I believe this doctrine of the two natures in the believer is not generally understood; and yet, so long as there is ignorance of it, the mind must be utterly at sea, in reference to the true standing and privileges of the child of God. Some there are, who think that regeneration is a certain change which the old nature undergoes; and, moreover, that this change is gradual in its operation, until at length the whole man becomes transformed. That this idea is unsound can be proved by various quotations from the New Testament. For example, "the carnal mind is enmity against God." How can that which is thus spoken of ever undergo any improvement? The apostle goes on to say, "it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." If it cannot be subject to the law of God, how can it be improved? How can it undergo any change? Again, "that which is born of the flesh is flesh." Do what you will with flesh, and it is flesh all the while. As Solomon says, "Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar, among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him." (Prov. xxvii. 22.) There is no use in seeking to make foolishness wise: you must introduce heavenly wisdom into the heart that has been heretofore only governed by folly. Again, "ye have put off the old man." (Col. iii. 9.) He does not say, Ye have improved or are seeking to improve "the old man;" but, Ye have put it off. This gives us a totally different idea. There is a very great difference between seeking to mend an old garment, and casting it aside altogether, and putting on a new one. This is the idea of the last-quoted passage. It is a putting off the old and a putting on of the new. Nothing can be more distinct or simple.

Passages might easily be multiplied to prove the unsoundness of the theory, with respect to the gradual improvement of the old nature,—to prove that the old nature is dead in sins, and utterly unrenewable and unimproveable; and, moreover, that the only thing we can do with it is, to keep it under our feet in the power of that new life which we have in union with our risen Head in the heavens.

The birth of Isaac did not improve Ishmael, but only brought out his real opposition to the child of promise. He might have gone on very quietly and orderly till Isaac made his appearance; but then he showed what he was by persecuting and mocking at the child of resurrection. What, then, was the remedy? To make Ishmael better? By no means; but, "cast out this bond-woman and her son; for the son of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac." (8-10.) Here was the only remedy. "That which is crooked cannot be made straight;" therefore you have only to get rid of the crooked thing altogether, and occupy yourself with that which is divinely straight. It is labor lost to seek to make a crooked thing straight. Hence all efforts after the improvement of nature are utterly futile, so far as God is concerned. It may be all very well for men to cultivate and improve that which is of use to themselves; but God has given his children something infinitely better to do, even to cultivate that which is his own creation, the fruits of which, while they in no wise serve to exalt nature, are entirely to his praise and glory.

Now, the error into which the Galatian churches fell, was the introduction of that which addressed itself to nature. "Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved." Here salvation was made to depend upon something that man could be, or man could do, or man could keep. This was upsetting the whole glorious fabric of redemption, which, as the believer knows, rests exclusively upon what Christ is, and what he has done. To make salvation dependent in the most remote manner upon any thing in, or done by, man, is to set it entirely aside. In other words, Ishmael must be entirely cast out, and all Abraham's hopes be made to depend upon what God had done and given in the person of Isaac. This, it is needless to say, leaves man nothing to glory in. If present or future blessedness were made to depend upon even a divine change wrought in nature, flesh might glory. Though my nature were improved, it would be something of me, and thus God would not have all the glory. But when I am introduced into a new creation, I find it is all of God, designed, matured, developed by himself alone. God is the actor, and I am a worshipper; he is the blesser, and I am the blessed; he is "the better," and I am "the less;" (Heb. vii. 7;) he is the giver, and I am the receiver. This is what makes Christianity what it is; and, moreover, distinguishes it from every system of human religion under the sun, whether it be Romanism, Puseyism, or any other ism whatsoever. Human religion gives the creature a place more or less; it keeps the bond-woman and her son in the house; it gives man something to glory in. On the contrary, Christianity excludes the creature from all interference in the work of salvation; casts out the bond-woman and her son, and gives all the glory to him to whom alone it is due.

But let us inquire who this bond-woman and her son really are, and what they shadow forth. Galatians iv. furnishes ample teaching as to these two points. In a word then the bond-woman represents the covenant of the law; and her son represents all who are "of works of law," or on that principle (εξ εργων μομου). This is very plain. The bond-woman only genders to bondage, and can never bring forth a free man. How can she? The law never could give liberty, for so long as a man was alive it ruled him. (Rom. vii. 1.) I can never be free so long as I am under the dominion of any one. But while I live, the law rules me; and nothing but death can give me deliverance from its dominion. This is the blessed doctrine of Romans vii. "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him that is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." This is freedom; for, "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (John viii. 36.) "So, then, brethren, we are not children of the bond-woman, but of the free." (Gal. iv. 31.)

Now, it is in the power of this freedom that we are enabled to obey the command, "Cast out this bond-woman and her son." If I am not consciously free, I shall be seeking to attain liberty in the strangest way possible, even by keeping the bond-woman in the house; in other words, I shall be seeking to get life by keeping the law; I shall be establishing any own righteousness. No doubt, it will involve a struggle to cast out this element of bondage, for legalism is natural to our hearts. "The thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight, because of his son." Still, however grievous it may be, it is according to the divine mind that we should abidingly "stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage." (Gal. v. 1.) May we, beloved reader, so fully and experimentally enter into the blessedness of God's provision for us in Christ that we may be done with all thoughts about the flesh, and all that it can be, do, or produce. There is a fulness in Christ which renders all appeal to nature utterly superfluous and vain.

CHAPTER XXII.

Abraham is now in a fit moral position to have his heart put to a most severe test. The long-cherished reserve being put forth from his heart, in Chap. xx.—the bond-woman and her son being put forth from his house, as in Chap. xxi., he now stands forth in the most honored position in which any soul can be placed, and that is a position of trial from the hand of God himself. There are various kinds of trial: trial from the hand of Satan; trial from surrounding circumstances; but the highest character of trial is that which comes directly from the hand of God, when he puts his dear child into the furnace for the purpose of testing the reality of his faith. God will do this: he must have reality. It will not do to say, "Lord, Lord," or, "I go, sir." The heart must be probed to the very bottom, in order that no element of hypocrisy or false profession may be allowed to lodge there. "My son, give me thine heart." He does not say, "Give me thine head, or thine intellect, or thy talents, or thy tongue, or thy money;" but "Give me thine heart:" and in order to prove the sincerity of our response to this gracious command, he will lay his hand upon something very near our hearts. Thus he says to Abraham, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt-offering, upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." This was coming very close to Abraham's heart. It was passing him through a searching crucible indeed. God "requires truth in the inward parts." There may be much truth on the lips, and much in the intellect, but God looks for it in the heart. It is no ordinary proof that will satisfy God, as to the love of our hearts. He himself did not rest satisfied with giving an ordinary proof. He gave his Son, and we should aim at giving very striking proofs of our love to him who so loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins.

However, it is well to see that God confers a signal honor upon us when he thus tests our hearts. We never read that "the Lord did tempt Lot." No; Sodom tempted Lot. He never reached a sufficiently high elevation to warrant his being tried by the hand of Jehovah. It was too plainly manifest that there was plenty between his heart and the Lord, and it did not, therefore, require the furnace to bring that out. Sodom would have held out no temptation whatever to Abraham. This was made manifest in his interview with Sodom's king, in Chapter xiv. God knew well that Abraham loved him far better than Sodom; but he would make it manifest that he loved him better than any one or any thing, by laying his hand upon the nearest and dearest object. "Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac." Yes, Isaac, the child of promise; Isaac, the object of long-deferred hope, the object of parental love, and the one in whom all the kindreds of the earth were to be blessed. This Isaac must be offered as a burnt-offering. This, surely, was putting faith to the test, in order that, being more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, it might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory. Had Abraham's whole soul not been stayed simply on the Lord, he never could have yielded unhesitating obedience to such a searching command. But God himself was the living and abiding support of his heart, and therefore he was prepared to give up all for him.