Page:Kelly - The Church of God.djvu/10

 course, always the only true God; while He had in times past those He loved upon earth; while He ever wrought by His Spirit; while there was necessarily faith at work in order to the blessing of souls; yet for all that, there are essential and deeply important differences, which none can overlook without loss to himself, without sure weakening of his testimony to others, and, above all, without coming short of the just perception of what God Himself has nearest to His own heart—His own glory in Christ.

Now, it is perfectly plain, if we take up the Old Testament, that when man fell into sin, God gave certain revelations of blessing, all of which find their centre in the Lord Jesus. We see this from the very beginning of Genesis. When sin entered, not only righteous government, but grace instantly followed.God was there; and in the presence of the guilty pair, and in defiance of the serpent, the mercy of God spoke of that same blessed One, of whom we are about to hear further and deeper glories. In due time God brought out, in a distinct and personal manner, blessings in connexion with Abraham and his seed. There we have the domain of promise—not only revelation and mercy, but distinct promise to a given person, and to his seed. This had not been the case in the garden of Eden. Man fell there; and it is evident that fallen man could not possibly be the object of the promise of God. There are promises for such: there could not be a promise to such. When Abraham received the promise, he was not a