins to his substitute. This, the rebirth, is called a mystery. To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: —Col. 1:27. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. —John 3:7, 8. The fact that the New Life is expressed in the original Greek by a new word, strongly suggests that truth which has always so much needed to be enforced; viz., that God’s work of salvation is new from the foundation up. God never has done anything for 90 : THE PSYCHOLOGY human nature as such, and, in this dispensation, never will. It is exactly the same today that it has always been. A Scriptural passage which probably requires less explanation than any other is that relating to the murder of Abel. Aside from the spiritual significance of the two offerings, not here to be considered, it is always understood bécause it is so true to human nature in all generations. | There is no remodeling or reconstructing of the Old Adam in us. The work starts with an absolutely new creation. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. —2 Cor. 5:17. But there is a use for the old Man in the work of salvation and, apparently, only one. The figure of seed-sowing is often used by our Lord, and the new life is frequently likened to seed sown in soil. God’s use for the “first Adam’”—the natural Man, in his work of saving Grace, is the same use that the florist makes of his flower-pot full of earth. He plants therein His precious seed. It roots in the natural Man. It finds there the crude materials with which to clothe its new being. The plant and the flower are not a patching up of the pot and the earth, they are new. I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. { Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. —l1 Cor. 3:6-8. OF SAVING FAITH 91 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excel- lency of the power may be of God, and not of us. —2 Cor. 4: 5-7. Human love differs from Divine Love only in degree, the ‘difference being in this: that the highest possibility of human love is that it may give its life for its friends, but Divine Love could give its life for its enemies. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. —John 15: 13. Moreover, the plant and its flower are something very different from the soil and its pot. No one would think of confusing them; and yet how many Chris- tian people seem to be utterly oblivious to the fact that the Divine Florist is cherishing the precious plant as the object of His solicitude; that He cares for the pot full of earth as a means to an end only. Mean- while rival growths are discouraged and we are en- joined to keep the vessel and its contents free from contamination. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. —James 1:27. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour: —1 Thess. 4: 3, 4. This may, perhaps, be more readily understood if we look back to the catastrophe which robbed Man of his spiritual relation to God. It left him bereft of all 92 THE PSYCHOLOGY in him that was supernatural. When God breathed into him the “breath of two lives” he became a “living soul,” literally a “living life,” possessed of animal life plus spiritual life, and the only being in the universe so endowed. But with the first act of disobedience came the great change to spiritual death, or separation from God. Man ceased to be a “living life.” Made in the image of his Creator, he dropped to the level of “all flesh,” possessed of the natural life only. And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also ts flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. —Gen. 6: 3. In spite of his lofty aspirations, his bold assumptions, his dreams of glory—echoes only of what he once was —there has been no difference between Man and the so-called lower animals from that day to this save a difference of degree in the matters of wisdom, power and intelligence and a fundamental difference in re- spect of the Moral Law. Students of natural history have long been trying to draw the line of demarkation between Man and the other higher animals without success. The anatomist finds the difference to consist mainly of variations in the shape, size and number of bones, those varia- tions being, in fact, not so very great. The physi- ologist finds so little difference that for him the physi- ology of a man and a horse are expressed in practically the same terms. The histologist finds little if any dif- OF SAVING FAITH 93 ference at all, and the Word of God seems to agree with this finding. Humiliating as it no doubt is to the “Lord of Crea- tion” in his unregenerate condition, the apparent dif- ference between him and his animal slaves, aside from his intellectual superiority, lies in his moral conscious- ness—his amenity to the Moral Law, the Sinaitic Code —to which he is inexorably held by his Maker as a means to an end (that end being conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment, Romans 3: 19-20) from which law all other animal life is exempt. ‘Thou shalt not steal” was spoken to Man alone. We have stated at the outset that the first death was a separation of the Man from his Creator as Spirit; from God the Spirit of Life, God the Spirit of Truth and God the Spirit of Power—the Spirit’s trinity. And after three days and a half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. —Rev. 11:11. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. —John 16: 13. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. —Luke 24: 49. Accordingly it is the “Spirit of Life from God” which thus is bestowed upon him in this first work of Grace, implanted in the believer as a seed is planted in a pot of earth. In this degree he is the possessor 94 THE PSYCHOLOGY of the Holy Spirit by the first reception thereof in the “new birth.” Aad this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. By the act of the first Adam Man lost his corres- pondence with his Spiritual environment. By the gift of God, in acknowledgment of his faith in and iden- tification with Jesus Christ, the “second Adam,” he is restored to that relation. And now, the salvation work having been begun in him, he is a child of God, just as much, in respect of the fact of sonship, as he ever will be. His after de- portment, it is true, may be sadly inconsistent with this fact. As a Christian he may produce very little fruit, and the pruning may seem severe. Or, perchance, he may prove hopelessly fruitless. Then the Divine Hus- bandman only knows when the knife is applied. I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. The moment that the life-seed is planted and growth has started, the second work of Grace in the believer begins, and this work is the bringing into being of a new spirit, This is an entirely different process, a work which is devoted to the believer’s spirit only. And this we will now proceed to consider. CHAPTER XI THE RENEWING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT The Second Work of Grace In the Believer And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2. (The above is one passage where mind is used to convey the idea of spirit, having the thought of pur- pose or intention. It has no reference to the intellect or reasoning faculty. Other passages make use of the word mind in the same manner. See Romans 11: 34, Perera 10).2 ¢hnes. 2 2, etc.) E, HAVE already tried to show the scope of the term “spirit”; have pointed out the fact that “soul” and “spirit” are never confused in the Word of God; have tried to show that all of Man which is not soul or body is spirit; that spirit, in fact, is that peculiar quality of being which determines attitude to- ward things and differentiates one man from another. At first view it may appear that this presentation of the meaning of spirit robs the Holy Spirit of person- ality. But a few references to the use of spirit in the Word will show that to it belongs personality as an at- tribute, whether the spirit be human or Divine. Two striking instances will illustrate the point sought to be 95 7 96 THE PSYCHOLOGY made; viz., the second coming of Elijah; the person in the spirit of John the Baptist. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the dis- obedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. —Luke 1:17. And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. —Mat. 17: 10-13. Witness the possession of Peter for a brief moment by the spirit of Satan, who is recognized and called by name by our Lord. And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. —Mark 8: 31-33. Spirit is that member of Man’s triunity to which be- long intelligence, thought, reason, purpose (the latter in the sense of intention or mind to do; in this sense frequently used in the Word as synonymous with OF SAVING FAITH 97 spirit: see the Great Commandment, Mark 12: 30 and Romans 12:2), but never Will, this being the pre- rogative of the Ego alone as already shown. A striking thing about the human spirit is that it is the only member of the human triunity which is subject to radical change. The soul remains the same potent emotional force, the motive power of the human engine practically unchanged from generation to gen- eration. The body changes slightly in size and out- ward appearance; but the spirit is subject to a con- stant process of change. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. —Romans 12: 2. The child comes into the world with the potential spirit only. That is to say it has no character, no at- titude. Very soon, however, this takes form and manifests itself. Very early it shows a decided pref- erence for its mother and distrust of strangers and strange things. Very quickly the forming attitude as- sumes its relation to its environment and develops its own characteristic way of looking at things. After several years it becomes conscious of the fact that the claims of God upon it are interfering with its own plans and purposes and then, at that point, the child ceases to be “little” in the sense in which Jesus used the word. Its spirit has become the natural attitude toward God; the “carnal mind” which is ‘enmity against God.” 98 THE PSYCHOLOGY Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the king- dom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. —Mark 10:15. It is likewise true that the process commonly called education is an experimental matter, by which we undertake to adapt our attitude to its environment. The burnt child’s dread of fire is but the adaptation of attitude to that element with which he has been ex- perimentally in contact, and serves at once as a factor in his education and a characteristic of his spirit. The educated man is he whose rough corners of ignorant prejudice have been rounded off by rubbing against the truth; for it is experience which is by far the most effective, if not the only, force to mold and change the spirit or attitude. Moreover, spirit is subject to sudden and temporary changes of great and widespread effect. A wave of some particular kind of spirit may sweep over a com- munity and speedily possess nearly everybody in it. We recognize this phenomenon when we speak of the “revival spirit” or the “war spirit.” Shortly after the disaster to the warship Maine in Havana harbor, certain newspapers throughout the country, without any other warrant than their desire to arouse excitement and sell their goods, began pub- lishing “‘scare-heads” and editorials about the “war spirit’; and in an incredibly short space of time the whole country was aflame with the purpose and intent of war, and war followed. These phenomena are just as frequent among the OF SAVING FAITH 99 lower animals. Wolves hunt in troops. Two fighting dogs will draw half a dozen others into the battle. (1 witnessed a remarkable instance illustrating this at- tribute of spirit among the lower animals years ago on my grandfather’s farm. The dairy herd consisting of ten to fifteen cows had been despotically ruled for many years without intermission by a certain old black cow. The fact that she was old and decrepit and had lost a horn seemed to make no difference. She was boss (spirit). But the advent of a fine young Guern- sey, who didn’t know, started something. Hurrying to the meadow, in which direction I heard the most agonized bellowing, I perceived the whole herd, led by the Guernsey, with horns atilt, after that old black cow. Before I could reach them they had her down and were goring her viciously, even the yearling heifer. I believe they would have killed her but for my inter- ference. ) The child of God enters the supernatural realm—the “Kingdom of God’’—through the door of birth, with a spirit anything but heavenly. His attitude toward his environment is, in greater or less degree, unmis- takably worldly; for, while the experience of conver- sion changes his attitude toward sin and self, about all his awakened consciousness realizes, it leaves it to- ward men and things, as a rule, unchanged to any very great degree. He does not have God’s way of looking at things; he still has his own selfish, fleshly, natural way. The natural Man hates God, tolerates his neigh- bor and loves things. 100 THE’ PSYCHOLOGY All this must be changed (Romans 12:2) if he is to be exalted to the place (“‘adoption”) of a son. A prodigious work must be done im him; no less than the restoration to him of that which he once had in Adam—the Holy Spirit, the Holy Attitude—the holy way of looking at things. And this work, once in- augurated, must, against immeasurable difficulties, be prosecuted throughout his earthly existence, unless, in- deed, it be accomplished more or less early in his Christian experience, as it may be, by the process known as the “filling of the Spirit,” which means the believer’s immersion in the Spirit of Truth, a very happy and delectable condition, possible to all, but en- joyed by comparatively few. (And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Eph. 5: 18.) In the first phase of the regenerative work, the new birth, God, the Spirit of Life, becomes his life and he “a new creature” in the first, or LIFE, relation to his creator. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. —2 Cor. 5:17. The purpose of the second phase or step of the work is to establish in him the Spirit of Truth as his spirit, thus restoring to him his relation to God the Spirit of Truth, the which also he lost in the day that he ate thereof, So prodigious a work is this that it is itself a three- fold thing and must be later considered as such. Suffice OF SAVING FAITH 101 it now to say that his natural antipathy for God, his natural mere toleration of his neighbor and his natu- ral love for things, must all undergo a change if the will of his Heavenly Father is to be accomplished in him; and the only agency by which spirit is ever molded is the agency used; viz., Experience—an ex- perience of Grace. The third work of Grace belonging to the Salvation triunity is Rehabilitation—the “clothing upon” with the spiritual body: “for there is a spiritual body” and that spiritual body is just as necessary to the per- fecting of God’s work for Man, and just as much a part of Salvation as the gift of the Divine Zoé. The latter begins the believer’s relation to the Plan of Sal- vation: Rehabilitation completes that relation and re- stores to the son of Adam his heritage by the embodi- ment in him of God the Spirit of Power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. —1 Cor. 15: 44. This clothing of the new Soul and Spirit with the new or Spiritual Body occurs at the time of the return of the Son of Man to the heavens for His Church be- fore He manifests Himself and His Church to the world and takes possession of the throne of His father David. It is nothing more nor less than the bestowal upon the believer of a habitation or body “like unto his glorious body” and possessed of all the attributes and powers of His glorious body. It is not by a gift, the reward of faith, that this is 102 THE PSYCHOLOGY accomplished, as in the case of the Divine Zoé, neither by an experience as in the case of the Divine Pneuma, but by a miracle—“in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump’”—and this grand climax to the work of Grace is known as the “manifestation of the sons of God” and is coincident with the “first resurrection.” It will be considered in a chapter by itself, as it also has a threefold aspect, although having component membership in the Salvation triunity with Regenera- tion and Renewing of the Holy Spirit as will be more clearly understood by reference to the diagram. The ultimate purpose in view in God’s salvation work is the restoration of Man to the state of fellow- ship with his Creator which in the beginning he en- joyed. Whatever that fellowship involved, a condition of exalted companionship is certainly indicated by the account of the early doings between God and Man (Genesis 2). And a return to those early conditions is strongly suggested by the fact that the five words which best express the whole process from the begin- ning to the final miracle of Grace all begin with the syllable “Re.” They are: REdemption, REconciliation, REgeneration, REnewing of the Holy Spirit, REhabilitation. Regeneration does not accomplish anything more in the believer than his issuance into Divine Life. He enters the supernatural world a “babe in Christ” with OF SAVING FAITH 103 the babe’s instinct of dependence and clinging. He enters that world alive and no more. “He that hath the son hath life.’ “Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life.” “. .. has passed from death unto life.’ Speaking by the Book that is all. But it is a wonder of Grace. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. —Romans 3: 1, 2. But, “having begotten us again unto a lively hope” there immediately follows the beginning of a work of infinite wisdom, love and forbearance by the Father: nothing less than the remolding, by a process of edu- cation in heavenly things, of the spirit of His beloved offspring. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. —l Peter 1:3. The mind of the flesh (the natural or “carnal” mind —not the intellect or reasoning power, which is but an attribute of mind) is “enmity against God” also, by reason of its constitutional selfishness, is in a loveless attitude toward its fellows and at the same time is deeply in love with the “things on the earth.” So we find that the work which God must do for His child is, first, to change the mind of enmity toward God; secondly, to change the mind of selfishness toward his 104 THE PSYCHOLOGY brother; and, thirdly, to change the mind of affection toward the things of this world. It would seem at first glance that Reconciliation would cover the first enumerated work, but while it contributes largely toward this end, it does not suffice to consummate it. Reconciliation is the establishing of that relation of harmony between the Man and the Father which makes possible the bestowal, by the act of Divine Grace, of the New Life. It is, in a sense, a negative operation —a casting out of the natural attitude of disobedience. It is not the positive operation of filling with the super- natural (and holy) attitude of obedience, which is what we have under consideration at the moment. This spiritual factor in the work of salvation; i.e, the negative process of casting out the evil spirit of enmity, as distinct from the positive operation of put- ting in its place the Holy Spirit of righteousness, is what is referred to by Jesus in that difficult passage in Matthew 12 where we read, “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he is come he findeth it empty, swept and gar- nished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.” It cannot be that the unrighteous man can forsake OF SAVING FAITH 105 his thoughts and remain in that negative condition very long. In. respect of his spirit one cannot remain negatively poised between bad and good. The house that held the unclean spirit must be possessed by an occupant. The holy must take the place of the unholy or the latter will not stay cast out. The backslider is the practical everyday exemplifica- tion of this truth. Having undergone the emptying of the bad in the convicting work of the Holy Spirit for Repentance and Forgiveness, with their resulting Reconciliation, he did not receive the filling of the good, and the unclean returning, “the last state of that man is worse than the first.” Everyone who has had any experience in soul-win- ning knows how hardly a backslider returns to God, and also how difficult it is for those rescued from the depths of uncleanness to “stand” if sent at once from the Mercy Seat back into their old haunts and associa- tions. The means of accomplishing a change of attitude toward God is by an experience of God’s true attitude toward us. The man who feared God and hated Him because he feared Him, when he has been subjected to many and oft-repeated experiences of God’s loving kindness and tender mercy, His watchful providence and chastening discipline, will come presently to be possessed of an attitude of confidence toward God, a calm, trustful resting in Him. He will learn, in time, 106 THE PSYCHOLOGY to say with Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.” It is the mind of God that His child should have this attitude toward Him and, therefore, when the child has so learned to trust and rest in his Heavenly Father, he has become possessed of (or by) the Fa- ther’s spirit in this respect. He has been separated from fear, distrust and misunderstandig to confidence, trust and “fellowship with the Father.” This is the first step in the “Renewing of the Holy Spirit.” It is a difficult process, but not so difficult as the renewing of the believer’s mind toward his fellow man. “The second is this: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” It is God’s mind that His children should exhibit honesty, kindliness, and forbearance toward men in general, but especially toward each other. It is not strange, then, that we find so much of the sermon on the mount to consist of injunctions to the disciples concerning their attitude toward their fellow men. Neither is it strange to find the thirteenth chapter of first Corinthians just where it is and as prominent as it is. The child of God who is following the guidance of the Holy Spirit into his experience is not long in dis- covering that his Father in Heaven calls for more than mere toleration of other men. He soon finds that the very people whom he naturally dislikes are the very ones toward whom the Father would ofttimes have him OF SAVING FAITH 107 cherish the kindliest of feelings. And when the be- liever’s attitude toward men is the same as the Father’s, who “so loved,’ he may truthfully be said to be pos- sessed of the Holy Spirit toward men; to have re- ceived, in this respect, the renewing of the Holy Spirit. But the most difficult part of the whole operation of renewing, in the believer, the Holy Spirit, is in respect of Mungs. “Set your affections upon things above and not on things on the earth.”—Col. 3: 2. The natural man loves neither his brother whom he hath seen, nor God whom He hath not seen, but he does love things. It may almost be said that in the degree that he loves things he hates God and his brother. It is always the last thing which the Spirit accom- plishes for the child of God, when he brings him to that point in his transformation where he can truth- fully say, “I care not for riches, neither silver nor gold.” This is because things in themselves seem so harm- less that the average believer can never (until he has learned his lesson) understand why he should not go on through his Christian experience with the same natural attitude toward them that he always had. There might be no reason why he should not if it were true that the temporal things were eternal. If the things of this world were intended to exist, just as they are, in the next, the believer whose affections are fixed upon them might suffer no loss in passing from 108 THE PSYCHOLOGY this world into the next. But it is the unseen things that are eternal, and the spirit that is wedded to the things that are seen can have no room in his heart for the things that are unseen; and so, when ushered into an environment of which at least one-third consists of things for which he has no heart, he is a loser instead of a gainer. : . The “cares of this world” which choke the seed quite as much as the “deceitfulness of riches” all cluster around the things upon which the heart’s affec- tions have been set. Inasmuch as this is the natural man’s natural atti- tude toward the things of this world, and nothing that belongs to the natural can have any relation to the supernatural for which the Man is destined, the Spirit’s constant. effort is to set our affections upon things above and break us away from the things on the earth. This is largely the meaning of the inexplicable providences which meet the believer on his way, and over which he sometimes complains and asks “why” with tears of distrust in his eyes, forgetting that “He doeth all things well” and that “all things work to- gether for good to them that love the Lord.” But the key to the whole process of “the renewing of the Holy Spirit” lies in the kind of experience through which the Holy Spirit guides the believer, and the manner in which it is done. “He shall guide you into all the truth.” He shall not push, nor force, nor even lead as with a halter, but He shall guide, as though one at a distance pointed out the way with a OF SAVING FAITH 109 wave of the hand or, even, in the language of the Psalm, “with mine eye.” This method of introducing us “into all the truth” is so easily ignored that it can be made effective only by the practice, on the believer’s part, of implicit obe- dience to the Spirit. Obedience is, first, last and all the time, the largest word in the Christian’s experience. It is worthy of note in passing that the effect of natural or worldly experience upon the human spirit is to develop diversity of attitude, while the effect of a Spirit-directed experience is exactly the reverse. “Unity of spirit” is an object sought to be attained by our Heavenly Preceptor. There is no excuse whatever for the diversity of creeds and denominations which exist among the children of God. They must be griev- ous to the Holy Spirit. But experience is a thing of action—of doing some- thing. Therefore the Holy Spirit who would educate us into an entire change of attitude toward all our environment, sets before us things to be done in our Christian life, the doing of which shall result in such a change. For instance: the believer’s apprehension of the fa- therly love of God is dependent upon his genuine yielding in trust to the keeping of that love and his ability to thus trust is in proportion to his obedience to the dictates of the Spirit. Disobedience is followed promptly by a loss of heart- confidence toward the Father, and without this heart- confidence trust is impossible. 110 THE PSYCHOLOGY This law holds good throughout the whole process of “Renewing of the Holy Spirit.” The child of God must learn to obey before he can move into the holy attitude toward God, toward men and toward things. “And also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him” (Acts 5: 32). CHAPTER XII THE RENEWING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (CoNTINUED) The Believer’s Word Ye shall be witnesses unto me. Acts 1:8. If the child of God came into his heavenly life as devoid of attitude as the child of earthly parents comes into his natural life, the process of education in Divine things would be a comparatively simple one, but he does not. He comes into the spiritual world with the natural attitude almost unchanged. ‘True, the “old things” of his former cringing furtiveness have all passed away. As between him and God the old burden “Has rolled away, happy day!” but the Renewing of the Holy Spirit contemplates more than this; no less than a new attitude toward God, toward men and to- ward things. The agency by which this is to be accomplished is what is commonly known as “Christian Experience” and, in the Word, as the Christian’s “Walk.” There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. —Romans 8: 1. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. —Gal, 5: 16. This experience is conducted along three distinct lines: the Christian’s Word, his Works and his Wor- 111 8 112 THE PSYCHOLOGY ship. Along these three parallel paths Christian Ex- perience moves, and the believer who is indifferent to, or undeveloped in, any one of them is sure to be a lop- sided Christian. His word is the testimony or word of mouth which the Spirit gives him to speak for his Saviour. It is the spirit’s spheré of activity. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Je- rusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the utter- most part of the earth. —Acts 1:8. His work is the service of body which the Spirit prompts him to render as “unto the Lord.” Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work. —2 Thess. 2: 16, 17. His worship is his exercise in the emotional realm of the soul by which the Spirit brings him nearer to the knowledge of the Father and an understanding of the Divine Fatherhood. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worship- pers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. —John 4: 23. All this is the direct work of the Holy Spirit operat- ing through the faithful obedience of the believer. We will discuss these three aspects of Christian ex- perience ad seriatim, beginning with the believer’s word of testimony—that which the Spirit gives him to say. OF SAVING FAITH heat iG “Ye shall be witnesses unto me.” The Christian’s word of mouth is the Holy Spirit’s ordained and ac- cepted medium of communication with men, whether it be for salvation by conviction of sin, or for edifica- tion, or consolation. Just as surely as language, whether written or spoken, is the medium by which the natural spirit manifests itself, so surely has God ordained that the spoken (or written) word shall serve this purpose for the Holy Spirit. : The part which the testimony of the Christian Wit- ness plays in his relation to the world about him is of a degree of importance very little understood by the Church, and even less appreciated. A doctrine has gained footing among her teachings which has no other warrant than the utterances of cer- tain generally accepted religious philosophers and the misinterpretation of a few irrelevant texts, to the effect that the believer’s doings—his works—constitute the most effective testimony he can give the sinner to con- vince him of his sins and the sufficiency of the atone- ment of Jesus Christ to save him from them. The doc- trine is erroneous and is responsible for a large part of the weakness and inadequacy of the so-called Chris- tian Church today. Young people are taught that all their Lord requires of them is a morally commendable life, a sort of righteous negativeness; and that sinners, beholding their exemplary characters, will be convicted of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. The truth is the believer’s works are not intended 114 THE PSYCHOLOGY for the sinner’s conviction or conversion. ‘True, they have a bearing upon the value of his spoken word; they render it forceful in proportion as they are con- sistent with his professions. But such consistency is not absolutely necessary to the effectiveness of the testimony. Men have been saved by the half-meant trifling taunt of a far from consistent professor; for the taunt may be the truth, and all the Spirit needs for His work is the Truth. The new man is born of truth and the Spirit. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water. and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. —John 3:5. The most serviceable effect on the unbeliever of the believer’s works, if consistent with a true testimony, is rather to divest the skeptic of his most cherished weapon of defense—the shortcomings of Christian people. But so far are they from serving the purpose in these days popularly assigned to them that they are not even recognizable as good works unless illumined by the shining light of Christian testimony. That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. —Phil. 2:15, 16. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. —Mat. 5:16. It is the believer’s word either spoken or written, OF SAVING FAITH 115 preferably the former, which is meant for the use of the Spirit in dealing with the unsaved, rather than the believer’s works, for the following reasons among others : I. The quality of an act is determined by its motive. The motive is never with certainty readable in the act. For this reason the Christian’s works are not adapted to carry conviction of sin to the unbeliever, and are not the ordained medium of the Holy Spirit in the conversion of the unsaved. The good works of the believer are no better, as such, than the good works of the unbeliever. What can the child of God ‘do which the child of Evil cannot—does not—do quite as well or even better? How can the bystander value one more highly than the other? And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became ser- pents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. —Ex. 7: 10-12. II. The significance of a really good act may be en- tirely misapprehended or overlooked. How often have we found our best deeds misconstrued because some- thing attending the circumstances lent them an untrue color? III. Goodness in a believer without a testimony is 116 THE PSYCHOLOGY not convicting to the unbeliever, for goodness zithout Christ is the dream of the moralist and the Pharisee. You can be as good as you please, if you will keep quiet about Jesus Christ, and the World will not feel at all uncomfortable in your presence, in fact, will ostentatiously patronize you and take a great deal of credit to itself for so doing. Therefore, while the works of the believer may be misunderstood or mis- construed and thus prove fruitless as a testimony “unto” Jesus Christ, the intent and purpose of a true testimony is never misunderstood by the unbeliever. The Spirit takes care of this; and the Master Work- man can do very good work with a very poor tool. So true is this that many a time a mere word from a child of God has been used of the Spirit to lead a soul to repentance, when years of Christlike living have achieved nothing more than a good report for the believer. The following actual occurrence may serve to illus- trate this point: A young man of “good moral character” was an oc- casional attendant upon the services of the Baptist church in his village. There were two men prominent in that church, with one of whom he was very well acquainted. In fact he had known him as a friend for quite a number of years and had always been im- pressed by the thought that, if ever there was a Chris- tian man this friend was one. He honored him for his conscientious, consistent, Christian character. The other was a man of whom he knew very little except OF SAVING FAITH 117 that he seemed always to have a great deal to say in the prayer meeting. A series of revival meetings were held in that vil- lage in the Baptist church, and Robert occasionally at- tended, as did most of the other young men of the town, as a sort of concession to respectability. One evening as the meeting broke up and the people were crowding out of the building, Robert stood at the exit as his talkative acquaintance was passing out. The latter turned to him, and with a kindly hand upon his shoulder, said, “Robert, is it not time you gave your heart to the Lord?” Said Robert, telling me the story, “It never fazed me’’—We are not responsible for what the Spirit does with the word we speak, we are responsible only for the speaking. At that moment his long-time friend stepped up and said, “Do not be troubled about Robert, I am praying for him.” “When I heard that,” said Robert, “I knew what I had to do.” Years of intimate acquaintance with, and sincere regard for, this conscientious and consistent Christian had made no further impression on the boy’s mind than that of respect and admiration. But when the word came “I am praying for him,” the Spirit wrought conviction. He knew what he had to do, and he did it. Furthermore, while the truth of God in testimony thus serves as the vehicle by which the Spirit reaches the heart and mind of the unsaved, its effect upon the 118 THE PSYCHOLOGY one who speaks it is not lost. The act of speaking, just like any other act of obedience, has its reflex operation. The more frequently the believer lends himself as the Spirit’s mouthpiece, the easier testimony becomes and the more Christlike becomes his “con- versation.” With it, too, comes a keener sense of the Spirit’s promptings to testimony. He comes to know better when to speak and when to forbear. In short he becomes better acquainted with the Spirit’s methods and the “still small voice.” In fact it may be said that the believer’s obedience in testimony is the means by which he comes to “know” the Spirit himself. “And this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ” (R. V. John 17:3). And, finally, the Gospel (literally God’s spell, or message) is a thing of words, not deeds. It is prob- ably true that one will not find a single instance in the Word where anyone is said to have been “filled with the Holy Ghost” that it is not immediately stated “he opened his mouth and said,” or the context will record his uttered words. If half the world were believers and never said so, the other half would never be saved by the convicting power of what they did. But if half the world were believers and ‘did not fail to be true to their obligation in the matter of their testimony, the other half, with all the powers of hell back of them, could not resist the onslaught. CHAPTER XIII THE RENEWING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (CONTINUED) The Believer’s Works Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. Matthew 7: 24. HE, place and purpose of works as a part of the Christian’s experience is not, primarily, the bring- ing of others to Christ, as already pointed out, but to serve a purpose of God for the believer himself. It is the physical activities of man that make him what he is. It is his doings that mold his character. The influence of the body’s actions upon the body is so well understood that it is trite to say that a man is the creature of his calling. The mason, the shoe- maker, the lawyer, or the physician advertise their place in the workaday world to those who are skilled in such matters, by the poise of the head, the expres- sion of the face, the hang of the elbow or the curve of the back. But even more unmistakably by their peculiarities of spirit are they betrayed. The physician has the physician’s viewpoint for everything, and the shoemaker sees the world through the hole in his last. Men may think high thoughts and dream great dreams and make noble resolves; but the man who 119 120 THE PSYCHOLOGY thinks, or dreams, or resolves, and acts not, never be- comes the man of his aspirations. This is the meaning of those closing words of the sermon on the mount— part of which are quoted above. Jesus means to say that all the difference between magnificent success and deplorable failure in the great work of eternal char- acter-building lies-in the doing. He means that action is the eternal fixative of every good thought and pur- pose, without which they are as mere flotsam in the swirl of life. That is to say, faith is a trinity, involving Man’s threefold being. The impulse of the soul, directed by the controlling spirit, finds expression through the act of the body. Anything short of this entirety is not faith; or, speaking more Scripturally, is a “dead” faith. Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? —Jas. 2:17, 20. It is true in temporal matters as well as in spir- itual, that the act is the matrix of character. It is not the writers of dramas who furnish, as a class, the greatest number of inmates of insane asylums; it is the actors. It is the performer of music, rather than the composer, who is molded by the motif. A review, comparatively recent, of the work of Mr. Levenstein, a European student of sociology, makes this statement: “A most remarkable discovery made by Mr. Leven- stein was the influence exercised upon weavers by the OF SAVING FAITH 121 rhythmical movements of their looms. These seemed to really sway the brains of the weavers, so that their thoughts tended to shape themselves metrically. It was found that most of their thinking was imaginative rather than speculative; and not less than eight hun- dred and seventeen poems (out of a total of 5,040 answers elicited by Mr. Levenstein to his inquiries actually distributed among iron-workers, miners and weavers) were submitted by members of this group.” In short the doing, although by machinery, of. oft-re- peated rhythmical acts produced a rhythmical mind— or spirit, or way of looking at things. “In the course of a paper on the sacredness of our physical bodies in The Temple, Paul Tyner says: ‘Every experience, every impulse, every emotion, leaves a physical record and tendency in the brain and nerv- ous system as a whole—that is to say, in the man. The different parts, or areas, of the brain are thus de- veloped, and what was potential becomes real. Each part, once made alive by use, and made to work in harmony with all the other parts, continues to act and react automatically upon the slightest stimulation. Herein is a fact which points to enormous possibilities for increased economy and effectiveness in education; a fact that demands serious consideration.’ “This simply says that the oftener you do a thing the easier it is to do it; and the law of cause and effect thus expressed is more potent in the domain of Chris- tian experience than anywhere else,’’ (1.e., in the psy- chology of Saving Faith). 122 THE PSYCHOLOGY It is the Christlike deed that makes the believer Christlike. The rich young man’s need, in order that he might be “perfect,” was an experience of Christ- like doings, and his privilege was that he might share them with the very Christ Himself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. —Mat. 19:20, 21. It is true that there are Christlike men, using the term in the sense of goodness, its broadest and lowest sense, who have been made so by their humanitarian, unselfish lives and self-sacrificing deeds, who, never- theless, are Christless. The young nobleman above referred to was Christlike in the degree in which he could with apparent truth say of the commandments, “all these have I kept from my youth,” but he went away greatly sorrowing. Many a magnificent exhibition of self-sacrifice which has thrilled our very souls at the hearing, has been performed by men in whom there was no Christ hfe and who were absolutely “without God and with- out hope in the world”; for Christlikeness in spirit is not the first work of saving Grace, but the second; and if it be not built upon the “foundation laid” the Christ life, bestowed by the Father as the gift of Grace, it is absolutely unavailing and insignificant. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. OF SAVING FAITH 123 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. —1 Cor, 3: 11-15. No man will ever be saved because he is good. The believer’s Christlike deed is that which “works out” his salvation; 1.e., develops the spirit of the Christ already born in him. It is for this reason that the Holy Spirit, the believer’s mentor, gives him some- thing to do. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. —Phil. 2:12, 13. When will the church learn that the “great commis- sion” is not God’s forlorn hope, but His graving tool, without which He could, doubtless, give the Gospel to the world much better and more speedily than He is doing now, but without which He could not, per- haps, engrave upon the character of His beloved Church—as the Church—the heavenly obedience of the First Missionary. It should be noted here that the Church, as such, has but one collective obligation; that involved in the “sreat commission.” Individually every child of God 124 THE PSYCHOLOGY has his earthly path marked out for him, and no two travel exactly the same path, because the spiritual needs of no two are exactly alike. But the Church, as a whole, needs but one charge for its discipline in collective experience and the “go ye” of its Lord is perfectly adapted to that need. The purpose of ‘Works, then, is Christlikeness in the child of God by the efficacy of action to mold spirit. But what is the purpose of Christlikeness? Why is it necessary that the believer should become Christlike ? Although the Law, having served its purpose, is now a thing of the previous dispensation and the “law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus” has taken its place in God’s economy, so far as the Church is concerned, the foundation upon which the Law stood has never been abrogated. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. —Mat. 22: 37-40. The greatest of all the commandments is as binding today as it ever was, with the fundamental difference between the past dispensation and the present that, in the past, it was impossible to obey, while in this it ds possible, made so by the spirit-given experience of Grace entirely changing the character of the Man. Christlikeness is the key to Christ-knowledge. To OF SAVING FAITH 125 know Christ that which is primarily necessary for the believer is that he shall do Christ; or, in other words, shall share his experience. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. —Mark 10: 21. We have already tried to show that experience is the matrix in which the spirit takes its form. We understand men, or “know” them, in the degree in which we have shared their experience. But still another “Why?” Why know Jesus Christ? Because to know Him is to love Him and to love Him is to fulfill the greatest of all the commandments and meets the ultimate requirements of Him who is at once the God of love and the Righteous Judge. It is not faith, nor righteousness, nor zeal, nor patience, nor any of a host of other Christlike qualities that God wants most from His children, it is this: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy mind and with all thy soul and with all thy strength.” And this because the very essence of the Divine Being, the law that unifies Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is Love, and love calls for return in kind. Truly ‘many that are last shall be first” and by the same token, many that are first shall be last. While the Word of Testimony is given to the be- liever primarily for the Spirit’s use with the unsaved and, secondarily, to teach him the Holy Spirit’s 126 THE PSYCHOLOGY methods and personality, the believer’s works are given him that, thereby entering into the experience of his Lord he may partake of His likeness and, becoming like Him may better know and understand Him and, knowing Him, learn to love Him. CHAPTER XIV THE RENEWING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (CONTINUED ) The Believer’s Worship God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4: 24. For a similar reason, in respect of the Father, wor- ship is made a part of Christian experience. Worship is a soul-movement toward God. Its realm is the emotions. Its accepted exercise is prayer. Prayer is, perhaps, the nearest to perfection in worship, for prayer “in spirit and in truth” involves an out-moving of soul toward God. Its object is to bring the believer to know the Father, just as witnessing in the Spirit brings him into knowledge of the Spirit and works into knowledge of the Son. Any procedure, therefore, by which we properly give expression toward God of our sense of dependence upon and submission to Him in all things, has in it the element of worship. But a prostration of body before God, thus express- ing our relation of dependence upon Him, no matter how unfeigned, would not be all of worship, for wor- ship must be “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23); that is to say, there must be a spiritual act involved and it must be true; i.e., heartfelt. The spirit’s relation to the act of worship is the at- 127 9 128 THE PSYCHOLOGY titude of communion—literally, joint-ownership—a taking from Him, spiritually, that for which we de- pend upon Him. If we come to Him “in whom we live and move and have our being” to express to Him our dependence upon Him, and then neglect to accept as from His hand that for which we depend, the worship is not “in spirit and in truth.” — Communion is always accomplished through the medium of speech, or its equivalent. There is no better channel for the exercise of spiritual joint-ownership. When we commune with men, we speak with them. We exchange thoughts. It is just so in communion with the Father. To talk with another we must have a common plane of understanding upon which to meet; for if one can- not make himself understood he cannot talk with another. But can we hope to meet God on the plane of His understanding? What, then, shall be the level on which God and His creature, Man, shall commune? There is one thing that everybody can talk about. The most ignorant as well as the most erudite of men can talk about what he wants. ‘This is the level of our understanding and God condescends to meet us there and establishes prayer, the very essence of worship, upon a plane not above the reach of the lowliest. “Ask and ye shall receive.” “Ask that your joy may be full.” That true prayer is true worship is proved by the fact that soul-satisfaction is the result. How beauti- OF SAVING FAITH 129 fully this is suggested by the words of the forty-second Psalm: “As panteth the hart after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.” One of the great needs of the child of God is to realize that God’s attitude toward him is that of fa- ther-love; that “He withholdeth no good thing from them that walk uprightly.” That kind and degree of trust in the believer which rests upon God’s love, with the assurance that He desires the happiness of His child, is the best and most acceptable. This is im- possible for the natural man who always feels toward God that He is a vengeful creditor, from whom he may look for only exactions and retaliations: and it is not easy for the believer to rid himself of this natu- ral feeling completely. But an experience of humble desires gratified, of soul-longings appeased through answers to prayer, works in him a knowledge of the Father’s love which is absolutely essential to his peace of mind in dealing with the problems of human life. By worship, whose highest exercise is prayer, we come to know, through the experience of asking and receiving, the love of the Father. The sum-total of these three lines of experience is such a knowledge of Father, Son and Spirit that the old, natural attitude gives place to the new, the true and the Christlike. I beseeech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which ts your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed 130 THE PSYCHOLOGY by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. —Romans 12:1, 2. Instead of hating God, the believer learns to love God. Instead of merely tolerating his neighbor, he learns to love him as himself. Instead of loving things, he learns to fix his affections not upon the things on the earth but upon the things in heaven where Christ is. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. —Col. 3: 1-3. How Divine the skill with which this is all por- trayed in the so-called parable of the “prodigal son.” The one thing wrong with that young man was wrongness of spirit: wrong toward his father, wrong toward the rest of the household, wrong toward things. The one thing that is accomplished in him by his es#- perience was rightness of spirit: right toward his fa- ther, right toward the rest of the household, even to the meanest of the servants, for he is willing to take his place among them, and right toward things, for in so being willing he relinquished all thought of anything more than a bare living. This is a parable of the second work of Grace, the Renewing of the Holy Spirit. It has nothing to do with the unsaved—it starts with sonship. But not OF SAVING FAITH 131 with sonship in spirit; and the whole intent of the parable is to show what sonship in spirit is and how it is brought about—by experience. The result of the boy’s experience is that he sees things as his father sees them; and this it is to be possessed of the Holy Spirit in His second aspect—as the Spirit of Truth. The elder brother provides the climax of the story. His spirit: is really the same as that of the younger when he went away—even worse. He has had no ex- perience of suffering to bring him face to face with his own mean self. He fills the sombre background of the picture and stands for a colossal truth in Chris- tian experience; viz., that it is possible to be a son in fact but not in spirit; and that such a son cannot but grieve the Father Heart. (Luke 15.) But we must not dismiss this triunity without tak- ing into consideration the provision God has made for the possible shortcoming of the operation of spirit renewal. Certain it is that very many regenerate believers pass out of this world into the next very little, if any, changed in spirit, still possessed by world-love and far from possessing God’s way of looking at things. In many ways the “renewing of the Holy Spirit” in the believer may be frustrated. Granted that a man is “born again,” but that the Holy Spirit’s gentle guidings are ignored by him, the world’s offerings being so attractive that separation from them fails of accomplishment, the triunity of Salvation cannot be made complete. He accepts the 132 THE PSYCHOLOGY new life by the Grace of God, but ignorantly or wil- fully rejects the new Spirit—“the mind which was in Christ Jesus.” This man is not what God calls saved, and yet he is certainly not lost, for he has fulfilled the simple requirements of regenerating faith. What is to be done with him? The “new creature’—the in- born Christ—cannot be banished “from the presence of the Lord” neither can “the friendship of the world” which is “enmity with God” be permitted to come into the Divine Presence. But “shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” The Church of Christ must undergo a judgment. It is not in respect of sin, there are no books opened; it is to test the character-struc- ture which the believer has erected upon the one and only foundation, the Christ-in-him bestowed as the Gift of Grace. In this, the judgment of fire, every vestige of naturalness or un-Christlikeness of spirit shall be ‘destroyed, the “wood, hay and stubble” of worldliness consumed, leaving the purged believer, saved “‘yet so as by fire” to enter the Eternal Condition with his Spirit-lessons unlearned, his Christ-character unformed. (1 Cor. 3:15.) We have no clear revelation of the destiny of that soul. The Word does not deal much with the develop- ments of the eternal condition. We know that there are those who shall be called “least in the Kingdom of Heaven” and those that shall be called “great in the Kingdom of Heaven.” —— i es CHAPTER XV REHABILITATION The Third Work of Grace In the Believer For we know that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are of this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. 2 Corinthians 5: 1-4. HE clothing-upon of the Divine Soul and Spirit with the “house not made with hands” is the third work of Grace in the believer, and absolutely neces- sary to the consummation of a salvation which shall conform the child of God to the image of his Elder Brother, for He who rose from the grave and ascended into heaven inhabited such a body at that time, and there is not the slightest warrant for supposition that He ever relinquished it. In fact the manifest teaching of the word is that He did not. 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. —Romans 8: 29. 133 134 THE PSYCHOLOGY Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. —Acts 1:11. This third work of Grace—this ‘“‘uttermost salva- tion” —involves the regeneration or renewing of the body. The specific act which accomplishes rehabilita- tion for those who “sleep in Jesus” is known as the “First Resurrection,’ and the miracle which changes the bodies of those “which are alive and remain” at that time and makes them to be “like unto his glorious body” occurs immediately after the first resurrection (“for the dead in Christ shall rise first”), when those who have risen and those who have been changed shall together be “caught up” in what is known as “the Rap- ture of the Church.” Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrec- tion: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. —Rev. 20: 6. For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. —Phil. 3:20, 21. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: And the dead in Christ shall rise first: OF SAVING FAITH 135 Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up to- gether with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. —1 Thess. 4: 15-18. The body, sown in the corruption of death, shall in due season rise in new form, and yet be unmistakably the same. The grain of wheat that decays in the earth, is the same being when it rises to the light and warmth of a new existence, although its form is not the same. The “bare grain” is the natural body, while the new plant is the spiritual body—‘“For there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body.” Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in cor- ruption, it is raised in incorruption: 136 THE PSYCHOLOGY It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. —l1 Cor. 15: 36-44. The body’s use or purpose in this natural life differs little if any from its uses in the Life to come except, perhaps, that it is more restricted. Here it serves as the engine of the Ego. It is the machinery which the Ego puts into operation to accomplish its will. As previously stated, the will is the prerogative of the Ego alone. It is not an attribute of either spirit, soul or body, but of their sum-total—I, myself. The offices of Faith, at once the simplest and most mysterious of the active elements in the salvation process, are sometimes misapprehended, and truth has suffered somewhat from this fact. Faith does not save. “By Grace are ye saved through faith.” . For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. —Eph. 2:8. Faith is the door through which ineffable Grace enters. If it were permissible to venture another defi- nition of faith it would be: Faith is Ego’s “I will!” It is the spark which fires the body into action. It was John G. Wooley who launched one of his great prohibition speeches with the statement, “Faith is a trinity.” The mind conceives the thought, the soul’s emotion impels, the body moves to accomplishment. OF SAVING FAITH 137 Without the body is no action; without action faith is dead. There are plenty of people who believe enough to be saved who are not saved and never will be unless “T will!’ opens the door to Grace. Without the body the accomplishment of any desire or purpose of the will is impossible. The saved soul would be, without the saved body, throughout all the ages an impotent entity. Filled with all the Divine impulses of love, mercy and truth, it would be abso- lutely unable to perform any act of love, mercy and truth; and God’s Salvation, in that degree, would be incomplete in it. Those shades of departed friends who tip tables, play mandolins and delightfully mystify supernatu- rally wise “psychic researchers” are but base imper- sonations by a class of beings, the demons, who, in a preternatural relation to the world of matter in which we live are capable of temporarily assuming embodi- ment of some kind for the exercise of force within certain limits, but departed human beings, although they exist as a duo-unity (soul and spirit, only) are not possessed of bodies of any kind, and are utterly unable to produce any physical effect, no matter how much they might desire to do so; for the spiritual body is not received until the still future resurrection. So important is the reémbodiment of the child of God as a part of the Plan of Salvation, that Jesus said concerning His revelation of the existence of the spir- itual body or soul-mansion, that which He never said 138 THE PSYCHOLOGY of any other of His teachings: “If it were not so I would have told you.” Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. —John 14: 1-3. For we know that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. 2) Corea ei, So necessary is this spiritual body to the completion of God’s purpose to restore Man to the full glory which was his in the First Adam, that Jesus four times affirms His purpose, in that wonderful sixth chapter of John, to reclaim the precious thing from the dust to which it has returned. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlast- ing life: and I will raise him up at the last day. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. —John 6: 39, 40, 44, 54. The eternal state of the saved is never pictured to us as a condition of impotent existence. On the con- OF SAVING FAITH 139 » trary, the visions we have of the supernatural are al- ways pulsing with power and effectiveness. Only of God may it be said that he can perform His will without the agency of matter in some form: and that statement, to be true, might have to be made with some qualification, for we find, on contemplation of the Incarnate Word that, “without him [Christ] was not anything made that was made.” If God said “Light!” there may have been a vocal organ with which to say it. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. —John 1:3. This spiritual habitation, also likened to a garment because it is not born of parent nor grown from the elements, but “put on,” becomes the dead believer’s by the miracle of the resurrection, and the living be- liever’s by a miracle, the nature of which is suggested only once—“We shall be changed.” Both processes result in the same “body like unto his glorious body.” The “mortal puts on immortality,” the ‘“corruptible puts on incorruption.” For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. —2 Cor. 15:53, 54. The spiritual body has three striking characteristics. I. It is “a house eternal in the heavens.” II. It is im- mortal. III. It is incorruptible. 140 THE PSYCHOLOGY I. It shall exist forever. Not only shall it exist forever, but it shall so exist in perfect correspondence with its perfect environment—The Life. A body might exist forever; i.e., be “eternal,” just as the mumified body of Pharaoh has existed for so great a length of time that it seems almost an eternity com- pared with the life of man, and yet be a lifeless body— a dead thing. But this body cannot lose its life-rela- tion to its environment any more than it can cease to exist as a body. It shall be immortal—un-die-able. Furthermore, while it cannot cease to exist nor cease to live, neither can it be injured, defiled, nor incapaci- tated in any way. It shall be “incorruptible.” Through- out the ages of ages it shall continue in the full blaze of its Godlike glory and power, absolutely superior to all limitations. So far as we know there is but one being-inhabited globe in space; but there is no reason to suppose that there may not be millions of globes just as habitable, or more so, than ours, all of which may, at some time, be teeming with physically perfect, sorrowless, sinless, deathless beings, kept sinless, sor- rowless and deathless by the loving guidance and su- preme power of Jesus Christ, administered by those than whom no other beings in the universe, by their experience, could be better fitted to serve in that ca- pacity—the one-time despised Church of Christ. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. . —Romans 8:17. Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the OF SAVING FAITH 141 poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?—James 2: 5. It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with Aum: If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: —2 Tim. 2:11, 12. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it: and his servants shall serve him. And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. —Rev. 22: 3-5. Throughout the ages the “co-heirs with Christ,” the first begotten, shall, under Him, exercise supreme ad- ministrative powers in all the universe. The super- natural body, as the engine of the supernatural will, is as absolutely necessary to such a destiny as it is to a heavenly existence possessed of no element of limita- tion. But the question may well be asked: “Shall all be- lievers in the Deity of Jesus Christ attain to this glori- ous consummation?” The answer is: apparently not. There was something for which Paul strove; for which he kept his body under; for which he hoped without the assurance of faith. It was that he might be approved. (See 1 Cor. 9:27, in which the word “castaway” is, literally, “one disapproved.’’) It is quite possible that those who are saved only to the extent of having received the gift of the Divine 142 THE PSYCHOLOGY Zoé—and by far the larger number of professing Christians may be in this class—will occupy a place lower, as to privilege and authority, than those who have yielded all in obedient devotion and have fol- lowed Him “in the regeneration”; for certain it is that nine lepers were as perfectly cleansed (type of the new birth) as the tenth, and equally certain that they were, in some sense, unsatisfactory to their Saviour. Besides which there are least and greatest in the King- dom of Heaven. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. —Luke 17:17, 18. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least com- mandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of heaven. —Mat. 5:19. And again, Heaven is itself at least triune. I knew a man in Christ about fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I can- not tell: God knoweth;) such a one caught up to the third heaven. —2 Cor. 12:2. CHAPTER XVI THE EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT The Believer’s Present Heaven HE three works of Grace which, when consum- mated, accomplish “uttermost salvation” in the child of God, are all performed in the realms of faith. The believer becomes a new creature in Christ-Life when he accepts by faith God’s statement concerning His Son and throws himself upon the righteousness and justice of God for salvation from his sins. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. —1 John 1:9. But his new birth is a mystery. He may not know, himself, just when it occurs. After it has occurred he must base his assurances of regeneration upon the word of the Son of God that “whosoever heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlast- ing life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life,” and like passages. When, obediently following his Master, by faith he learns his lessons of sanctification, and finds himself living in the Spirit of Truth, with a “conscience void of offense,” he still must needs turn for his assurances to the written Word. As for that day when the “dead in Christ shall rise 143 10 144 THE PSYCHOLOGY first,’ when “this mortal shall put on immortality,” concerning his part in the glorious miracle, he must still depend upon the “thus saith the Lord.” In all the vicissitudes of Christian experience and throughout his earth life as a son of God he would have no anchor to his soul save the unaided and, at best, unstable grasp of his memory upon the reported words of Jesus and the inspired revelation of the en- tirety of the Word of God, were it not for the loving provision made by the Father for His constant assist- ance and comfort in the concrete actualities of the “Earnest of the Spirit.” Without the earnest of the Spirit the Church, like the Israelites of old, would be continually lapsing into forgetfulness and faithlessness, and for the same reason; viz., the absence of the spir- itually concrete in their lives. And it might further be said that the great “falling away first” with which we are already confronted in the history of the Church, has arisen from the fact that the earnest of the Spirit has not been availed of in the practice of the average professor. Long before the period during which Paul wrote his epistles there existed in some parts of the eastern world a curious custom, perhaps half law, which gave the privilege to a man purchasing a piece of land, to take a handful of it away with him as a sample of the property which he had purchased. This handful was called “the earnest.” It not only served as a sample, but also, in some sense, as proof of the trans- action. Oe ee Dede hea he OF SAVING FAITH 145 The salient thing about it was that, assured of the fact that he had actually acquired the land, all he had to do was to take the sample. Note the “I will” of faith. The earnest of the Spirit is mentioned but three times in the New Testament; and it is a significant fact that each time it is mentioned it is in more or less direct relation to one of the three works of Grace with which we have been dealing in our consideration of the Salvation Triunity. The first mention of the earnest of the Spirit is found in 2 Corinthians first chapter and twenty-second verse, the twenty-first and twenty-second verses being, apparently, a reversion to the thought of the twelfth verse, that which intervenes being in the nature of one of those interpolations or parentheses so frequently found in Paul’s writings. If, then, the twenty-first and twenty-second verses are thus to be considered, the earnest of the Spirit referred to in the twenty-sec- ond is related to the “rejoicing” of the twelfth verse. For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly to youward. Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. —z2 Cor. 1, 12, 21, 22. We find this rejoicing to be the result of a con- sciousness on Paul’s part, realized by the testimony of his conscience, that his “conversation” (his daily life) 146 THE PSYCHOLOGY not only in respect of the Corinthians, but of the whole world, was had in simplicity and godly sincerity and that, “by the grace of God” and not in “fleshly wisdom.” In other words, that his dealings with the Corinthians were godly, sincere and simple, and there- fore acceptable to God. As a result of this godliness of life, his conscience permits him to rejoice. It is in connection with this fact that he mentions in the pas- sage cited the sealing and the gift of the “earnest of the spirit in our hearts.” Much confusion seems to exist in the minds of many Christians as to the experience spoken of as the “‘sec- ond blessing’; the testimony of those so speaking identifying the “second blessing” with holiness, and holiness with sanctification. No little harm seems to have resulted from this confusion of terms. The Greek word “hagios’ has two renderings in the English of the Word; viz., “sanctification” and “holi- ness.” But these two are not in all cases synonymous any more than sititng and setting are the same in sense. When the believer has become identified with Christ Jesus in His Cross-work and has entered the Kingdom of God by its only door—the new birth—God sets him apart as in Christ, to be dealt with as a child would be dealt with by his father, thereby to be fitted for the “adoption” to which, because of His foreknowledge, He foreordained him. This is sanctification—a setting apart. Because Christ is holy and the believer is, in God’s thought, in Christ, the believer also is holy. In this the believer is passive. God acts upon him and in him. i i i te re OF SAVING FAITH 147 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemp- tion: —1 Cor. 1:30. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. —Phil. 2:12, 13. But when, through faith and in sincere devotion to his Lord and Master, the believer turns his back on the things of the flesh, fixing his affections upon the heavenly things, and walks according to the Spirit, living in all truth and godliness the Christ life with a “conscience void of offense,” this is holiness—a sitting apart. In this the believer is active. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, per- fecting holiness in the fear of God. —2 Cor. 7:1. And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holi- ness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holi- ness. —1 Thess, 12: 13, 4:7. Neither the passive setting apart of the believer by God for His own purposes in Christ, nor the active sitting apart of the believer in the Christian Walk, is the “second blessing” so-called, the main characteristic of which is happiness and peace of mind: but the sec- ond blessing is the result of a consciousness on the 148 THE PSYCHOLOGY part of the believer that he is right with God, a sort of spiritual concretion. An “experience” as given by a professor of the sec- ond blessing is something like this: At a certain “holiness meeting,” after being for a greater or less time under conviction of need, and after some resist- ance to the promptings of the Spirit, he finally went forward and knelt in the straw. There he besought God for the complete work of the Spirit in the purify- ing of his heart and life. After more or less time thus spent in prayerful waiting upon the Holy Spirit, suddenly the Spirit came with an indescribable sense of peace and joy and filled his heart. This coming he calls the “second blessing,” and identifies it with holiness. The error consists in mistaking this sense of peace and joy, realized upon his knees “in the straw,” for holiness and so designating it. There is no holiness apart from obedience to the Holy Spirit. There is no peace or joy apart from obedience to the Holy Spirit. The prodigal did not receive the spirit of obedience at the moment of his joyful reception by his father, but away back there in the hog pasture, where, coming to himself, he said, “I will arise and go to my father.” The holiness began back there in the rear pew where the surrender was made. The peace and joy were the effect, vouchsafed by the Holy Spirit, of that sur- render; a foretaste—sample—“earnest” of that joy unutterable which shall be ours when we shall be in OF SAVING FAITH 149 perfect submission to our Lord and Master in the Glory. The “second blessing” is neither holiness nor sanc- tification. It is the earnest of the Spirit for holiness as described by Paul in the passage cited. So long as the believer’s spirit is that of obedience, the joy remains. The moment his spirit ceases to be that of obedience the joy—the “earnest” departs. By professors of this experience this is known as “losing the blessing.” The loving Architect of our salvation “knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we are but dust.” He knows the devil’s superhuman adroitness and He knows that though we might have faith to move mountains, nevertheless we need an abiding conviction of the con- crete realities of faith to which we can cling in the moment of supreme conflict. This He has given us in the foretaste of what it is to be perfectly possessed by the spirit of obedience, “the mind which was in Christ Jesus.” The second reference to the earnest of the Spirit (speaking ad seriatim) is found in Second Corinthians, the fifth chapter. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we should be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. 150 | THE PSYCHOLOGY Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. —2 Cor. 5:1, 2, 4, 5. Paul is writing about the Spiritual Body. Here he calls it the “house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” He speaks of putting it on as a man puts on clothing and refers to the resurrection and the parousia as the time when “mortality shall be swallowed up of life,” concluding his rhapsody with the statement, “Now he that hath wrought us for the self- same thing is God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit’ What should we surmise would be a foretaste or earnest of the Spiritual Body? We have already considered the three prominent character- istics of that body, and we have found them, summed up, to constitute absolute superiority to all aeanhi forces. Neither time, death, decay, nor contamination in any form can affect that wonderful structure. The earnest or foretaste of such a body would seem, necessarily, to be a natural body in some degree, at least, superior to the limitations of the earth life; a body which, indwelt by the Holy Spirit of Life, shall by that Spirit be lifted above the level of its infir- mities. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit which dwelleth in you. —Romans 8: 11. Those who ridicule or question the doctrine of “Divine Healing” (not Christian Science even in the . OF SAVING FAITH 151 most remote sense of the term) must reckon with the Scripture I here cite. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. —Jas. 5:14, 15. The place of Divine Healing in the Christian ex- perience is as unmistakable as that of the witness of the Spirit with his spirit that he is born of God, or the happiness of a conscience void of offense. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: —Romans 8:15, 16: Divine Healing is the earnest of the Spirit for Re- habilitation, the third work of Grace in the believer, and the foretaste of the supernatural or spiritual body. It is not an article of saving faith, any more than either of the other earnests of the Spirit already referred to, nor is it to be used as a fetich, nor toyed with as a spiritual exploit. As the handful of earth was taken as a privilege, so the earnest of the Spirit is a privilege, operative only for the purpose for which it is in- tended; viz., the buttressing of faith by realization: for though we walk by faith the way is not without its spiritually visible milestones; and this realization is vouchsafed to the believer whose faith and obedience are spiritually equal to it. 152 THE PSYCHOLOGY It is worthy of notice, in passing, that observation seems to lead to the conclusion that generally speaking the three experiences of the earnest of the Spirit are progressive in their manifestation; that is to say, the believer to whose lips the Spirit’s cry of sonship, “Abba, Father!’ never comes, never has a true experi- ence of the joy of assurance (the second earnest) and in like manner the disobedient believer who cannot re- joice in assurance cannot rise to sufficient faith to avail of the privilege of Divine Healing. The third earnest of the Spirit (the first in experi- mental sequence) is found in Ephesians 1:13, 14, in which Paul speaks of the sealing of the Holy Spirit of Promise as the “earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.” In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. —Eph. 1:13, 14. Here we have “our inheritance” sealed to us by the Spirit in an earnest. This earnest of the Spirit must be in nature a counterpart of the others; i.e., a fore- taste of that for which it stands; and as “our in- heritance’” is something which is ours by right of birth, whatever is thus to be ours is guaranteed to us by the Spirit: and this confirming or guaranteeing serves as an earnest of that right. We find in Romans eight that almost the first office OF SAVING FAITH 153 of the Spirit for the child of God is to witness to his spirit of his Divine sonship, empowering him to utter the cry of sonship, “Abba, Father!’ This power, then, with the consciousness which it brings, must be the foretaste of the heavenly fulness of sonship which shall be ours throughout the eternities; and its direct ref- erence must be to the new birth, the first work of Grace in the believer. Likewise the earnest of the Spirit mentioned by Paul in connection with his thankfulness and rejoicing has reference to the second work of Grace in the believer, the Renewing of the Holy Spirit, or holiness—the finished work that changes his attitude toward God, toward men and toward things. And that mentioned in connection with the doctrine of the Resurrection, has direct reference to the third work of Grace in the believer, the reclothing of the Divine Zoé and the Divine Pneuma with the Divine Body in that great day of His Appearing. CHAPTER XVII JUSTIFICATION The Ground-Line of the Structure (See frontispiece) To declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Romans 3: 26. ‘*WUSTIFICATION and righteousness are insepa- rably united in the Scriptures by the fact that the same word, dtkaios, righteous, and dikaioo, to justify, is used for both.”—Scofield. In the preceding chapters we have sought to point out the fact that the work of salvation is conceivable as an orderly sequence of events, brought about through the direct activity of the Father, the Divine Son, the Embodiment of the Father, and the Holy Spirit. The beginning is with a threefold work, Redemp- tion, performed by the Son for the Man, accomplishing deliverance from the threefold grasp of Sin upon his natural being; viz., its penalty, its guilt and its unclean- ness. This is followed by a process, likewise threefold in nature, by which the Man is turned in repentance to- ward a forgiving Father who is prepared to save him, 154 * OF SAVING FAITH 155 the result being reconciliation, a work of Grace also performed for the Man by the Holy Spirit. Then, following immediately upon or coincident with Reconciliation, comes the first work of Grace in the believer; i.e., the planting in his natural being, as a seed is planted in a pot of earth, of the New Zoé, the Divine, Supernatural life-principle, which act, the work of the Divine Father, ushers him into the Kingdom of God, constitutes him a younger brother of the “first- begotten” born of water and the Spirit; this by a free gift of Grace. Then ensues a series of experiences, more or less progressive, according to the obedience of the in- dividual believer, by which, following the Holy Spirit’s leadings, his natural attitude toward God, toward men and toward things is changed to the Holy attitude (God’s way of looking at things), and he is trans- formed by the “renewing of his mind.” The Holy Spirit of Truth becomes his spirit; this by an experi- ence of Grace. And lastly, by a miracle of Grace his vile body is d9 66% made “like unto His glorious body,” “in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump.” And in all this we have found no place for a most important doctrine in the teachings of the Church— Justification—a making righteous, whose application is limited to those who believe. And by him, all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses. Acts 13: 39. 156 THE PSYCHOLOGY Not that Justification is not as important in fact as it is in the teachings of the Church, but that it is not a part of the Plan of Salvation. Likening that Plan to the plan of a building, Justi- fication answers to the ground line. This is of extreme importance to the building; in fact the whole plan thereof must be adapted to the ground line; and yet the ground line is not a part of the plan, much less of the building. The extreme importance of Justification lies in the fact that its primary effect is upon God’s relation to His own Law; “making it possible for Him righteously to show mercy” (Scofield). Without it the Architect of the Plan would be as much in error as the architect of a building who had ignored his ground line: for the whole Plan of Salvation would be abortive if, at the very last moment after the great work of Regen- eration had been consummated, the righteousness of God must demand the life of the recipient of all His Grace in order that the integrity of His own Law might be upheld. The real thing at stake is the suc- cess of the Plan. Therefore the Plan must be adapted to the great truth that God cannot violate His own Law. To declare, J say, at this time, his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. —Romans 3: 26. The printers use the word justify in almost exactly the sense in which it is rightly to be applied in our consideration of this topic. OF SAVING FAITH 157 The line of types are set, one at a time, in an ad- justable receptacle called a “stick.”” When the line is finished, if found either too long or too short for the space predetermined in which it should exactly fit, there must be a rearrangement of the spaces between the words of the line so that it shall exactly fit and be the same length as all the other lines in the stick. This the printer calls “justifying his line.’ The types are not affected in any degree by the operation, nor are the words, neither is the line itself any better or worse. It is the plan that is conserved. Without “justifica- tion” all his work will prove futile. At the first at- tempt to print the matter will fly into “pi.” The error in the application of this doctrine, as com- monly understood, is that the believer is permitted to assume, or is taught to believe, that Justification makes him righteous in fact; thus adding to the in- nate phariseeism of all flesh, of which it might not be too much to say that it is, perhaps, the greatest obstacle with which the Holy Spirit has to contend in the performance of his office-work in the child of God, as well as in the unsaved. Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Phari- see, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself,’ God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, un- just, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, say- ing, God be merciful to me a sinner. 158 THE PSYCHOLOGY I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. —Luke 18: 10-14. Legalism, the flickering candle to the Galatian moth, has not lost its perilous charm for the child of God. It seems almost. impossible to divest his mind of the feeling that in some way his own goodness is con- tributing to the work of Divine Grace and is in some measure earning for him eternal life: and his inmost assurances of the loving kindness of his Heavenly Fa- ther are not infrequently predicated upon his own as- sumption of acceptability to God because of his legal rightness. I well remember listening with consider- able astonishment to a Christian gentleman who ascribed his business success to the recognition by the Almighty of the fact that he never worked on Sunday. “O foolish Galatians!” cries Paul, “received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” And well might his question come to us to- day with our ritualism and phariseeism. Anything that stimulates or conserves the believer’s innate phari- seeism is detrimental to the work of Grace in him. The preaching of the Law to the believer is minimiz- ing the Cross of Christ. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. —Gal. 5:2-4. OF SAVING FAITH 159 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. —Gal. 2:21. Exhortation to holy living for the law’s sake is more likely to inculcate the prayer of the Pharisee than the cry of the publican. The other brother is usually neglected in our ex- positions of the fifteenth of Luke. He seems to be hard to place. But from one point of view he is the more important of the two. He is the respectable, law-keeping, self-righteous church member. So well satisfied with himself is he that he cannot understand his father’s love, nor enter into his spirit. He is the self-justified legalist, the professor of righteousness who has mistaken his own filthy rags for the righteous- ness of Christ. From the younger brother when he went away he differs in spirit only in being more con- temptible. He is the child of God, who, as yet, has never been favored with a self-revealing, righteousness- _ smashing experience. But he is a son, just as much a son in fact as the younger, but no more a son 1m spirit than he when he took his departure. The record does not indicate that his father’s ap- peal had any effect whatever upon him. The hardest people in the world to do anything for spiritually are the self-satisfied Galatians; the people who have not missed a Sunday School session in twenty-seven years. Think of it! who have read their Bible through nine- teen times and expect to read it through as many times more if they are spared. Take off your hat! The psychoanalysis of self-righteousness would 11 160 THE PSYCHOLOGY prove to be an interesting study, and a profitable, to anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear. But the crowning beauty of the story is the loving patience of the Father with this son—‘“All that I have is thine.” It almost seems that the parable has been wrongly named. It should be “The parable of the prodigal fa- ther”—prodigal of love and mercy and gentleness and tenderness toward this unsanctified, unholy, self- righteous son. The primary significance and importance of Justi- fication is, as stated above, the conservation of the justness of God. Secondarily it does make the believer righteous, but judicially so only; just as the criminal, tried, convicted and punished, is judicially righteous and can never again be charged with that crime. But this judicial righteousness has no relation to the believer’s behavior. He is perfectly free to do wrong, and quite as capable as before of so doing, if he will. Therefore, having no direct effect upon the Man himself, neither upon God, for there is nothing change- able in Him, Justification, effective primarily for the in- tegrity of the Law and the success of the Plan, is rightly to be considered extraneous to the latter in the same sense in which the ground line is not a part of the architect’s plan, although of extreme importance thereto, CHAPTER XVIII IN CONCLUSION The prime object of these brief pages is to show that triunity is a factor in the domain of Revelation; that the evidences of God’s “eternal power and God- head” which exist in His Book of Works, Nature, are likewise discernible in the Bible, His Book of Words; and that this fact serves as a key to many of the fund- amental principles invoived in the Plan of Salvation, concerning which there is more or less uncertainty among Christian people. To illustrate: A large class of earnest believers ac- cept the teaching that “salvation” is based upon the choosing, by God, of a certain number of individuals from among men, to be saved; and, by inference, the leaving of the balance, by God, to hopelessly perish. This is the popular conception of the Calvinistic doctrine of “fore-ordination” or “predestination.” On the other hand, a large class of equally earnest be- lievers deny this doctrine and hold that it is refuted by John 3:16 and kindred passages, which clearly hold out the offer of grace “free to all,” leaving it to man to decide whether he shall accept or repel the offers of mercy. These utterly reject the doctrine of fore- ordination, crying “grace is free!” It is impossible, with a one-sided view of the mean- ing of the word “Salvation,” to harmonize these 161 162 THE PSYCHOLOGY differences of belief, but an apprehension of the triune nature of the thought will reveal, at once, the fact that predestination is not to be rejected; that it has its proper and effective place in the Plan, but that place is not with the uwnbeliever at all, and has no relation to him, but to the believer, who, only, can possibly “be conformed to the image” of Jesus Christ. The dif- ference between the believer and the unbeliever is what God “did foreknow,” and “whom he did fore- know he did predestinate’—not to be regenerated, that was the matter of “foreknowledge, and “whomsoever will” may “have eternal life’”—but, after his regenera- tion, to be “conformed” to the image of his son, that He might be the first born of many brethren” (Rom. 8:29); i. e, that he should be renewed in spirit, the second member of the salvation trinity and “clothed upon’ with that “house which is from heaven,” the third member of the salvation trinity. These three and nothing less than these three, will serve to “conform” the regenerate sinner to the “image of his son;” and this and not less than this, is what God, in His dictionary, calls “Salvation.” (See also Eph. 1:5, where the predestination is not unto generation— “children’’—but unto “adoption” literally “placing as a son” of “children,” or sanctification. ) Again, the triune nature of “Reconciliation” throws much light upon the real attitude of God toward the sinner; viz., that of instant readiness, because of the law-fulfilling office of the Lamb, to bestow upon him, repentant, the remission which the shed blood ac- OF SAVING FAITH 163 complished. By thus bestowing it upon him He makes it, for him, forgiveness, without which, reconciliation on Man’s side is absolutely impossible, the second death absolutely inevitable and the chance-taking world’s hope of somehow being brought under the effective- ness of the blood at the last moment, without a definite acceptance of God’s terms here and now, an empty delusion of the Devil. The writer begs to commend to all lovers of the Word such lines of study, each for himself, as shall lead to a fuller appreciation of the importance of triunity as a factory in the Spirit’s presentation of the Truth. The highest aim of a teacher should be to induce his hearer to “search” for himself as to whether the state- ments made are true. The Spirit always prefers to do His own teaching ; and the best taught believer is the one who learns most at first hand. To this end a suggestion is ofttimes enough. It is the writer’s hope that there is enough of the suggestive in these few pages to awaken Berean in- quisitiveness in some devout soul whose “delight is in the law of the Lord.” THE ENp. Date Due Pa i Te “ a = ~ ~ « te ; ar wr 27 ag @ f i rr Fi Vey 4! ‘ RP re ye Pi rh py Baan i ee: | moe ae aby hy rae rt Ly ee il i Hi et ano ; a8 ' fg Fras SD hity 4 y ' < ae Vs NY 1 1012 01019 5065