"How can these things be?" John iii. 9.
THERE is much instruction conveyed in the circumstance, that the Feast
of the Holy Trinity immediately succeeds that of Whit Sunday. On the latter
Festival we commemorate the coming of the Spirit of God, who is promised
to us as the source of all spiritual knowledge and discernment. But lest
we should forget the nature of that illumination which He imparts, Trinity
Sunday follows, to tell us what it is not; not a light accorded to the
reason, the gifts of the intellect; inasmuch as the Gospel has its mysteries,
its difficulties, and secret things, which the Holy Spirit does not remove.
The grace promised us is given, not that we may know more, but that
we may do better. It is given to influence, guide, and strengthen us in
performing our duty towards God and man; it is given to us as creatures,
as sinners, as men, as immortal beings, not as mere reasoners, disputers,
or philosophical inquirers. It teaches what we are, whither we are going,
what we must do, how we must do it; it enables us to change our fallen
nature from evil to good, "to make ourselves a new heart and a new spirit."
But it tells us nothing for the sake of telling it; neither in His Holy
Word, nor through our consciences, has the Blessed Spirit thought fit so
to act. Not that the desire of knowing sacred things for the sake of knowing
them is wrong. As knowledge about earth, sky, and sea, and the wonders
they contain, is in itself valuable, and in its place desirable, so doubtless
there is nothing sinful in gazing wistfully at the marvellous providences
of God's moral governance, and wishing to understand them. But still God
has not given us such knowledge in the Bible, and therefore to look into
the Bible for such knowledge, or to expect it in any way from the inward
teaching of the Holy Ghost, is a dangerous mistake, and (it may be) a sin.
And since men are apt to prize knowledge above holiness, therefore it is
most suitably provided, that Trinity Sunday should succeed Whit Sunday;
to warn us that the enlightening vouchsafed to us is not an understanding
of "all mysteries and all knowledge," but that love or charity which is
"the fulfilling of the Law."
And in matter of fact there have been very grievous mistakes respecting
the nature of Christian knowledge. There have been at all times men so
ignorant of the object of Christ's coming, as to consider mysteries inconsistent
with the light of the Gospel. They have thought the darkness of Judaism,
of which Scripture speaks, to be a state of intellectual ignorance; and
Christianity to be, what they term, a "rational religion." And hence they
have argued, that no doctrine which was mysterious, i. e. too deep for
human reason, or inconsistent with their self-devised notions, could be
contained in Scripture; as if it were honouring Christ to maintain that
when He said a thing, He could not have meant what He said, because they
would not have said it. Nicodemus, though a sincere inquirer, and (as the
event shows) a true follower of Christ, yet at first was startled at the
mysteries of the Gospel. He said to Christ, "How can these things be?"
He felt the temptation, and overcame it. But there are others who are altogether
offended and fall away on being exposed to it; as those mentioned in the
sixth chapter of St. John's Gospel, who went back and walked no more with
Him.
The Feast of Trinity succeeds Pentecost; the light of the Gospel does
not remove mysteries in religion. This is our subject. Let us enlarge upon
it.
1. Let us consider such difficulties of religion, as press upon us independently
of the Scriptures. Now we shall find the Gospel has not removed these;
they remain as great as before Christ came.—How excellent is this world!
how very good and fair is the face of nature! how pleasant it is to walk
into the green country, and "to meditate in the field at the eventide!"
[Gen. xxiv. 63.] As we look around, we cannot but be persuaded that God
is most good, and loves His creatures; yet amid all the splendour we see
around us, and the happy beings, thousands and ten thousands, which live
in the air and water, the question comes upon us, "But why is there pain
in the world?" We see that the brutes prey on each other, inflicting violent,
unnatural deaths. Some of them, too, are enemies of man, and harm us when
they have an opportunity. And man tortures others unrelentingly, nay, condemns
some of them to a life of suffering. Much more do pain and misery show
themselves in the history of man;—the numberless diseases and casualties
of human life, and our sorrows of mind;—then, further, the evils we inflict
on each other, our sins and their awful consequences. Now why does God
permit so much evil in His own world? This is a difficulty, I say, which
we feel at once, before we open the Bible; and which we are quite unable
to solve. We open the Bible; the fact is acknowledged there, but it is
not explained at all. We are told that sin entered the world through the
Devil, who tempted Adam to disobedience; so that God created the world
good, though evil is in it. But why He thought fit to suffer this, we are
not told. We know no more on the subject than we did before opening the
Bible. It was a mystery before God gave His revelation, it is as great
a mystery now; and doubtless for this reason, because knowledge about it
would do us no good, it would merely satisfy curiosity. It is not practical
knowledge.
2. Nor, again, are the difficulties of Judaism removed by Christianity.
The Jews were told, that if they put to death certain animals, they should
be admitted by way of consequence into God's favour, which their continual
transgressions were ever forfeiting. Now there was something mysterious
here. How should the death of unoffending creatures make God gracious to
the Jews? They could not tell, of course. All that could be said to the
point was, that in the daily course of human affairs the unoffending constantly
suffer instead of the offenders. One man is ever suffering for the fault
of another. But this experience did not lighten the difficulty of so mysterious
a provision. It was still a mystery that God's favour should depend on
the death of brute animals. Does Christianity solve this difficulty? No;
it continues it. The Jewish sacrifices indeed are done away, but still
there remains One Great Sacrifice for sin, infinitely higher and more sacred
than all other conceivable sacrifices. According to the Gospel message,
Christ has voluntarily suffered, "the just for the unjust, to bring us
to God." Here is the mystery continued. Why was this suffering necessary
to procure for us the blessings which we were in ourselves unworthy of?
We do not know. We should not be better men for knowing why God did not
pardon us without Christ's death; so He has not told us. One suffers for
another in the ordinary course of things; and under the Jewish Law, too;
and in the Christian scheme; and why all this, is still a mystery.
Another difficulty to a thoughtful Israelite would arise from considering
the state of the heathen world. Why did not Almighty God bring all nations
into His Church, and teach them, by direct revelation, the sin of idol-worship?
He would not be able to answer. God had chosen one nation. It is true the
same principle of preferring one to another is seen in the system of the
whole world. God gives men unequal advantages, comforts, education, talents,
health. Yet this does not satisfy us, why He has thought fit to do so at
all. Here, again, the Gospel recognizes and confirms the mysterious fact.
We are born in a Christian country, others are not; we are baptized; we
are educated; others are not. We are favoured above others. But why? We
cannot tell; no more than the Jews could tell why they were favoured;—and
for this reason, because to know it is nothing to us; it would not make
us better men to know it. It is intended that we should look to ourselves,
and rather consider why we have privileges given us, than why others have
not the same. Our Saviour repels such curious questions more than once.
"Lord, and what shall this man do?" St. Peter asked about St. John. Christ
replied, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow
thou Me." [John xxi. 21, 22]
Thus the Gospel gives us no advantages in respect to mere barren knowledge,
above the Jew, or above the unenlightened heathen.
3. Nay, we may proceed to say, further than this, that it increases
our difficulties. It is indeed a remarkable circumstance, that the very
revelation that brings us practical and useful knowledge about our souls,
in the very act of doing so, nay (as it would seem), in consequence of
doing so, brings us mysteries. We gain spiritual light at the price of
intellectual perplexity; a blessed exchange doubtless, (for which is better,
to be well and happy within ourselves, or to know what is going on at the
world's end?) still at the price of perplexity. For instance, how infinitely
important and blessed is the news of eternal happiness? but we learn in
connexion with this joyful truth, that there is a state of endless misery
too. Now, how great a mystery is this! yet the difficulty goes hand in
hand with the spiritual blessing. It is still more strikingly to the point
to refer to the message of mercy itself. We are saved by the death of Christ;
but who is Christ? Christ is the Very Son of God, Begotten of God and One
with God from everlasting, God incarnate. This is our inexpressible comfort,
and a most sanctifying truth if we receive it rightly; but how stupendous
a mystery is the incarnation and sufferings of the Son of God! Here, not
merely do the good tidings and the mystery go together, as in the revelation
of eternal life and eternal death, but the very doctrine which is the mystery,
brings to comfort also. Weak, ignorant, sinful, desponding, sorrowful man,
gains the knowledge of an infinitely merciful Protector, a Giver of all
good, most powerful, the Worker of all righteousness within him; at what
price? at the price of a mystery. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us, and we beheld His glory;" and He laid down His life for the world.
What rightly disposed mind but will gladly make the exchange, and exclaim,
in the language of one whose words are almost sacred among us, "Let it
be counted folly, or frenzy, or fury whatsoever; it is our comfort and
our wisdom. We care for no knowledge in the world but this, that man hath
sinned, and God hath suffered; that God hath made Himself the Son of Man,
and that men are made the righteousness of God. " [Note]
The same singular connexion between religious light and comfort, and
intellectual darkness, is also seen in the doctrine of the Trinity. Frail
man requires pardon and sanctification; can he do otherwise than gratefully
devote himself to, and trust implicitly in, his Redeemer and his Sanctifier?
But if our Redeemer were not God, and our Sanctifier were not God, how
great would have been our danger of preferring creatures to the Creator!
What a source of light, freedom, and comfort is it, to know we cannot love
Them too much, or humble ourselves before Them too reverently, for both
Son and Spirit are separately God! Such is the practical effect of the
doctrine; but what a mystery also is therein involved! What a source of
perplexity and darkness (I say) to the reason, is the doctrine which immediately
results from it! for if Christ be by Himself God, and the Spirit be by
Himself God, and yet there be but One God, here is plainly something altogether
beyond our comprehension; and, though we might have antecedently supposed
there were numberless truths relating to Almighty God which we could neither
know nor understand, yet certain as this is, it does not make this mystery
at all less overpowering when it is revealed.
And it is important to observe, that this doctrine of the Trinity is
not proposed in Scripture as a mystery. It seems then that, as we draw
forth many remarkable facts concerning the natural world which do not lie
on its surface, so by meditation we detect in Revelation this remarkable
principle, which is not openly propounded, that religious light is intellectual
darkness. As if our gracious Lord had said to us; "Scripture does not aim
at making mysteries, but they are as shadows brought out by the Sun of
Truth. When you knew nothing of revealed light, you knew not revealed darkness.
Religious truth requires you should be told something, your own imperfect
nature prevents your knowing all; and to know something, and not all,—partial
knowledge,—must of course perplex; doctrines imperfectly revealed must
be mysterious."
4. Such being the necessary mysteriousness of Scripture doctrine, how
can we best turn it to account in the contest which we are engaged in with
our evil hearts? Now we are given to see how to do this in part, and, as
far as we see, let us be thankful for the gift. It seems, then, that difficulties
in revelation are especially given to prove the reality of our faith. What
shall separate the insincere from the sincere follower of Christ? When
the many own Christ with their lips, what shall try and discipline His
true servant, and detect the self-deceiver? Difficulties in revelation
mainly contribute to this end. They are stumbling-blocks to proud and unhumbled
minds, and were intended to be such. Faith is unassuming, modest, thankful,
obedient. It receives with reverence and love whatever God gives, when
convinced it is His gift. But when men do not feel rightly their need of
His redeeming mercy, their lost condition and their inward sinfulness,
when, in fact, they do not seek Christ in good earnest, in order to gain
something, and do something, but as a matter of curiosity, or speculation,
or form, of course these difficulties will become great objections in the
way of their receiving His word simply. And I say these difficulties were
intended to be such by Him who "scattereth the proud in the imagination
of their hearts." St. Peter assures us, that that same corner-stone which
is unto them that believe "precious," is "unto them which be disobedient,
a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence," "whereunto also (he adds)
they were appointed." [1 Pet. ii. 7, 8.] And our Lord's conduct through
His ministry is a continued example of this. He spoke in parables [Vide
Mark iv. 11-25, &c.], that they might see and hear, yet not understand,—a
righteous detection of insincerity; whereas the same difficulties and obscurities,
which offended irreligious men, would but lead the humble and meek to seek
for more light, for information as far as it was to be obtained, and for
resignation and contentedness, where it was not given. When Jesus said,
... "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye
have no life in you ... Many of His disciples ... said, This is a hard
saying: who can bear it? ... and from that time many ... went back, and
walked no more with Him ... Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also
go away? Then Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou
hast the words of eternal life." Here is the trial of faith, a difficulty.
Those "that believe not" fall away: the true disciples remain firm, for
they feel their eternal interests at stake, and ask the very plain and
practical, as well as affectionate question, "To whom shall we go," [John
vi. 53-68.] if we leave Christ?
At another time our Lord says, "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent (those
who trust reason rather than Scripture and conscience), and hast revealed
them unto babes (those who humbly walk by faith). Even so, Father, for
so it seemed good in Thy sight." [Matt. xi. 25, 26.]
5. Now what do we gain from thoughts such as these? Our Saviour gives
us the conclusion, in the words which follow a passage I have just read.
"Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto Me, except it were
given him of My Father." Or, again, "No man can come to Me, except the
Father, which hath sent Me, draw him." Therefore, if we feel the necessity
of coming to Christ, yet the difficulty, let us recollect that the gift
of coming is in God's hands, and that we must pray Him to give it to us.
Christ does not merely tell us, that we cannot come of ourselves (though
this He does tell us), but He tells us also with whom the power of coming
is lodged, with His Father,—that we may seek it of Him. It is true, religion
has an austere appearance to those who never have tried it; its doctrines
full of mystery, its precepts of harshness; so that it is uninviting, offending
different men in different ways, but in some way offending all. When then
we feel within us the risings of this opposition to Christ, proud aversion
to His Gospel, or a low-minded longing after this world, let us pray God
to draw us; and though we cannot move a step without Him, at least let
us try to move. He looks into our hearts and sees our strivings even before
we strive, and He blesses and strengthens even our feebleness. Let us get
rid of curious and presumptuous thoughts by going about our business, whatever
it is; and let us mock and baffle the doubts which Satan whispers to us
by acting against them. No matter whether we believe doubtingly or not,
or know clearly or not, so that we act upon our belief. The rest will follow
in time; part in this world, part in the next. Doubts may pain, but they
cannot harm, unless we give way to them; and that we ought not to give
way, our conscience tells us, so that our course is plain. And the more
we are in earnest to "work out our salvation," the less shall we care to
know how those things really are, which perplex us. At length, when our
hearts are in our work, we shall be indisposed to take the trouble of listening
to curious truths (if they are but curious), though we might have them
explained to us. For what says the Holy Scripture? that of speculations
"there is no end," and they are "a weariness to the flesh;" but that we
must "fear God and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of
man." [Eccles. xii. 12, 13.]
Note : Hooker on Justification
Copyright © 2000 by Bob Elder. All rights reserved.
Used with permission. See the Newman website:
http://www.newmanreader.org/index.html
