Hence, after this, we find the Spirit acting in the heart of a Gentile
(chap. 7). That heart manifested more faith than any among the children of
Israel. Humble in heart, and loving the people of God, as such, for the
sake of God, whose people they were, and thus raised in his affections
above their practical wretched state, he can see in Jesus One who had
authority over everything, even as he himself had over his soldiers and
servants. He knew nothing of the Messiah, but he recognised in Jesus
[see note #22]
the power of God. This was not mere idea; it was faith. There was no such
faith in Israel.
The Lord then acts with a power which was to be the source of that which is
new for man. He raises the dead. This was indeed going beyond the pale of
the ordinances of the law. He has compassion on the affliction and misery
of man. Death was a burden to him: Jesus delivers him from it. It was not
only cleansing a leprous Israelite, nor pardoning and healing believers
among His people; He restores life to one who had lost it. Israel, no
doubt, will profit by it; but the power necessary to the accomplishment of
this work is that which makes all things new wherever it may be.
The change of which we speak, and which these two examples so strikingly
illustrate, is brought out in treating of the connection between Christ and
John the Baptist, who sends to learn from the Lord's own mouth who He is.
John had heard of His miracles, and sends his disciples to learn who it was
that wrought them. Naturally the Messiah, in the exercise of His power,
would have delivered him from prison. Was He the Messiah? or was John to
wait for another? He had faith enough to depend on the answer of One who
wrought these miracles; but, shut up in prison, his mind desired something
more positive. This circumstance, brought about by God, gives rise to an
explanation respecting the relative position of John and Jesus. The Lord
does not here receive testimony from John. John was to receive Christ upon
the testimony He gave of Himself; and that as having taken a position which
would offend those who judged according to Jewish and carnal ideas-a
position which required faith in a divine testimony, and, consequently,
surrounded itself with those whom a moral change had enabled to appreciate
this testimony. The Lord, in reply to John's messengers, works miracles
which prove the power of God present in grace and service rendered to the
poor; and declares that blessed is he who is not offended at the humble
position He had taken in order to accomplish it. But He gives testimony to
John, if He will receive none from him. He had attracted the attention of
the people, and with reason; he was more than a prophet-he had prepared the
way of the Lord Himself. Nevertheless, if he prepared the way, the immense
and complete change to be made was not itself accomplished. John's
ministry, by its very nature, put him outside the effect of this change. He
went before it to announce the One who would accomplish it, whose presence
would bring in its power on the earth. The least therefore in the kingdom
was greater than he.
The people, who had received with humility the word sent by John the
Baptist, bore testimony in their heart to the ways and the wisdom of God.
Those who trusted in themselves rejected the counsels of God accomplished
in Christ. The Lord, on this, declares plainly what their condition is.
They rejected alike the warnings and the grace of God. The children of
wisdom (those in whom the wisdom of God wrought) acknowledged and gave
glory to it in its ways. This is the history of the reception both of John
and of Jesus. The wisdom of man denounced the ways of God. The righteous
severity of His testimony against evil, against the condition of His
people, shewed to man's eyes the influence of a devil. The perfection of
His grace, condescending to poor sinners, and presenting itself to them
where they were, was the wallowing in sin and the making oneself known by
one's associates. Proud self-righteousness could bear neither. The wisdom
of God would be owned by those who were taught by it, and by those alone.
Thereupon these ways of God towards the most wretched sinners, and their
effect, in contrast with this pharisaic spirit, are shewn, in the history
of the woman who was a sinner in the Pharisee's house; and a pardon is
revealed, not with reference to the government of God in the earth on
behalf of His people (a government with which the healing of an Israelite
under God's discipline was connected), but an absolute pardon, involving
peace to the soul, is granted to the most miserable of sinners. It was not
here merely the question of a prophet. The Pharisee's self-righteousness
could not discern even that.
We have a soul that loves God, and much, because God is love-a soul that
has learnt this with regard to, and by means of, its own sins, though not
yet knowing forgiveness, in seeing Jesus. This is grace. Nothing more
touching than the way in which the Lord shews the presence of those
qualities which made this woman now truly excellent-qualities connected
with the discernment of His Person by faith. In her were found divine
understanding of the Person of Christ, not reasoned out indeed in doctrine
but felt in its effect in her heart, deep sense of her own sin, humility,
love for that which was good, devotedness to Him who was good. Everything
shewed a heart in which reigned sentiments proper to relationship with
God-sentiments that flowed from His presence revealed in the heart, because
He had made Himself known to it. This, however, is not the place to dwell
upon them; but it is important to remark that which has great moral value,
when what a free pardon really is is to be set forth, that the exercise of
grace on God's part creates (when received into the heart) sentiments
corresponding to itself, and which nothing else can produce; and that these
sentiments are in connection with that grace, and with the sense of sin it
produces. It gives a deep consciousness of sin, but it is in connection
with the sense of God's goodness; and the two feelings increase in mutual
proportion. The new thing, sovereign grace, can alone produce these
qualities, which answer to the nature of God Himself, whose true character
the heart has apprehended, and with whom it is in communion; and that,
while judging sin as it deserves in the presence of such a God.
It will be observed, that this is connected with the knowledge of Christ
Himself, who is the manifestation of this character; the true source by
grace of the feeling of this broken heart; and also that the knowledge of
her pardon comes afterward.
[see note #23]
It is grace-it is Jesus Himself-His Person-that attracts this woman and
produces the moral effect. She goes away in peace when she understands the
extent of grace in the pardon which He pronounces. And the pardon itself
has its force in her mind, in that Jesus was everything to her. If He
forgave, she was satisfied. Without accounting for it to herself, it was
God revealed to her heart; it was not self-approval, nor the judgment
others might form of the change wrought in her. Grace had so taken
possession of her heart-grace personified in Jesus-God was so manifested to
her, that His approval in grace, His forgiveness, carried everything else
with it. If He was satisfied, so was she. She had all in attaching this
importance to Christ. Grace delights to bless, and the soul that attaches
importance enough to Christ is content with the blessing it bestows. How
striking is the firmness with which grace asserts itself, and does not fear
to withstand the judgment of man who despises it! It takes unhesitatingly
the part of the poor sinner whom it has touched. Man's judgment only proves
that he neither knows nor appreciates God in the most perfect manifestation
of His nature. To man, with all his wisdom, it is but a poor preacher, who
deceives himself in passing for a prophet, and to whom it is not worth
while to give a little water for his feet. To the believer it is perfect
and divine love, it is perfect peace if he has faith in Christ. Its fruits
are not yet before man; they are before God, if Christ is appreciated. And
he who appreciates Him thinks neither of himself nor of his fruits (except
of the bad), but of the One who was the testimony of grace to his heart
when he was nothing but a sinner.
This is the new thing-grace, and even its fruits in their perfection: the
heart of God manifested in grace, and the heart of man-a sinner-responding
to it by grace, having apprehended, or rather having been apprehended by,
the perfect manifestation of that grace in Christ.
