Digibron cookies

Voor optimale prestaties van de website gebruiken wij cookies. Overeenstemmig met de EU GDPR kunt u kiezen welke cookies u wilt toestaan.

Noodzakelijke en wettelijk toegestane cookies

Noodzakelijke en wettelijk toegestane cookies zijn verplicht om de basisfunctionaliteit van Digibron te kunnen gebruiken.

Optionele cookies

Onderstaande cookies zijn optioneel, maar verbeteren uw ervaring van Digibron.

Bekijk het origineel

Poverty

Bekijk het origineel

+ Meer informatie

Poverty

7 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

Since believers are frequently described as poor in God's precious Word, for example, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3), and “The poor committeth himself unto Thee” (Psalm 10:14), and other similar places, it will not be necessary to prove that spiritual poverty is an operation of saving faith, and that faith makes poor. Christ describes such as blessed.

All orthodox expositors comment upon poverty of spirit as an operation of faith. Of a truth, there never has been and there never will be such a poor man, but through faith alone. But perhaps one will say, “How can this be, a believer a poor man and faith an impoverishing work, since believers possess so many treasures, and faith gives them an actual right to all?” Wilt thou know in what respect they are not poor and in what respect they are so? We will tell you, dearly beloved, and thus answer the question.

Negatively, the true grace-taught favorites of Jehovah are not poor, but rich in the following respects:

1. They are not poor, but rich in God. Since they are God's children, they are heirs of God (Romans 8:17), so that they can say with the psalmist, “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever” (Psalm 73:26). The lines are fallen unto them in pleasant places, and in this respect they have a goodly, rich, and excellent heritage. Wilt thou know what riches are signified in having God for one's portion? Attend, and I will describe them briefly:

a. Their riches consist in this, that God is their God, which is great wealth, according to the word of that promise: “I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (Genesis 15:1); “I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people” (Hebrews 8:10). These are riches which shall remain when all others are consumed.

b. They are rich in having the love of God active concerning them, from eternity and in time, which means much more than can be expressed; for in His love He is immutable, in His love He is tender-hearted, father-like, and more loving than a mother toward her tender babe.

c. They are rich in God, since all His perfections are, like a great treasure, for the purpose of filling their emptiness and for their comfort:

(1) His mercy, being the sounding of His bowels toward them, enriches them with the forgiveness of sins, which is excellent riches; and to be freed from punishment makes believers the possessors of great treasure.

He will forgive them, while the sins of others are retained; but to His people He says, “I , even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake” (Isaiah 43:25).

He forgives the greater as well as the lesser; though they be as scarlet and crimson, He will make them as white as snow and wool (Isaiah 1:18). He says, “From all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you” (Ezekiel 36:25).

He will forgive them all, both those actually committed and those which will be committed, by renewed assurances and appropriations of forgiveness following upon their repentance; with Him there is forgiveness that He may be feared (Psalm 130:4).

He will forgive them all freely; “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake” (Isaiah 43:25).

He will remember them no more for ever. Oh, what riches and inexhaustible treasures of free mercy!

(2) But His holiness also constitutes their riches, in making them to be conformed to His image, whereby they are to be sanctified, to increase in glory, and remain constant.

(3) They are rich in God's omniscience. His eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth; to Him there is nothing hid nor covered. Hence He sees all their enemies, all their needs and difficulties, and by His almighty power will pull them from the snare and from the pit in which no water is. Where should I begin and end if I would speak of all the riches which every child of God possesses in God Himself?

2. Just as they are rich in God, so also they are rich in God's only begotten Son, their Surety, in which respect they are described as perfect, without spot, and are already set down with Him in heaven. Christ's poverty is their riches; His death, their ransom; His resurrection, their justification; His ascension, in order to prepare a place and to take a possession for them in heaven; His intercession is the satisfaction for their daily offences; His wisdom for their blindness; His power to support them. In a word, all things are theirs, because they are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

3. They are rich in the Holy Spirit. His indwelling, His operation, His leading, His help, it is all theirs; excellent treasures.

4. They are rich on account of their well-grounded right to a great inheritance. Such a right generally is either by birth or by testament; but with them upon both grounds. They are children of God through the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God (Romans 8:17). Christ also gives them a right to these great riches through His last will, confirmed with His blood and signed in His death with capital letters (Luke 22:29).

5. They are not poor, but rich through the covenant of grace, which God establishes and enters into with them. “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David” (Isaiah 55:3). For which reason they can say in all seasons, where faith is but active, “Although my house be not so with God; yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although He make it not to grow” (2 Samuel 23:5).

6. They are not poor, but rich in promises which are, so to speak, so many obligations passed under the great seal. They all bear the divine mark and character; thus, their riches consist not so much in money to hand, but rather in bonds which they possess. Now these are numerous; there is not one promise from Genesis 3:15 to the end of Revelation which is not theirs. Oh, may the soul be able to believe it!

7. They are not poor, but rich in their state. Oh! each is the child of a King; each is of high origin. In this there is not distinction among God's people, for they are all sons and daughters of the Most High, and such sons as shall not and cannot become bastards.

8. They are rich in grace; the Spirit of God gives each who is born through the word of truth, all the members and parts of a man in Christ Jesus. There is no single grace, but the one has it even as much as the other; though in one it may appear stronger and more constant than in another. Weeping and tear-stained eyes can storm the heart of Christ as well as clearer and more penetrating ones.

9. Finally, they are rich in expectation. A believer has a great capacity, an excellent expectation. All creation would not satisfy it; only then shall they be satisfied when they awake with God's likeness. When the clay tabernacle is taken down and broken up, then they have a building of God, a city, not made with hands, but eternal in the heavens, whose builder and maker is God; so that they can cry to each other, “It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know, believe, and expect that we shall see Him as He is.” See then here the riches in God and His grace, which shall remain when worldly kingdoms shall have ceased to exist, and earthly treasures shall be consumed by fire. God causes those that love Him to inherit that which endureth, since counsel and sound wisdom are His.

— Alexander Comrie (1706-1774)

— to be continued —

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Bekijk de hele uitgave van maandag 1 december 2003

The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's

Poverty

Bekijk de hele uitgave van maandag 1 december 2003

The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's