Notes on the Book of GenesisMackintosh, Charles Henry
Religion
Notes on the Book of Genesis
Mackintosh, Charles Henry
Bible. Genesis -- Commentaries
Now, the entire truth of the divine nature, together with the precepts
which guide and the hopes which animate it, the whole of the divine
doctrine respecting these things is completely thrown overboard by the
system of legalism. The legalist teaches that we must surrender earth
in order to get heaven. But how can fallen nature surrender that to
which it is allied? How can it be attracted by that in which it sees
no charms? Heaven has no charms for nature; yea, it is the very last
place it would like to be found in. Nature has no taste for heaven, its
occupations, or its occupants. Were it possible for nature to find
itself there, it would be miserable. Thus, then, nature has no ability
to surrender earth, and no desire to get heaven. True, it would be glad
to escape hell and its ineffable torment, gloom, and misery. But the
desire to escape hell, and the desire to get heaven, spring from two
very different sources. The former may exist in the old nature; the
latter can only be found in the new. Were there no "lake of fire," and
no "worm" in hell, nature would not so shrink from it. The same
principle holds good in reference to all of nature's pursuits and
desires. The legalist teaches that we must give up sin before we can
get righteousness. But nature cannot give up sin; and as to
righteousness, it absolutely hates it. True, it would like a certain
amount of religion; but it is only with the idea that religion will
preserve it from hell fire. It does not love religion because of its
introducing the soul to the present enjoyment of God and his ways.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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