Exposition of the Apostles' Creed Part 6

The lower animals cannot sin because the law of their lives is within them, constraining them to act in accordance with its dictates. Upon man, free to choose, G.o.d imposed law. With freedom of will he received the gift of conscience, which, enabling him to distinguish between right and wrong, invested him with responsibility, and made disobedience sin.

That he can sin is his patent of n.o.bility, that he does sin is his ruin and disgrace.

The effect of sin is separation from G.o.d, who can have no fellows.h.i.+p with evil, for sin is the abominable thing which He hates, and on which He cannot even look. A breach, altogether irreparable on man's part, was made between man and his Creator when the first transgression of the law of G.o.d took place. The impulse of every sinner, which only Divine power can overcome, is to flee from G.o.d. Hence arises the necessity for reconciliation, and for the intervention of G.o.d to effect it. That the unity thus broken may be restored, expiation must be made by one possessing the nature of the being that had sinned, and yet, by His possession of the Divine nature, investing that expiation with illimitable worth, so that all sin may be covered, and every sinner find a way of escape from the power and the penal consequences of transgression. These conditions meet in the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him alone. That G.o.d might, without compromising His attributes, be enabled to bring man back into fellows.h.i.+p with Himself, He spared not His own Son, and the Son freely gave Himself to suffering and death for the world's redemption.

In the felt necessity of atonement, which has a.s.sociated sacrifice with every religion devised by man, we have evidence of the universality of sin. All feel its crus.h.i.+ng pressure, and fear the punishment which, conscience a.s.sures them, is deserved and inevitable. The heathen confesses it as he prostrates himself before the image of his G.o.d, or immolates himself or his fellow-man upon his altar; and the Christian feels and confesses it as, fleeing for refuge, he finds pardon and cleansing in the blood of Jesus Christ.

Sin is original or actual, the former inherited from our parents, the latter, personal transgression of the Divine law. Every man descending from Adam by ordinary generation is born with the taint of original sin.

As the representative head of humanity, Adam transmitted to all his descendants the nature that his sin had polluted. The fountain of life was poisoned at its source, and when Adam begat children they were born in his likeness. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death pa.s.sed upon all men." "Death reigned ... even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression."

"By one man's disobedience many were made sinners."[198]

Actual sin consists in breaking any law of G.o.d made known to us by Scripture, conscience, or reason. It a.s.sumes many forms. There are sins of thought, of word, of deed; sins of commission, or doing what G.o.d forbids; of omission, or leaving undone what G.o.d commands; sins to which we are tempted by the world, the flesh, or the devil; sins directly against G.o.d; sins that wrong our neighbours, and that ruin ourselves; sins of pride, covetousness, l.u.s.t, gluttony, anger, envy, sloth. In many things we sin, and "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."[199]

Man's sinfulness is set forth in Scripture by a great variety of figures. The word rendered "sin" means the missing of a mark or aim. Sin is sometimes described as ignorance, sometimes as defeat, sometimes as disobedience. The definition of the Shorter Catechism is clear and comprehensive. "Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of G.o.d."[200] The taint of original sin, extending to man's whole nature, inclines him to act in opposition to the law of G.o.d, and every concession to his corrupt desire, in thought, word, or deed, is actual sin. Because of it he is not subject to the law of G.o.d, neither, indeed, can be.

Sin is always spoken of in Scripture as followed by punishment or by pardon. There is no middle way. Salvation for man must therefore involve deliverance from condemnation.

The word which expresses man's liability to punishment is "guilt," and only a religion which makes known how he may be set free from guilt will suit his necessities. We cannot set ourselves free from condemnation.

"Man," says the Confession of Faith, "by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so, as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or prepare himself thereunto."[201] Forgiveness of sin must come from G.o.d. There is nothing in nature or in human experience to warrant hope of pardon. Nature never forgives a trespa.s.s against her law. The opportunity that is lost does not return. The mistake by which a life is marred cannot be undone. The const.i.tution shattered by intemperance cannot be restored, the birthright bartered for a mess of pottage is gone for ever, and no bitter tears or supplications have power to bring it back. Whether we repent of it or not, every sin we commit leaves its dark mark behind, and in this life at least the stain can never be effaced; and yet we believe in the forgiveness of sin through the grace of G.o.d.

The forgiveness of sin is a free gift purchased by "the Lamb of G.o.d that taketh away the sin of the world," who by His Cross and Pa.s.sion obtained for men this unspeakable benefit, and commanded that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations.[202]

In order that the grace of G.o.d may bring salvation, it is required that there shall be (_a_) Repentance. In Scripture repentance is set forth as necessarily preceding pardon: "Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent."[203] "Peter said unto them, Repent."[204] "Him hath G.o.d exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins."[205] Repentance begins in contrition. "G.o.dly sorrow for sin worketh repentance to salvation."[206]

(_b_) Before the good gift of G.o.d can be received, it is necessary that we confess our sin. It is when we confess our sins that we obtain forgiveness and cleansing. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."[207] To produce conviction and confession is the work of the Holy Ghost. He reveals to the sinner the sinfulness of his life, and so works in him repentance. (_c_) Another requirement is unfeigned faith. "He that cometh to G.o.d must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." "Without faith it is impossible to please him."[208] "Being justified by faith, we have peace with G.o.d through our Lord Jesus Christ."[209] "Let him ask in faith, nothing doubting: for he that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord."[210] (_d_) There must be also humble, earnest resolution to be obedient to the will of G.o.d. The forgiveness secured by the death of Jesus is more than mere deliverance from the penalty of sin or the acquittal of the sinner. It is the remission of sins, the putting away of the sin. With pardon there is a renewal of the inner man. Return to holiness is secured, and the lost image of G.o.d is restored to man, so that he dies to sin and lives unto holiness. Nothing less than this will satisfy the true penitent, who asks for more than pardon, whose cry is, "Create in me a clean heart, O G.o.d; and renew a right spirit within me."[211] It is not sufficient to be set free from punishment, there must be the abiding desire to have the life conformed to the Divine will. "The grace of G.o.d that bringeth salvation" teaches and enables all who receive it "to deny unG.o.dliness and worldly l.u.s.ts, and to live soberly, righteously, and G.o.dly in this present world."[212]

ARTICLE 11

_The Resurrection of the Body_

ANIMISM--the doctrine of the continuous existence, after death, of the disembodied human spirit--has a place in the majority of religious systems; but belief in the resurrection of the body is almost peculiar to the Christian faith. In Old Testament times the hope of immortality for body and soul seldom found expression. Job seems to have had at least a glimpse of the doctrine, although his words in the original do not express it so strongly as those of the English version: "I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see G.o.d."[213] In the Psalms there are various intimations that faithful servants of G.o.d looked for a future life in which the body as well as the spirit should find place. Isaiah prophesied, "Thy dead men shall live, my dead body shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead."[214] Daniel still more emphatically declares, "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."[215] The story in the second book of Maccabees of the seven martyr-brothers, who would not accept life from the tyrant on condition of denying their G.o.d, proves that they were strengthened to endure by the sure hope of "a better resurrection." One of them thus confessed his faith: "Thou like a fury takest us out of this present life, but the King of the world shall raise us up, who have died for His laws, unto everlasting life." Another of the brothers, about to have his tongue plucked out and his hands cut off, "holding forth his hands manfully, said courageously, These I had from heaven ... and from Him I hope to receive them again." Their mother, who is thought to have been one of the saints that in the Epistle to the Hebrews are said to have been tortured, not accepting deliverance, encouraged her sons to be faithful unto death by telling them that G.o.d who had given them life at the first would restore it. "I am sure," she said, "that He will of His own mercy give you breath and life again as ye now regard not your own selves for His laws'

sake."[216] The Pharisees in the days of our Lord held by the doctrine, which the Sadducees, who rejected belief in angels and spirits, denied.

The belief expressed by Martha when she said of her brother Lazarus, "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day,"[217]

was in all likelihood current in her time. It may have been to impress the truth of resurrection-life for the body that Enoch, before the flood, and Elijah, in later Old Testament times, were translated; but it is in the New Testament, in words spoken by the Lord Jesus, that resurrection is fully revealed. "Marvel not at this," said He to the Jews; "for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of d.a.m.nation."[218] In reply to the Sadducees, who attempted to ridicule His statements regarding resurrection, He said, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of G.o.d";[219] and He put them to silence by showing that the truth of resurrection was implied in the name by which G.o.d revealed Himself to Israel, "I am the G.o.d of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob." He showed His power over the dead body, and furnished a.s.surance of resurrection, by raising the dead. He thus restored the daughter of Jairus and the son of the widow of Nain, and raised Lazarus from the tomb four days after he had died. In His own resurrection we have the most signal pledge of our bodily immortality. When He arose triumphant from the grave and showed Himself alive by many infallible proofs, He manifested His power as the conqueror of death.

It is clearly taught in Scripture that there is to be a general resurrection of the righteous and the wicked. In addition to texts already quoted, we find John declaring, "I saw the dead, small and great, stand before G.o.d, ... and the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and h.e.l.l delivered up the dead which were in them";[220]

and Paul writes to the Thessalonians, "We that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep ... and the dead in Christ shall rise first."[221]

The resurrection is a.s.sociated with the second coming of Christ. It is His voice that shall awake the dead, and the angels who will accompany Him are to gather them from the four winds of heaven to the judgment-seat of Christ, "that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."[222]

In resurrection, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost take part. G.o.d the Father, who "both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power":[223] G.o.d the Son: "As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will":[224] G.o.d the Holy Ghost, who, as the Giver of life, by His special action will raise our bodies: "He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."[225] The Lord Jesus Christ is the meritorious cause of resurrection: "By man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."[226] His resurrection is the pledge and the pattern of ours. "If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection."[227]

Christianity teaches that the body as well as the soul is redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ, "the Saviour of the body."[228] We are called to glorify G.o.d in our bodies, which are temples of the Holy Ghost, and we must give account for the deeds done in and through the body, as well as for those sins which are rather of the mind and will than of the body.

The body will be raised and will be judged. G.o.d will bring to light all hidden things--actions forgotten by ourselves, deeds of which the world knows nothing, as well as those which memory retains and the world knows of. Before that "great and notable day" our bodies as well as our souls must have been purged, else we shall never see G.o.d. The bodies of the unjust will rise; but theirs will be resurrection to shame and everlasting contempt.

It is fitting that reward or punishment should be the portion of the same souls and bodies that have been faithful or unfaithful. Christ rose in the same body as He had before His death, and so shall we. How this is to be accomplished we cannot tell, but with G.o.d all things are possible, and faith rests with confidence in His power and in His Word.

"We wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall fas.h.i.+on anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory."[229] While the body is the same as that in which the soul tabernacled, it will undergo transformation. Christ will renew the bodily as well as the spiritual nature of His people. Every part of their being will be transformed, and their bodies, like Christ's, will be spiritual bodies. We are to be sanctified wholly; our whole spirit and soul and body preserved blameless unto His coming.[230] In this present life the body builds up a character which it will retain throughout eternity. Every act we do affects it, not for the time only, but for ever. The lost soul will a.s.sume the polluted body, and while it may shrink in horror from the union, will find no way of escape. "He that is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still."[231] "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap,"[232] and the harvest will abide with him for ever.

ARTICLE 12

_And the Life Everlasting_

The great truth affirmed in the concluding article of the Creed is the Life Everlasting: "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of G.o.d is eternal life."[233] This life will be the portion of all who are acquitted in the day of judgment, and they will then enter upon new experiences. Death and h.e.l.l shall be cast into the lake of fire, and the redeemed, no longer subject to imperfection, decay, or death, shall be raised to the right hand of the Father, where there is fulness of joy; to partake of those pleasures for evermore which have been purchased for them by the blood of the Lamb.

It is interesting to note the gradual development of this doctrine, which was first fully expressed by Him who brought life and immortality to light. We have the statement of the writer to the Hebrews that the faith of Old Testament saints had in view the continuance of life after death in "a better country, that is, an heavenly." Whether this faith grasped the doctrine of bodily resurrection, in addition to that of the immortality of the soul, we are not told. It is remarkable that throughout the books of Moses there is an absence of reference to the future life as a motive to holy living. Prosperity and adversity in this life are set forth as the reward or punishment of conduct, leading to the inference, either that retribution in the future life was not revealed, or that it exercised little practical influence. As time pa.s.sed the doctrine of everlasting life for body and soul emerged in the Psalms and in the prophetical writings, but sometimes side by side with such gloomy views regarding death and its consequences as to leave the impression that belief in it was weak and fitful. In the long period that pa.s.sed between the time when Old Testament prophecy ceased and the advent of Christ, the fierce persecutions to which the Jews were subjected appear to have strengthened their faith in a future life of blessedness, in which the body, delivered from the grave and again united to the soul, shall partic.i.p.ate.

The author of the Apocryphal Book termed _The Wisdom of Solomon_ thus records his belief:--

The souls of the righteous are in the hand of G.o.d, And no torment shall touch them.

In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died; And their departure was accounted _to be their_ hurt, And their journeying away from us _to be their_ ruin, But they are in peace.

For even if in the sight of men they be punished, Their hope is full of immortality: And having borne a little chastening they shall receive great good; Because G.o.d made trial of them, and found them worthy of Himself.

As gold in the furnace He proved them, And as a whole burnt offering He accepted them.

And in the time of their visitation they shall s.h.i.+ne forth, And as sparks among stubble they shall run to and fro.

They shall judge nations, and have dominion over peoples; And the Lord shall reign over them for evermore.

They that trust in Him shall understand truth, And the faithful shall abide with Him in love; Because grace and mercy are to His chosen.[234]

Again he writes:--

The righteous live for ever, And in the Lord is their reward, And the care for them with the Most High.

Therefore shall they receive the crown of royal dignity And the diadem of beauty from the Lord's hand.[235]

The happiness of the kingdom of heaven is in Scripture termed "life,"

because it const.i.tutes the life for which man was created. Being made in the likeness of G.o.d, his nature can obtain full satisfaction, and his powers will expand into fruition, only when he enters upon a life which resembles, in proportion to its measure and capacity, the life of G.o.d.

Jesus spoke of regeneration as entering into life. Those who receive the Gospel message and walk in the footsteps of Christ are said to be born again--to receive in their conversion the beginning of a new existence, of which the entrance of the infant into the world is a fitting emblem.

They possess now not only a natural life, but a life hid with Christ in G.o.d, which is a pledge to them that "when he who is their life shall appear, they also shall appear with him in glory."[236] Knowledge of G.o.d the Father and of Jesus Christ, imparted by the Holy Spirit, is said by our Lord to be Life Eternal. "This is life eternal, to know thee the only true G.o.d, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."[237]

Standing at the end of the Creed, this article expresses the consummation of the work accomplished for man by the Three Persons of the G.o.dhead. The Father created man and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, that he might glorify G.o.d and enjoy Him for ever; and when, through the fall, man had forfeited the gift of life, G.o.d spared not His own Son, that, through His dying, pardon and blessed life might be brought within the reach of the fallen; the Son a.s.sumed human nature and suffered and died, that He might deliver men from death, temporal and eternal, and procure for them everlasting life; the Holy Ghost, the Giver of life, sanctifies the believer and makes him meet for the inheritance of the saints. All the means of grace were given for the purpose of convincing and converting men, and of preparing them for entrance into and enjoyment of the blessed life in eternity.

The _Everlasting Life_ of the Creed covers more than the immortality of the soul. Even heathens grasped in some measure the fact that the spirit of man survives separation from the body; but life for the body in reunion with the soul is a doctrine of revelation. In the Pagan world various conflicting beliefs were held as to the condition of men after death. Some thought that existence terminated at death; others that men then lost their personality and were absorbed into the deity; and others that the spirit was released by death and then entered on a separate existence, possessed of personality and capable of enjoyment; but of the Christian doctrine of resurrection-life for soul and body in abiding reunion they were altogether ignorant. Those consolations which Christianity brings to the mourner were unknown. There is an interesting letter extant which was written to Cicero, the Roman orator, by a friend who sought to comfort him after the death of his daughter Julia, in which the consolation tendered strikingly marks the distinction between Pagan and Christian views regarding death. Cicero was reminded by his friend that even solid and substantial cities, such as those whose ruined remains were to be seen in Asia Minor, were doomed to decay and destruction; and if so, it could not be thought that man's frail body can escape a similar experience. This is poor comfort in comparison with the hope of glory which sustains the Christian under trial. He knows not only that his soul shall live for ever, but that the life of eternity is one in which the body too, then incapable of pain, weariness, or death, shall have part. "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of G.o.d, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."[238]

Everlasting existence after resurrection will be the portion of the righteous and the wicked. Attempts have been made to explain away various emphatic Scripture statements regarding the doom of the unG.o.dly, with the view of lessening its terrors; but, if we are to accept the plain meaning of these statements, there seems to be no reasonable interpretation of them which gives sanction to the belief that this doom can be escaped.

What is called the doctrine of Conditional Immortality finds not a few advocates and adherents, who hold that existence in the future state is exclusively for the faithful, and that the sentence to be executed upon the wicked at death or at judgment is annihilation. A different belief, termed "The Larger Hope," is maintained by others, who affirm that the punishment to which those dying impenitent are to be subjected will in time work reformation and cleansing, after which, restored to G.o.d's favour, they will enter upon a life of happiness.

It is a strong argument against such doctrines that the same word which our Lord employs to describe the permanent blessedness of the redeemed is used by Him to denote the punishment of the wicked. The reward and the punishment are both declared by Him to be everlasting or eternal.

The same Greek word is in the English New Testament sometimes rendered eternal and sometimes everlasting. The portion of the righteous will be life--life everlasting; that of the wicked is described as consisting, not in annihilation or in terminable suffering, but in "everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power."[239]