p. 418 | The Unspeakable Gift by Prof. J. H. Pettingell

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 17, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 27.

The Unspeakable Gift.

By Prof. J. H. Pettingell

THERE are many and various divine gifts spoken of in the Scripture; as the gift of prophecy, the gift of faith, the gift of Jesus Christ, the gift of the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, etc. Indeed, all favors are the gifts of God. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above." But among all these gifts is there not one so pre-eminently great and precious as to be properly designated "the gift of God?" Is not this what the apostle Paul meant when he exclaimed, "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift?" If so, what is this gift? The many gifts of God contributing to our salvation may, in one sense, be regarded as one gift, for they all are connected with each other, and any one of them, when regarded by itself, may well be considered as great and unspeakable. But looking at them in their order, there seems to be one that is chief among them all, and around which all others cluster in subordination, and to which they are tributary. It is this, we think, to which the apostle refers. What is it? Or rather is it not the gift of eternal life?

We know it is quite common to call the gospel the gift. We have heard eloquent discourses preached from this text, in which the excellency and glory of the gospel were set forth as the special theme suggested by it. But the gospel is only the proclamation of the gift. It is not the gift itself. The word "gospel" means good news. What is the good news which the gospel proclaims? It is this that makes it so excellent and precious. It is nothing at all apart from its theme.

But the gift spoken of is more generally understood to be Jesus Christ himself. Commentators have quite commonly assumed this to be so, without any question. Preachers have almost universally made this text the foundation of their discourses on the glory of Christ. It is so customary among Christian people to take this view, that they are hardly prepared for any other. But after carefully considering the passage in its connection, and especially in comparison with other similar expressions, we are strongly inclined to think he had something beyond this in view; that it was not so much the person of Christ, as what God has given us through Christ, that he denominated as the unspeakable gift.

In one sense, and an important one, Christ may be said to be the gift of God, for he came by the will of God. He came also of his own will, and "gave himself for us." But whether we consider him as given by the Father or by himself, it was for a purpose. It is to his errand in coming, and not simply to his coming, that our attention is directed. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son"—our thoughts do not rest here, but on what follows—"that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life." This, then, is the gift through Christ, everlasting life. Or, if we consider the gift as from Christ himself, it is the same. He gave himself to redeem us from death. He laid down his life for us—not to save us from the punishment of never-ending misery, but to redeem us from death. He came to die that we might live, and live forevermore. He came to lift us out of the perishing condition into which sin had brought us, and to make us meet to be partakers of the inheritance that is "incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away"—to impart to us his own life, a spiritual life which is infinitely higher and better and more enduring than the life received by natural birth. He came not as the ultimate gift of God's love, but rather as the medium by which that gift—the gift of eternal life—is communicated to us.

To illustrate: When some years ago the people of Ireland were perishing by famine, we generously sent them, as a gift, a whole shipload of provisions in a Government vessel. The good news of our bounty sounded in the ears of perishing men, like the gospel message of salvation. The stately ship by which the gift was sent, bearing the flag of our Union, and accompanied by our Government officers, appeared beautiful and glorious in their eyes. But the good news was not the gift itself, nor the good ship that bore it, for that comes back, but rather what was brought by the ship. And while, in thanking us for our munificent bounty, they could not be unmindful of the kindly disposition that prompted it, and the illustrious manner of its bestowment, it was for the gift itself, and the relief and salvation it brought them, that they were especially grateful. Had they not really needed it, or had it been a meager gift, no matter what the splendor of its accompaniments, it would have failed to receive so hearty and grateful a recognition. So it is with God's "unspeakable gift" to perishing men. We deem it the more important to insist on this view of the passage, from the fact that it is so common to cover up its real significance, while descanting upon the excellency of the gospel and the love and mercy of the Saviour; to overlook the gift itself, in the splendor of its accompaniments; to deny, in part, man's perishing condition, and so to construe the gospel and the works of Christ in his behalf, as greatly to depreciate their value, and even to render the gift itself a ground of offense to those for whom it was intended. If man already possesses immortality as an indefeasible inheritance from Adam, then surely he needed no such "gift of God through Jesus Christ." If man never forfeited his life by sin, then surely Christ did not die, or need not to have died, to redeem him from death. If all men are already immortal, it is but mockery to urge them to seek for immortality under the promise of eternal life through Christ.

If the glorious gospel is construed to mean nothing more than the proclamation of a way of escape from a doom that is absolutely incredible; if it be offered with an alternative which no right-minded man can accept or ought to accept as the just desert of the whole human race at the hands of their Creator, it will be as it, alas, too often is, brought into contempt and made of none effect. If men be told that Christ, the Son of God, died to save them from what they believe to be a fictitious and imaginary peril, however much they may praise the self-sacrificing kindness of the Son, when contrasted with the infinite injustice of the Father, they will turn away from his overtures with indifference and unbelief. The high-sounding phrases in which Christ as the gift of God is set forth by those who are sent to offer eternal life to dying men through a crucified Saviour will pass for idle words in the ears of those who have been taught to discredit their perishing condition, and to depreciate the work of him who died that they might live.

But let them be assured, as God's word plainly teaches, that they are born of a mortal race, and are hastening to death; that it is not in the power of morality nor of good works to translate them into the kingdom of God, which is the only everlasting kingdom, nor to give them that spiritual life which is necessary to enter it, and which is the only life that is eternal; that it was the special mission of the Son of God to bring this kingdom down to earth, and to introduce mortal man into it by a new spiritual birth, and, as the One "who only hath immortality," to give them his own eternal life, that they might live and reign with him forever; that this is the gift which God's love provided, and which he himself came to bring us; and that he even gave his life to ransom us from the power of death—our common inheritance—and to make us "heirs according to the hope of eternal life;" and that now this heavenly boon is offered freely in the gospel to every man, without money and without price; and who can fail to be touched by such wonderful love and grace, and to exclaim with the apostle, "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift"—the gift of eternal life to perishing mortals.

This would seem to be the meaning of Paul's explanation. He is endeavoring to stir up the Corinthian Christians to a liberal contribution in aid of their suffering brethren. What more natural than that he should call to mind God's amazing love in translating them from the power of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son, and in making them, who were born of a mortal race, heirs together with him of everlasting life? And what more appropriate than that he should enforce his appeal by the remembrance of this unspeakable gift!

But we need not, surely, hesitate to accept this view, when we see how repeatedly Christ himself designates this eternal life, which he came to impart, as "the gift of God." In his conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, he says: "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water." "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

To the unbelieving Jews who were hoping for salvation as God's special favorites, through obedience to the law, and who spurned the gift at his hands, he said: "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life." (But they encourage no such hope excepting through me as your Saviour.) "They are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." Again, referring to this gift, in his intercessory prayer, he says: "Thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." But why is it needful to cite the many other passages bearing on this point, when it is expressly declared, in words that can hardly be misconstrued, that the gift of God, which is pre-eminent among all his other gifts, and which includes them all, is the gift of eternal life? "For the wages of sin is death, but THE GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD." Rom. 6: 23.