Lecture V · Sufferings turning to Salvation

THE apostle goes on now to state the reason for the ‘rejoicing’ of which he has spoken in the close of the 18th verse. He might have said, truthfully, ‘For I have so fully learned to make the manifestation of the glory of God in Christ my chief object of desire, that I am glad to hear of the showing of the way of life to sinners, whatever hostility preachers of Christ may entertain to me personally, and whatever loss of influence, or suffering of any kind, they may bring upon me.’ But he puts his reason in a somewhat different form,—one calculated to remind his readers that the troubles of God’s people, whilst they may serve to show forth the glory of God in many other ways, are certainly always intended and fitted to glorify Him by increasing the holiness and hopefulness of the sufferers themselves ; that afflictions are among the ‘all things ’—ay, hold a most important place among the ‘all things’—which are made to ‘work together for good to them that love God.’

‘7 know, says the apostle, ‘that this shall turn to my salvation’ ‘The reference of ‘ Ais’ is not altogether obvious. Our first thought is that, like the ‘therein’ of the previous verse, it refers to the fact that ‘every way, whether in pretence or in

truth, Christ is preached.’ Now it is true that this would ultimately bring advantage to Paul. To his influence, in a large measure, the energy shown by the Christians at Rome in publishing the gospel was undoubtedly due, wicked and distressing as the feeling was towards him of some of the preachers. The work was therefore to some extent his work, an ‘ occupying’ of his ‘ five talents ;’ and in the day of Christ this would be fully acknowledged. But whilst thus the first clause of the verse would be intelligible enough, supposing the reference to be to the preaching of Christ, yet it does not seem possible, on this view of the meaning, to find any satisfactory connection between the clause and what follows, particularly the 2oth verse. Another reference, however, natural in itself, and which gives to the whole paragraph a clear and consistent sense, is not far to seek. Looking back to the close of the 18th verse, you will see that the apostle’s emphatic declaration there, when fully exhibited, is, ‘ Yea, and therein will rejoice, notwithstanding the hatred to me by which some of the preachers are actuated’ ‘The thought of that hatred is most vividly present to his mind, and to the minds of all intelligent readers ; and to it, therefore, I have no doubt, the ‘¢Azs’ points,—‘ the opposition I have spoken of,—the idea, however, widening out before him, most naturally, into ‘my condition of suffering’ generally.

Now he ‘ knows,’ he says, that this state of trouble will ‘¢urn to his salvation.’ Such, through God’s kindness, will be the result of what his opponents intended should ‘ add affliction to his bonds.’

The salvation provided in Christ is radically a spiritual salvation. It extends, indeed, to all the elements of our nature, being an emancipation of the whole man from the _ bondage of death ; but the condition of the body follows that of the soul. In a sense, we enter into salvation at conversion ; for ‘he that believeth on. Christ Aa¢h everlasting life,’and the attainment of everlasting life is salvation. But the word is E

generally in Scripture applied to the state of perfect purity and beauty and blessedness for the whole nature, which ‘the day of Christ’ will bring in,—the ‘salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.’ Now all God’s providential dealings with His people, whether for the time they be pleasant, or, as with Paul at Rome, ‘not joyous, but grievous,’ are intended by Him as a training for salvation,—an education in that ‘knowledge of God and of His Son Jesus Christ’ which ‘is life eternal,—a discipline fitted to ripen the flower of holy character, which will be fully opened in its glorious beauty in heaven. By the measure in which we avail ourselves of this training, our salvation will be affected. All who reach heaven will be perfectly happy there from the very first, happy up to the full measure of their capacities of enjoyment; because, being ‘ pure in heart,’ they will ‘ see God’ as fully as their natures can see Him. But the eyes of those who below availed themselves but little of the light of truth,—who looked at God but seldom,—these eyes, even in heaven, will be able to look at Him only from afar; whilst those whose eyes have been much accustomed to the light here, will stand in the foremost circles, and there with ravished hearts gaze on the infinite glory. All the attainments in the knowledge of God which even the most diligent student can make here, are but the faintest foreshadowing of our knowledge hereafter ; but those who, under the teaching of God, have profited most here, will begin foremost yonder. The servant who with his pound has gained ten pounds by trading, receives authority over ten cities ; his companion, who, having the same money given him, has earned only five pounds, receives authority only over five cities. Nay, whilst to some will be ‘ ministered an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,’ others will be saved only as ‘through fire,’ rescued from a conflagration, as it were, by the hair of the head, with the smell of fire still on their garments. Remembering these things, my brethren, ‘what manner of persons,”

think you, ‘ ought we to be, in all holy conversation and godliness,’—how earnest in prayer and effort, that from the training given us by God in providence we may obtain spiritual profit, everything which befalls us thus ‘ turning to our salvation’!

How, then, shall we obtain this spiritual profit? The apostle tells us. His expectation was that his troubles would give him wisdom and strength ‘ through the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,;—that is, either ‘through the supply, by the Spirit, of all needed help,’ or ‘through the supply by God of the Spirit, in whose indwelling are found all wisdom and energy. The meaning is substantially the same. The Holy Ghost, ‘ the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father,’ is several times spoken of in Scripture as the ‘ Spirit of Christ.’ Thus, ‘ Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.’ ‘If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.’ ‘The prophets inquired and searched diligently, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.’ This designation is em- _ ployed here very naturally, for the apostle is thinking of the _ bestowment of the supremely excellent ‘gift’ which Jesus, having ‘led captivity captive,’ has ‘received for men, yea, for the rebellious.’ ‘It is expedient for you,’ said He, ‘that I go away ; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, 7) wi// send Him unto you.’ _

To this divine Agent are due alike the origination and the ‘support of spiritual life. It is He who clears away the mists of prejudice, enabling the sinner to see clearly the terrible truth of his guilt and danger,—He who opens the eyes to see the forgiving grace of God in Christ, and sheds peace and love over the heart. And in the regenerate soul He dwells,— t fitfully, as an uncertain lodger, now here, now there,—but in a permanent abiding place, a home, which He loves to e beautiful and happy. Spiritual wisdom and strength and

joy are all from Him. Only through Him, therefore, are men taught rightly to estimate the respective importance of things seen and things unseen: so that, on the one hand, prosperity shall not puff them up, or lead them to seek their rest in the enjoyments of this world ; and, on the other hand, adversity shall not unduly depress, as if all that is valuable were withdrawn. ‘Thus it is ‘through the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ’ that the occurrences of life ‘ turn to our salvation.’

The figures under which the influence of the Spirit is described to us in Scripture, set forth with much fulness and clearness the all-pervasiveness of His action on the souls of God’s chosen. Jesus ‘ baptizes with the Holy Ghost and with fire;—to burn up the chaff within us, and to light up in our souls a genial flame of love. Again, believers are ‘born of water and of the Spirit,—being thus cleansed from pollution, and having all the thirst of the soul quenched. Again, ‘Ye have an unction from the Holy One,’—being thus set apart to do the work of ‘kings and priests unto God ;’ or, as athletes, made in the whole man lithe and active, to wrestle successfully with the difficulties and temptations of life, and to ‘run with patience the race set before us.’ When our attention is turned to the greatness of the work of the Spirit, my brethren, all of us must feel that, in our thoughts on religion, and in our prayers and praises, we have not honoured this glorious and gracious Divine Person as we should. Are there not some of us to whom thoughts of Him have been such strangers that it would almost seem as if, like those disciples of John the Baptist whom Paul found in Ephesus, they had ‘not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost’ ?

Paul tells his Philippian friends that ‘the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ’ will be obtained for him ‘ through their prayer.’ Our Lord said, ‘If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him!’ For this supreme blessing Paul did habitually ‘ask’ God. Powerful aid, how- ever, was given him by the prayers of his friends for him ; and this help is here, with beautiful courtesy and gratitude, made prominent. It is not unlikely, I think, that in these words there is an allusion to some statement in the letter of the Philippians, which, no doubt, had accompanied their gift sent through Epaphroditus, regarding their remembering the apostle before God. Certainly there is in them a delicate entreaty that they will do this—such entreaty as he had long before expressly made to the Thessalonians,— ‘Brethren, pray for us!’ How sweet and helpful such a friendsltip as this, Christian brethren! The apostle prayed for his converts, and they for him; and thus both were richly blessed. Delighting to know that the Lord Jesus was pleading for them all, they rejoiced to be permitted to cast, each of them, by intercessory prayer, his little grain of incense into the divine High Priest’s censer. Paul believed, with full energy, that prayer is the grandest of all the powers which we have of helping each other. To believe this heartily and operatively, is the greatest evidence that in a man’s soul the powers of the unseen world have triumphed over those of the seen. Do you and I thus believe? Beyond doubt, my brethren, the feebleness of this conviction among Christians is the great cause that the church is so impure, so dead in spirit, and that, in this nineteenth century of gospel light, the world still to so deplorable an extent lies in darkness and wickedness. ‘Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them. I will increase them with men like a _ flock. As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men ; and they shall know that I am the Lord.’ Were a cloud of ardent intercessory prayer to rise from the hearts of God’s people, it would break in so abundant a shower of blessing ‘that the church would be like ‘a watered garden ;’ yea, that over the whole earth ‘the wilderness and the solitary place would be glad, the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose,’

The introductory words of the 2oth verse, to which we now come,—‘ according to my earnest expectation and my hope,’—appear to indicate a twofold connection between it and the rgth. This verse illustrates the mode in which the apostle expected the position he was placed in ‘to turn to his salvation ;’ and it accounts for his statement that he ‘vez’ his circumstances would so result. There is no more trustworthy knowledge than that afforded by intelligent Christian hope. ‘ Hoe’ 15 ἃ much stronger word, as used in Scripture, than as we commonly employ it in ordinary life. It denotes a confident anticipation; and thus, in the two words by which the apostle here describes his state of feeling, we have something of an advance from assurance to yet intenser assurance. He has an ‘eager longing,’ such as is shown by one who, with rapt attention, stretches forward from some post of observation, watching to see in the distance a friend whom he knows to be coming to cheer and help him,!— yea, he has a ‘ firm, confident hope,’ ‘ that zz nothing he shall be ashamed, or ‘ put to confusion.’ ‘My Saviour, in whom I have gloried, will fulfil all His promises ; will enable me to do whatever work, and to bear whatever trials, He may in His providence call me to ; and will thereafter take me to be with Him for ever in heaven. There will come to me no shame. This is my trust.’

How vividly in this the judgment of the ‘new man in Christ’ contrasts with that of the world! One can imagine a friend of Paul’s earlier days saying to him, ‘ Put to shame! Your position now might well put you to shame. Look back to the hopes regarding you, which those who knew and loved you cherished in your youth. Think of the prospects which your abilities opened for you of achieving for yourself dignity, and influence, and wealth. And now, through your fanatical devotion to the cause of this Nazarene, your name is execrated by the chiefs of your nation, and you are a poor man, waiting 1

Such is the exact thought conveyed by the somewhat peculiar word of the original, rendered by ‘earnest expectation.’

in chains a sentence which may perhaps send you to a bloody death. Surely you have enough here to put you to confusion.’ Paul’s answer we hear in such words as those of his fellowapostle Peter,—‘ If any man suffer as a Christian, et him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf.’ In shame, as clearly as in anything, the divergence of men’s judgment from the standard of truth and wisdom is seen. Adam was ashamed, not because he had sinned, but because he knew himself to be naked ; and ah, how evident the spirit of our fallen father is in all of us by nature, how sadly visible often even in Christians ! How prone we are to feel more shame for being detected in wrong-doing than for the wrong-doing itself,—for being poor in pence than being poor in piety,—for acting contrary to the laws of fashion than for violating the laws of God,—for doing what fools will laugh at than for conduct which wise men might well weep over! Paul was not ashamed of his bonds, and knew that his hope was one which never would make him ashamed. He believed that in everything he would be enabled to ‘magnify’ his Saviour, and that, in the heart of the man to _ whom God gave grace to do this, shame had no rightful place, but exultant ‘ hope of the glory of God.’

‘ My hope,’ he says, ‘is that Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.’ After ‘ that in nothing I shall be ashamed,’ we might have expected the clause to take the form, ‘ but that I shall magnify Christ.’ The little variation actually employed, by which the Saviour is placed in the foreground, illustrates, you observe, in an incidental and interesting way, the apostle’s ruling feeling. He would everywhere have himself out of view, that onlookers may ‘see no man save _ Jesus only.’ The substitution for ‘in me’ of ‘zz my body, is also very natural. The thought of his sufferings has evidently been with considerable prominence before his mind throughout the preceding passage,—the thought of his ‘ bonds,’ to which the hostile preachers ‘supposed’ by their conduct ‘to add affliction,’ and which doubtless by many were expected, through

their depressing influence, to make him feel ‘ashamed.’ It seemed, moreover, not at all improbable that the end of his imprisonment might be a cruel death. Most naturally, then, his thoughts take this form,—‘ Blessed be God, who enables me to cherish an assured confidence that in this body of mine, imprisoned, chained, worn with suffering, yet “a temple of the Holy Ghost,” the glory of my Saviour shall be made manifest— and this, whether it be by life or by death. If continued life be appointed me, then God will give me energy of spirit still to spend my strength in preaching the gospel of my Redeemer’s glorious grace ; and through my very bonds and infirmities He will be magnified ; for His power, I know, will rest upon me, to sustain and comfort. And when death comes, then, too, His grace will bring Him glory. While the frail tabernacle of the body perishes, the soul will enjoy the confident anticipation of new and wondrous life and strength and blessedness, seeing that to depart will be to be with Him. ‘Thus, according to my hope, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.’

His expectation is, that Christ’s glory will be manifested in Him ‘ with all boldness,—more exactly, and more suitably to _ the passive form of the clause, ‘ zz all boldness,’ that is, ‘in the evident presence and strength of this element of character.’ In the bearing of Christians towards the world, at all points where it asserts its antagonism to Christ, it is especially by ‘ boldness’ that we ‘ magnify Christ.’ Nature, as the apostle has already hinted, is disposed to yield to a feeling of ‘shame,’ when our religion is derided, and insult heaped on its professors. But, relying on the good Spirit, whose influences the Saviour is willing to shed forth on him richly, Paul believes that ‘in nothing he will be ashamed ; but, on the contrary, that in his being enabled to display full boldness of speech and action, and this in all circumstances, the grace and power of Christ will be gloriously attested.’

His hope in this matter is sustained by memory ; ‘as a/ways,

so now also’ As he bote in mind how before Felix he had been strengthened so boldly to ‘reason of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come,’ that the governor ‘ trembled,’-—and before Agrippa so fully to speak ‘ the words of truth and soberness,’ that the king said, ‘ Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian,’-—the apostle felt encouraged to believe that similar support would always be given him to avert faintheartedness.

You and I, my brethren, are exposed, as Paul was, to temptations to be ‘ashamed’ of Christ. They do not present them; selves to us quite in the same form as to him, but they are real and strong. The world hates vital Christianity now, as it did in the first age. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, ‘ The servant is not greater than his lord ; if they have j persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.’ Profession of _ Christianity the world tolerates in our time, —rather smiles upon, indeed, than otherwise, as respectable,—but Christ revealing Himself in His people it hates, sneers at, opposes in many _ ways. No truly spiritual man can be altogether overpowered _ by this antagonism; but his boldness may be very far from unflinching. The reflection of a Christian in any degree of the _ type of Paul will be, ‘ My Saviour, from eternity the Brightness of the Father’s glory and the express Image of His Person, was not ashamed to make Himself, for my sake, of no reputation, and take upon Him the form of a servant,—to endure the contradiction of sinners against Himself,—to bear scorn, and buffetings, and death ; and, because for a few years I may be exposed, for His sake, to the ridicule and dislike, or, it may be, even the bitter and active hostility of His enemies, shall I be ashamed of Him or His cause? God forbid! He helping me, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.’