and drawings, and inspirings of the Holy Ghost. But it is still a more effecting thing to mark and trace the rela tions into which the Lord Jesus puts Himself to the same Scripture. Then, when the ministry of the Lord is over, when the Son has returned to heaven, and the Spirit comes down, He appears (as in the apostles whom He fills to write the epistles) doing the like service for us. For in all the epistles we get quotations from the writings of the Old Testament. Surely it is marvelous! But the Spirit of Him who knows the end from the beginning, accounts to us for it — but nothing less can. And the Book, as has been said, is a greater miracle than any which it records. And it is blessed for us to know and to prove that it prepares us for everything, for all that which surrounds us at this moment. Confusion and corruption may be in finite, but we have it all anticipated in and by the Book, to which, we listen as the witness of everything to us in the name and truth of God. We need not be afraid with any amazement, since we have it. We may (if that be a holy action of the soul) “ deride,” and not “ dread,” the insolent infidelity of the day; and if we have grace, pray for those wicked men, that God would give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. And I would add this: that these citations out of His own writings by God Himself, first in the Person of the Son, and then in the Person of the Holy Ghost, are beau- J 2 0 T \ G V v w tiful in this character to which I before alluded — that as He sent forth these writings as from Himself, at the beginning, being the Source of them, so after they have come forth and been embodied in human forms and accepted of men, as in all languages of the nations, and seated in the midst of the human family, He Himself comes to accredit them there. He has inspired them and sealed them — and we receive them thus introduced to us by Himself — and we ask no more. And we may say of the Scriptures from beginning to end, one part of them cannot be touched without all being affected. To use inspired language, “ whether one mem ber suffer, all the members suffer with it,” God has so tempered all of it together. And I may go further in the same analogy, and say, the uncomely parts have been given more abundant honor; as, for instance, in the book of Proverbs we get as rich and blessed a witness of the Christ of God in His mysterious glories, as we find anywhere. Yes, and I will take on me to add, if all other parts, like the members of the one body, resent trespass and wrong done to any part, so the Spirit will say of God and Scripture, as He does of God and His saints, “ He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye.” I am sure of it. God will make the quarrel of Scripture His own quarrel. “ He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words,” says the Lord Jesus, “ hath one that judgeth him” (John 12:48). Bible Truth Publishers, Oak Park, Illinois
P assages of the O ld T estament cited, as they are in all parts of the New, with many and many a glance or tacit unexpressed reference, link all the parts of the volume together and give it a character of unity and completeness. The contents themselves of the volume do the same. They also give unity and completeness to it; for they are a series of events which stretch from* the beginning to the end, from the creation to the kingdom. And prophecies in the Old Testament of events in the New are as quotations in the New of passages in the Old. And thus, in the mouth of several witnesses of the highest dignity, we have the oneness and the consistency of the divine volume from first to last fully set forth and established. This would tell us that it is all the breathing of one and the same Spirit. Scripture itself announces the same. And again, the contents themselves speak also in this case. Their self-evidencing light and power, the moral glories in which they so brightly, so abundantly, and so variously shine, witness that God is their source. And thus the divine original of the Book, as well as its unity and consistency, are established. And we hold to these truths in the face of all the insult which is put upon them by unreasonable and wicked men; oppositions of criticism, falsely so called, only spend themselves in vain like angry waves upon the seashore. God Himself has set the bounds; and these things only return upon them selves, foaming out their shame. In the progress of the New Testament scriptures, the Lord and the Holy Ghost, in their several ways and sea son, use the scriptures of the Old. This is a sealing of them, if they needed that. But it is so. It is God putting His seal on them after they come forth, as it was He who breathed them before they came forth. As to the Lord, we shall find that He uses Old Testa ment scriptures in several different ways. 1. He observes them obediently, ordering His life, forming His character, as I may speak, according to them. 2. He uses them as His weapons of war, or shield of defense, when assailed by the tempter or by the world. 3. He treats them as authority when teaching or reasoning. 4. He avows and avers their divine original, and their indestructible character, and that too in every jot and tittle of them. 5. He fulfills them, not withdrawing Himself from His place of service and of suffering, till He could survey the whole of them (as far as that service and suffering had respect to them) as realized, verified, and accomplished. In such ways as these, and it may be in others, the Lord honors the Scriptures. What a sight! What a pre cious fact! How blessed to see Him in such relationships to the Word of God, that Word which is the ground and witness of all the confidence and liberty and peace we know before God! We read Psalm 119, there tracing a worshiper’s relation to Scripture, and we find it edifying to mark the breathings of a saint under the teachings.
Divine Perfection in God's Word by John G. Bellett, Belfast, Ireland
17
MARCH, 1964
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