The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 458

Inclination to do-what, as years go on, he is getting the more disinclined even to think about, Will he do it? Is it likely? Is it certain? If ever it is to come about, what agonies of soul must be gone through before so grea.t a. revolution can be produced I II. TIIAT CONVERSION IS SOMETIMES A RESULT OP THE EXPERH:NCE OP THE HARD- NESS OP TRANSGRESSION. It is in the fa.r-off country, broken, peeled, a.nd scattered, that Israel, like the prodigal (Luke xv. 14-19), remembers the Father's house. Is not this a reason why God sometimes lea.ves a sinner to eat of the fruit of his own devices-to take the reins upon his own neck, and plunge wildly away into sin's wildernesses ?-that he may taste the hardness of such courses, the bitterness, the emptiness, tho essential unsatisfyingness of a life of evil, and so, if by no gentler methods, be brought back to ways of righteousness? The penalties which attend sin are, while retributive, also designed in this world for the sinner's correction (Hos. ii. 6-23; xiv.). Ill. THAT THE MOMENT THE SINNER RETURNS, GOD IS READY TO FORGIVE HIM. We must not, indeed, post-date the mercy of God, as if that waited on the sinner's self- moved return as a condition of showing him any kindness. God's gracious action goes before conversion-leading, drawing, striving, enlightening, aiding; nay, it is this gracious action which leads to conversion. This is of itself a pledge that when conversion comes, he who has thus dra.wn us to himself will not say us" nay." But we have express assurances, backed by numerous examples, that whoso cometh he will in no wise cast out (Ps. xxxii. 5; John vi. 37; 1 John i. 9). There is: 1. Forgiveness, with reversal of sentence of rejection (ver. 3). 2. Redemption from bondage (vers. 3, 4; Col. i. 13). 3. Restoration to inheritance (ver. 5; Eph. i. 14). 4. A new heart and spirit (ver. 6), 5. Deliverance from enemies (ver. 7; 2 Thess. i. 5, 6). 6. Untold blessings (ver, 9; Eph. i. 3).-J. O. Vers. 11-H.-The word of faith. Paul, in Rom.-X. 6-10, applies these words to the "righteousness of faith," and contra.sts them with the voice of the La.w, which is, "The ma.n which doeth those things shall live by them" (Rom. x. 5). That this application is not a mere accommodation of the words of Moses to a new subject, will bo evident from a. brief consideration. I. ISRAEL AND THE "RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH." The constitution under which Israel wa.s placed, while formally a. legal, wa.s practically an evangelical one. On the legal footing, on any other footing than that of the "righteousness of faith," the statement tha.t the commandment was neither far to seek nor difficult to obey would not have been true. '!'he Law, as requiring perfect holiness, obedience unvarying a.nd uninter- rupted, prescribed as the condition of life (Rom. x. 5) that which no one on earth, sa.int or sinner-the sinner's Saviour only excepted-has ever rendered. It w:'5 certainly "nigh," but, as a "ministration of death "-"of condemnation" (2 Cor. iii. 7, 9), its nighness was no boon. How, then, was the curse averted or acceptance ma.de possible? Not by the ability of the Israelite to yield an obedience adequate to the Law's requirements, but by the introduction of the principle of grace. Sin was forgiven, and, shortcomings notwithstanding, the sincere worshi[lper accepted in "his full purpose of, and endeavour after, new obedience;" or rather, in view of his faith, of that spiritual trust in Jehovah in which these strivings nfter obedience bad their oriain (Gen. xv. 6; Ps. xxxii. 1, 2). 'l'he hidden ground of this acceptance was Christ, no~ manifested in the preaching of the gospel (Rom. x.). From this point of view, the r.omma.ndment no longer towered above the Israelite, stern and forbi,ltling, launching out curses against him, and filling him with drea.d and dismay; but its precepts \\'ere sweet and consolatory to him, and only filled him with the greater delight and love the longer he meditated on them or practised himself in obeying them (Ps. xix. ~-H ;_ cxix,). It is in this evangelical spirit we are undoubtedly to read these exhortat10ns ol Mosrs, whose standpoint, therefore, essentially harmonizes with that of Paul. II. lsnAEL AND THE NIGHI\ESS OF THE COMllA~"D!IIENT. "He hath showed thee, 0 man, what is good" (Micah vi. 8). God had ~ritten to 1srael the great thin_g~ of his Law (Hos. viii. 12); He had i_nade knov.;n his Name, his precepts, _the cond1t1ons of acceptable service, tho way of life; had ~1ven t~at pe?11le a re!el.at1on, ful), clear, adequate, adapted to their mental stature, an<t to their cond1t1on as smners. This takes 470 THE BOOK or DEUTERONOMY. ton. :u.:x:. 1-20;