The Oberlin Evangelist

July 3, 1839

Lecture XII.

THE PROMISES--No. 4

by the Rev. Charles G. Finney

Modernized by Cliff Collins

“By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter 1:4)

In resuming the subject of the contrast between the Old and New Covenants, I remark,

13. The Old Covenant was the strength of sin. 1 Cor. 15:56 says, “THE STRENGTH OF SIN IS THE LAW”. In this passage, and in others, the Apostle clearly teaches that the Old Covenant, or law, strengthened depravity, instead of annihilating it. But the New Covenant is represented as the death of sin.

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God. I will deliver you from ALL YOUR UNCLEANNESSESS.” (Ezekiel 36:25-29)

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should NO LONGER BE SLAVES OF SIN. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise, you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For SIN SHALL NOT HAVE DOMINION OVER YOU, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:1-14)

“Therefore, my brethren, you also HAVE BECOME DEAD TO THE LAW through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we HAVE BEEN DELIVERED FROM THE LAW, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. (Romans 7:4-6)

“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” (Gal 5:16-18)

14. The Old Covenant made nothing perfect.

“For the law MADE NOTHING PERFECT; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.” (Hebrews 7:19)

“It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which CANNOT MAKE him who performed the service PERFECT in regard to the conscience.” (Heb 9:9)

“By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Heb 10:11)

There are many passages in Hebrews that teach that Abraham and the other Old Testament saints did not receive the promises; that is, they did not receive the fulfillment of the promises. The promises were made to them, or rather through them, to the Christian Church. But the Bible clearly says that they did not receive the fulfillment of the promises. Of the long list of saints mentioned in chapter 11 of this epistle, verse 13 says, “These all died in faith, NOT HAVING RECEIVED THE PROMISES.” And in verses 39, 40, it says: “And these all having obtained a good testimony through faith, DID NOT RECEIVE THE PROMISE: God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.”

The New Covenant is perfection itself. Lest you should doubt this, it would be a good idea to ask what we understand by Christian Perfection. Has God anywhere required perfection in the Bible? If so, where? Does God’s law require perfection? If not, what part of the Bible requires imperfection? And if His law does not require perfection, why doesn’t it? Therefore, if God’s law does not require perfection, isn’t it an imperfect law? Then, how can it be said that the “law is HOLY, JUST and GOOD”?

However, few will doubt that God’s law is perfect, and that entire conformity to His law is perfection itself. Now what does this law require?

(1.) This law does not require that we should love God as much as we would love Him if we had a perfect knowledge of all our relationships. If the law required this, it would be more than any saint on earth or in heaven, or any angel in heaven could perform. Only an infinite mind can perceive all the relationships that exist between God and us, and between our fellow men and us.

(2.) God’s law does not require the same degree of love that we might have rendered if we had never abused our powers through sin. If it did, not one saint on earth or in heaven could obey the law. The law is directed to us as we are; and it says to every individual, just as he is, “You shall love the Lord YOUR God with all YOUR heart, and with all YOUR soul, and with all YOUR strength”, not with all the strength you might have had, if you never sinned. Perfection would be just as impossible for saints in heaven as on earth, if God required the same strength of affection that might have been rendered if our powers were never weakened by sin.

(3.) Nor does the law require the same love that we might render, if we had as much knowledge of God as we might have gained if we had used our time more wisely in acquiring knowledge. If this were required of the saints, there is not one saint in heaven that is or ever will be perfect; for there is not one saint that has as much knowledge as he might have possessed if he made better use of his time and talents acquiring knowledge. What is lost, in these respects, is lost forever. And God no more requires us to make up the deficiency than He requires us to turn back the clock. Repentance for all our past sins, and perfect obedience in the future with the powers that we have, is all that the law or the gospel requires. “YOU shall love the Lord your God with all YOUR heart, and with all YOUR soul, and with all YOUR strength.” This is the Old Covenant. I said before that it made nothing perfect.

I now add that the New Covenant is perfection itself. “Behold, the days are coming”, says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them,” says the Lord. “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days”, says the Lord, “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. NO MORE shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord’, for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them”, says the Lord. “For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember NO MORE.” (Jer. 31:31-34)

“Behold, the days are coming”, says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them,” says the Lord. “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days,” says the Lord, “I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord’, for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember NO MORE.” (Hebrews 8:8-12)

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and YOU WILL KEEP My judgments and do them.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27)

“And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, THAT YOU MAY LIVE.” (Deut 30:6)

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law MIGHT BE FULFILLED in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Rom 8:1-4) Now if you look into the promise of the covenant in Jeremiah, you will see that it is just this, it is a promise to write the Old Covenant in our hearts. Please remember, that the words Old Covenant and law are terms that mean the same thing. And when God promises to write the law in our heart, He promises that the Old Covenant shall be written in our heart.

Now if the Old Covenant or Law required perfection, (and if it did not there is no requirement of perfection in the Bible,) the promise in Jeremiah is that this same perfection will exist in our soul. And in the Romans 8:4, it clearly states that this was the purpose of the atonement of Christ. Now it appears to me that the argument in favor of complete sanctification can be settled with a simple demonstration. 1) First of all, look at what the Old Covenant required. 2) Recognize that the Old Covenant is the highest perfection that God requires of people; and 3) see that this Old Covenant is to be written in our heart by the Spirit of God. If, when the Old Covenant is fulfilled in our heart, people are not perfect in the Bible sense of that term, we have no hope of understanding what perfection is.

15. The Old Covenant leads to bondage. “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a BONDWOMAN, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the BONDWOMAN was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to BONDAGE, which is Hagar for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in BONDAGE with her children but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written: ‘Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear! Break forth and shout, you who do not travail! For the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband.’ Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what does the Scripture say? ‘Cast out the BONDWOMAN and her son, for the son of the BONDWOMAN shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.’ So then, brethren, we are not children of the BONDWOMAN but of the free.” (Gal 4:21-31)

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of BONDAGE.” (Gal 5:1)

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered Him, ‘we are Abraham's descendants, and have never been in BONDAGE to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will be made free’?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a SLAVE of sin. And a SLAVE does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.’ “ (John 8:32-36)

“For SIN SHALL NOT HAVE DOMINION OVER YOU; FOR YOU ARE NOT UNDER THE LAW, BUT UNDER GRACE.” (Rom 6:14)

“Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so, we, when we were children, were in BONDAGE under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father’!” (Gal 4:1-6)

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the CAPTIVES, and the opening of the prison to those who are BOUND.” (Isaiah 61:1)

“Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the BONDAGE of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Romans 8:21)

“But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak.” (I Cor 8:9)

“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2 Cor 3:17)

“For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Gal 5:13)

16. The Old Covenant produced only outward morality, while it aggravated the sin of the heart.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.” (Matt 23:25)

“But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.” (Rom 7:8)

The New Covenant is the purifying of the heart. “Behold, the days are coming”, says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them,” says the Lord. “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days”, says the Lord, “I will put My law in their minds, and WRITE IT ON THEIR HEARTS; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord’, for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them”, says the Lord. “For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jer 31:31-34)

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will GIVE YOU A NEW HEART and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a HEART OF FLESH. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27)

“And the Lord your God will CIRCUMCISE YOUR HEART and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” (Deut 30:6)

17. The Old Covenant had only a shadow of the Gospel. “For the law, having a SHADOW of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.” (Heb 10:1) The New Covenant is the inwrought effect of the gospel. Please understand that the New Testament is not the Gospel itself; but is that which Gospel is supposed to produce. Please do not get the New Testament and the Gospel confused with each other. The New Testament or Covenant is that work in the heart which is wrought by the Holy Spirit, through the Gospel. Most professing Christians believe that the New Testament is the book containing the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles, and the book of Revelations. Now this is not the New Testament; for the words “New Testament” and “Covenant” are the same. These books are the Gospel. And, as I have said, the Gospel is only the means by which God makes the New Covenant with our soul, or by which He inclines our soul to close in with, and obey the Old Covenant. Now the whole goal of God in the Gospel is not to do away with the Old Covenant, but to bring us into obedience to it, so that we become perfectly conformed to the law of love. The Gospel is as different from the New Covenant as the means are different from the end. And, for an individual to believe that he has received the New Covenant because he has the Gospel in his hands, or because he lives under the Gospel dispensation, is a dangerous and fatal error. A man may live under the Gospel, may understand, and believe many of its truths, and yet the Gospel may never have been so fully received by him, that it has effectively and permanently written the Old Covenant or law in his heart.

Some say that regeneration is all that the promise of the New Covenant includes, and that every real Christian has received this New Covenant. Now if this is true, in what sense didn’t Abraham and the Old Testament saints receive the promises and their fulfillment? Were they not regenerated? Look at Hebrews 11:13: “These all died in faith, NOT HAVING RECEIVED THE PROMISES”. Also look at verses 39 and 40, “And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did NOT RECEIVE THE PROMISE, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us”.

This does not mean that they had not heard the promises because the promises were given to them. Therefore, this must mean that they did not receive the fulfillment of those promises. But, who will doubt that they were regenerated? I can’t resist the conviction that to believe that regeneration is the receiving of the New Covenant or New Testament, in the sense in which it is promised in the passages that have been quoted, is a great and dangerous error. It appears to me that the Bible abundantly teaches that these promises are made to believers and not to unbelievers, that they are made to the Church, and not to the world, and that it is after we believe that we are to be sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. “In whom you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also HAVING BELIEVED, YOU WERE SEALED WITH THAT HOLY SPIRIT OF PROMISE.” (Eph 1:13) Can it be possible that those, who maintain that the promise in Jeremiah means nothing more than regeneration, have thoroughly considered what they say and affirm?

18. Perfect obedience to the law was the condition of the Old Covenant. I have quoted the passages that prove this so many times, I don’t have to repeat them. The condition of the New Covenant is faith in Christ. “That the blessing of Abraham, might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit THROUGH FAITH.” (Gal 3:14) It is naturally impossible that we should receive the New Covenant, or have the Old Covenant written in our heart under any other condition than faith. Without confidence or faith, there can be no love; and there can’t be genuine faith that does not produce love.

These are only a few of the many great and precious promises that the Apostle Paul mentions in his epistles. Every student of the Bible knows that I could extend this examination indefinitely and write a volume as large as the Bible itself, if I were to quote all the promises, and only discuss each promise a little bit. Some of them I have quoted repeatedly to show how they relate to the different propositions I have laid down. Those that I have quoted are only examples of the promises, and are only designed to illustrate the truth that the promises are sufficient to accomplish the great work of making us partakers of God’s divine nature. Lord willing, I soon plan to take up a more direct examination of the question whether entire sanctification is attainable in this life, and go into more detail than would be proper in these discussions on the promises. In my next discussion, I plan to present some reasons why the promises are not fulfilled in, and to us.

In the meantime, I want to call your attention to what I regard as a settled truth, which is, that the doctrine of sanctification is so spiritual a subject that no mind that is not in a truly and highly spiritual state will understand it. No unsaved sinner ever understood discourses on regeneration, and especially on the evidences of regeneration, and the exercises of a regenerated heart. Nor will a man understand any course of reasoning on the subject of sanctification, who has never had personal experience on that subject. By this I don’t mean, that he may not have sufficient intellectual perception to understand some things about it. But, I do mean that he will not understand the fullness with which the Bible teaches that doctrine until his spiritual perceptions are made clear and penetrating. For example, no man ever believed that Jesus was the Christ who was not born of God. The Bible clearly says that “whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God” and that “no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost”. Now this passage does not mean that a person can’t settle the abstract question to some extent, as a matter of science and evidence concerning the divinity of Christ. But it does mean that only a spiritual mind can have any knowledge of Christ as God. And to me it seems clear that the more spiritual any truth is, the more certainly it will be misunderstood by non spiritual minds; for the natural man cannot discern the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. The most that I expect to do by anything that I can say, to non spiritual minds, is to convince their understanding and convict their heart of being wrong, and thus stimulate them to search after the true light.