In view of certain passages in the Old Testament, not a few have been perplexed by that word, "No man hath seen God at any time" (John 1:18)—words once used as a stock argument by infidels to "prove that the Bible is full of contradictions." Such verses call for the interpreter: to explain their sense, and thereby distinguish between things that differ. Some of those statements which speak of the Lord’s "appearing" to one and another of the ancient celebrities refer to His doing so as the Angel of the covenant; others were theophanic manifestations, wherein He assumed the human form (cf. Ezek. 1:26; Dan. 3:25), presaging the Divine incarnation; others mean that He was seen by faith (Heb. 11:26). When Isaiah declared, "I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple" (6:1), it signifies that he did so with the eyes of his understanding, in prophetic vision, and not with his bodily sight. God, essentially considered, is "invisible" (1 Tim. 1:17), for His essence or nature cannot be seen (1 Tim. 6:16), no, not by the holy angels nor by the glorified saints in heaven. When it is said we shall see "face to face" (1 Cor. 13:12), it imports "plainly and distinctly," in contrast with "through a glass, darkly" (obscurely) in the former part of the verse; though the Lord Jesus actually will be seen face to face.

A careful examination of the different passages in which our Lord is referred to as coming reveals the fact that by no means all of them allude to His personal and public return, when He shall "appear the second time without sin unto salvation" (Heb. 9:28). Thus, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you" (John 14:18), which had reference, first, to His corporate coming unto His disciples after His resurrection and, second, to His coming spiritually at Pentecost, when He gave them another Comforter. "If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him" (John 14:23)—come in the powerful influences of Divine grace and consolation. "And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh" (Eph. 2:16, 17), which was accomplished mediately, in the ministry of His servants, for be who receives them receives Him (Matthew 10:40). "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place" (Rev. 2:5, and cf. 2:16)—that is a judicial visitation. "He shall come unto us as the rain" (Hos. 6:3): every spiritual revival and bestowment of grace is a coming of the Lord unto the soul.

Another example where it is necessary to distinguish between things that differ is to observe carefully the various shades of - meaning given to the word hope. In some passages the reference is to the grace of hope, the faculty by which we expect some future good, as in "faith, hope, charity" (1 Cor. 13:13), of which God is the Author—"the God of hope" (Rom. 15:13). In some verses it is the ground of expectation, that on which it rests, as it is said of Abraham, "Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations," which is explained in what follows: "according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be" (Rom. 4:18)—his hope reposing upon the sure promise of God. In other places it is the object of hope that is in view, the things expected, or the One in whom our confidence is placed, as in "the hope which is laid up for you in heaven" (Col. 1:5), "looking for that blessed hope" (Titus 2:13), "O Lord, the hope of Israel" (Jer. 17:13). Occasionally the term signifies the assurance which is produced, as in "my flesh also shall rest in hope" (Ps. 16:9) and "rejoice in hope. . .hope maketh not ashamed" (Rom. 5:2, 5).

For clearness of thought and soundness of doctrine, it is most necessary to distinguish between the three tenses and the various aspects of God’s salvation. Familiar as we are with that word, it is used with unpardonable looseness (even by the majority of preachers), through failure to recognize that it is the most comprehensive term to be found in the Scriptures, and to take the trouble of ascertaining how it is used therein. Only too often a most inadequate concept is formed of the scope and contents of that word, and through ignoring the distinctions which the Holy Spirit has drawn nothing but a blurred and jumbled idea is obtained. How few, for example, would be able to give a simple exposition of the following statements: "Who hath saved us" (2 Tim. 1:9, and cf. Titus 3:5); "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12); "Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed" (Rom. 13:11, and cf. 1 Pet. 1:5). Now these verses do not refer to three different salvations, but rather to three aspects of one salvation. The first as an accomplished fact—from the pleasure and penalty of sin. The second as a present process—from the power and ragings of sin. The third as a future prospect—from the very presence of sin.

If the balance of truth is to be preserved and the evil practice of pitting one aspect against another, or of over-emphasizing one and ignoring another, is to be avoided, a careful study needs to be made of the different causes and means of salvation. There are no less than seven things which concur in this great work, for all of them are said, in one passage or another, to "save" us. Salvation is ascribed to the Father: "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling" (2 Tim. 1:9)—because of His electing love in Christ. To the Lord Jesus: "He shall save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21)—because of His merits and satisfaction. To the Holy Spirit: "He saved us, by the . . . renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Titus 3:5)—because of His almighty and efficacious operations. To the instrumentality of the Word: "The engrafted word, which is able to save your souls" (Jam. 1:21)—because it discovers to us our need and reveals the grace whereby we may be saved. To the labors of the Lord’s servants: "in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee" (1 Tim. 4:16)—because of their fidelity to the Truth. To the conversion of the sinner, in which both repentance and faith are exercised by him: "save yourselves from this untoward generation" (Acts 2:40)—by the repentance spoken of in verse 38: "by grace are ye saved through faith" (Eph. 2:8). To the ordinances: "baptism doth also now save us" (1 Pet. 3:21)—sealing the grace of God to a believing heart.

Now those seven concurring causes of salvation need to be considered in their order and kept in their proper places, otherwise incalculable harm will be done. For instance, if we elevate a subordinate cause above a primary one, then all sense of real proportion is lost. The love and wisdom of God are the root cause, the first mover of all else. Next are the merits and satisfaction of Christ, which are also the foundation of all else that follows. The effectual operations of the Holy Spirit produce in sinners those things which are necessary for their participation in the benefits purposed by the Father and purchased by Christ. The Word is the chief means employed by God in conviction and conversion. As the result of the Spirit’s operation and the application of the Word in power to our hearts, we are brought to repent and believe. In this, it is the Spirit’s usual custom to employ the minister of Christ as His subordinate agents. Baptism and the Lord’s supper are means whereby we express our repentance and faith, and have them confirmed to us. Nor must those concurring causes be confounded, so that we attribute to a later one what pertains to an earlier one. We must not ascribe to the ordinances that which belongs to the Word, nor to conversion what originates through the Spirit, nor give to Him the honor which is peculiar to Christ. Each is to be carefully distinguished, defined, and kept in its proper place.

The need of distinguishing between things that differ is further evidenced by the following. The walking in darkness of Isaiah 1:10, is not occasioned by the Lord’s withdrawing the light of His countenance, but is due to the absence of ministerial instruction, and therefore is to be explained by Amos 8:11; whereas the walking in darkness of 1 John 1:6, consists of an open revolt from God. The word "dead" in John 6:49, signifies physically; "not die" in the next verse means spiritually; "shall never see death" in John 8:51, has reference to the second death. The passing "from death unto life" of John 5:24, is legal, the reward of the Law—justification; but the passing "from death unto life" of 1 John 3:14, is experiential—regeneration. The "one new man" of Ephesians 2:15, is that mystical body which is composed of saved Jews and Gentiles, whereof Christ is the Head; whereas "the new man" of Ephesians 4:24, is the new state and standing secured by regeneration, and which the recipient is required to make manifest in his daily deportment. Christ’s being "without sin" at His first advent (Heb. 4:15) means that He was personally and experientially so, being the Holy One of God; but His being "without sin" at His second advent (Heb. 9:28) imports imputatively so, no longer charged with the guilt of His people. In such passages as Romans 5:1; Ephesians 2:8; etc., "faith" signifies the act and grace of faith, but in 1 Timothy 3:9; 4:1; Jude 3, "the faith" refers to the body of doctrine revealed in Scripture.

21. The spiritual meaning of Scripture: not simply in the application which may fairly be made of a passage, but its actual content. We have in mind those passages where a material object or historical transaction adumbrated or contemplated spiritual objects and experiences. Great care needs to be exercised here, lest on the one hand we be such slaves to "literalism" that we miss the deeper significance and higher import of many things in God’s Word; or lest on the other hand we give free rein to our imagination and "read into" a verse what is not there or "carnalize" what should be taken in its plain and natural sense. Against both of those evils the expositor needs to be constantly on his guard. Let it also be pointed out that in not a few instances the Scriptures possess both a literal and a mystical force, and one of the tasks devolving upon the interpreter is to bring out each of them clearly. A few examples will make our meaning simpler.

The first six verses of Psalm 19 contain a sublime description of the perfections of God as they are displayed in the material creation, especially in the heavenly bodies; yet it is quite evident that the apostle Paul also regarded what is there said of the sun and stars as their being Divinely designed emblems of the kingdom of grace. For in Romans 10:4-17, we find that he had before him the universal publication of the Gospel, and that in verse 18 he quoted from Psalm 19: "But I say, Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." Ministers of Christ are designated "stars" (Dan. 12:3; Rev. 1:20), for as the stars illumine all parts of the earth, so evangelical messengers scatter the rays of light and truth upon the darkness of an ungodly world. And as there is no speech or language where the voice of the celestial stars is not heard, for they are so many tongues proclaiming the glory of their Maker, so the ministers of Christ have, at different periods of history, heralded God’s good news in every human tongue. On the day of Pentecost men of many nations heard God’s servants speak in their own tongues the wonderful works of God, so that even then the line of the apostles’ testimony "went through all the earth" (Acts 2:9-11, and cf. Col. 1:5, 6, 23).

The propriety of the apostle’s spiritual interpretation of Psalm 19:4, is at once apparent, and it supplies us with an invaluable key for the opening of what immediately follows. In the light of Messianic predictions it is quite clear that what is said in verses 5 and 6 is to be understood, ultimately, of Christ Himself, for in Malachi 4:2, He is expressly called "the Sun of righteousness," who should "arise with healing in His wings." As the sun is a celestial body, so the Saviour is not a product of the earth (John 8:23), but is "the Lord from heaven" (1 Cor. 15:47). Thus the Psalmist went on to say, "In them [the heavens] hath He set a tabernacle for the sun." Attention is focused upon the central luminary in the firmament, all the lesser ones being as it were lost sight of. So it is in the Gospel: one central Object alone is set forth and magnified therein. As the heavens, particularly the sun, exhibit the natural glory of God, so the Gospel, in its revelation of the Son, makes manifest the moral glory of God. Most appropriately is the Gospel likened to a "tabernacle" or tent (rather than a fixed temple), for as Israel’s of old, so it both contains and yet veils Christ’s glory, and is designed to move freely from place to place, rather than be stationary.

"Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber." Just as the sun in the early morning throws back the curtains of his pavilion, issuing forth to disperse the sombreness of night, so in the Gospel Christ appears as a Bridegroom, removing the darkness of unregeneracy from His people, to be loved and admired by all who believe. "And rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race," fully assured of His triumph (Rev. 6:2). "His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it." In Micah 5:2, we are told that Christ’s "going forth have been from of old, from the days of eternity" (margin). Those goings forth were, first, in that everlasting covenant which is ordered in all things and sure, wherein He promised "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God." Second, in the announcements of prophecy, when, from Genesis 3:15, onwards, the curtains were thrown back wider and wider, for the person of the Messiah to appear in increasing distinctness, until in Isaiah 53 He stood forth fully revealed. Third, in the travels of the Gospel from one side of the earth to the other, which will continue until His yet grander appearing. When He shines into a soul "there is nothing hid from the heat thereof." This interpretation is confirmed by verse 7: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul."

The eighth Psalm supplies us with another example of a passage of Scripture having a double purport—a natural and also a spiritual. The principal scope of that psalm, as its opening and closing verses show, is to magnify the Creator—by extolling the wondrous works of His hands. As David beheld the beauties and marvels of the heavens, he had such a sense of his own nothingness that he exclaimed, "What is man [enosh—frail, puny man], that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man [a diminution of "man"], that Thou visitest him?" Then his wonderment deepened as he went on to say, "For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet." Therein we behold both the sovereignty and the abounding grace of God, in so highly elevating one so lowly. This filled the Psalmist with amazement and awe, that God should have placed all mundane creatures in subjection unto man rather than unto angels (Gen. 1:28). Therein we behold the goodness of God to mankind, and the high favor conferred upon them. But that by no means exhausts the scope and sense of those verses.

Psalm 8:4-6, is quoted by the apostle in Hebrews 2:6-8, where he was proving from Scripture the immeasurable superiority of Christ over angels. He was indeed for a little while (during the season of His humiliation) made lower than they, but after He had triumphantly concluded the work given Him to do, God exalted Him far above them. Thus, what was spoken indefinitely of "man" by David, Paul makes a definite and spiritual application of unto Christ, for after saying "we see not yet all things put under Him," he at once added "but we see Jesus," which signifies that we see accomplished in Him the terms of that ancient oracle. All room for doubt on that score is removed by Paul’s next words, "who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor." That Psalm 8 is a Messianic one is further seen by the passages cited from it in Matthew 21:16; 1 Corinthians 15:27, which unquestionably applies to the Lord Jesus. The language used by David, then, was far more than a natural outburst of admiration of God’s works in creation, namely a spiritual ecstasy as he was granted an insight into the mystery of grace, the kingdom of Christ, and the love of the Father unto the person of the Mediator.

But the ravishment of David’s spirit was excited by something more than what has just been pointed out: the "man" whom he contemplated was the "new man," the "perfect man" of Ephesians 2:15, and 4:13—that spiritual Man of which Christ is the Head. David’s utterance had respect, ultimately, not only unto Christ personal, but unto Christ mystical, for the Redeemer shares with His redeemed the spoils of His victory and admits them to a participation in His reward. They are His "joint-heirs" (Rom. 8:17), and it is their glorification which Psalm 8:5, 6, had in final view. Even now the angels are in a position of subordination to them (Heb. 1:14) and in a coming day the redeemed shall be "crowned with glory and honor." "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me on My throne" (Rev. 3:21, and cf. 21:7). The exaltation of Christ is the guarantee of the Christian’s, for He entered heaven as the firstfruits—the earnest of the coming harvest. Oh, what a prospect is there here for faith to lay hold of and hope to enjoy now! If it were more real to us, if we were more engaged in looking away from the present to the future, we should be filled with wonderment and praise, and the petty trials and troubles of this life would affect us much less than they do.

Psalm 89 supplies us with a further illustration of the principle we are here treating, and a very striking and important one it is. Historically it looks back to what is recorded in II Samuel 7:4-17, namely, the covenant which the Lord made with David; yet none with anointed eyes can read that Psalm without quickly perceiving that a greater than the son of Jesse is there in view, namely his Saviour. In the light of Isaiah 42:1, "I have made a covenant with My Chosen, I have sworn unto David My Servant" (Ps. 89:3), it is quite clear that the spiritual reference is to that covenant of grace which God made with the Mediator before the foundation of the world; compare "Then thou spakest in vision to Thy Holy One" (v. 19). This is further confirmed in what immediately follow: "Thy seed will I establish forever, and build up thy throne to all generations" (v. 4), which is not true of the historical David. As Spurgeon remarked, "David must always have a seed, and truly this is fulfilled in Jesus beyond his hopes. What a seed David has in the multitude which have sprung from Him who was both his Son and his Lord! The Son of David is the great Progenitor, the last Adam, the everlasting Father; He sees His seed, and in them beholds of the travail of His soul. David’s dynasty never decays, but on the contrary, is evermore consolidated by the great Architect of heaven and earth. Jesus is a King as well as a Progenitor, and His throne is ever being built up." As we read through this Psalm, verse after verse obliges us to look beyond the literal to the spiritual, until the climax is reached in verse 27, where God says of the antitypical David, "I will make Him My Firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth."