Newspaper Page Text
4
from faith Unto faith "—'Friday Nights With Romans
Perhaps a word of explanation just here is nec
essary. These Friday night lectures by Dr. Brough
ton to his large, popular Bible class at the Taber
nacle were so rich and strong, that the stenograph
er’s notes have been worked out and carefully
revised by Dr. Broughton for The Golden Age.
There are sixteen of them and The Golden Age
will be glad to furnish back numbers to new sub
scribers. It is confidently expected that they will
be eagerly received as they contain the best
work of Dr. Broughton’s life and will greatly aid
the busy Bible student. Editor.
LECTURE V.
Paul's Testimony of the Gospel.
(Continued from Last Week.)
I. Paul.
11. His Declaration. V. 16.
Observe under this head (1) For (2) The Gos
pel of Christ (3) Not ashamed.
111. The Reason for His Declaration. V. 16.
Note 1. The desire —salvation.
(a) Salvation from the penalty of sin (Rom.
5:10; 6:10-12).
2. The extent of its application—“ Every one
that believeth.”
3. The order of coming, the Jew first (Jno.
4:22; Matt. 15:23).
IV. The Purpose of the Epistle. V. 17.
Note. Definition of righteousness.
V. How Brought About.
1. By faith (Rom. 3:20-23).
2. By imputation of Christ (Phil. 3:9).
3. Impartation (Rom. 8:2-6).
VI. Method of Its Expression.
1. Confession by mouth (Rom. 10:9-10).
2. Baptism (Rom. 6:4, 5,6; Gal. 3:27; Col.
2:12).
3. Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 10:23-26).
4. Righteous Living (Rom. 6:1-6).
I want to get back and call your attention to
this thought in connection with the reason for
Paul’s declaration: “For it is the power of God
unto salvation.” Not that it is merely a powerful
message as we would speak of a powerful discourse,
or a powerful essay; the gospel has, in itself, a di
vine energy that will bring freedom from sin.
A poor heathen getting on a ship took up a lit
tle fragment of the New Testament. It had one
verse on it, and he did not know where it came
from. The verse was John 3:16. It was the thing
that he wanted. He had heard the missionary talk
ing and felt the conviction of sin, and that little
fragment brought a ray of light, and he took it to
the missionary and asked him where it came from,
and that little fragment brought him liberty and
power. No other quotation would have done that.
There is no message under heaven like the message
of God.
It is not a universal proclamation of deliverance
from the penalty of sin and the power of sin with
conditions. It is conditional —it is universal in its
appeal to fallen humanity—but it is conditional
in its application, and the condition is that we be
lieve. Is that different from any other truth? No
proposition under the sun is worth anything until
it is believed and acted upon.
I might make a proposition to give you so much
salary, but until you believed the promise and acted
upon it, it would do no good. There is nothing at
all about this question of faith that does not apply
to the ordinary business life. It is the power of
God unto salvation. It is the power of God to
save man from the penalty and power of sin only
when believed. Now, there is a great part of hu
manity that never realize any of the blessedness of
the Bible because they never believe it, and the on
ly difference between us is the difference of belief.
The gospel is the same; the proclamation is the
same. One man believes and receives the power,
and another man does not believe and fails.
The Golden. Age for August 29, 1907.
By Reb. Len G. Broughton
When my father was a boy the government made
a universal proclamation to every man that would go
out West to give him so much land. My father was
anxious for the land, but he was a kind of Doubt
ing Thomas, and while he hesitated and doubted,
two of his neighbor young men went. These men,
believing, went, and became independently rich.
They afterwards discovered a great mine on their
property and became immensely rich. My father
stayed at home and became dependently poor. The
difference was in the belief, not in the proclamation.
The difference between the Christian and the non-
Christian is the difference of belief. The gospel
proclamation of power is universal, but its appli
cation is only to those who believe, and believing,
go upon what they believe.
Then, take the order of the operation: “To the
Jew first, and then to the Gentile.” That does not
mean at all that the Jew was to be given the first
chance and after he had got all he wanted the Gen
tiles alike were offered the gospel of salvation. The
Jew had been the dominant race. They rejected
God, and the Gentile came in and took his place
side by side with the favored people of God. When
I hear people say that God is more interested in the
Jew than any other race of mankind, I say, “It Is
not so.”
There was a time when the Jew was the favored
people of God, but he is not at this time. The Jew’
is no more the favored of God than I am. We
are all favorites of God, provided we come in
through faith in Jesus Christ. The favored of God
is the man who favors Jesus Christ, and the man
who does not favor Jesus Christ is not favored of
God.
Now, take the fourth general division. The pur
pose of the Epistle, verse 17. You have the key
right here that unlocks the whole book of Romans.
“For therein is a righteousness of God, revealed
from faith unto faith; as it is written, the just
shall life by faith.” The key to the book of Rom
ans is “A righteousness of God by faith.”
Understand that the old system of salvation was
a system of works. For four thousand years the
world had been working out its salvation; working
it out in externals. It was a negative form of sal
vation. Men were saved by not doing things, but
this salvation that the apostle has come to proclaim,
the salvation of “good news,” is a salvation of
faith. It is “a righteousness of God by faith,”
and that is the key to the whole book of Romans.
What is your conception of righteousness? In
turning through the book of Romans w’ou will see
this word is used over and over again. What does
it convey to you? It has a very deep and signifi
cant meaning. Going back into a study of the word
I find that it means this:
Most of you have played see-saw. You have
taken a plank and put it across a pole and balanced
it, and then two children of equal weight have got
ten on that plank, one on each end, and in propor
tion to its balanced relation the see-sawing is made
easy. Then, when they get off, if that plank has
right relation it is perfectly balanced. One end
is properly related to the other.
Now, that is the definition of righteousness —the
balancing of two parts. In the matter c-f salva
tion, God is the one part, man is the other. God
has tried man and seen that these parts were not
balanced.
God outweighs him. God tried through the whole
economy of the Old Testament to enable men to
balance. He gave him a law, and that did not do
it; then other laws were afterwards added, and
they did not do it. God accepted their prophetic
look to Jesus Christ as a sufficient weight to balance
man, to bring both the parts into proper relation,
and wherever a man was found who exercised this
prophetic faith, he was counted righteous.
In the New Testament economy it is not the pro
phetic look that balances. The time has come
when the prophetic look is no more. He has come
Who was promised, and to Whom the eye of faith
looked. Man is now saved and related properly
to God through Him. His righteousness weighs
equal to the righteousness of God. The only thing
that can balance God is God. There can be nothing
that will weigh as much as God. This is the strong
est argument in favor of the deity of Christ that
I know. God demands of the race righteousness
and proper balance. He must do that to be just.
You can see that. God, to be just Himself, must
demand just living. The moment it loses its stan
dard it becomes unjust.
Man cannot balance God. Ingenuity cannot bal
ance God. Culture cannot balance God. Righteous
acts cannot balance God, because no man can be as
righteous as God. All that God could do to bal
ance Himself was to balance Himself by
Himself. That is Jesus Christ’s place. He comes
from Heaven to take the place of man, our right
eousness is not a righteousness of ours, but it is
of Christ Je&us. 'When we accept him as our Sa
vior we accept Him as our righteousness, and He
supplies our lack. Then, there is an even relation.
This is the purpose of the whole book of Romans;
just to teach that one thought.
How is this all brought about? First, by faith.
Take the seventeenth verse: “For therein is a
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith;
as it is written, the just shall live by faith.” Then
take Romans 3: 20-26. First, by faith, not by
struggling and striving to do right. Salvation
comes by faith; by accepting Christ as our right
eousness. I know that lam unrighteous and a sin
ner, but He is righteous and He takes my place,
and balances God, He, imputing to me that which
I cannot possess, the righteousness of God. In
the third place, he imparts His character to us.
First, imputation of the righteousness of Christ,
which balances us with God, Phil. 3: 9. Then He
imparts to us the character of Christ so that we
do not love to do the things that we once loved
to do; Romans 8: 2-6.
The last thing that I want to say is concerning
the method of its expression. There is the act of
appropriating by faith, accepting Jesus Christ as
our righteousness. That is the thing that we do
instantaneously, then the rest is the expression of
it: (1) by confession with the mouth, Romans 10:9-
10; (2) baptism, Rom. 6:4, 5,6; Gal. 3:27; Col. 2:12.
No man who can look on these verses and say,
“Oh, baptism is a non-essential thing.” My be
loved Christian friends, hear me; nothing that God
has ever commanded man to do is non-essential. I
do not say that it is essential to salvation, but I
do say that it is essential to obedience unto salva
tion, as an open declaration of your acceptance of
Christ Jesus by faith, then comes the confession
of Him through baptism, and I do not know any
thing today that is so significant as baptism in the
name of Jesus Christ.
Third, the Lord’s Supper, 1 Cor. 23: 26. Some
have the idea that they can partake of the Lord’s
Supper if they feel like it, but if not there is no
harm done. That is because they do not know their
Bibles, yon grieve God if you do not partake of
the Lord’s Supper if you have a chance to do it.
Where is there anything that is more calculated to
convict of sin than the Lord’s Suppei ?
Fourth, by righteous living, Romans 6: 1-6.
Has the good news that has been proclaimed enter
ed your heart? Is Jesus Christ your righteousness?
Poor sinner though you still be ,after all, Jesus
Christ, by faith, is your righteousness. Oh, how
strong we feel when we have Jesus Christ’s righ
teousness. How strong we feel when the devil
comes to us and we can look him in the face and
say. “Christ has taken my place and balanced God
and I am righteous in Him.” Do you fell that?
Then testify with your mouth, testify by baptism,
testify with the Lord’s Supper, but, above every
thing, testify by a holy and righteous life, and then
the world will say that you have been with Jesus.
What a glorious gospel this is. No wonder Paul
testified concerning it!
