G Bruce Grant
Micah 7: 18-19
I was thinking of this expression, “Who is a God like unto thee”? God, in the beginning of Romans, is known to us as God recovering man for Himself; God has operated from His own side, hence the importance of coming to know God, and growing in our knowledge of God. The knowledge of God will satisfy us eternally. What a wonderful thing that is, and we acquire that knowledge now; therefore the gospel is for unbelievers and for believers, as we see in the epistle to the Romans, which is addressed to believers. So, “Who is a God like unto thee?”. There is no one like God. Think of creation; we were remembering this morning about creation. It brings before us the greatness of God, how He considers for His creature. "He makes his sun rise on evil and good, and sends rain on just and unjust" (Matt 5: 45), God’s impartial goodness in creation towards His creature. We have that knowledge of God, and He sustains His creature, even the lower creation. When God created, everything was perfect. At the beginning of Genesis everything was perfect, then the top-stone of His creation was man. Satan was always against God and what was for God’s pleasure, so he corrupted man. In deceiving Eve, he brought in wrong thoughts as to God, and man was disobedient. Now God has operated from His own side to recover man for Himself, and in that very fact that man was at a distance from God, what God is has been brought out in a far greater way than you see in creation. The creation is wonderful. In the vastness of it, men cannot encompass it; the minuteness of it, the detail of it, and how it all keeps going is all dependent on God. There is God’s power in the creation, God’s greatness, but far greater than that, because of evil coming into the race of man, we see what God is morally, what God is in His heart, what God is in His love for His creature; so, “Who is a God like unto thee”? There is no one like God.
How God has moved from His own side in view of recovery, salvation, deliverance of men, women and children. For God came in Himself. He did not send an angel to do a great work; God came in Himself in the Person of Christ. How wonderful that is! Think of it, God felt the loss of His creature so much that He came in Himself in the Person of Christ. What a stoop of grace, the glory of the incarnation! He moved here amongst men, the Lord Jesus here making God known, approachable. What condescending grace marked the Lord Jesus! How attractive He was to men, women and children. He was God here, manifest in flesh. In the gospel of Matthew it says, “God with us”, chap 1: 24. God came here, amazing thing! God came here in manhood’s form. What wonderful years these were, these years of the life of the Lord Jesus here: “the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins”, Matt 9: 6. He is God in His Person, and God alone can forgive sins. He was here expressing that attitude of God towards His creature. Man could not do anything about his sinful state, his history, his catalogue of sins, his lost condition. He could not do anything about it himself, but God came in Himself and took up the matter in the Person of Christ. And Christ is now at God’s right hand. God has placed Him there. That brings out the greatness of God that God considers for man, that God has placed Christ in that position for man’s favour, for man’s good. God is setting forth Christ as a mercy-seat, “Christ Jesus; whom God has set forth a mercy-seat”, Rom 3: 24, 25. That is Christ in His present position; God is setting Him forth. It is God that is setting Him forth as a mercy-seat, that is God’s throne, and that is taking into account God’s holiness, His righteousness, His supremacy. God has set forth Christ in that position as a mercy-seat. Is that not wonderful? And the mercy-seat has the blood upon it, a witness to a life being given up. That is how much God is considering for you, dear friend. At the present time He is setting forth this One as a mercy-seat, a place where you can meet with Him, have to do with Him, and it is all favourable. In a day to come the throne will not be favourable, it will be for judgment against those who refuse the glad tidings, but in the present day God’s throne is favourable and that is a wonderful thing and nothing can change it. It is dispensing mercy, and God is righteous in dispensing mercy because of the work of Christ. He has been satisfied in relation to the distance that sin has brought in between Himself and His creature, and at what cost to Himself, what cost to the Lord Jesus. God is setting Him forth, He is bringing Him out towards you for your acceptance through faith in His blood. That is how we come into it. It depended on the shed blood of Christ and on that basis, in His death, God is coming out in the way of mercy and forgiveness towards His creature, and He can righteously do it. So to begin with it is the righteousness of God that is available for man in contrast to man’s own righteousness, or supposed righteousness. God has a righteousness for man; it says it is “borne witness to by the law and the prophets”, Rom 3: 21. The very law that made it more obvious than ever that man was a sinner, made the offence abound because man was an offender before the law, had alongside of it the tabernacle system which was typifying the system of Christianity: righteousness was borne witness to “by the law and the prophets”. But now we are not in a time of types or figures, we are in the time when God is coming out in full mercy, first in the way of forgiveness towards His creature. How great that is; the supreme God who hates evil, and we sinners, evil by nature, yet God is desirous to forgive us on the righteous basis of the work of Christ. That tells you what God is like. He is setting this Person forth as a mercy-seat; so you can approach God through Him, have to do with God on the basis of the work of Christ. In chapter 4 of Romans, our way into it is on the principle of faith; you have to believe, take that work and claim it for yourself, believe in God, believe in what the Lord Jesus has done on the cross, have faith in the blood, that it can shelter you from the judgment of God: it can cover you.
It goes on in chapter 4 that He “has been delivered for our offences”, v 25. That is an amazing thing. God delivered Christ for our offences. Here then it brings out what God is like. The Lord Jesus took it on Himself willingly, as involved in God’s will for Him, but God delivered Him for our offences. Think of our horrible offences, and God has sacrificed Jesus, His Son, for these. That brings out the kind of God He is: “Who is a God like unto thee”? God acted in that way, He delivered Him for our offences. “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all”, Rom 8: 32. God has done that. What wrong impressions there are in the minds of men as to God, and the light of the glad tidings is intended to change that completely. The apostle says, “If God be for us, who against us?”, Rom 8: 31. We see in these scriptures how God is for us; "delivered ... for our offences" means He suffered for our offences, that the Lord Jesus on the cross suffered the judgment due to my offences, due to your offences, “and has been raised for our justification”, Rom 4: 25.
God raised Christ for our justification. One aspect of the resurrection of Christ is that, because of who He is, He in His own power could raise Himself; but this side is that God raised Him and that is in view of the blessing of men. Here it is God who has raised Him for our justification, so that we might be completely clear of any charge towards us, even though we have many offences. You are guilty as a sinner, with many offences, but do you know that He has suffered for these instead of you suffering for them? Think of the Lord Jesus on the cross suffering these three hours of darkness, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, Matt 27: 46. What feelings were in the Lord’s heart and mind in saying that, speaking to His God, the One with whom He had always been in perfect communion. No creature could have come under that judgment of God and emerged from it, but the Lord Jesus did. He is no mere creature. The Lord Jesus suffered God’s righteous wrath against sin and sins as made sin upon that cross in the three hours of darkness; therefore, dear friend, if you believe in the Lord Jesus, trust in Him, believe in God and trust in Him, there is no judgment for you. He “has been delivered for our offences”; He “has been raised for our justification”. Then we have peace: “we have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ”, Rom 5: 1. How wonderful that is. God has placed Christ in His present position so that these blessings can be administered and are available for man. God has done that. He has raised Him. He has set Him on high so now there is a whole administration of blessing, and blessings available in Christ and through Christ for the blessing of man. God has arranged that. “Who is a God like unto thee”? There is none can be compared with God, and going through these exercises, coming to the realisation that you are a sinner and realising God’s attitude towards you, you have grown in your knowledge of God, and that is a thing that will remain with you forever. “We have also access by faith into this favour in which we stand”. Think of it! So, as a guilty sinner, but cleansed, justified, you have access into this favour: that is the favour of God, not the judgment of God. Another has borne the judgment of God. “But where sin abounded, grace has over-abounded”, (Rom 5: 20), and we do not see anywhere sin abounding like we do at the cross. That is where sin abounded, and as history proceeds sin abounds and it accumulates. There is no sin abounding like at the cross. “But where sin abounded, grace has over-abounded”; that tells you what God is like. Sin is the thing He hates most, and yet grace has over-abounded. Men did their worst to the meekest Man on earth, to the One who was sinless; they put Him on a cross. There is sin abounding; and grace has over-abounded. God used that occasion so that His glory might shine out. Judgment was due to my sins and your sins, and the sins of those who cruelly crucified His Son, and there is grace abounding, God coming out in mercy towards these very persons and towards ourselves; therefore we may have peace, peace towards God. How wonderful that is: no longer worrying about the burden of your sins, no longer worrying whether everything will be right in the end, you have peace, free and happy in your relations with this God who has operated from His own side in view of your full blessing and salvation and deliverance.
As you see in the chapters that follow, we are left here as believers and we have the flesh still in us and we need deliverance; apart from God it is a hopeless situation. Yet God has come in from His own side and condemned sin in the flesh in His beloved Son, taking that matter up and dealing with it in Christ. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh”, Rom 8: 3. That was done at the cross, but not only that, He has given the Holy Spirit. God has given the Holy Spirit. God is desirous of forgiving your sins, and that is a wonderful thing that God is actually so concerned about you that He wants to forgive your sins. God desires that all men should be saved. That shows God’s feelings: He actually wants you to be saved. And think about God’s feelings towards you: He actually wants to give you His Spirit. That is the truth, and it cost God much. In Exodus, when there is no water when they camped at Rephidim, “Jehovah said to Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel, and thy staff with which thou didst smite the river” - that is not the Red Sea, that is the river in Egypt, that staff - “take in thy hand, and go”, chap 17: 5. That brings out what God thinks about the river of Egypt. It was turned into blood, and Moses smote that river, and God said, ’take that staff’. God does not want His own here, believers here, dependent on the resources of Egypt, “My river is mine own, and I made it for myself”, Ezek 29: 3. It shows what God thinks about persons that go on in an independent way. Moses smote that river, and it is that staff he is to take here, “Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock on Horeb; and thou shalt strike the rock”. God is identified with the rock, there was cost to God and to Christ that the Holy Spirit might be given, “and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink”, Exod 17: 6. There again, you grow in your knowledge of God in that you begin to realise that God considers for you so much that He has provided His Spirit for you because He knows you need the Holy Spirit, but it has not been without cost on the basis of the death of Christ, and because of His present position, the Holy Spirit is available for believers.
These were typically young Christians at the beginning of Exodus, and God provided for them, and God arranged it so that they had been forced to feel their dependence on Him. They had no option. They made their way through the Red Sea and they were in the wilderness and they had no option but to depend on God, and God may arrange circumstances for ourselves so that we are forced to turn to Him, to depend on Him. So God wanted the children of Israel to have their resource in Himself in their pathway here, and that is the situation, and in that way they grew in the knowledge and appreciation of God. Yesterday we spoke about the manna in chapter 16. In verse 6 it says, “And Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, In the evening, then shall ye know that Jehovah has brought you out from the land of Egypt”. Well, you might say, they already knew that Jehovah had brought them out from the land of Egypt, but why in the evening? What happened in the evening was that quails came up. That was God demonstrating the same power as He used in making a way for them through the Red Sea. God in His power could change things completely for us in the wilderness if He wanted to do so, but He does not choose that way. The verse goes on to say, “and in the morning, then shall ye see the glory of Jehovah”, v 7. And what happened in the morning? The dew was there with the manna on it. It says that in verse 13, “And it came to pass in the evening, that quails came up, and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay round the camp. And when the dew that lay round it was gone up, behold, on the face of the wilderness there was something fine, granular, fine as hoar-frost, on the ground”. That was the manna, and that was God’s intention, not to give them quails but to provide the manna for them. There again you see, “Who is a God like unto thee”? Think of it, God Himself has come in in the Person of Christ that He might be food for us and sustain us in a Christian pathway. He thought so much about you that He has done that. You are brought to dependence upon God to be sustained according to God in the wilderness. There is the manna and the well, the water. That brings out what God is like. He has not only provided for us in the way of eternal salvation, but He has provided for us in our wilderness pathway. Who is like unto God? What a wonder that God Himself has come into lowly conditions. That is, "then shall ye see the glory of Jehovah". What glory is in it that God has been manifested in flesh and comes here into ordinary circumstances. We were hearing yesterday of ordinary human life. He did that, not in that instance to save us from our sins, but to sustain us, to be Food for us, to be an Object for our affections, to supply grace for us in the pathway.
What a God we have, who has provided for us in every way we need so that we might trust in Him, have confidence in Him, depend upon Him. I have said before, and it is right, that true dependence is based on confidence. If you thought of it another way, if you were asked to depend on someone in whom you had no confidence, that would be an awful thing; but as you grow in your knowledge of God, you grow in your confidence in Him, therefore you depend on Him, and that is what God desires to bring us to, to feel our dependence upon Him. We will not survive in the wilderness pathway apart from dependence on Himself, finding our resource in Him, turning to Him, turning to the Lord Jesus and to the Holy Spirit. God has come in in the Person of Christ and He has come in in the Person of the Holy Spirit, to be power for the believer. “Who is a God like unto thee”? There is no-one like God, dear friend, and you will have to have to do with Him one day. What a blessed opportunity to have to do with this Person now through the Lord Jesus Christ. We grow in our appreciation of God; God desires man for Himself. What a master stroke of the enemy to bring in distance between God and man, but God has recovered man for Himself, and He will have man eternally for Himself. He has man in the Person of Christ in His presence already, and He will soon have myriads with Christ eternally. What a triumph for God.
God desires that we might be before Him in sonship, set up in Christ in sonship. That comes into Romans also; we can call God our Father, know God as our Father, the One who is intimately interested in us, whom we have a relationship with in affection. That is an amazing thing. God, the supreme One in the universe, has desired to be known in this way as the Father and we creatures can have an intimate relationship with Him, speak to Him in an intimate way, knowing His interest and love and affection for us.
May we be encouraged, seeing how God has acted from His own side in view of our full and eternal salvation, and what a cost it has been to Himself. It is no light matter. “He who, yea, has not spared His own Son, but delivered him up for us all”, but also He provides for us in our whole pathway here, and has provided for us eternally. “In my Father’s house there are many abodes; were it not so, I had told you: for I go to prepare you a place”, John 14: 2. What a wonderful prospect the believer has, to be with Christ for ever in the Father’s house. May the Lord bless the word!
Dundee
18th September 2011