DISCOURSE: 1901
THE GOSPEL GIVEN TO US AS A DEPOSIT FOR THE JEWS
Romans 11:30-31. As ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
ONE can scarcely conceive how such a chapter as that before us should be in the hands of Christians, and be read by them from time to time, and yet the great subject of the restoration of the Jews, and of their union with the Christian Church, be as little known as if no information whatever had been given respecting it in the Bible. Till of late, it should seem as if there had been as thick a veil upon the hearts of Christians, in relation to it, as there has been upon the hearts of the Jewish people in relation to Christianity itself. Methinks the words which I have just read to you, if there had been no other, were sufficient to unfold to us the whole plan of Divine Providence in relation to this matter. For in them we see,
I. The mysterious way in which God has dispensed his blessings to mankind—
Mark the plan, as it is here developed—
[The whole world having departed from God, they were, with the exception of one family, overwhelmed by an universal deluge. The surviving family soon followed the footsteps of their ancestors; and the whole world, in the space of less than five hundred years, was again involved in darkness and idolatry. It pleased God then to give a new revelation of himself to one single individual, and to confine the knowledge of himself, not to his descendants generally, but to his descendants in the line of one particular son. But that revelation being merely oral, it was preserved only by tradition. Then, after about four hundred and thirty years more, God, for the first time, vouchsafed to man a written revelation. Yet was this written word confined to that single people. The rest of the world, for the space of four thousand years, were left without any written instruction from on high, and were given up to the delusions of their own hearts. Our Lord himself said he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; and he forbad his Disciples to enter into any city of the Samaritans, to instruct them. But at last, when this nation had so abused the light afforded them, as to reject and crucify their Messiah, God took it away from them, and imparted it to the Gentile world, who hitherto had lain in darkness and the shadow of death. Yet, alas! it is to but a small part of the Gentile world that this light is come, notwithstanding it has shined these eighteen hundred years. But it is God’s purpose that, in due season, it shall spread over the face of the whole globe; and that they, to whom the knowledge of his will has been now committed, shall be his instruments for communicating it to all the rest of mankind, both Jews and Gentiles.]
Now I call the whole of this mysterious—
[St. Paul calls it so, in the chapter before us [Note: ver. 25.]: and so great a mystery did he consider it, that, in the contemplation of it, he exclaimed, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out [Note: ver. 33.]!”
But consider these four things: the long delay; the partial bestowment; the subsequent transfer; the final restoration: and every part of it will appear an inscrutable mystery.
That God should leave the world in ignorance for two thousand years—that he should then make himself known to one man only, and confine the knowledge of himself for two thousand more years in one particular branch of that man’s family—that then he should cause the candlestick to be removed from that people; and be set up amongst the idolatrous Gentiles, who had been left to themselves for four thousand years—that eighteen hundred years more should elapse, and the light be not yet spread amongst the Gentiles generally, or restored to the Jews—who does not see, in this whole dispensation, the sovereignty, the uncontrollable sovereignty, of the Most High, who imparts to every one so much only as he himself sees fit, and that too in the time and manner which seems best to his unerring wisdom? The Apostle illustrates this by an olive-tree, the branches of which were broken off, that others might be engrafted on it, and that, at a future period, they might be engrafted again on their own olive-tree [Note: ver. 17–24.]. And, truly, in the whole of this mysterious appointment we must acquiesce, saying, “Even so, Father; for so it hath seemed good in thy sight [Note: Matthew 11:26.].”]
But, though we cannot comprehend this mystery, we know, for certain,
II.
The design of God in it—
This is two-fold;
1. To provoke the Jews to jealousy—
[Moses himself, who gave to the Jews God’s written word, told them, that they would, by their obstinate unbelief, provoke God to withdraw his mercy from them, and to transfer it to the Gentile world: “They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God: they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation [Note: Deuteronomy 32:21.].” This passage St. Paul expressly cites in the preceding context [Note: Romans 10:19.]; and informs the Jews, that God, having in vain dealt with them in the way of mercy and of judgment, was now anxious to try another way, and to influence them through the operation of another principle, the principle of envy; if by any means he might prevail upon them to turn unto him. And, doubtless, this was well calculated to impress their minds with penitential sorrow for their past sins, and with an ardent desire to be restored to his favour. They saw all that their most favoured saints had ever enjoyed now transferred to the Gentile world, whom they had been accustomed to despise as dogs; and pardon, and peace, and holiness, and glory, now imparted to a people whom they had deemed incapable of such blessings; whilst they themselves were given up to judicial blindness and obduracy. True, indeed, this operated rather to increase their anger, than to produce humility: but God’s end was mercy; though they, through their incorrigible perverseness, made it only an occasion of bringing down upon themselves yet heavier judgments. This is a point which we are too apt to overlook. God never intended finally to cast them off, but only to reject them for a season; until, by beholding his mercy vouchsafed to the idolatrous Gentiles, they shall be prevailed upon to humble themselves before him, and to implore a restoration of their forfeited inheritance:—”I say, then, have they stumbled, that they should fall (for ever)? God forbid: but rather, through their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy [Note: ver. 11.].”]
2. To provoke the Christian world to love—
[Mark with care the expression in my text: “They, the Jews, have now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy [Note: Some, on account of the construction of the Greek, and the position of the word ἵνα, have translated the passage differently. But that position of the word ἵνα is common in St. Paul’s writings (see 1 Corinthians 9:15; 2 Corinthians 2:4.Galatians 2:10; Ephesians 3:17.): and, beyond a doubt, our translators have given the true import of the passage. The other translation would destroy the parallelism altogether, and, in fact, the sense also.].” God might, if he had seen fit, have admitted the Gentiles to a participation of his blessings in conjunction with the Jews. But this was not the plan which he, in his unerring wisdom, had ordained. He determined to manifest his displeasure towards the Jews, on account of their rejection of the Messiah; but at the same time to shew mercy to them through the instrumentality of the despised Gentiles. To the Gentiles he gave a yet clearer and fuller revelation than that which he had given to the Jews: and he gave it, not for their benefit only, but as a sacred deposit for the Jews, and as a talent to be improved for their especial use. In bestowing the Gospel on the Gentiles, he said, in fact, ‘Here is salvation for you: but, remember, you must not confine it to yourselves. You must make use of it for the instruction and salvation of the Jews. From you I withheld the light which I bestowed on the Jews: but I do not intend that the light which I am now bestowing upon you should be withheld from them: on the contrary, I purpose that it shall be imparted to them: and I intend to make you my channel of communication to them. See to it, therefore, that you improve this mercy aright, and that you labour incessantly for their good; for I grant this mercy to you, not for your own benefit only, (though, doubtless, it is for yourselves in the first instance,) but for them also, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.’
Thus, in the whole of this dispensation, God has acted in a sovereign way, yet also in a way of mercy;—of mercy to the Jews, whom he would provoke to jealousy; and of mercy to the Gentiles, whom he would provoke to love.]
Permit me now to ASK,
1.
What use have you made of this Gospel for yourselves?—
[Have you “believed it?” Have you, by faith in it, been brought to God? Have you been led to admire and adore the goodness of God, in that, when he withheld his blessings from his own highly-favoured and peculiar people, he conferred them upon you, who were alike unworthy of them, and might well have been left to perish, on account of your abuse of the light with which he had favoured you, and which, small as it was, was sufficient to acquit or to condemn you, according as you conducted yourselves in reference to it? In a word, have you seen the “mercy” of God, as revealed in the Gospel? and are you transported with it, as offering “mercy” to your souls? Does that “mercy,” as bought for you by the precious blood of Christ, form the one ground of all your hopes, and the one spring of all your joys? Remember, if the feebler light vouchsafed to Abraham, and Moses, and David, wrought so powerfully on them, as to guide their feet into the paths they trod, much more should your superior light elevate your souls, and transform you into the very image of your God — — —]
2. What use have you made of the Gospel for your Jewish brethren?—
[Alas! how little have any of us answered the end for which the Gospel has been committed to us, or ever considered the design of God in bestowing it upon us! It is perfectly surprising, that for so many centuries we should have altogether overlooked our Jewish brethren: as if God himself had never given us any charge respecting them; or rather, as if his charge had been, “Into any city of the Jews enter ye NOT:” when, in fact, the command has never been repealed, “Preach my Gospel, to the Jews first, and also to the Gentiles.” Indeed, my brethren, great guilt attaches to us on this account. “What would you yourselves say to your steward, if, when you had committed to him a sum of money for the relief of your distressed neighbours, he had withheld from them your bounty, and had expended it altogether on himself? Yet that were no crime, in comparison of that of which you have been guilty; because the loss occasioned by his dishonesty could, at the worst, only issue in the temporal death of those whom he defrauded; whereas the negligence of the Christian world has issued in the death of men’s souls, yea, of millions of immortal souls, who, if the means which God has put into our hands for their good had been duly improved, might have been saved with an everlasting salvation. Let there be an end of this neglect, my beloved brethren; and now begin, with all assiduity and diligence, to redeem the time that you have lost. Truly, you owe much to your Jewish brethren: and I call upon you to pay your arrears; (“for their debtors ye are “to a vast amount [Note: Romans 15:27.];) and now, by your personal efforts, or through the instrumentality of others, impart to them the mercy which you yourselves have received. Nor do I suggest this as a matter of advice merely, but as an absolute command from God himself. It is not a thing left to your option. You have a trust; and you must discharge it. I call upon you, then, if you have any sense of the mercy vouchsafed to your own souls, to act as faithful stewards to your God, in dispensing mercy to his “beloved,” though suffering and out-cast people.]