“Basic Christianity, Part 58” by Romans
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We are continuing in our Series, “Basic Christianity.” Tonight, we are continuing in the review and examination of our Christian walk, as a facet of Basic Christianity. We are going to continue our acrostic review of the phrase, “By Growing in Grace,” in regard to our following in the steps of Christ. We have individually reviewed and examined all of the letters in that phrase. Last week was Part Three for the letter “E” in the word, “Grace.”
So, from Torrey's Bible Dictionary's, from their article: “The Example of Christ.” we covered the Examples Jesus left for us to follow: Holiness, Love and Humility, and Obedience unto death, Meekness, Self-Denial, Taking Up Our Own Cross, and Bearing One Another's Burdens, Ministering to Others. We also looked at the Example Jesus left for us that is absolutely critical to Basic Christianity, namely, Forgiving Offenses and Injuries Committed Against Us. Last week, we reviewed and examined Overcoming the World.
Tonight, in the first of several Installments, we are going to look at another Example that Jesus left for us, namely Goodness. And we are going to look at this from several perspectives in both the Old and New Testaments. Normally, we think of the Old Testament as a Book of the History of the Chosen People in their relationships with God and the many enemies that surrounded them.
We also think of the exploits of the kings most of whom did not follow God, and we highlight and celebrate the few who did. When we think of the Old Testament, we think of the prophets whom God sent when Israels' kings, generation after generation, and century after century, openly and repeatedly sinned against and defied God, and even served other gods. We think of the many prophecies of the coming Messiah Who would redeem Israel, and usher in Righteous Rule at long last.
But the idea of goodness on the part of the average Israelite does not come to my mind, but it is there to be found however briefly. And when I did find it in preparation of this Bible Study, I was quite pleasantly surprised and even inspired by the thought that was conveyed. Goodness appears in the Book of Psalms. I don't mean in Psalm 23 where God is the Source of Goodness, and David writes, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,” (Psalm 23:6).
No, I am speaking of goodness spoken by a believer in, and worshiper of God. Of this, we read: “O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee; But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight” (Psalm 16:2-3).
Of this, Albert Barnes writes, “O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord - The words “O my soul” are not in the original. A literal rendering of the passage would be, “Thou hast said unto the Lord,” etc., leaving something to be supplied. De Wette renders it: “To Yahweh I call; thou art my Lord.” Luther: “I have said to the Lord.”
The Latin Vulgate {renders this}: “Thou, my soul, hast said to the Lord.” The Septuagint: “I have said unto the Lord.” Dr. Horsley: “I have said unto Jehovah.” The speaker evidently is the psalmist; he is describing his feelings toward the Lord, and the idea is equivalent to the expression “I have said unto the Lord.”
Some word must necessarily be understood, and our translators have probably expressed the true sense by inserting the words, “O my soul.” the state of mind indicated is that in which one is carefully looking at himself, his own perils, his own ground of hope, and when he finds in himself a ground of just confidence that he has put his trust in God, and in God alone. We have such a form of appeal in Psalm 42:5, Psalm 42:11; and Psalm 43:5, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?”
Thou art my Lord - Thou hast a right to rule over me; or, I acknowledge thee as my Lord, my sovereign. The word here is not Yahweh, but Adonai - a word of more general signification than Yahweh. The sense is, I have acknowledged Yahweh to be my Lord and my God. I receive him and rest upon him as such.
My goodness extendeth not to thee - This passage has been very variously rendered. Prof. Alexander translates it: “My good (is) not besides thee (or, beyond thee);” meaning, as he supposes: “My happiness is not beside thee, independent of, or separable from thee?” Others render it: “My goodness is not such as to entitle me to thy regard.” And others, “My happiness is not obligatory or incumbent on thee; thou art not bound to provide for it.”
I think the meaning is: “My good is nowhere except in thee; I have no source of good of any kind - happiness, hope, life, safety, salvation - but in thee. My good is not without thee.” This accords with the idea in the other member of the sentence, where he acknowledges Yahweh as his Lord; in other words, he found in Yahweh all that is implied in the idea of an object of worship - all that is properly expressed by the notion of a God. He renounced all other gods, and found his happiness - his all - in Yahweh.
But to the saints that are in the earth - This verse also has been very variously rendered. Our translators seem to have understood it, in connection with the previous verse, as meaning that his “goodness,” or piety, was not of so pure and elevated a character that it could in any way extend to God so as to benefit him, but that it “might” be of service to the saints on earth, and that so, by benefiting them, he might show his attachment to God himself.
In this verse he states, as a further proof of his attachment to him, that he regarded with deep affection the saints of God; that he found his happiness, not in the society of the wicked, but in the friendship of the excellent of the earth. The verse may be thus rendered: “As to the saints in the earth (or in respect to the saints in the earth), and to the excellent, all my delight is in them.”
In the former verse he had stated that, as to God, or in respect to God, he had no source of blessing, no hope, no joy, beyond him, or independent of him; in this verse he says that in respect to the saints - the excellent of the earth - all his delight was in them. Thus he was conscious of true attachment to God and to his people.
Thus he had what must ever be essentially the evidence of true piety - a feeling that God is all in all, and real love for those who are his; a feeling that there is nothing beyond God, or without God, that can meet the wants of the soul, and a sincere affection for all who are his friends on earth. DeWette has well expressed the sense of the passage, “The holy, who are in the land, and the noble - I have all my pleasure in them.”
In the earth - In the land; or, perhaps, more generally, “on earth.” God was in heaven, and all his hopes there were in him. In respect to those who dwelt on the earth, his delight was with the saints alone.
And to the excellent - The word used here means properly “large, great,” mighty; then it is applied to “nobles, princes, chiefs;” and then to those who excel in moral qualities, in piety, and virtue. This is the idea here, and thus it corresponds with the word “saints” in the former member of the verse.
The idea is that he found his pleasure, not in the rich and the great, not in princes and nobles, but in those who were distinguished for virtue and piety. In heaven he had none but God; on earth he found
his happiness only in those who were the friends of God.
In whom is all my delight - I find all my happiness in their society and friendship. The true state of my heart is indicated by my love for them. Everywhere, and at all times, love for those who love God, and a disposition to find our happiness in their friendship, will be a characteristic of true piety.”
The words that come immediately to my mind when I read this verse and this Commentary are Jesus' words: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35). This... this right here is Basic Christianity. Albert Barnes writes of this, “By this shall all men ... - That is, your love for each other shall be so decisive evidence that you are like the Saviour, that all people shall see and know it.
It shall be the thing by which you shall be known among all men. You shall not be known by special rites or habits; not by a special form of dress or manner of speech; not by special austerities and unusual customs, like the Pharisees, the Essenes, or the scribes, but by deep, genuine, and tender affection.
And it is well known it was this which eminently distinguished the first Christians, and was the subject of remark by the surrounding pagans. “See,” said the pagan, “see how they love one another! They are ready to lay down their lives for each other.” Alas! how changed is the spirit of the Christian world since then! Perhaps, of all the commands of Jesus, the observance of this is that which is least apparent to a surrounding world.
It is not so much that they are divided into different sects, for this may be consistent with love for each other; but it is the want of deep-felt, genuine love toward Christians even of our own denomination; the absence of genuine self-denial; the pride of rank and wealth; and the fact that professed Christians are often known by anything else rather than by true attachment to those who bear the same Christian name and image.
The true Christian loves religion wherever it is found equally in a prince or in a slave, in the mansion of wealth or in the cottage of poverty, on the throne or in the hut of want. He overlooks the distinction of sect, of color, and of nations; and wherever he finds a man who bears the Christian name and manifests the Christian spirit, he loves him.
And this, more and more as the millennium draws near, will be the special badge of the professed children of God. Christians will love their own denominations less than they love the spirit and temper of the Christian, wherever it may be found.”
Before the verse I quoted earlier in Psalms 16:2-3, where the believer expresses a desire to extend goodness to the saints on the earth, every previous occasion of “goodness” in the Old Testament was used as an attribute of God. Here, for the first time, we read of “goodness” being written by David, the author of the 23rd Psalm, but of himself: “my goodness,” or as Albert Barnes rephrased it, “I have no source of good of any kind - happiness, hope, life, safety, salvation - but in thee. My good is not without thee.” This is true of all of us.
The Apostle Paul corroborated this when he wrote, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not” (Romans 7:18).
Robert Hawker writes of this: “Let any, yea, let every child of God, in whose spirit the Holy Ghost bears witness that he is born of God, examine what passeth daily in the workings of his own breast, and see whether he is not conscious, as Paul was, of the two different principles by which he is directed.
The I, the Apostle speaks of, that is, the unrenewed body of sin and death, which is carnal, and sold under sin: and the I, that is the inner man, which is regenerated and renewed day by day! Surely there is not a man alive, truly born of God, and savingly called by the Holy Ghost, but must be conscious of those two distinct and opposite principles in himself.
And indeed the Holy Ghost hath taught the Church to judge of his Almighty work of regeneration, by this very conflict between nature and grace, between flesh and spirit. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would, (see Galatians 5:17).
So far is this statement the Apostle hath made of himself to be supposed as referring to the days of his unregeneracy, that until he was regenerate he had no consciousness of any warfare, neither indeed was there in his life, or can there be in any man’s life, while remaining in the state of an unawakened nature.
Paul saith himself in this very Chapter, that he was alive once, before the commandment came in this convincing light in which he saw it by regeneration. It was then only, when brought under the teachings of God the Spirit, that the commandment came, and all Paul’s self-righteousness fell to the ground!
Pause, Reader! and take a leisurely review of the whole. Here is the great Apostle Paul, mourning and groaning over a body of sin and death; in which he declares, dwelt no good thing. He had been savingly converted, and miraculously called by the Lord himself before this, for more than twenty years. He had, during that time, been caught up to the third heaven, and heard unspeakable words, (see 2 Corinthians 12:2).
We must not conclude our view of the Apostle here, without first noticing the lamentable cry he put up, in the contemplation of his sinful nature. Oh! wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? He did not thus exclaim, as if at the time unconscious how, or by whom, he should be delivered from it. For he immediately adds, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
And long before this, he had told the Churches of his safety in Christ. He knew whom he had believed. His hope in Christ was blessed. His crown of righteousness was always in prospect before him, (Philippians 1:20-21; Titus 2:13; 2 Titus 4:6-8). But, while he was perfectly assured of his everlasting safety in Christ, he could not but daily mourn under the remains of in-dwelling corruption, which followed him as the shadow doth the substance.
When God the Spirit hath convinced {or, convicted} of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, every child of God, made thoroughly acquainted, as Paul was, with the plague of his own heart, is conscious of carrying about with him a body of death; and, from the breakings forth of sin in the unrenewed part, is haunted daily with the spectre of his own creating, and in breathing the effluvia {or, offscouring} of his own corruption.
Reader! these are blessed discoveries, however humiliating. They do indeed damp the pride of the Pharisee, and contradict the doctrine of what some men teach, but no man ever found in his own heart inherent holiness. But they endear Christ. They preach daily the necessity of coming to him the last hour of the believer’s life, as he came the first hour of his conversion.”
This is the perfect time to remind all of us that whatever “goodness” we exhibit is a Fruit of the Spirit. We can and do produce the Fruit of “goodness,” along with “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness... faith, meekness and temperance,” (see Galatians 5:22-23) by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
The Sermon Bible tells us of this, “Now what is the fruit of the Spirit? It is the fruit of a heart that has been renewed by the Spirit of God. God does not begin at the outside, at the circumference, but with the heart. He makes the acts and deeds right by making the heart right; He makes and keeps the tongue right by making the heart right.
There is the difference between man’s way and God’s. Man begins at the outside, and tries to work towards the centre; God begins at once in the centre and in the heart, and by changing the heart He changes the life;” J. Culross, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxx., p. 43.
In another excerpt, the Sermon Bible writes, “The Holy Spirit always clusters His work; one Christian virtue necessarily raises up another; there is no such thing as sanctification in a single point. But as one berry in a bunch of grapes cannot ripen but that the others ripen too, so it is with the Christian. Try to eradicate one sin of your character, and you will invariably find that in doing it you will weaken, if you do not pull up, another.
Cultivate one good trait, and you will be surprised to find how many more seem to grow up, you scarcely know how, at its side. So that often this is the best way to carry on one’s own edification: to concentrate one’s prayers and self-discipline upon one particular point of attainment, not only because by that fixedness we shall best secure the growth and the attainment which we desire, but also because by cherishing that one excellence we shall promote all.” ~ J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 5th series, p. 26. References: Galatians 5:22-23.—J. H. Thorn, Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ, 2nd series, p. 239; A.
The Apostle Paul tells us, “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5:8-9). Of this Albert Barnes writes, “For the fruit of the Spirit -
That is, since the Holy Spirit through the gospel produces goodness, righteousness, and truth, see that you exhibit these in your lives, and thus show that you are the children of light. “Is in all goodness” - Is seen in producing all kinds of goodness. He who is not good is not a Christian.”
We are to reflect the goodness of Jesus Christ Who said, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Was this “goodness” an Example Jesus set for us? If Is say “Yes, it was,” it would not be nearly as effective as if I can defer to the Apostle John: He wrote, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16).
Matthew Henry writes of this, “The example of God and Christ should inflame our hearts with this holy love: Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren, (1John 3:16). The great God has given his Son to the death for us. But since this apostle has declared that the Word was God, and that he became flesh for us, I see not why we may not interpret this of God the Word.
Here is the love of God himself, of him who in his own person is God, though not the Father, that he assumed a life, that he might lay it down for us! Here is the condescension, the miracle, the mystery of divine love, that God would redeem the church with his own blood! Surely we should love those whom God hath loved, and so loved; and we shall certainly do so if we have any love for God.
IV. The apostle, having proposed this flaming constraining example of love, and motive to it, proceeds to show us what should be the temper and effect of this our Christian love. And, 1. It must be, in the highest degree, so fervent as to make us willing to suffer even to death for the good of the church, for the safety and salvation of the dear brethren:
And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1 John 3:16). How mortified should the Christian be to this life! How prepared to part with it! And how well assured of a better! It must be, in the next degree, compassionate, liberal, and communicative to the necessities of the brethren:”
Albert Barnes writes, “I. We have here love in its idea, "hereby know we love." Rather "hereby know we The Love." Here the idea of charity in us runs parallel with that in Christ. It is a subtle but true remark, that there is here no logical inferential particle. "Because He laid down His life for us," is not followed by its natural correlative "therefore we," but by a simple connective "and we."
The reason is this, that our duty herein is not a mere cold logical deduction. It is all of one piece with The Love. "We know The Love because He laid down His life for us; and we are in duty bound for the brethren to lay down our lives." Here, then, is the idea of love, as capable of realisation in us. It is continuous unselfishness, to be crowned by voluntary death, if death is necessary.
II. The idea of charity is then practically illustrated by an incident of its opposite. "But whoso hath this world’s good, and gazes upon his brother in need, and shuts up his heart against him, how doth the love of God abide in him?" The reason for this descent in thought is wise and sound. High abstract ideas, expressed in lofty and transcendent language, are at once necessary and dangerous for creatures like us.
Now of course the question for all but one in thousands is not the attainment of this lofty ideal - laying down his life for the brethren. Now and then, indeed, the physician pays with his own death for the heroic rashness of drawing out from his patient the fatal matter. Sometimes the pastor is cut off by fever contracted in ministering to the sick, or by voluntarily living and working in an unwholesome atmosphere...
St. John here reminds us that the ordinary test of charity is much more commonplace. It is helpful compassion to a brother who is known to be in need, manifested by giving to him something of this world’s "good" -of the "living" of this world which he possesses.”
The Preacher's Homiletical adds to this: “Love seen in Self-sacrifice.—“And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Laying down life is the extreme expression of self-sacrifice. We may give up our time, our personal interests, our possessions, our health, in the service of others, and these are beautiful and persuasive expressions of the Christly love.
But that love does not reach its perfection, its full flowering, until, in the spirit of the Lord Jesus, we are prepared to imperil, and even lay down, our lives for the saving of others. Love in self-sacrifice is seen in the home and family life. It may be that we expect it in father and mother; but where there is a fulness of family love we find it in the brothers and sisters. They will spend themselves for each other’s well-being. They will imperil life for each other’s sakes.
And it should be thus in the family of God, among the regenerate sons, who have become, in the very highest sense, brothers. It is not often that the extreme demand is made. But seldom now does the service of Christ call for the laying down of life. Yet the persuasion of St. John will come home to us if we see that laying down life is the extreme limit, and that love can be shown in everything that has the spirit of sacrifice and service, which comes short of the limit.
Therefore Christ set before us the extreme opposite limit, telling us that love could go into the little act of sacrifice, the little trouble and inconvenience in giving a cup of water to a disciple. The essence of a love-gift is the self-denial that is in it. And there is nothing so sweetens, so beautifies, so dignifies our various human associations as the love which can deny self, in order to serve others.
That is artistically, ideally, presented to us in Mary’s bringing the alabaster box of precious ointment to pour upon the Saviour’s feet. It was a love-gift with a woman’s uttermost self-sacrifice at the heart of it. That is sublimely, divinely, presented to us, in the uttermost self-sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, as the persuasion of the “so great love” He had for us.
This concludes this evening's Discussion, “Basic Christianity, Part 58.”
This Discussion was originally presented “live” on November 10th, 2021
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