The apostle proceeds to give instructions founded on the great principles
which he had established-on grace. The Jewish spirit might look on Gentile
kings as enemies, and on Gentiles in general as unworthy of divine favour.
The persecution of which Christians were the object gave the flesh occasion
to nourish these dispositions and to enter into the spirit of the law.
Grace rises above all these thoughts-all these feelings of the heart. It
teaches us to think of all men with love. We belong to a Saviour-God, who
acts in the gospel towards all men with love. Especially were they to pray
for kings and those who had places in the world, that God would dispose
their hearts to allow us to live in peace and quietness in all honesty.
This was well-pleasing to a Saviour-God, who was willing that all men
should be saved and be brought to know the truth. The subject here is not
the counsels of God, but His dealings with men under the gospel. He acts in
grace. It is the acceptable time-the day of salvation. He opens the door
through the blood of Christ, and proclaims peace and a sure reception to
all who come. The work is done; His character fully glorified with regard
to sin. lf they refuse to come, that is the will of man. That God will
fulfill His counsels after all makes no change in His dealings, nor in the
responsibility of men. We have love to proclaim to all-in the spirit of
love in our ways towards them. The distinction between Jew and Gentile
totally disappears here. There is one God, and one Mediator between God and
men, a Man, Christ Jesus. These are the two great truths which form the
basis of all true religion. Judaism had already been the revelation and
testimony in the world of the first: there was one only God. This remains
eternally true, but did not suffice to bring men into relationship with
God. With regard to men He abode within the veil in the darkness which
shrouded His majesty. Christianity, while fully revealing the one God,
presents the second truth: there is one mediator between God and men. There
is one, and there is but one. It is as true that there is but one Mediator
as that there is but one God. This is the great and distinctive truth of
Christianity.
Two things here characterise the Mediator. He is a man; He gave Himself a
ransom for all. The time for this testimony was ordered of God.
Precious truth! We are in weakness, we are guilty, we could not bring
ourselves near to God. We needed a Mediator, who, while maintaining the
glory of God, should put us into such a position that He could present us
to God in righteousness according to that glory. Christ gave Himself as a
ransom. But He must be a man in order to suffer for men, and to represent
men. And this He was. But this is not all. We are weak-here, where we are
to receive the revelation of God; and weak, with regard to the use of our
resources in God and our communion with Him -even when our guilt is blotted
out. And, in our weakness to receive the revelation of God, Christ has
revealed God, and all that He is in His own Person, in all the
circumstances wherein man could have need either in body or in soul. He
came down into the lowest depths in order that there should be none, even
of the most wretched, who could not feel that God in His goodness was near
him and was entirely accessible to him-come down to Him-His love finding
its occasion in misery; and that there was no need to which He was not
present, which He could not meet.
It is thus that He made himself known on earth; and, now that He is on
high, He is still the same. Ho does not forget His human experiences: they
are perpetuated by His divine power in the sympathizing feelings of His
humanity, according to the energy of that divine love which was their
source and their motive power. He is still a man in glory, and in divine
perfection. His divinity imparts the strength of its love to His humanity,
but does not set aside the latter. Nothing could resemble such a Mediator
as this; nothing could equal the tenderness, the knowledge of the human
heart, the sympathy, the experience of need. In the measure which divinity
could give to what He did, and in the strength of its love, He came down,
took part in all the sorrows of humanity, and entered into all the
circumstances in which the human heart could be, and was wounded,
oppressed, and discouraged, bowing down under the evil. No tenderness, no
power of sympathy, no humanity like His; no human heart that can so
understand, so feel with us, whatever the burden may be that oppresses the
heart of man. It is the Man, the Christ Jesus, who is our Mediator; none so
near, none who has come down so low, and entered with divine power into the
need, and all the need, of man. The conscience is purified by His work, the
heart relieved by that which He was, and which He is for ever.
There is but One: to think of another would be to snatch from Him His glory
and from us our perfect consolation. His coming from on high, His divine
nature, His death, His life as man in heaven, all point Him out as the one
and only Mediator.
But there is another aspect of this truth, and of the fact that He is a
Man. It is, that He is not merely a mediator as a Priest upon His throne,
between Israel and the Lord; not simply the Messiah, in order to place
Israel in relationship with their God, but a Man between God and men. It is
according to the eternal nature of God Himself and to the need of men in
His presence. It was of these truths, eternal and of universal bearing,
that Paul was the herald and the apostle.
Possessing a character that belongs to all ages and that goes beyond them,
all these facts had their time to be revealed.
All means dependent on man's use of them had been tried with men-and in
vain, as to recalling him to God; and now the necessary foundations of
their relationship with God had to be set forth, laid by God Himself, and
the Gentiles were to hear the testimony of grace. And such was the
apostle's testimony, "a teacher of the Gentiles in the faith and in the
truth."
Paul has plainly now laid the foundations, and he proceeds therefore to
details. Men were to pray everywhere, lifting up pure hands, without wrath,
and without vain human reasonings. Women were to walk in modesty, adorned
with good works, and to learn in silence. A woman was forbidden to teach or
to exercise authority over men; she was to abide in quietness and silence.
The reason given for this is remarkable, and shews how, in our relations
with God, everything depends on the original starting-point. In innocence
Adam had the first place; in sin, Eve It was she who, being deceived,
brought in transgression. Adam was not deceived, guilty as he was of
disobeying God. United to his wife, he followed her, not deceived by the
enemy but weak through his affection. Without the weakness, it was this
which the second Adam did in grace; He followed His deceived and guilty
bride, but in order to redeem and deliver her by taking her faults upon
Himself. Eve suffered on earth the penalty of her fault in a way which is a
mark of the judgment of God; but walking in modesty, with faith and love
and holiness, she shall be delivered in the hour of her trial; and that
which bears the stamp of judgment shall be an occasion of the mercy and
succour of God.
