“Just for a Moment”

Rev. G.J. Van Aalst, Klaaswaal, the Netherlands

Translated from a rubric of De Saambinder

Three Chains

To properly understand the Epistle to the Romans, it is good to see and to remember some important associations. This time we will consider three chains, each one containing five links. We can read about them in Romans 5, 8, and 10.

We read of the first chain in Romans 5 where five matters are bound together: tribulation, patience, experience, hope, and love. Let these five expressions be duly impressed upon you, one by one. Just read along in the verses 3 through 5 about the knowledge by faith that tribulation worketh patience. Thus the Lord will, through tribulation and suffering, exercise them in patient expectation. We call that patience. Subsequently, in these ways of tribulation our soul will know by experience that God is faithful. That is the experience of the soul. Through experience to sink and rest upon the certainty of Gods being works a well-founded hope. With this hope the Church will never be ashamed. That is also because the love of God is poured out into the heart by the Holy Spirit. These five belong together, one by one, inseparably linked together.

In Romans 8, we come across the second chain of five links: knowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and sanctification. Read along in verses 29 and 30. It concerns God’s knowledge because of eternal election. This God has ordained, that is, expressly determined, that those known from eternity will be conformed to Christ’s image in this time state. Don’t the elders and students at the end of the service pray, “O Son, conform us to Thy image”? The elect are predestinated, therefore, to be conformed to the image of the Son. The third link is that these known from eternity with whom God fulfills His council are powerfully internally called and at the hour of His good pleasure. They are irresistibly quickened. Those who are made alive know of a change of “state”; their judicial relationship to the Judge of heaven and earth becomes completely different, for enemies are reconciled with God, the ungodly are justified, and children of wrath become children of God. That means they are justified. The last of these five links states that, through all the strife, all—known and ordained, called and justified—shall certainly arrive in eternal glory. Just take notice that all five links lay only in the hand of God, not in the hands of a man. How certain is God’s work of salvation!

The third example of a chain we can find in Romans 10: calling upon, hearing, believing, preaching, and sending. Read this for yourself in the verses 14 and 15. Let us this time begin at the end. The Lord begins with the sending of a servant. That is a token that He still has work to do. The servant’s task is just to preach the Word. That Word must be heard when hearers are present and when they listen prayerfully. That is the only means whereby faith is worked in the heart. Subsequently, there will be a calling upon God. That is more than just calling; it is a calling out of a deep need and death, to worship with a wordless humility. It is not only calling upon the Name of God but also the Name of the Mediator, the living Saviour—He of whom Thomas cried out, “My Lord and my God.”

Three examples of a chain with five links inseparably bound together—are they also for you?

Rule of Worship

The institutions of Christ, not the inventions of men, are the rule of worship. Our work is not to make laws for ourselves or others but to keep the laws which the great Prophet of His church has taught us. That coin of worship which is current among us must be stamped by God Himself. We are to be governed as the point in the compass, not by the various winds (the practices of former ages, or the fashions of the present generation, which are mutable and uncertain) but by the constant heavens. Our devotion must be regulated exactly according to the standard of the Word. It is idolatry to worship a false god, or the true God in a false manner.

— George Swinnock

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.

Printen