IN CHRIST IS OUR INHERITANCE. "Brethren," saith the Apostle of the Gentiles, Gal. iii. 15—29, " I speak after the manner of men: though it be hut a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannuleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made." In Gen. xii. 7, when Abraham was first led into the land which he was afterwards to receive for a possession, the Lord, who then gave the free promise, said not "to seeds," as of many, but " Unto thy seed will I give this land:" which One Seed is Christ. It is as being in Him, that the inheritance can he enjoyed by the people; it is as being one with Him who is the Head, that the members of the body of Christ can be blessed as was promised; and the blessing in Hun was freely promised to a multitudinous seed, to be brought forth of the posterity of Joseph, and especially of Ephraim: Gen. xlviii. 15—20; xlix. 22—26. The covenant given upon oath unto Abraham, and confirmed thus to Ephraim, cannot he made void: "And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was 430 years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore, then, serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made." The entering into that which was promised was to be by the key of David, by the fulness of the Spirit's ministration,— By angels in the hand of a mediator,"—of that blessed Mediator in whose right hand are the seven stars, the angels of the churches. All power of ministring is His, who is not only of men, one of the parties concerned in the covenant: He is also God, who is one, and will not go back from His word, nor break the oath which He sawre unto our fathers. He will introduce into the fulness of blessing, through the fulness of the Spirit's ministration, received by faith. "Is the law, then, against the promises of God? God forbid for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law." But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before that faith came (and Christ is our faith) we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed," as He was in his first coming, and shall be much more gloriously in His second appearing. "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." He is the One Son of God, in whom the many sons of God are found accepted in his sight. "For as many of you as have been baptised into Christ, have put on Christ." "There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." It is true, there is some difference between male and female as to ministration in the church; just as there is between different members of the body: so is there also between the church of the first-born Ephraim and the other portions of Israel, and also of the Gentiles. There are peculiar advantages bestowed a THE BOOK OF OUR INHERITANCE. upon some, and, correspondent thereto, particular duties are required to be performed by these, which are not so expected from those upon whom the like favours have not been bestowed; but none is excluded from the body, because of his natural descent, or his earthly position. There may be a variety of capacity, opportunity, and office, and also some difference as to the degrees of reward; but there is Oneness of headship, of body, and of spirit, and we are also called in one hope of our calling. "And if ye be Christ's,"—members of the body of Christ, who is the Son of Abraham,—" then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." The Lord, who keepeth truth for ever, is, indeed, true to the free promise which he made as to the posterity of Joseph; but when the Lord makes the promised discovery of the long-lost children of Rachel, and of his marvellous grace unto them, so that the nations shall know" He hath not dealt so with any people," then is not the stranger to say, " The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people." In Isa. lvi. 6—8, the word of the Lord is," The sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord,"—submitting to the commandment,"Thou shall have no other gods before me;" " To serve him," obeying the second commandment, which forbids the service of images,—" And to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants,"—being obedient thus in heart and life to the third commandment, which forbids the taking the name of the Most High in vain; — "Every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant," which points forward to the day of the Lord, when redemption shall be completed; as does the fourth commandment, which also commemorates the finishing the work of creation;—"Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Then- burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people. The Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel, saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are already gathered." The Lord will prove faithful to the outcasts of Israel; and he will also show kindness to the dispersed of Judah; but not exclusively to either, or to both. He will also be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. The opening up of the Book of the Covenant was to be through the ministration of the Spirit, by the Lamb, after he had been slain, and previous to his coming forth in kingly power to take possession of the Inheritance. Then shall he inherit all nations; and it shall be found that "Jacob is the lot of his Inheritance." The progress of God's great Revelation of his purposes with regard to the promised Inheritance, especially to the One Seed, Christ, is given, Rev. v. The Sealing thereof to the multitudinous seed; and the recognition of the lost children of Ephraim, who were to obtain, in Him, the birth-right blessing, we find Jer. xxx. xxxi. We are now come to the time when the Son of God, through the ministration of the Spirit, was to open the Book of their Inheritance to the children of promise, previous to his coming forth in fulness of power to take the dominion, and give them possession. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not, with Him, freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 32. THE BOOK. Rev. v. 1. "And I saw in the right hand Of Him that sat upon the throne, A Book, written within and on the backside, Sealed with seven seals." He who sits upon the throne is our Faithful Creator. He created all things; and for his pleasure they are and were created. He hath a right to dispose of all things as seemeth to Him good; but how He does intend to dispose of them—and what is the allotted portion of man, in the good He intends ultimately to produce, when creation shall so far answer the end of its original design, as that it may be delighted in by Him; and how the various workings shall conduce to the bringing his great purposes into full accomplishment—much of this has remained enveloped in mystery. He at first formed man in innocence, and gave him perfect enjoyment in the Garden of Delight. In the exercise of his sovereignty, he then gave to man the lordship over the earth. All things here were placed under his feet. The Creator, as a token of his superior right, reserving only one tree in the midst of the garden. Through the power of the tempter, inducing the woman to desire the possession of that which the Most High had forbidden, man failed in his allegiance. The crown hath fallen from our head; and woe is unto us, for we have sinned. Yet then a promise was made, implying a covenant of mercy with man, even in the Lord's pronouncing judgment upon the serpent, to whom it was said, " And I will put enmity between thee and the woman; and between thy seed: and her seed it shall bruise thy head; and thou shall bruise his heel." How this bruising of Satan's head was to take place, and in what it was to consist, and what was to be the full result of the purpose here avowed, remained, however, comparatively hid. Farther on, we find the Lord entering into covenant with Noah, and promising to man the domi nion again of every creature on the earth, Gen. ix. 1—17. All is delivered into his hand, even to the slaying of the inferior animals, whilst the life of man is not to be touched with impunity. But although all was thus declared to be man's, in the design of Him who had shewn himself abundantly powerful to accomplish his purpose, still the matter remained a mystery—how the mastery, thus promised, was to be obtained, and what is to be the condition of man when this end shall be arrived at. Nor has man ceased to shed man's blood; nor has man replenished the earth, according to the design of him who made it not in vain, hut formed it to be inhabited. Farther on still, we find the covenant with Abraham, with regard to an inheritance upon the earth and over the earth; and the heirs of the inheritance, including himself and his One Seed, and also his multitudinous posterity—they being, with that One Seed, made heirs of blessing through faith. The promise (Gen. xii. 7,)" To thy seed will I give this land," referred, as we find, Gal. iii 16, to the one seed, Christ, through whom, by the power of the anointing, the bless THE MINISTRATION OF THE BOOK BY MOSES. : ing was to come upon the multitudinous seed which were specially to come, not of the tribe or house of Judah, but of the house of Israel, and chiefly of Ephraim. To Ephraim and Manasseh was given the birthright blessing, which had been given by God, upon oath, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The latter of these, and that by faith, blessed both the sons of Joseph when he was dying. Yet Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all died without obtaining any possession of the land, which was absolutely promised to them, as well as to their posterity, for an everlasting possession. And the multitude of nations to come of Ephraim have not been recognised in the earth, although they were to fill the face of the world with fruit: And although the one seed, Christ, hath come, he hath, to the view of man, neither taken nor given possession. As for himself, he had not where to lay his head; and immediately after his coming, the Jews were entirely disinherited, and so remained. Temporary possession had, indeed, been given of the land to Israel, as coming out of Egypt, according to the terms of a covenant, which, as compared with the covenant made with Abraham before the law, and when he was yet in uncircumcision, may be called the outside writing of the book. It regarded what was present and seen: whereas, the other covenant, by which the inheritance was made sure to all the seed, and which was apprehended by faith, regarded matters more deep and remote, and far more enduring, even everlasting:—standing not in the power of man, but in the immutable will of Jehovah, and to be brought to pass in his own way and in his own appointed time. As to the particulars of which blessing, and the time, and way of obtaining it, there was a constant call for faith in God, and for patient waiting upon his own development of his purposes. That other possession of the land, according to the law, has ceased through disobedience. The house of All Israel have, for the predicted seven : times, or 2520 years, lost, not only all inheritance in the land, but the very name of being the people who were specially chosen of God to inherit the promises and those of the seed of Israel who have been allowed to retain anything of the name, have been but too visibly under the curse—witnesses among all nations of the just judgment of God in disinheriting them. And the justice of this sentence has been unconsciously witnessed to by all nations, in the refusing them inheritance in the countries into which they have wandered. Strangers in their own country, they have been aliens in every other. Paul, speaking on the subject of these two writings, saith pointedly, " For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law," the Jews, "but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham," the other house of Israel, who had lost the law, and to whom the Lord was to manifest himself, as under the New Testament dispensation, in the countries into which they were to come. The precious things of the earth, and the fulness thereof, and the good-will of him that dwelt in the hush,—the blessing in all its richness and fulness was to come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren. Thus was it written in the Book in the right hand of Him who sitteth on the throne; who had, by his own right-hand workings, given evidence of its being his; who, by mighty signs and wonders through the ministration of Moses, had abundantly proved that the God of Revelation is the God of creation and of providence. Exod. xv. 6; Is. lxiii. 12. |