NOTE: Rom. xvi. 25, 26. In this passage we read, first, of the mystery kept secret from the aeonial times, (translated in our English version, Since the world began,) and then of the aeonial God , by whose command this mystery is now made manifest. Is it not reasonable to conclude that the same word, twice used here in the same sentence, must in each case have the same sense. But as applied to times, passing or past, aeonial cannot mean never-ending. In the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, the epithet aionios is only applied to God four times, in one of which the corresponding ____ of the Hebrew is not to be found; though in all the reference is direct, either to the age of ages, or to Gods redeeming work as wrought through the ages. The passages are Gen. xxi. 33, where after the birth of Isaac, the type of Christ, God is known by this name _____; then Isa. xxvi. 4, and xl. 28, in both which the context shews the reason for the epithet; and lastly Job xxiii. 12, in which passage the LXX. have given us aionios for ____ or Elohim, in the original; which name, as we see from a comparison of Gen. i. and ii., (in the former of which God is always Elohim, in the latter Jehovah Elohim,) refers to One who is working through periods of labour to change a ruined world, until His image is seen ruling it; a title not lost when the day of rest is reached, but to which another name, shewing what God is in Himself, is then added. In Exod. iii. 15, we read of Gods __________, that is, His name as connected with deliverance. I believe the word is never used but in this connection. See further below, Note 1, page 66.) And so of the rest, whether redemption, (Heb. ix. 12.) salvation, (Heb. v. 9.) spirit, (Heb. ix. 14.) fire, (Jude 7.) or inheritance, (Heb. ix. 15.) all of which in certain texts are called aeonial, the epithet seems to refer to this in the well-known words, This is life eternal, (that is, the life of the age or of the ages,) that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent? (S. John xvii. 3.) Does He not say here, that to know the only true God, as the sender of His Son to be a Saviour, and to know the Son as a Saviour and Redeemer, mark and constitute the renewed life which is peculiar to the ages? Aeonial or eternal life therefore is not, as so many think, the living on and on for ever and ever. It is rather, as our Lord defines it, a life, the distinctive peculiarity of which is, that it has to do with a Saviour, and so is part of a remedial plan. This, as being our Lords own explanation of the word, is surely conclusive as to its meaning. But even had we not this key, the word carries with it in itself its own solution; for aeonial is simply of the ages; and the ages, like the days of creation, as being periods in which God works, witness, not only that there is some fall to be remedied, but that God through these days or ages is working to remedy it. (NOTE: As to the Old Testament use of the word age or ages, (translated for ever in the English Version,) a few words may be added here. We have first the unconditional promise of God, that the seed of Abraham shall inherit the land for ever; Exod. xxxii. 13. The same words are used of the Aaronic priesthood; Exod. xl. 15; of the office of the Levites; 1 Chron. xv. 2; of the inheritance given to Caleb; Joshua xiv. 9; of Ai being a desolation; Joshua viii. 28; of the leprosy of Gehazi cleaving to his seed; 2 Kings v. 27; of the heathen bondsmen whom Israel possessed, of whom it is said, They shall be their bondsmen for ever; Lev. xxv. 46. The same words are also used of the curse to come on Israel for their disobedience:--These curses shall come on thee, and pursue thee till thou be destroyed; and they shall be upon thee for a sign, and upon they children for ever; Deut. xxviii. 45, 46. so of Ammon and Moab it is said:--Thou shalt not seek their peace for ever; Deut. xxiii. 6; and again, They shall not come into the congregation of the Lord for ever; Deut xxiii. 3. In all these and other similar instances, the Hebrew word Olam and its equivalent aion mean the age or dispensation. In Exod. xxi. 6, where the ear of the servant, who will not go free, is bored, and he becomes a servant for ever, the sense must necessarily be much more limited; as also in 1 Sam. i. 22. It is to be observed also that not only the singular, as in 1 Kings ix. 3, and 2 Kings xxi. 7, but the plural is used in 1 Kings viii. 13, and 2 Chron. vi. 2, in reference to the temple at Jerusalem . The double expression is variously translated by the LXX.; sometimes ________ as in Dan. xii. 3, where it is used of those that turn many to righteousness; sometimes ________ as in Exod. xv. 18, where it is used of God; sometimes _________ as in Psalm xlv. 2, where it is used of Christ and His kingdom; while in Micah iv. 7, the same Hebrew words here are translated by the LXX., and here only, by the plural. More commonly, however, ________ is rendered simply _________ by the LXX., as in Gen. xiii. 15, Joshua iv. 7, and elsewhere. Lastly, in dan. vii. 18, we have both the singular and the plural form together. The adjective aionios is used continually by the LXX.,--in reference to the Passover, Exod. xii. 14, 17,--the tabernacle service, Exod. xxvii. 21,--the priestly office of the sons of Aaron, Exod. xxviii. 43,--the meat-offering, Lev. vi. 18,---and other things of the Jewish dispensation, all of which are called aionios . So in Jer. xxiii. 40, we have _____________ , and ______________, used of the corrective judgments on Israel , whose restoration is also foretold. I will only add that the very remarkable language of S. Paul, (2 Cor. iv. 17,) seems intended to add to the force of the word aionios , which could scarcely be, if aionios meant eternal . Bezas comment here is, _________________. See too Corn. A Lapide, in loco . Be this as it may, the adjective, aeonial or age-long, cannot carry a force or express a duration greater than that of the ages or aeons which it speaks of. If therefore these ages are limited periods, some of which are already past, while others, we know not how many, are yet to come, the word aeonial cannot mean strictly never-ending. Nor does this affect the true eternity of bliss of Gods elect, or of the redeemed who are brought back to live in God, and to be partakers of Christs endless life, of whom it is said, Neither can they die any more, for they are equal to the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection; (S. Luke xx. 36.) for this depends on a participation in the divine nature, and upon that power which can change these vile bodies, that they may be fashioned like unto Christs glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue even all things unto Himself. (Phil. iii. 21. See also 1 Cor xv. 53; Rom. viii. 29; Heb. vii. 16; xii. 28; 1 S. Pet. i. 3, 4, 5; 1 S. John iii. 2. (NOTE: See Heb. vii. 16. The word here used of Christs resurrection-life, which we share with Him, is __________, translated in our Version endless ; literally indissoluble; a word never used in Scripture respecting judgment or punishment, but only of that life which is beyond all dissolution.) (3) It yet remains to shew that this purpose of God, wrought by Him through successive worlds or ages, is only accomplished through death and dissolution... ...which in His wisdom He makes the means and way to life and higher glory; for it is by death, and by death only, that He destroys him that has the power of death, that is the devil, and delivers them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Heb. ii. 15.) Nature everywhere reveals this law, though the divine chemistry is often too subtle to allow us to see all the stages of the transformations and the passages or pass-overs from life to death and death to life, which are going on around us everywhere. But the great instance cited by our Lord, that except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it brings forth much fruit, (S. John xii. 24.) forces the blindest to confess that all advance of life is through change, and death, and dissolution. The seed of the kingdom, which is above all kingdoms, and the seed of the Son, who is above all sons, does not, anymore than the seed of wheat or the seed of man, come to perfection in a moment or without many intermediate changes, but goes from strength to strength, (Psa. lxxxiv. 7.) from the bursting of one shell of life to fuller life, from the opening of one seal to another, and from glory to glory, (2 Cor. iii. 18.) till all is perfected. Christ has shewn us all the way, from the lowest parts of the earth, (Psa. cxxxix. 15.) from the Virgins womb, through birth, and infant swaddling clothes, to opened heavens, through temptation, and strong crying and tears, and the cross, and grave, and resurrection, and ascension, till He sits down at Gods right hand to judge all things. And the elect yield themselves to the same great law of progress through death, and faint not though the outward man perish, that their inward man may be renewed day by day. (2 Cor. iv. 16.) Others may think they will be saved in another way than that Christ trod. His living members know it is impossible. To them, as the Apostle says, to live is Christ; (Phil. i. 21.) and they cannot live His life without being partakers of His sufferings. (2 Cor. i. 5; Phil iii. 10; Col. i. 24.) Therefore we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. (2 Cor. iv. 11.) Because this is so little seen, -- because so many take or mistake Christs cross as a reprieve to nature, rather than a pledge that nature and sin must be judged and die, they think that Christ died that they should not die, and that their calling is to be delivered from death, instead of by and out of it. (NOTE: Our translators have sometimes rendered the Greek words here by the English words from death; as in Heb. 5:7; but the force of the original is always out of death.) How sad that the true meaning of Christs cross is not understood, but rather perverted--and therefore death is shrunk from, instead of being welcomed as the appointed means by which alone we can be delivered from him that has the power of death, who more or less rules us till we are dead, for sin reigns unto death, (Rom. v. 21.) and only he that is dead is freed from sin; (Rom. vi. 7.)--because this, which is indeed the gospel, is not received, or if received in word is not really understood, even Christians misunderstand what is said of that destruction and judgment, which is the only way for delivering fallen creatures from their bondage, and bringing them back in Gods life to his kingdom. As this is a point of all importance, lying at the very root of the cross of Christ and of His members, and giving the clue to all the judgments of Him, who killeth and maketh alive, who bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up, (1 Sam. ii. 6; Deut. xxxii. 39.) I would shew, not the fact and truth only, that for fallen creatures the way of life is and must be through death, but also the reason for it, why it must be thus, and cannot be otherwise. For the cross is not a fact or truth only, but power and wisdom also, even Gods power and wisdom; (1 Cor. i. 18-24.) as power, meeting the craving of our hearts for deliverance; as wisdom, answering every question which our understanding can ask as to the mystery of this life. For both to head and heart life is indeed a riddle, which neither the Greek nor Jew, the head and heart of old humanity, could ever fully solve, though each people by its special craving shewed its wants; the Jew, as St. Paul says, requiring signs of power, for the heart wants and must have something to lean upon; the Greek, mans head or mind, seeking after wisdom, for it felt the darkness and asked for some enlightening. To both Gods answer was the cross of Christ, which gave to each, to head and heart, what each was longing for; power to the one to escape from that which had tied and bound it, for by death with Christ we are freed from the bondage of corruption and from all that hinders the hearts best aspirations; wisdom to the other to see why we must die, and what is the reason for all present suffering. As to the fact and doctrine, a few words may suffice, for in one form or another it is the creed of all Christendom, that for fallen man the way of life is and only can be through death and judgment. The cross the way to life--this is confessedly the special teaching of the gospel. But what is the cross? Does Christs death save us unless by grace we die with him? Our Lord distinctly says, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me; for whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. (S. Matt. xvi. 25.) This is a faithful saying, If we be dead with Him, we shall live with Him: If we deny Him, He also will deny us. (2 Tim. ii. 11, 12.) The saint must say, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. (Gal. ii 20.) We are debtors, not to live after the flesh, for if we live after the flesh we shall die; but if we through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live. (Rom. viii 12-13.) In baptism therefore we profess our death with Christ, that dying with Him we may also live with Him. (Rom. vi. 3, 4.)
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 06:26:30 +0000
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