(1 Timothy 3:16)
There are not many mentions of the word godly in the Old Testament, but the few passages that speak of the godly show that God’s pleasure was found in them. Of the three or four Scriptures in which the word is found, the first says, “But know that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for Himself” (Psalm 4:3). David evidently thought that godly men were scarce in his day, for he wrote, “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases” (Psalm 12:1). The features of the godly are clearly described in such Scriptures as Psalms 1 and 16, for the Lord Jesus personally sets forth in perfection the traits of the godly. In Old Testament times, the godly sought to live under the eye of God, and they enjoyed the revelation that God was pleased to give of Himself, according to the dispensation; and they sought to walk for God’s will in the light of His word.
In the opening verse of 1st Timothy we have the marks of godliness in the saints of God today. Having recalled to Timothy that he besought him to remain at Ephesus to “charge some that they teach no other doctrine,” the Apostle Paul delineates in “the end of the commandment” the features of true godliness. These features are, “love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned.” The reception of the teaching of Christianity will, in the power of the Holy Spirit, produce true piety in the lives of those who believe; but the other doctrines, against which the Apostle warns, will not only undermine the Christian faith, but will destroy the traits of godliness in the practical life of those who accept them.
Godliness, or piety, can never be found in the religions of the heathen world, or in the lifeless profession of Christendom, though it has the outward form of piety. True piety is found in the “house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). God dwells in a house composed of those who believe in the Name of His Son, who have been called out from among the nations of the world, to be the pillar on which the testimony of God is written in living characters, and the base which supports the truth in lives of piety.
To the man of the world, godliness is a complete mystery. He meets the Christian in the business of life, but when business is over the Christian lives in an entirely different world from him. The Christian does not seek his pleasure in the things of the world; nor has he the ambitions of the natural man. The things in which the pious man finds his life, and which he finds his pleasure, completely baffle the man whose life is in present things.
The godly not only refuse the lawlessness, corruption and falsehood that are prevalent in the heathen world and in Christendom in the last days; they also refuse all that the natural man calls best, his religion, his philosophy and his culture. Moreover, the pious are prepared to suffer for their piety at the hands of men who think it strange that they do not run with them “to the same excess of riot,” and who speak evil of them.
“God was manifest in the flesh”
The first great cardinal truth of the secret of piety is that God, in the Person of Jesus, became Man, and in manhood revealed God in His nature of love, and in His disposition and counsels of grace for the blessing of men. What a wonderful departure this was in God’s ways; but when Jesus presented Himself with His Father’s testimony to His people Israel, they refused Him. The leaders of Israel were very religious men, and naturally intelligent, but in their rejection of Jesus the great secrets of God’s heart and counsels were hidden from them. Yet there were those who accepted Jesus, and to them those great secrets were revealed, even as the Lord said, “I thank Thee, O father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” The disciples were but babes in the esteem of the great and wise of this world, but they had the secret of God manifest in flesh.
To be occupied with the Son of God in His divine glory, and in the perfection of His manhood, completely transforms the life of the believer. The Apostle John, in his Gospel, when writing of the Word become flesh, says, “We beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father,” and occupation with the Son become flesh transformed the life of John, and the lives of his companions. When Peter and John were before the hierarchy of Israel, as recorded in Acts 4, when they perceived their boldness, and “that they were unlearned and uninstructed men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” Although knowing that they had been with Jesus, the leaders of Israel were amazed, for they knew not that the power for their boldness in testimony was because their Master was God manifest in flesh.
What a revelation it was to Saul of Tarsus when he suddenly realised who it was he had been persecuting; and how great was the impact of the glory of Jesus on his life; and how great must have been the mystery of it all to his erstwhile companions, when they saw the arch-persecutor transformed into a devoted follower and servant of the One whose Name he had sought to eradicate from the earth.
“justified in the Spirit”
John, in his First Epistle, writes of “Jesus Christ the righteous;” and this character belongs to the Lord whether as found on earth, or seated in heaven as our Advocate. Paul, in our Scripture, views the Lord as Man passing through this world, doing God’s will as the vessel of the Holy Spirit, His whole life and mission being “in the Spirit.” Though a divine Person, the Lord Jesus never acted independently, even as He said in John 5:19, “The Son can do nothing of Himself.” As Son, it was impossible for Him, because of the constitution of His divine nature, His being, and His relationship with the Father, to act without the Father. And as Man, it was equally impossible for Him to act independently of the Holy Spirit who rested upon Him. He was justified in all His words and actions, for all were always “in the Spirit.”
In Luke 3, it is written, “And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove” upon Jesus, and in the first verse of the next chapter, “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.” A few verses down the same chapter, we read, “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.” Then in the verses that follow there is recorded His reading from Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor…to set at liberty them that are bruised…” From these and other Scriptures we learn how completely the whole life and mission of Jesus was “in the Spirit.”
Peter, in Acts 3, and in his First Epistle, speaks of the Lord as “The Just;” Stephen and Paul also speak of Jesus as “The Just One” in the Acts. The Spirit of God, in all the Scriptures, vindicates the character of Jesus as the Righteous One. Through believing in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus we have been “justified in Christ;” cleared from every charge of guilt in the One who died for our sins. But in Jesus there was nothing but perfection. Men treated Him as a malefactor, but His character was vindicated by the Spirit of God, for even in death it was by the Eternal Spirit He “offered Himself without spot to God” (Heb. 9:14).
“seen of angels”
God essentially dwells in light unapproachable, whom no man has seen, or can see; but when He dwelt among His people Israel, it was in the thick darkness. When Isaiah, in vision, behold Jehovah sitting upon His throne, the great seraphim veiled their faces in His presence. No doubt the angels saw Jehovah in the Theophanies of the Old Testament, but to see Him in flesh, a real Man, must have filled them with amazement.
With what wonder must the angels have beheld the spectacle of the Babe of Bethlehem, born in a stable, cradled in a manger! Yet it was their privilege to announce His coming to the shepherds, and to celebrate His advent with praise to God. Angels not only saw Him in the wilderness, after being tempted by Satan, but were allowed to minister to Him. Again, in Gethsemane, an angel came from heaven to strengthen Him. Great as their privileges were, the angels must have been filled with holy wonder at the mystery of it all.
And how much greater must have been the wonder of the angels to see the Son of God crucified and slain! What must have been their thoughts at the audacity and folly of the creature that would so treat a beneficent creator who had come to bring salvation to them? It was indeed a holy mystery, and when the Apostle Peter writes of the prophets searching their writings to discover the secret of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow, he adds, “which things angels desire to look into.” How the angels must have rejoiced to tell the glad news, “He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”
“preached unto the Gentiles”
Although the Lord Jesus on earth spoke to the Samaritans, healed the demon-possessed daughter of a Syrophenician woman, and reminded His audience in the synagogue of Nazareth of the divine blessing brought by the prophets to the widow of Sarepta and Naaman the Syrian, His preaching and ministry were within the confines of the land of Israel. His rejection by Israel opened the door for the proclamation of God’s grace to the Gentiles, according to His eternal counsels. Therefore, in resurrection, the Lord commanded the eleven, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.”
When the Word became flesh, the preaching concerning Him could not be limited to the nation of Israel, even if priority was given to them by the Apostle to the Gentiles, who wrote, “To the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” The Son of God had come to bring infinite and eternal blessing to men, and on His ascension to the right hand of God, called a special vessel, the persecuting Benjamite, Saul of Tarsus, to carry the Glad Tidings to the Gentiles.
Godliness among the Gentiles is the result of this preaching. When the Gospel reached them they were “without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” Under the culture of philosophy, and the superstition of idolatry, their lives were the very opposite of godly. There could be no reverential fear of God without the knowledge of God, even if it were not the full-knowledge of God in Christianity, as in the case of Cornelius, who, though fearing God, had not the knowledge of salvation till he heard from the lips of Peter of the death and resurrection of Christ.
“believed on in the world”
Faith in the Son of God become flesh not only brings God’s blessing to the soul, it makes the ungodly godly. If we could but realise that the preaching of the Gospel is opposed by mighty forces of evil, it would not be difficult to understand that only a divine work in the soul can enable a man to believe. The powers of darkness that combined in urging men to crucify the Son of God are in deadly opposition to God’s testimony in the world. That there are those in this world who believe the Gospel is the evidence of the triumph of God over the powers of darkness.
Scripture tells us that “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). Had the god of this world been able to keep all men in darkness, he would have triumphed over God; but God has triumphed. The Son of God as Man in this world lived the perfect life of piety for God’s pleasure and glory, where every other man had failed Satan no doubt though he had the victory when Christ hung dead upon the cross, but God raised Him from the dead; and now He continues the life of Jesus, in which He had such pleasure, in those who have believed on Him in the world.
“received up in glory.”
The last link in this wonderful chain is a most appropriate climax to the Son of God coming in flesh. Men poured contempt upon and magnified their hatred against God’s blessed Son, the cross being the expression of their malice and opposition to God and His grace; but God has received His Son into glory, where He is the object of every believer; and it is by being occupied with Him that we become like Him, and manifest the features of true piety.
Stephen, engaged with His Master in heaven, was transformed into His likeness; and occupation with Christ enabled the chief of sinners to say, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” Unbelievers cannot understand how this transformation takes place, for they know not Him who was manifested in flesh, and who has been received up in glory.
The holy mystery of godliness can only be understood by those who have been initiated into the secrets of God. These divine secrets cannot be penetrated by the human intellect, and no amount of religious training or religious zeal will give the capacity for understanding the mysteries of God. Only those who have the divine nature, and the indwelling Spirit of God, have the capacity and the power to enter into the secrets of God.
Soon, those who believe in Jesus will be changed into His likeness, and be received by Him into glory, to be with Him for ever. In the display of His kingdom they shall share His glory, “that the world may know” that they are loved by the Father as He is loved. Until He comes to take His loved ones home, the mystery of godliness will remain, inscrutable to the world, but the delight of those whom God has called out of the world.
R. 23.12.64