12 Inspiring Quotes about Prayer from Billy Graham
Billy Graham was a powerful man of faith. He led countless people to Christ through his Crusades and his ministry, as a whole. Throughout the decades, we have come to cherish many of his words, including his thoughts on prayer.
Here are some of Billy Graham's quotes about prayer to inspire you to spend more time with the Lord: click the Links below;
Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share
Today's Reading: Numbers 7; Mark 4:21-41
Today's Thoughts: Money Issues
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. 1 Timothy 6:17-19
How do we keep a spiritual perspective about money while living in our materialistic society? Money seems like a good thing, even spiritually speaking. How can Paul say that wealth is so uncertain but the after-life is such a thing?
Often Jesus would be speaking to someone about the eternal while they would interpret His words in the temporal. For example, when Jesus talked about the living water and the bread of life, He was speaking of spiritual elements that affect our earthly lives. But the Samaritan woman asked for the living water so she wouldn't have to return to the well, and the people asked for the bread Jesus promised because they wanted to be fed continually on earth.
Like Jesus, Paul is saying the same things in these verses above. He is trying to help us focus on eternal values by using temporal tools. Paul is saying: “Do not trust in your money to provide for your needs, but depend on God.” He is explaining that we should give our earthly materials generously and willingly for God's kingdom. By keeping a spiritual perspective on earth, we are laying for ourselves a firm foundation in the life that is to come. Paul is saying to use your money on earth for the things of God. This way, God's work will continue here, while laying a firm foundation for you in the coming age.
"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Matthew 6:24
Pray about it: Lord, help me to have a spiritual perspective towards money. Help me to be generous and willing to share. I want to lay up treasures in heaven but I need help to trust in you to provide for my needs on earth. Please increase my faith
The first man Adam was made a living soul
Or the mystery of life contemplated:—
I.In its sources.
1. Adam was endued with natural life, Christ with a life-giving Spirit.
2. The natural preceded the spiritual.
3. The natural is of the earth, the spiritual is the Lord from heaven.
II. In its communication.
1. From Adam we derive the earthy or natural life, from Christ the heavenly.
2. The image of the earthy precedes the heavenly.
3. As the earthy body (flesh and blood) cannot inherit heaven, it must be exchanged for an incorruptible body. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
The two Adams
I. The resemblance.
1. The existence of each rose not in the ordinary course of nature. Neither came by the ordinary laws of human generation.
(1) The first was formed out of the dust of the earth, and derived his spirit from the breath of God.
(2) the second was conceived of the Holy Ghost. The pedigree of each is unparalleled in the history of the race.
2. Each commenced free from sin.
(1) The first was created in the image of God; all his faculties were well balanced and free from all bias to wrong.
(2) The latter was harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.
3. Each had a nature capable of temptation. Temptability is an attribute of all created intelligences. Where there is no power to go wrong, there is no virtue in keeping right.
(1) The first Adam was tempted, and was conquered.
(2) The second was tempted, and triumphed.
4. The character of each exerts a momentous influence upon the whole race.
(1) The character of the first generated a moral atmosphere of sensuality, ambition, selfishness, unbelief.
(2) The character of the second generated an atmosphere that is morally salubrious, sunny, and invigorating. He who lives in the first atmosphere is still in Adam, and is earthy. He who lives in the second is Christly and spiritual.
II. The dissimilarity.
1. The one had a sublimer connection with God than the other. Adam was the offspring, representative, and steward of God. Christ was God-man. God was in Him in a special sense, unfolding truths, working miracles, and reconciling the world unto Himself. Be was God “manifested in the flesh.” The one yielded to the devil, the other conquered him.
2. the One possessed a higher type of moral excellence than the other. The character of the first was innocence, not holiness. Holiness implies intelligence, convictions, efforts, habits. This had not Adam. Hence he gave way to the first and simplest temptation. This holiness Christ had in the sublimest degree; and He triumphed over principalities and powers of evil, and made a show of them openly.
3. The influence of the one upon the race has been infinitely pernicious, that of the other infinitely beneficent. The first planted that upas whose pestiferous branches have spread over all men, and whose poisonous food all have tasted and been injured. The other planted the tree of life, bearing fruit for the healing of the nations.
4. The moral influence of the one is destined to decrease, the other to increase. “Where sin abounded, grace will much more abound.” “The kingdoms of our God shall become the kingdoms of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever.” (D. Thomas, D.D.)
The first and the last Adam
1. St. Paul bases his assertion that “if there is a psychical body, there is also a spiritual,” first, on the analogies of Nature; second, on the nature of Man as revealed in Holy Writ (see 1Co 15:44); third, on the historical facts that Adam had the one and Christ the other.
2. Note, however, some interesting preliminaries. The opening clause of the text is almost an exact quotation from Gen 2:7; that the second refers to Christ is proved by these two facts: that with the rabbis, at whose feet Paul sat, “the last Adam” was a common name for “the Messiah”; and that St. Paul never uses the designations the second Man,” or “the last Adam,” of any one but Christ. Again the rabbis bid us note that Moses says, not “man was made, but became a living soul.” They hold that when God breathed the breath of life into Adam, He conferred on him the higher spiritual nature of man; but that, when Adam sinned, he fell, and became a man in whom the soul ruled rather than the spirit. And the rabbis have the Scriptures on their side. What was “the fall” but a fall from the higher life of the spirit into the lower life of the soul, into a life of mere intelligence and passion as distinguished from a life of righteousness, faith, love, joy, peace? Why was he debarred from “the tree of life” but because that it was no longer meet that his body should put on incorruption and immortality?
I. The first man Adam became a living soul.
1. The psychical or soulish man is a man in whom the soul is supreme. Conscience, righteousness, faith, God, etc., do not stand first with him; but man, time, earth, the gratifications of sense and intellect. Was not Adam a man of this type? When the spiritual crisis came his faith failed him. God was not first with him, nor God’s will.
2. A soulish man he came to have a soulish body. Indications of this are seen in—
(1) Adam’s newborn shame of his nakedness.
(2) The passion which made Cain a murderer.
(3) The infirmities, the special forms of death and corruption, to which Adam and his children became liable.
Nevertheless, as our own experience proves, the body, even when thus changed and depraved, was nevertheless perfect in its adaptation to the faculties, functions, cravings, needs of the soul.
II. Christ, the last Adam, was a life-giving spirit.
1. He was the true spiritual Man; for in Him all faculties and passions of the soul were in subjection to the spirit. To Him, living and walking in the spirit, all that is of earth and time and soul was as nothing when compared with the eternal realities. And therefore He could refuse all the kingdoms of this world, and could hasten to help any man, however lowly, however earthly, and seek to quicken in him, by help to the body, the life of the spirit. Of a charity so intense that He loved every man, of a faith so clear and strong that He looked through all the shows of time to the eternal substance, of a hope so lively that He despaired of no man, of a righteousness so pure that even the practised eyes of incarnate evil could find nothing in Him, of a peace so perfect that even His unparalleled labour and conflict could not impair it; in heaven even while He was on earth; making His Father’s will His daily food, He stands before us the one true spiritual Man.
2. So also the last Adam teaches us what the spiritual body is.
(1) He had a body like to ours, yet not altogether the same as ours. Conceived of a Virgin by the Holy Ghost, Christ took our flesh as Adam took it, from the hands of God, immaculate; receiving a physical body which might change and rise into “a spiritual body” without passing, as our bodies must, through the purifications of corruption. We die perforce. But He “laid down” His life. He saw no corruption. It was not possible that He should be holden of death.
(a) And therefore we see signs of the spiritual body even in the body of His humiliation. Virtue went out of Him. He lived not by bread alone. He walked on the storm-tossed waves. On Mount Tabor He stood before the eyes of His amazed and dazzled disciples a spiritual man in a spiritual body.
(b) But all these signs of the spiritual m the physical region of His life were prompted by that which is of the spirit, not by that which is of the soul. It was at the touch of faith, of spiritual need and desire and trust, that virtue went out of Him. It was that He might feed the hungry, succour the distressed, or deliver the imperilled, that He exerted a supernatural control over natural laws: and He fed, succoured, delivered men that they might come to know Him, and God in Him, and thus possess themselves of eternal life. When the weak physical frame was transfigured with an immortal strength and splendour, it was because His spirit was rapt in the ecstasies of redeeming love as He talked with Moses and Elias, because He saw that the work of His redemption would be triumphantly accomplished.
(2) After His death and resurrection, the signs that He inhabits a spiritual body grow more apparent. Though He can still eat and drink, etc., He glides through closed doors, passes as in an instant from place to place, vanishes from their sight as the disciples recognise Him. At His will, He is visible or invisible: He is here. He is there; the spiritual body being now as perfect a servant of the spirit in Him as the psychical body of the soul. He can eat, but He does not need to eat. His body is raised into higher conditions, endowed with loftier powers. It is heavenly, not earthly; it is spiritual rather than physical or psychical. Conclusion: Do any ask: “But what is all this to us? Adam and Christ were both exceptional men. If the first Adam was a psychical man and the last Adam a spiritual man, how does that bear on St. Paul’s argument? “It is much—nay, it is everything—to us; and that precisely because both Adam and Christ were exceptional men, who stand in an exceptional relation to the human race. For (verse 22) both the Adam and the Christ are in us, and in all men; that they contend together in us for the mastery; that it is at our own option to side either with the one or with the other; and that, according as we espouse the first Adam or the last, we become earthly or heavenly, psychical or spiritual men. If we permit the Christ to reign in us, in our mortal members, our mortality will put on immortality—as His did, and be swallowed up of life—as His was. Like His, our spiritual manhood will demand and receive a spiritual body. And therefore St. Paul may fairly exhort us that, “as we bear the image of the earthly (man), so also we should bear the image of the heavenly.” ( S. Cox, D.D.)
The second Adam “a quickening Spirit”
Human relationships correspond with those which subsist between Jesus Christ and His people, and doubtless were constituted to shadow it forth. In procuring the redemption of His people, Christ assumes the standing of a husband, who, by uniting Himself to us, made Himself capable of standing in our place, and answering for our acts. In advocating our cause, that He may do this effectually, and with an experimental feeling of our wants, He assumes the place of a brother unto us. By His resurrection He assumes the relationship of a father, the giver of life and of being to His people. As the natural life, or life of the soul, is to be traced to the first man Adam, so the spiritual life in the believer is to be traced to Christ, the last Adam. But here, however, the resemblance ends. Adam was but a living soul, capable of continuing the same life in others who should succeed him; but Christ, by His resurrection from the dead, has become “a quickening spirit,” capable of giving life unto the dead. Note the bearing of the text—
I. On the foundation of the Christian’s salvation.
1. The apostle here enumerates only two men of all that have ever lived: because all men stand in such a relationship to the first Adam, and all believers stand in such a relationship to the second, as they can stand in to no other man. We do not see, in the ordinary course of human generation, that all children are born with what is peculiar in the sinful propensities of their immediate progenitors. By dint of care you may guard against the outbreaking of those sins which have been peculiar to the immediate progenitor; but you will not be able by your utmost care to root out the evil which is in the heart of man. And the inference from this is that there is a connection between us and the first man Adam which does not subsist between us and our immediate parents, or any intermediate link of the chain by which we are connected with our first progenitor. And so it is written of Adam, that he “begot a son in his own image, after his own likeness”; who thus deriving from him his life of nature, shared with Adam in all the miserable circumstances of his fallen condition. When God created Adam, He created all men; all therefore stood, and all fell in Adam: all in him became not only exposed to the consequences, but also infected with the very nature of his sin.
2. Now there is no greater difficulty in the idea that having union with the last Adam as a quickening Spirit, we are endowed with His life and His likeness, than in the former idea. This is the only foundation of our salvation. Salvation is not to be found in the reformation of conduct, in a difference of feeling, in an act of the mind, but in a vital union with Christ.
II. On the trials of the Christian’s present condition. The great peculiarity in the Christian’s condition is that while he is a quickened spirit in union with Christ the quickening Spirit, he yet has a body proper only to a soul, by still having, in his own nature, union with the first Adam. This throws a striking light on many passages in Scripture which are descriptive of the Christian experience (2Co 5:1-4; Rom 8:22-23; Rom 7:24). What do these (and a variety of similar passages) express but the desires of the quickened spirit to be released from this prison-house in which it is pent up? And does not this also point out the Christian’s resource under such trials? What is it but to walk by faith and not by sight? (Rom 8:10-13; Col 3:1-5).
III. On the Christian’s future prospects. We are as yet, indeed, in the natural body—the body proper to a soul; but there is a spiritual body; and as we are now by faith quickened in spirit, so there is a renewal unto holiness to this body also, which shall be revived, and glorified, and changed into the likeness of Christ’s glorious body. For as the resurrection of Christ shows us the perfection and sufficiency of Christ’s work, so ours will bring to perfection in us the fruit of His work. As it was His resurrection that showed Him to have come out from under the effects of imputed sin, into the possession of the glory which He had with the Father before the world was; so ours will show us to have come out of the course of sin and of the flesh into the enjoyment of that glory. As it was His resurrection that showed Him to be the Conqueror of Satan; so ours will show us to be conquerors over all evil through Him. As it was by His resurrection that He was declared to be the Son of God with power; so it is ours by which we shall be manifested to be sons of God. (W. Dodsworth, M.A.)
The last Adam
Note—
I. The relation between Christ and Adam which is implied in the name. A name used to designate a party whoso proper name it is not, expresses a symbolical or typical relation between the two (Rom 5:14). Adam prefigured Christ—
1. In the holiness of his nature. There have been only two men who were free from every taint of sin when they came into the world; and there never will be more.
2. In his dominion (Psa 8:1-9; cf. Heb 2:1-18.). Adam as the lord of this world, and the creatures contained in it, symbolised that King who has on His head many crowns.
3. In his marriage (Eph 5:25-33).
4. In his trial.
(1) By God. A course of obedience was prescribed to him, and a reward was promised if he followed it. Do this and thou shalt live, was the substance of what God said to Adam. To the Son of God also a course of obedience was prescribed: and on this account He took the form of a servant. To Him, too, it was said, Do this and live.
(2) His trial by Satan.
5. In his covenant headship. The covenant with Adam was expressed in the form of a threatening (Gen 2:16-17), while the covenant with Christ was expressed in the form of a promise (Gal 3:16); but the fact is unaltered that there was a covenant with each. Now Adam, in his headship, typified Christ in—
(1) The representative character which he bore. The first progenitor represented his posterity. Such representation is not unusual. Parents represent their children, and princes their subjects. But the only case which for magnitude and grandeur can be likened to that of Adam, is the case of Christ.
(2) The vicarious action of Adam under the covenant, which furnishes a typical illustration of that which was vicarious in the Saviour’s career.
(3) The imputation and legal reckoning of Adam’s vicarious procedure to his posterity. Analogous, in some measure, to this, is the legal reckoning which we see applied to great trading companies for the doings of their managers. So vicarious action was binding on Christ (Rom 5:12-19; Gal 3:13).
(4) The transmission of moral qualities and tendencies from Adam to all his posterity. The first man, by his fall, not only contracted guilt, but brought upon his nature the taint of corruption; and that taint is communicated through him to all mankind. In Christ, the Son of God, there is a holy human nature. And by the power of His Holy Spirit, effecting a real and vital union between Him and His people, they become holy as He is holy.
II. The relation which is implied by prefixing to the name “adam” the term “last.” Christ is called “David” and “Solomon.” But He is not called “the last David,” or “the last Solomon.” John the Baptist is called “Elias,” but not “the last Elias.” These were types and only types. But Adam was not a mere type. There was, beyond this, a public and official relation between him and Christ; so that if Adam had not gone before, or if he had been other than he was, or had actual otherwise than he did, there would have been no need of Christ. The common name is suggestive of the unity of obligation being derived from the first member of the series. The special term “last” is suggestive of the obligation being at last fulfilled.
1. Let the two Adams be contrasted.
(1) In respect of what they were (verses 45, 47).
(2) In respect of what they accomplished.
(a) The first Adam entailed only sin upon his posterity; the last Adam has for His people righteousness: He is their righteousness (Rom 5:19).
(b) The first Adam condemns all; the last Adam justifies all (Rom 5:18).
(c) In the first Adam, all die, all are dead (Rom 5:15-17); in the last Adam, Christ, all are made alive (1Co 15:22; 1Co 15:18-19).
2. Let our Lord’s success, as the last Adam, be considered in opposition to the failure of the first Adam. Christ, as the last Adam, succeeded by fulfilling the obedience to the law in which the first Adam failed, and by overcoming the obstacle which the first Adam’s failure created. The last Adam is perfect, as a competitor for the prize—eternal life to man—which the first Adam lost; as a worker at the task in which the first Adam broke down.
(1) In respect of his vicarious action. In that respect he is emphatically the “last Adam.” His vicarious action was perfect. There was no flaw in it (Heb 5:8-9; Rom 5:19).
(2) In respect of the imputation and legal reckoning of his vicarious action (Rom 5:18).
(3) In respect of the actual transmission and communication of all the life and holiness which His vicarious action involves. As the last Adam, He has the Holy Spirit to give. And by the gift of the Holy Spirit He effectually secures the salvation of all who are His. (A. Gray.)
Christ the archetype of Adam
Sometimes, after an engraven steel-plate has given forth some pictures it is destroyed, in order to enhance the value of the copies thrown off. If the copies were all destroyed, then the ideal would be lost. But when one type was thrown off and planted in paradise, the original remained when the copy was spoiled. Man still remained—the Eternal Son remained. (W. Anot, D.D.)
The wonderful contrast
I. Adam was a living soul, which includes—
1. Reason; thus above the brute, and able actively to glorify God. They passively praise Him.
2. Spirituality, or knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness in mind and soul. Nothing can comprehend holiness but the image of that holiness.
3. Happiness. Holiness is happiness; God infinitely happy, because infinitely holy. He must delight in His own image, and for us to wear that image is a greater honour than, if it were possible to be invested with creative power.
4. Immortality. We are immortal, but not independently so; God alone is (1Ti 6:16).
II. The last adam a quickening spirit. He quickens—
1. From spiritual death (Eph 2:5).
2. The afflicted (Psa 119:50).
3. The backslider (Hos 14:4).
4. From the grave (Php 3:20-21).
We manifest our oneness with Adam by our disobedience, and our oneness with Christ by our obedience. The most glorious work of God is the renewal of a human soul, and its transition from grace to glory. How grateful we should be that God has promised that His work within us shall be as perfect as His work for us (Eph 5:14). (Homiletic Monthly.)
Natural and spiritual life
I. Adam was made a living soul.
1. Endued with natural life.
2. His body possessed no inherent immortality.
3. Its perpetuated life depended upon obedience and his access to the tree of life.
4. Consequently he could not in any case confer immortality upon his descendants.
II. Christ was made a quickening spirit.
1. Possessed life in Himself, hence His resurrection.
2. Communicates it to all who believe in Him.
3. Hence also He will raise them up in the last day. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
1 Corinthians 15:47-49
The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
The first and second man
I. The first—is of the earth, earthy—consequently—
1. Confined to earth.
2. Perishes with the earth.
II. The second—from heaven, heavenly.
1. Rules the earth.
2. Opens heaven.
3. Lives for ever. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Of the earth, earthy
Χοϊκος properly means “clayey,” but is here used to express man’s terrestrial nature. Because he is of the earth in his origin—i.e., as to his body, there is a terrestrial side to his nature and sphere of action. From this we may infer—
I. That man in his sinless state had a body capable of dying. If he had continued sinless, his body would have been rendered immortal by a Divine act, and we gather from Gen 3:22 that the tree of life was the appointed sacrament of immortality. This is consistent with Rom 5:12. In the case of man sin brought death, not mortality, into the world. The correctness of this hypothesis is confirmed by the side light it throws upon the voluntariness of Christ’s death. As Christ was sinless, death was not a necessity to Him, though He had a mortal body; and as He was Divine as well as sinless, death was impossible to Him without a voluntary act of “laying down” His life.
II. That the divine image in adam consisted, negatively, in sinlessness and, positively, in a potential and rudimentary goodness; by no means in the full perfection of human nature. Christ does infinitely more than restore our original state (cf. Wis 8:1)
. (Principal Edwards.)
The second man
In what sense is our Lord the second man? There were so many millions intervening between Him and Adam. The answer is that all the others were mere copies of the first; whereas Christ introduced a new kind of man, and became the head of a new family.
I. The differences between Adam and Christ. There is a difference.
1. Of origin.
(1) The first man is of the earth, earthy.”
(a) Whatever may be said of Adam’s Divine parentage, according to his physical nature, he and his belong essentially to this earth; they are part of its fauna, and stand at the head of long lines of animal life, which, commencing with the lowest of sensitive creatures, find their highest term in man. All the materials of his physical life and being belong to the planet of which he is the chief inhabitant, of whose vital forces he is simply the highest outcome, the most elaborated product.
(b) There are many who tell us that man is “of the earth, earthy,” in the sense of being descended from the lower forms of animal life through the process of natural selection; but this can only be received as an hypothesis; yet there is nothing in it contrary to Scripture. If true it gives a new and most marvellous aspect to the Incarnation. Of course, if our ancestors were “marine ascidians,” so were His; and thus we see Him in an unexpected sense, gathering together in one, and summing up in Himself all created life (Eph 1:10), and reuniting it unto God. I do not know why a Christian should be staggered at the thought of one unbroken continuity of life; for the great gap in the cycle of life, which seemed to be eternally impassable, was above man, not below him, and yet we know that this gulf which separated the highest creature by an infinite distance from the Creator was bridged by the condescension of the Son.
(2) For the second man was the Lord from heaven. His origin was as distinctly Divine and heavenly as Adam’s origin was earthy.
2. Of nature. This difference was not in wealth, happiness, beauty, nor in any of those things which ordinarily make one man superior to another, for in all these things Christ voluntarily placed Himself at a disadvantage; but it was in holiness.
(1) Adam was a rebel, a sinner; and after him all we are the same. No doctrine of the Scripture is more confirmed by constant experience, or more in accordance with modern science than that of hereditary sin. For not only does every child afford a fresh example of the tendency to do wrong, but as the instinct by which the young bird feeds itself is the transmitted experience of its remote ancestors, so the mortal evil which began in Adam has become an inseparable characteristic of his race.
(2) But Christ was not sinful. Coming into the world by a miraculous and immaculate conception, it was said to Mary, “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”; and this holiness, which belonged to Him by virtue of His origin, He kept spotless amidst all the temptations of His earthly life. And what was the consequence of this holiness? This—that He was by right immortal and incorruptible, even as man; death and the grave could have no claim on One who had no sin. But did He not die? Yes, truly; but it was by His own permission. Being holy, although He was capable of death, it was not possible that He should be holden of it. I have seen some large insect fly into a spider’s web, and the hungry spider has come forth with haste, thinking he has caught a finer prize than has fallen into his clutches for many a long day. But the prisoner is stronger than any for which the web was made; he gathers up his might, he throws himself hither and thither, he shakes the web violently, he rends it from top to bottom—he is gone, and has left the broken net and the baffled spider behind him. Even so death had spread his snares for the sons of men, and had caught them all one by one, and had held them fast; at last came the Son of Man, and He, too, died like men, and death and hell rejoiced together over their notable captive. But they did not rejoice long; their toils were not made for Him. The bands of death were to Him as the “green withes” were to Samson. As the flush of morning comes back upon the earth, as the tints of spring return upon the trees, and we cannot say at what moment it begins, so did Christ rise, we know not when; it needed no effort nor preparation; it was as natural and proper to Him to live, to be abroad in the freedom of unfettered life, as it is for the dew to rise when the sun is warm.
II. Christ is called the second adam because—
1. He introduced into the world a new type, a new order of humanity—a child of man, indeed, but such a child of man as had never been seen before. He was the beau ideal of the human race; all that is noble and lovely in other human beings was united in Him, and all that is noble and lovely in our dreams and fancies about what human beings might be was realised in Him. You have heard of those tropical plants which are said to blossom but once in a hundred years, then, having thrown up a single spike of exquisite white blossom, to die. This (however exaggerated in fact) may serve to illustrate the relation of Christ to the human race: once, and once only, humanity blossomed up and put forth one exquisite faultless flower, in which its entire life culminated, in which all its possibilities were exhausted; that flower was Christ, the Son of Man, par excellence, the second man.
2. But Adam not only set a type, but he began a race, a series like himself, and thus he became the fountain-head of a guilty and perishing humanity. In like manner Christ began a new race, and became the fountain.head of a new regenerate human life, cleansing itself from sin, rising victorious over death. (R. Winterbotham, M.A.)
The believer’s pedigree
1. On the one side traced to Adam who is of the earth—on the other to Christ who is the Lord from heaven.
2. On the one side he derives an earthly nature, on the other a heavenly.
3. On the one side he is stamped with the features of the earthy, on the other with those of the heavenly.
4. On the one side he can claim no inheritance in the kingdom of God, on the other becomes heir of all things. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy.—
The earthy and the heavenly
I. The earthy—frail, sensual, dying—can only produce his like.
II. The heavenly—pure, spiritual, immortal—communicates His own nature by a new birth, to be consummated in the resurrection. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.—
The assimilation of Christians to the Redeemer
I. The redeemer of the world is the heavenly.
1. The Scriptures represent Him as the express character of God’s person, the brightness of His glory. The perfections of the Divine nature indeed shine forth in all the works of creation; but there is a clearer and more glorious display of them all in “God manifest in the flesh.”
2. His life and character demonstrate Him to be the Heavenly.
II. The points of similarity between the heavenly and those with whom he stands connected.
1. That we may be humble, contemplate the dissimilarity. There is in Him the complete perfection of those various graces and virtues of which, in the saints, there is only an extremely remote resemblance.
2. But although the dissimilarity be great, there is an obvious similarity.
(1) In heavenliness of mind. A carnal Christian is a contradiction in terms.
(2) In faith. Like Christ, they put their trust in their heavenly Father.
(3) In being of a devotional spirit.
(4) In humility.
(5) In their conversation.
(6) In active goodness. (T. Swan.)
On heavenly-mindedness
A soul chained down to earth is as little suited for the occupations of heaven as is a body framed of the dust for becoming the eternal tenement of a spirit that liveth for ever. Temper, in its widest acceptation, is the uniform frame of the mind; the disposition, which it partly derives from nature and partly from circumstance; but to which, in its better condition, it is principally reduced by Divine grace and by religious cultivation. Thought is a sudden conception or a process of the intellect, and the fitful spring of action. Passion is a desultory violence of the soul when roused by external impressions. Both thought and passion are subject to variations in the same breast, and both may have intervals of cessation. But disposition is the inward light—the permanent hue of the heart, which tinctures the moral complexion, and blends with the whole course of thought, action, passion and existence. What, then, is that spirit, that disposition, which prevails among the blessed above, and by imitating which we may humbly aspire to be joined to their high and holy association?
1. In its reference to God it implies a spirit of devotion. To acquire the habit of contemplating, under all circumstances, the bond which connects earth with heaven, and of acknowledging the impulse which all the affairs of life are constantly receiving from an unseen arm: to discover providence where ignorance sees but chance, or where pride confesses only the power of man; to hear the voice of God in the accents of instruction; to trace His workmanship in the magnificence of Nature; to admire His beneficence throughout the varied year, whether crowned with blossoms or laden with sheaves—this is to imbibe the spirit of the heavenly; for the works and the wonders of Providence, we may rest assured, for ever occupy the meditations, the converse, and the praises, of the blessed, in the courts of light.
2. The temper and spirit of heaven may be considered, secondly, as it relates to our neighbour. Charity is the bond of union among the blessed above; all is there harmonious as the silent chime of the spheres.
3. It now remains to consider heavenly-mindedness in its immediate relation to ourselves. Humility is the pre-eminent virtue of the heavens. Another feature in the disposition which looks towards a heavenly prototype, and a feature relating to ourselves, is purity. The enjoyments of heaven, and the affections of its inhabitants, we may be sure, are unstained by the cloud or shadow of a thought that may suffuse the mind with the tinge of shame. But the crowning quality of temper, which at once unites and assimilates probationary mortals unto the multitude—the Sabaoth of heaven—is serenity. To this entire composure it cannot be expected that creatures such as we, in a state like that which we inherit, can attain. But here, too, though all may not be achieved or hoped, the task is not to be wholly relinquished. Some self-discipline is practicable; and what is practicable is what God expects. We have the treasury of grace for our feebleness—we have devotion as the key which unlocks it. (J. Grant, M.A.)
As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
The image of the earthy and of the heavenly
I. The image of the earthy.
1. Sin.
2. Sorrow.
3. Death.
II. The image of the heavenly.
1. Holiness.
2. Happiness.
3. Life. (F. A. Cox, LL.D.)
The attainment of the image of the heavenly
The great hindrance to our reception of the full power of these words lies in the difficulty of realising them as a present experience. We fancy that death is the great magician. Paul contemplated the change as actually begun. We were once merely natural men, and knew nothing of the higher spiritual world. Then quickened by the grace of God in Christ we became spiritual. Thus because the quickening Spirit of Christ is forming His image in us now, the earthly shall perish, and we shall wear the image of the heavenly. Just as the flowers which open beneath the summer sunshine are folded in the dark buds which are beaten and tossed in the winter winds; just as the strength of will, the fire of feeling, etc., of a man are hidden in the child, so the heavenly life is within us now, and because it is there it is possible for us to reach the full formed image of the heavenly.
I. The great aim of Christian aspiration—“to bear the image,” etc. This is one of the deepest longings of the soul. We yearn for rest, for service, for happiness; but there is a deeper longing; we want to be holier, heavenlier men. This is also the all-embracing Christian aim. Every prayer for light, blessedness, strength, is gathered up and centred in the aim to be like Christ. Observe His image has three great features.
1. Divine vision—the spiritual insight that realises the presence of God and the unseen world. It is true that we cannot see God and the radiance of eternity with the bodily eye; but were we like Christ, we should apprehend them through the sympathies of the soul.
2. Divine love. We admit the feebleness of our love to God, yet in many ways we aspire after a deeper love. What means our perpetual unrest, our constant effort after the unattained, etc., but the yearning after that love of God which alone can fill us, our longing after the image of Christ who realised it fully.
3. Divine power.
II. The hindrance to its attainment. “The image of the earthy,” i.e., the body of corruption whose tendency is—
1. To limit aspiration to the earthy.
2. To become an aid to the sin of the soul.
Conclusion:
1. Our aspirations must be earnest and real. What we sincerely aspire to be we may become.
2. Our endeavour must be practical. Meditation alone will do but little.
3. God will aid us by the discipline of life. Many strokes may be needed; but as the form of immortal loveliness lies concealed in the block of stone, and is being moulded stroke by stroke by the sculptor’s genius, so the heavenly form in man is being developed by the Eternal Sculptor, who by His discipline is unveiling in us the image of His Son. (E. L. Hull, B.A.)
Perfection in heaven
I. Wherein consists the image of the earthy.
1. In innocent infirmities; hunger, thirst, weariness, etc., and the like. How unlike are we in this respect to the blessed who hunger no more, and thirst no more, and rest not day nor night.
2. In sinful imperfections, commonly expressed by the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of nature.
3. In the consequences.
(1) The miseries of this life.
(2) Death.
(3) A liableness to suffer under the wrath and curse of God for ever.
II. The respects in which true believers shall bear the image of the heavenly.
1. In the glorious spirituality of the body. How vastly will it differ from what it now is (verses 42-44).
2. In the perfect holiness of the soul.
3. In complete happiness.
4. In immortality. (D. Whittey.)
The believer’s assimilation to Christ
I. The characters here placed in contrast.
1. The earthy.
2. The heavenly.
II. The fact assumed—“that we have all borne,” etc.
1. The first man is emphatically styled earthy (verse 47).
(1) On account of his origin.
(2) Because of his tendency.
(3) Because of his apostasy.
2. But Christ is the heavenly One, because of—
(1) His pre-existence.
(2) The moral beauty and glory displayed by Him while on earth.
3. Therefore it is said that we have borne the image of the earthy.
4. And not only because of this, but also because the first man’s moral image has become characteristic of us.
III. The promise in reference to believers. A perfect moral resemblance to Christ will be attained at the last day. (J. Scott.)
Man’s present and future
I. Confirm the lamentable fact that, by nature, we all bear the image of the earthly. So says my text; so says my experience, the melancholy experience of all ages and nations; so witness our own feelings in the endurance of those ills to which mortality is subject. Behold it—
1. In our bodies, which are earthly, frail, and tending to dissolution. What is that in the cold corpse which shocks the feelings of humanity, and harrows up the soul? It is the image of the earthly Adam! And ere long you shall bear it too.
2. We all bear this image in our souls.
(1) Our souls are defiled with sin.
(2) Our souls are exposed to Divine wrath, and thus bear the image of the earthly.
II. Rejoice in the glorious truth that, as believers, we shall also bear the image of the Lord from heaven.
1. It is first impressed upon us at the time of our regeneration. Effectual grace then gives a new bias to the mind, and the Father of the spirits of all flesh then makes us new creatures in Christ Jesus. The Saviour imparted to us the principle of grace; He made us, who before lived only for folly and sin, to pant after holiness as our noblest pursuit; to grasp after purity as our noblest attainment.
2. This image shall visibly discover itself through the whole course of the Christian’s life, producing a happy effect upon his temper, his passions, his pursuits; it shall make him to speak, to look, to live, like the children of God.
3. This image shall be rendered more striking and glorious on the resurrection morning. (T. Spencer.)
Luke 17:20-37
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
And He said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in His day. But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.” And they said to Him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”
Psa 27:8. https://youtu.be/Bw4t_ro9t5Y
"When thou saidst," etc. If we were to translate strictly word for word, we should read this verse, "To thee said my heart—Seek ye my face—thy face, Jehovah,! will seek." Our translators (and Revisers) have wisely preferred plain English to pedantic rigour, and have given as the probable meaning, "When thou saidst," etc. This, says Calvin, is a dialogue between the believing heart and God. He likens the Divine invitation, "Seek ye my face," to the key wherewith faith opens the door for prayer. "Without this prelude, no one shall lead the chorus of prayer." The reply of the heart he likens to the echo sleeping in silence, till the voice calls it forth.
I. WHAT IS MEANT BY SEEKING GOD’S FACE?
1. To seek the favour of God; q.d. his pardoning mercy, the smile of his approval, the assurance of his loving-kindness, the happy, peaceful sense of his presence and care. There is a notion in many minds that because God is love, he must love all alike—as he dispenses rain and sunshine to all alike—good and bad, lovely and hateful; and that because he is just, he must treat all alike. Such views can be upheld neither from Scripture nor from common sense. Justice lies not in treating all alike, but in treating each according to character and conduct. Love that can see no fault is as blind as hate that can see no goodness. A face that wears the same bland meaningless smile to every one is intolerable. To suppose that God has no more approval and love for a Christian mother training her child to love him, or a Christian martyr dying for truth, than for a seducer, a thief, an assassin, is to deny God’s moral character. It is to substitute an idol of fancy for the living God. The whole gospel hinges on this. God’s universal love is shown in the provision whereby each sinner may seek and receive his favour (Joh 3:16; Rom 5:1, Rom 5:2, Rom 5:10, Rom 5:11).
2. To seek to know God. When we look into one another’s faces, we read the soul. Smiles and frowns and tears, the flash of pleasure or of anger, the softening of tender feeling, speak a language which all read intuitively. In its fulness, any such direct knowledge of God is impossible for us (Exo 33:18, Exo 33:20). But Jesus is to us as the Face of God (2Co 4:6; Heb 1:3; Joh 1:18). God’s character is revealed; while the Divine glory is veiled and softened to suit our weakness (Joh 14:9; 1Co 13:12; Mat 5:8).
3. To have fellowship with God; personal communion (1Jn 1:3). This leads to a second question—
II. HOW Is THIS COMMAND TO BE OBEYED; this invitation accepted; this purpose carried out; this fellowship experienced?
1. By prayer. Looking at Psa 27:4-6, we may suppose a reference to the temple, with its twofold service of sacrifice and praise. But we must not limit the words to this. They are the language of a heart that waits in secret on God (Mat 6:6).
2. By the study of God’s Word. The whole Bible is the record of God’s continuous revelation of himself; partly in words—laws, declarations, predictions, promises; partly in his dealings—with nations, with individuals, with his Church; completely and most gloriously in Christ Jesus—his Person, teaching, atoning death, resurrection, enthronement in glory. If we would gain the knowledge spoken of (2Pe 3:18), we must observe the condition (Col 3:16). They that seek shall find (Isa 49:1-26:49; Jer 29:13).
IT is remarkable that neither the first nor the second psalm has any title. Titles are so much the rule in the first and second books of the Psalter, that, when they are absent, their absence requires to be accounted for. As thirty-eight out of the forty-one psalms in this section are distinctly assigned to David, we must suppose that the compiler did not view this psalm as his. Perhaps he did not know the author. Perhaps, if he was himself the author, he shrank from giving himself the prominence which could not but have attached to him if his name had, in a certain sense, headed the collection. Reticence would have specially become Solomon, if he was the author.
Commentators have generally recognized that this psalm is introductory and prefatory. Jerome says that many called it "the Preface of the Holy Ghost." Some of the Fathers did not even regard it as a psalm at all, but as a mere preface, and so reckoned the second psalm as the first (in many manuscripts of the New Testament, the reading is "first psalm" instead of "second psalm" in Act 13:33). The composition is, as Hengstenberg observes, "a short compendium of tile main subject of the Psalms, viz. that God has appointed salvatlon to the righteous, perdition to the wicked; this is the great truth with which the sacred bards grapple amid all the painful experiences of life which apparently indicate the reverse."
The psalm divides naturally into two nearly equal portions. In Psa 1:1-3 the character and condition of the righteous are described, and their reward is promised them. In Psa 1:4-6 the condition of the wicked is considered, and their ultimate destruction predicted.
Psa 1:1
Blessed is the man; literally, blessings are to the man. But the Authorized Version exactly gives the sense (comp. Psa 2:12). That walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.
The margin gives, "or wicked," and this is probably the best rendering of the word used (רשׁעים). The righteous man is first described negatively, under three heads.
(1) He "does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly:" i.e. he does not throw in his lot with the wicked does not participate in their projects or designs;
(2) he standeth not in the way of sinners; i.e. he does not take part in their actions, does not follow the same moral paths; and
(3) he sitteth not in the seat of the scornful; i.e. has no fellowship with them in the "scorn" which they cast upon religion. The word used for scornful (לֵץ) is Solomonian (Pro 1:22; Pro 3:34; Pro 13:1), but in the Psalter occurs only in this place.
Psa 1:2
But his delight is in the Law of the Lord.
The righteous man is not described positively, under two heads.
(1) He delights in the Law (camp. Psa 109:16, 47, 77; Rom 7:22).
(2) He constantly mediates in it. The "Law" intended—תוֹרה, not התּוֹרה—is probably not the mere Law of Moses, but God’s law, as made known to man in any way.
Still, the resemblance of the passage to Jos 1:8 shows the Law of Moses to have been very specially in the writer’s thoughts. In HIS Law doth he meditate day and night; compare, besides Jos 1:8, the following: Psa 63:6; Psa 119:15, Psa 119:48, Psa 119:78, Psa 119:97. Constant meditation in God’s Law has characterized all saint.
Psa 1:3
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. The comparison of a man to a. tree is frequent in the Book of Job (Job 8:16, Job 8:17; Job 14:7-10; Job 15:32, Job 15:33, etc.), and occurs once in the Pentateuch (Num 24:6). We find it again in Psa 92:12-14, and frequently in the prophets. The "rivers of water" spoken of (פַּלְגַ־מָיִם) are undoubtedly the "streams" (Revised Version) or "canals of irrigation" so common both in Egypt and in Babylonia, by which fruit trees were planted, as especially date-palms, which need the vicinity of water. That such planting of trees by the waterside was known to the Israelites is evident, both from this passage and from several others, as Num 24:6; Ecc 2:5; Jer 17:8; Eze 17:5, Eze 17:8, etc. It is misplaced ingenuity to attempt to decide what particular tree the writer had in his mind, whether the palm, or the oleander, or any other, since he may not have been thinking of any particular tree. That bringeth forth his fruit in his season. Therefore not the oleander, which has no fruit, and is never planted in the East, but grows naturally along the courses of streams. His leaf also shall not wither. Compare the contrary threat of Isaiah against the wicked of his time, "Ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water" (Isa 1:30). And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper; rather, perhaps, in whatsoever he doeth he shall prosper.
