1910 80 Q. — Is it right to view Christ as the Son of God only since His birth into this world, or is He the eternal Son? K.H.
A. — Not only is the Lord Jesus, Son of God as born into the world (Luke 1:35; Acts 13:33), but this title is equally His from all eternity, as Scripture plainly reveals. Or how otherwise can we understand the following statements?
"Whose Son is he? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son" (Matt. 22:42-45; Mark 12:35-37; Luke 20:41-44)? "God gave his only begotten Son" (John 3:16). "God sent not his Son into the world to judge," etc. (John 3:17). "God sent his only begotten Son into the world" (1 John 4:9-10). "God sent forth his Son" (Gal. 4:4). "Say ye of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God" (John 10:36)? "The Father sent the Son …" (1 John 4:14). "The Son of his love … the firstborn of every creature, for by him were all things created," etc. (Col. 1:13-17). "God … hath … spoken unto us by his Son … by whom also he made the worlds," etc. (Heb. 1:1-3). "Melchisedec … without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God" (Heb. 7:3). We know that the Son of God is come" (1 John 5:20).
These scriptures are surely plain to a simple mind; and Dr. Adam Clarke's rationalistic reasoning as to the Eternal Sonship of our blessed Lord has no just force. He was answered by Abraham Scott in 1828, and subsequently by Richard Treffry, jun., in his well-known work, "The Eternal Sonship of our Lord Jesus Christ."
1910 175 Q. — Will you kindly say whether, in your opinion, there is any good reason critical, exegetical, or other, for preferring the following rendering of Isa. 53:12 to that of the Authorised Version: "I will give him the great for his portion, and he shall divide the strong for a spoil"? C.J.C.
A. — This rendering was substantially so given in our first printed English Bible (Coverdale, 1535), as well as previously in the early Wycliffite Manuscripts of the fourteenth century. But these versions were made from the Latin Vulgate, which (as well as the Greek Septuagint) was itself but a translation; so that these English editions were translations of a translation, and not made from the original Hebrew of the Old Testament.
Tyndale had, however, set the way in taking the original languages of the Scriptures as the text from which an English translation of the word of God should he given; and had issued in 1525 his (first printed) version of the New Testament translated from the Greek. He also began an English version of the Old Testament from the Hebrew, but did not live to do much more than the Pentateuch. It was not until the appearance of the Geneva Bible (of 1560 and later) that a direct version from the original tongue of the Old Testament was given in English, and this is how the verse is there rendered: "Therefore will I give him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoyle with the strong"; followed by the Bishops' revised (1568), "Therefore wil I give him among ye great ones his part, and he shall divide the spoyle with the mightie."
The distinguished Hebrew scholars (amongst others) appointed in 1607 to give us our excellent King James' Version were therefore acquainted with these two renderings of the verse, and had to face the consideration of their respective faithfulness to the original. And, as we see, they were led to accept the sense as given in the ancient Syriac Version, and adopted by Pagninus, Leo Judah, Castalio, the Geneva, Bishops' and Diodati's (Italian), as the more correct rendering of the Hebrew. Our Revisers of 1884 also have confirmed this conclusion, in which also J.N.D. and W.K. apparently concur, with many others.
All hangs upon the view that is taken of the two Hebrew particles (beth) and (eth) (translated "with" in both clauses of the sentence of our Authorised Version). In support of the rendering submitted by the querist the first particle is assumed by some to be used here pleonastically, rather than as (usually) a preposition. But this treatment of the second letter of the alphabet as a connective with its object of the Hebrew original of the verb "divide" finds no corroboration or countenance from any part of the Old Testament, and would appear therefore to be a philological impropriety.
Also as to the second (eth), Prov. 16:19 (bis) and verses 9 (bis) and 12 ("with the transgressors") of our chapter all go to confirm the rendering "with" in the clause we are considering. Hence the majority of the best Hebrew scholars, so far as I know, are in accord with our Authorised and Revised Versions.
How then are we to understand the words? The prophet by the Spirit of God describes in metaphorical language the future triumphs of the earth — despised and suffering Servant of Jehovah (compare Isa. 63:1). What are the "great" ones of the earth in the presence of Him to whom Jehovah will divide a portion? He is heir of all things and above all. But if He be thus singled out from all others by Jehovah Himself ("to him will I divide"), yet will He deign to divide the spoil with the strong. He loves to share with others what He has rescued from the power of the enemy. Such is His grace as the reigning Son of man (compare Isa. 11:14; Jerem. 51:20-23; Zech. 10:3-12).
1910 176 Q. — Would you kindly explain through the Bible Treasury the meaning of:
1. "Who shall declare his generation" (Isa. 53:8)?
2. "Who shall deliver me out of this body of death" (Rom. 7:24)?
3. "So then I myself with the mind serve God's law" (Rom. 7:25).
4."For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2).
5. "All them also that love his appearing" (2 Tim. 4:8). Do not all Christians love His appearing? R.M.
A. — (1) Isa. 53:8. Differing interpretations of this clause are by no means wanting. But if the words preceding indicate the wicked travesty of our Lord's trial before the Roman governor" his judgment was taken away" — so it would appear that the prophet, under the sense of the nation's overwhelming wickedness in compassing the rejection and death of Jehovah's Righteous Servant, is led to cry out, "Who shall declare such a generation as could be so guilty — "for he was cut off out of the land of the living"!
(2, 3 and 4). Rom. 7:24-25; Rom. 8:2. The converted or renewed soul — not yet brought into the christian state of liberty and peace, but nevertheless truly born of God, as were also the Old Testament saints — has a new and holy nature not previously possessed (i.e. when unconverted), and delights in the law of God, yet finding itself powerless for good, because of indwelling sin (ver. 20). To will is present, but to work out the good is not. The body being thus under the power of, and enslaved by this fatal "law of sin and death," is here called "this body of death," dead because of sin. Hence the cry, when the soul's powerlessness is felt and acknowledged, for a deliverer — found in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Looking to self for power has ceased; another is the Object before the soul, and so deliverance is found, and strength. "So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God," whereas before, as sold under sin, it was no longer "I" but "sin" that dwelleth in me!
1910 192 (4). So too, no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit, the believer knows himself to be in Christ Jesus, where no condemnation can possibly be. Under a new rule or principle —a law — it is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus risen. He breathed into the disciples and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." The law of sin and death inherited from Adam has no longer its authority. "Sin shall not have dominion over you." There is the effective working of a new and living law — a law of liberty and power — so that now the righteous requirement, or demand, of God's holy law is fulfilled in us who do not walk according to flesh (as once we did), but according to Spirit — the Spirit of God.
(5). 2 Tim. 4:8. The love of His appearing or manifestation in glory is what is in the heart of every Christian. Then shall we be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. There may not be intelligent knowledge of the manner and meaning of the event. But the soul that can say, "We love him, because he first loved us," delights in His manifestation. And every one that hath this hope on Christ purifieth himself even as He is pure.
1911 288 Q. — Is it scriptural to teach that the believer in Christ has "a new heart" now? K.T.
A. — The context in which these words are found (Ezek. 18:30-31; Ezek. 36:25-27) describes the great moral or spiritual change to be effected in the house of Israel in a day still future.
Similar expressions in the New Testament, such as, God "purifying their hearts by faith," "having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience" (Acts 15:9; Heb. 10:22), etc., reveal the change now wrought in Jew and Gentile who, believing "the gospel of our salvation," have been given to rest on the Saviour's atoning death and resurrection. Hence, we have new affections, new desires, being born of God, made partakers of a Divine nature and have the abiding in-dwelling Spirit of God. Yet have we the old sinful nature still. It is unchanged and unchangeable (that which is born of the flesh is flesh); but "condemned" in the cross of Christ — "our old man is crucified with Christ," and the believer is now called to reckon himself dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves." But sin is no longer to reign in our mortal body that we should obey it in the lusts of it. And if we walk in the Spirit we shall not fulfil the flesh's lusts.
1911 320 Q. 1. — Can a child of God who knows the truth of Rom. 8. (e.g. verses 1-10) say with truth, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?"
Q. 2. — Does the "groaning" of Rom. 8:23 and that of 2 Cor. 5:2, 4, refer to the same thing as Rom. 7:24? or do they support it? E.T.
A. 1. — The "wretchedness" of Rom. 7:24 arises from the discovery in the soul born of God (but not yet delivered and sealed by the indwelling Spirit, which is the Christian position), of his powerlessness to do the good he desires to do. Truly delighting in the law of God after the inward man, he yet sees (not only another, but) a different law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which is in his members. Hence the cry for deliverance from this body of death. Jesus Christ risen is the Deliverer, and there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus; for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed the Christian from the law of sin and of death. The Holy Ghost now dwells in him; so that he can do, and does, the things that he would, as led of the Spirit. This wretchedness is therefore gone for ever in the case of the believer who now sees himself as in Christ Jesus; as no longer in the flesh (though in the body), but in the Spirit. The Holy Ghost given is spirit of sonship, not of bondage, and we await, as does all creation, "the manifestation" of this sonship of which the Spirit is the firstfruits. We are in the liberty of grace, and look for the liberty of "the glory" of the children of God.
A. 2. — The groaning of Rom. 8:23 is explained by the preceding and following verses (17-28). The presence of sin, both within and without, with its effects all around, make us groan as did our Lord (in Him is no sin), Mark 7:34. We suffer with Christ here, but soon all will be exchanged for glory, when "clothed with our habitation which is from heaven." In no way does the "groaning" coalesce with the "wretchedness" of Rom. 7, as from this the one "in Christ" is already delivered.