THE HIGHER CHRISTIAN LIFE. PART II How Attained. "He went and sold all that he had, and bought that field."Parable of the Pearl. "Have faith in God."-Command of our Lord. "The gift of God is eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ." -St Paul. "Yet half mankind maintain a churlish strife PART II. CHAPTER I. FOR ME? WHAT THEN MUST I DO? "Then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."-ACTS ii. 38. THE Apostle Peter's answer to the question ["what must we do?"] of those pricked to the heart by his pungent words on the day of Pentecost, was substantially the same as the Apostle Paul's answer to the trembling, prostrate Philippian jailer, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." John the Baptist taught repentance toward God, and faith in the Messiah at hand; and his disciples, in pursuance of his teachings, were converted to God, receiving a change of heart by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. But, at the same time, John taught his disciples that the Lord Jesus Christ-the one standing amongst them-the latchet of whose shoes the great prophet was not worthy to unloose-would baptize them with the Holy Ghost and with fire. And when the Holy Ghost came upon the disciples of Jesus on the day of Pentecost, in the power of this new baptism, the Apostle Peter assured the wondering multitudes that it was Jesus who, being risen from the dead, had shed forth this which they saw and heard. It was the ascension gift bestowed upon His disciples, by the enthroned and glorified Messiah. The Scriptures everywhere teach us the same thing. They always answer the question, "What must we do?" by the assurance, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." Whether the question relates to justification or sanctification, the answer is the same. The way of freedom from sin is the very same as the way of freedom from condemnation. Faith in the purifying presence of Jesus brings the witness of the Spirit with our spirits that Jesus is our sanctification, that the power and dominion of sin is broken, that we are free, just as faith in the atoning merit of the blood and obedience of Christ for us brings the witness of the Spirit that we are now no longer under condemnation for sin, but freely and fully justified in Jesus. In the next chapter, the facts that Jesus is the allsufficient Saviour, and that faith is the all-inclusive condition of salvation, will be shewn more at large. In this it may be well to guard against a misapprehension almost sure to arise. There may seem to be in what has already been said, and still more in what remains to be said, an engrossing of all the offices, attributes, and relations of the Godhead- -as we are interested in them-in the Son of God alone. God forbid that there should be, even DANGER OF MISAPPREHENSION. 77 in appearance, any robbery of the glory due to the Father and the Spirit. A few thoughts may serve now to set this matter right, before, in appearance, it shall have gone too far wrong. The attentive reader of the Acts of the Apostles can hardly fail to see that if the title of that sacred book was changed to the Works of the Holy Spirit, instead of the Acts of the Apostles, it would be quite as appropriate as it now is. It opens with a history of the advent of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and proeeeds with an account of the fruits of this baptism in the boldness, energy, wisdom, and power of the apostles, and in the activity, union, happiness, and fellowship of the disciples, and in the triumphs of the gospel. Everywhere it attributes to the Holy Spirit the government and guidance of the apostles. Separating them for their missions, hindering them when they essayed to go wrong, pointing out to them the right way, attending them with power in healing diseases, executing judgment, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, and giving efficacy to their words by falling upon those to whom they spoke while they were yet speaking; and, in general, carrying forward the whole work of God in the Apostolic Church, the Acts of the Apostles is really a history of the works of the Holy Ghost, just as the four gospels are the history of the life and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the same time, the attentive reader must also see that the instructions dictated by the Holy Spirit Himself are always and only to believe on the Lord Jesus |