Misunderstood Text of Scripture Explained and Elucidated and the Doctrine if the Higher Life thereby Verified E-Book

Rev. Asa Mahan

• Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 223

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Misunderstood Text of Scripture Explained and Elucidated and the Doctrine if the Higher Life thereby Verified is a collection of explanations of many passages in the bible.

Leseprobe

MISUNDERSTOOD TEXT OF SCRIPTURE EXPLAINED AND ELUCIDATED AND THE DOCTRINE IF THE HIGHER LIFE THEREBY VERIFIED

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Rev. Asa Mahan

LACONIA PUBLISHERS

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Copyright © 2016 by Rev. Asa Mahan

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Misunderstood Text

Preface

Part I

Chapter 1 EXPOSITION OF ROMANS VII. 5–25.

Chapter 2 THE DOCTRINE OF HOLINESS AS HELD BY THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.

Chapter 3 EXPLANATION OF GAL. V. 16-23.

Chapter 4 EXPLANATION OF PHIL. III. 12-17.

Chapter 5 JAMES XXX. 1, 2.

Chapter 6 I JOHN I. 8.

Chapter 7 ANOTHER EXPOSITION OF THE SAME PASSAGE.

Chapter 8 JOHN XIII. 1-17.

Chapter 9 MATTHEW VI. 12.

Chapter 10 PSALM CXIX. 96.

Chapter 11 ECCLESIASTES VII 20.

Chapter 12 PROVERBS XX. 9

Chapter 13 I KINGS VIII. 46.

Chapter 14 JOB IX. 20.

Chapter 15 2 PETER III. 18.

Chapter 16 HEBREWS XII. 6-8

Chapter 17 ROMANS VIII. 22, 23.

Part II

Chapter 1 THE TWO FOUNDATIONS.

Part III

Chapter 1 TESTED BY THEIR FRUITS, AND INTRINSIC TENDENCIES

Conclusion

MISUNDERSTOOD TEXT

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of

Scripture

Explained and Elucidated

and the

Doctrine if the Higher Life thereby Verified.

By Rev. Asa Mahan, D.D.

Author of “The Baptism of the Holy Ghost,” “Out of Darkness into Light,” etc.

PREFACE

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WHENEVER THE PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES of believers in Jesus are set forth in accordance with those teachings represented by such terms as the Higher Life, the Rest of Faith, Perfect Love, and Full Consecration, a certain specific number of passages of Scripture are, by the opposers of those views, cited in disproof of the same. These passages are set forth with no argument to show what their meaning must be, but with the assumption that their meaning is too plain to be misapprehended, and as for ever settling the question at issue. About forty years since, I put into the hands of my Biblical Instructor, the celebrated Moses Stuart, of Andover, Massachusetts, U.S., a work containing a carefully-written exposition of all those passages. I did so with the statement that I had expounded these and other passages in the light of the principles of Biblical interpretation which he had taught me, and with the earnest request that, if I had erred in the application of those principles, he would show me wherein I had done so. When I next met the aged and venerable Professor, he addressed me in these words: “I have read your book as you requested. I have done so with much interest and profit. I find the argument throughout sound and scriptural.” The most careful subsequent observations of quite forty years’ continuance have fully confirmed the writer in the absolute assurance of the correctness of those expositions, together with the assurance, equally absolute, that not one of these passages, when correctly interpreted, has the remotest bearing in opposition to the Higher Life teachings, while most of them confirm such teachings. Those expositions, in a flew, enlarged, and matured form, are set forth in the following pages. The design of the author in publishing this little work is, not only to take a great stumbling block out of the way of enquirers after a knowledge of their revealed privileges, as believers in Jesus, but to furnish a greatly needed Manual to which an appeal may be confidently had, when any of these passages are cited in disproof of the teachings under consideration.

London, Nov. 22, 1876.

PART I

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CHAPTER 1 EXPOSITION OF ROMANS VII. 5–25.

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IN THE JUDGMENT OF ALL who are acquainted with the facts of the case, the main issue, or at least one of the chief issues, between those who advocate, and those who deny, the doctrine of what is called The Higher Life, does and must turn upon the exposition which should be given of the single passage above referred to.

Mistake corrected.

At the outset of our enquiries into the real meaning of this passage, we deem it expedient to correct the following statement made some time since by Canon Ryle upon this subject. We do this because the impression very extensively prevails in the Churches, that this statement represents the real facts of the case. His statement is this: “Arminians, Socinians, and Pelagians, have always maintained that it does not describe the experience of an established believer. Nevertheless, the greatest divines in every age since the Reformation have steadily and continuously maintained, that it is a literal, perfect, accurate photograph of the experience of every true saint of God.” Now it must be borne in mind, that, as a matter of undisputed historic verity, up to the time of the later years of Augustine, in the latter part of the fourth century, the entire Primitive Church, Augustine himself included–that is, from the Apostles on through the entire martyr age–understood and expounded this passage as we do; that is, as in fact and form, describing a legal, in opposition to the faith, experience described in the eighth chapter. It must also be borne in mind, that since the time when Augustine adopted and introduced this totally new, and before unheard-of, exposition, the vast majority of the most learned commentators throughout Christendom have rejected the new exposition, and adopted and defended that of the Primitive Church. We have no fear that these statements will be contradicted. If they are, proof is at hand. If the reader will “inquire for the old paths and walk in the same,” he will reject this new, and accept the primitive, exposition of this passage. This he will also do in conformity with the united view of the vast majority of the most learned and Christian expositors of all ages. It is a fact worthy of special consideration, that the main basis of the doctrine opposed to that of the Higher Life, is an exposition of a single passage, an exposition started in the latter part of the fourth century, and which has ever run counter to the ocean current of Biblical exposition which has come down directly from the Apostle to the present time. The validity of the above statements will be fully verified in a subsequent part of our exposition of this passage. Nor is the validity of these statements questioned by any individuals who are well informed in regard to the facts of the case.

The Primitive and Post-primitive Expositions of thispassage.

I shall assume as an admitted fact–a fact, also, to be hereafter fully verified–that from the Apostles down to the later years of the life of Augustine, in the later part of the fourth century, the Fathers of the entire Primitive Church–Augustine himself included–definitely and specifically expounded this passage as we do; and that since this period the majority of the learned Christian expositors have accepted and defended the exposition of that Church. As preparatory to a full consideration of the issue before us, let us for a moment contemplate the circumstances under which the Epistle to the Romans was written. In the Scriptures of Truth, Christ is revealed “as made of God” to all believers; and that exclusively, “wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,” and all in common and with equal exclusiveness “ through faith in the grace of God through Christ.” The one proposition, “The just shall live by faith,” presents the sum and substance, and all the distinguishing peculiarities, of this Gospel. Everywhere this doctrine was openly confronted by dogmas of the most subversive character–those of Judaism on the one hand–and heathen formalism and false philosophy on the other. With the Jew the law was exclusively, “wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,” and the just are to live, not by faith, but by “deeds of law.” The central object and aim of the apostle, in. his Epistle to the Romans, was an absolute verification and vindication of the doctrines of salvation, in its entireness, by faith, in opposition to all the false dogmas to which it then stood opposed, particularly those of Judaism. In accomplishing his object, he, in the first six chapters, fully elucidates and verifies the doctrine of justification by faith, as the only ground of acceptance with God. All having “sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” the entire race–Jews and Gentiles in common–are for ever and hopelessly cut off from the possibility of being justified “by deeds of law.” Having answered all conceivable objections to the doctrine which he maintained–having shown that it is the privilege and duty of the believer to be “dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord,” and that no one can continue in sin without excluding himself from Divine grace, and insuring to himself “the wages of sin which is death,"–the apostle then, in Chapters vii. and viii., sets forth specifically, in fact and form, the relations and moral tendencies of the doctrine of sanctification by deeds of law, on the one hand, and of sanctification by faith, on the other. In the commencement of Chapter vii. he lays down the proposition that the believer has become “dead to the law,” that “he might be married to another, Christ,” and this as a means to this end, that “he might bring forth fruit unto God.” The reason and necessity of this death to the law and union with Christ by faith are twofold; that in the former relation–from no fault in the law, but wholly on account of the power of “the flesh,” or of the sinful propensities–obedience to the law and will of God–that is, moral virtue in all its real forms–is utterly impossible to man; and that in the second relation, union to Christ by faith, such obedience, with all forms of moral virtue, is not only possible, but becomes actual in the experience of all in whom the Spirit of God, in its fulness, dwells. The exclusive object of the apostle in Romans vii. 5–25, is to elucidate and verify the first of the above propositions; to render it a divinely revealed and demonstrated truth, that moral virtue, or obedience to the law of righteousness, through any mental determinations and efforts put forth under the influence of motives drawn from the law, will be utterly fruitless and abortive. His equally exclusive object in the eighth chapter, on the other hand, is to elucidate and verify the second of the above propositions; to render it a divinely revealed and demonstrated truth, that, united to Christ by faith, with “the spirit of grace strengthening us with might in the inner man,” the “righteousness of the law will be fulfilled in us,” that “we shall not be in (under the power of the) flesh, but in (under the control of) the Spirit,” and that “we shall then have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life,” “and” that in all things we shall be, “not” carnal arid sold under sin, “but” more than “conquerors through Him that hath loved us.”

Such were these two passages, as understood and specifically interpreted by the entire Primitive Church from the apostle down to the later years of Augustine. As thus interpreted, both passages occupy places of fundamental importance in the epistle, and harmonise fully with the known plan and purpose of the same. As thus interpreted, Rom. vii. 5–25 stands as “the flaming sword of the cherubim turning in every direction,” not to “keep the way of The Tree of Life,” or of the Holy of Holies of faith, love, and full obedience to the law and will of God, but to guard the believer in Jesus against all approach and advance in the direction of legal righteousness, and all forms of its carnal servitudes, hopeless captivities under the law of sin and death, and worse than abortive efforts after obedience to the law of righteousness. This interpretation of these two chapters undeniably moved, as God’s pillar of fire in the forefront of the Church, from the apostle down through the martyr age, and was the grand secret of her patient endurances, deeds of righteousness, triumphs and victories, and has been the light of believers in all ages; believers who have, in the fullest and highest forms, attained to “the glorious liberty of the sons of God.”

According to the post-primitive exposition, the apostle, after requiring believers to reckon themselves “dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord,” after assuring them that “because they are not under law but under grace,” “sin shall not have dominion over them,” and that they “have become dead to the law by the body of Christ” and “married to another,” Jesus Christ, “that they might bring forth fruit unto God,” turns round verses 14–25, and affirms that under grace, just as under the law, individuals, notwithstanding their faith in Christ, and the power of the Spirit working in them, remain “carnal, sold under sin,” “approve and delight in the law of God after the inner man,” but never find grace or power to “perform that which is good,” and notwithstanding their faith and purposes of obedience, are always brought and held “in captivity to the law of sin in their members.” This undeniably is “a literal, accurate, correct photograph” of this post-primitive exposition.

According to the primitive exposition of Chapters vii. and viii., the apostle pursues the identical method of argument in demonstrating the validity of the doctrine of sanctification by faith, that he had (Chapters i.–vi.) in verifying that of justification by faith. In the latter case, he first demonstrates the absolute impossibility of any member of the human family, Jew or Gentile, being “justified by deeds of law,” and then verifies and elucidates the great doctrine of justification by faith. So in Chapters vii. and viii. the apostle first (Chap. vii. 5–25) demonstrates the absolute impossibility to man of attaining to real holiness or obedience to the law and will of God, through legal efforts under law, and then (Chap. viii.) lays open the highway of holiness through faith. This primitive exposition undeniably imparts a glorious unity to this whole epistle, and harmonises Romans vii. 5–25 with all the other revelations of the Word of God. What place this post-primitive exposition can have in this epistle, or in the Scriptures, or what its influence can be in Christian experience, but to “make void” both the law and the Gospel, we may safely challenge “ the greatest divines in every age since the Reformation to show.” Let us now turn our attention directly to the question, Which of these two expositions, the primitive or post-primitive, is the true one? All agree that Paul speaks of himself in both these chapters, not as an individual, but as a representative man. According to the former exposition, he speaks of himself as representing the legalist under the law in Chap. vii. 5–25, and as a believer in Jesus in the following chapter. According to the latter exposition, he speaks of himself as representing believers after Chap. vii. 14.

Very needful Explanation.

By some expositors of Scripture, it is supposed that the apostle, in the passage before us, describes the experience of an unconverted person, in distinction from that of the converted man, as portrayed in the next chapter of this epistle. This is not our view at all. If this were the true view, the passage under consideration would be of no use whatever to the believer in any circumstances, or in any state, into which he might, at any time, fall. The manifest object of the apostle is, to guard not merely unconverted persons, but believers especially, against a fatal error to which all, who “seek righteousness” in any form are exposed. Two methods, not only of justification, but of sanctification also, are distinctly set before us in this epistle–that by faith–and that “as it were by deeds of law.” To the latter, the apostle thus refers (Rom. ix. 30–32): “What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone.” Before all the world the Jews stood forth as the advocates of the Legal, and the Apostles and their associates as the advocates of the Faith, method of Righteousness in all its forms. Each class held forth their own as the only, and exclusively, valid method. The Churches everywhere swarmed with Judaizing teachers who, under the guise of “apostles of Christ,” sought to draw off believers from the Faith, to the Legal, method of righteousness. Under the influence of such “false apostles,” some “made shipwreck of the faith,” others, “who had begun in the spirit,” afterwards “sought to be made perfect in the flesh,” and all were in danger of being “corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” The object of the apostle, as we understand him, is to guard all, both Jews and Gentiles, converted or unconverted–to guard all who “follow after righteousness,” against “seeking it, not by faith, but as it were by deeds of law.” This he aims at by demonstrating the fact that all without exception, who thus seek, will fail of their object. In our day, there are Moralists who repudiate the method of Faith in all its forms, and seek to be “made perfect in the flesh.” There are Formalists who, in reality, know nothing of “the righteousness which is of faith.” There are sincere believers, also, who seek justification by faith, and sanctification “as it were by deeds of law.” All such, in common, read their experience in this Seventh of Romans. “Wherefore? Because they seek it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law.” The object of the apostle, as we understand him, is to subvert utterly this Legal method in whatever form men, in accordance with that method, may seek sanctification, or “follow after the law of righteousness.” With these explanations, let us turn to a direct consideration of the issue before us: the inquiry, Which of these two contradictory expositions, the Primitive or Post-primitive, is the true one?

The absolute Unanimity of the Primitive Church in respect to this Primitive Exposition.

We have said that, up to the later years of the life of Augustine, the entire Primitive Church–Augustine included–attached one fixed and exclusive meaning to this passage, namely, that the apostle here, in fact and form, describes a Legal, in opposition to a Faith, Experience described in the subsequent chapter, and in other parts of this epistle. Two questions here arise, viz., Is this statement true? and, What is its real bearing upon the issue before us? We will consider these two questions in the order presented.

This Unity verified as a fact.

If we should recur to the testimony of learned men who have most carefully studied the facts of the case, we should find an entire unanimity of judgment among them in respect to the perfect validity of the above statements. “It will be admitted,” says Prof. Stuart, in his world-renowned commentary on this epistle, “by those who are conversant with the dispute about the meaning of the passage before us, and are well read in the history of Christian doctrine, that Augustine was the first who suggested the idea that it must be applied to Christian experience.” No individual has studied the history of Christian doctrine more profoundly, if as profoundly, as Neander. In all his most careful researches he found no trace whatever of this Post-primitive exposition prior to the period designated by Prof. Stuart. Everywhere, on the other hand, that great historian (Neander) found, in most distinct development, the presence of this Primitive exposition. Speaking of the passage under consideration, Prof. Tholock says, “The more ancient teachers of the Church had unanimously explained it of the man who has not yet become a Christian, nor is upheld in the struggle by the Spirit of Christ.” So Origen, Tertullian, Chrysostom, and Theodoret. At an earlier period Augustine also followed this view. “Augustine,” says Meyer, in his most learned commentary,” in his earlier days acknowledged in harmony with the Greek fathers since Irenaeus that the language here is that of the unregenerate man.” The statement of such authors as the above remains uncontradicted; nor has any individual been able to find in any of the writings of the Primitive Church prior to the period designated, a sentence, word, or syllable in contradiction to “that we have designated as the Primitive exposition of this passage.

Let us now turn to these primitive writers themselves. The following is Augustine’s primal exposition as given in his Homilies on this epistle. ‘Intelligiter,” he says, “hunc ille homo describi, qui nondum sub gratia.” That is, “It is understood, that that man is here described who was never under grace.” We must bear in mind that Augustine gives the above, not merely as his own view of the passage, but as the accepted exposition of the Church. “It is understood,” that is, it is my own and the accepted exposition of the Church. It is a remarkable fact that Jerome, who afterwards accepted the new view of Augustine, had, in his earlier writings, also affirmed the validity of the primitive exposition, so universal was that exposition in the primitive Church.

We must bear in mind that it was in a heated controversy with Pelagius, that Augustine conceived and avowed this new and before unheard-of exposition. The latter rightly affirmed, and the former erroneously denied, the total depravity of the natural man. In his argument, Pelagius referred to the passage under consideration, saying that this was a palpable case, in which, by the universal assent of the Church, the state and character of the unregenerate man is described. He then asked, if approving the right, and hating the wrong, and “delighting in the law of God,” did not imply that there was something good even in such a man? Augustine could not deny the fact, the case being so palpable, of the universal agreement of the Church in the deduction that it was the unregenerate man referred to in the passage; nor did he perceive how, admitting the correctness of the universally received exposition, he could meet the argument of his opponent. Under such perplexity Augustine denied the validity of his own and the universal, and adopted the few and before unheard of, exposition, a most needless resort, and a most calamitous one for the spiritual good of the Church. The fact that the sinner continues “carnal, sold under sin,’ ‘notwithstanding his conscience approves the right, reprobates the wrong, and even “delights in the law of God,” presents the strongest possible proof of the intensity and totality of the natural sinfulness of man. We are fully and undeniably justified, therefore, in claiming for what we have designated as the “Primitive” exposition of the passage, the universal assent of the Church prior to the later years of Augustine.

As we have not now space to cite passages from all the various primitive expositions, one or two must suffice. Speaking of the words, “I am carnal” (verse 14), Theodoret says, “He calls that man carnal who has not yet obtained spiritual aid.” Another of these Fathers thus explains the words: “I find then a law that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.” “ I find,” i.e., I have considered and comprehended the force and nature of the law. I have discovered for certain it has no power to help me. How does this appear? “Because when I wish to do good, it helps nothing, but evil is equally present, making my will unexecuted.” In precisely similar language do Chrysostorn, Theophylact, Ambrose (a Syriac interpreter), and others, explain these words. With similar unanimity do all the primitive Fathers explain the whole passage under consideration, and explain it as referring not to the Christian under grace, but to individuals under law, and acted upon by legal motives only.

The validity of the Primitive Exposition absolutelyverified by the facts before us.

Let us now turn our thoughts to a consideration of the bearing of the facts before us. We refer now especially to the strictly unanimous assent of the Primitive Church to what we have properly designated as the Primitive Exposition of this passage. The great central fact before us we hold to be demonstrably inexplicable, but upon one exclusive hypothesis, namely, the validity of this Primitive exposition. The Epistle to the Romans was written and sent to Rome several years prior to Paul’s going there. Such, also, was the nature of its contents as to render it the subject of the deepest interest and enquiry on the part of all believers and their Jewish opponents in the city. During his residence there, his real views throughout the epistle, and especially in the portion of it under consideration, must have been so fully explained that they could not have been misunderstood. Then, through the messengers which constantly visited him from all the Churches, and went from him to said Churches, this passage could not but have been universally and very definitely understood. If it had been his object in this passage to “photograph the experience of every true saint of God,” the fact could not but have been well known in all the Churches. 1f on the other hand, it had been his object to photograph a Legal, in opposition to a Faith, Experience, this fact could not but have been equally well and universally understood. The strictly universal assent of the Primitive Church during more than the first three centuries of the Christian Era, to this Primitive Exposition as the true apostolic one, admits of but one explanation–namely, that this exposition was originally received directly from the apostle himself, and has come down to us in its genuine apostolic form.