Comfort for Christians

by Arthur W. Pink, 1952

THE GREAT GIVER

"He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all—how
shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)

The above verse supplies us with an instance of Divine logic. It

contains a conclusion drawn from a premise; the premise is that God
delivered up Christ for all His people, therefore everything else that is
needed by them is sure to be given. There are many examples in Holy
Writ of such Divine logic. "If that is how God clothes the grass of the
field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire—will
He not much more clothe you?" (Matt. 6:30). "For if, when we were
God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of His
Son—how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved
through his life!" (Romans 5:10). "If you, then, though you are evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children—how much more will
your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!" (Matt.
7:11). So here in our text the reasoning is irresistible and goes straight
to the understanding and heart.

Our text tells of the gracious character of our loving God as

interpreted by the gift of His Son. And this, not merely for the
instruction of our minds, but for the comfort and assurance of our
hearts. The gift of His own Son is God's guarantee to His people of all
needed blessings. The greater includes the lesser. His unspeakable
spiritual gift is the pledge of all needed temporal mercies. Note in our
text four things:

1. The Father's costly sacrifice.

This brings before us a side of the truth upon which I fear we rarely
meditate. We delight to think of the wondrous love of Christ, whose
love was stronger than death, and who deemed no suffering too great
for His people. But what must it have meant to the heart of the
Father when His Beloved left His Heavenly Home! God is love, and
nothing is so sensitive as love. I do not believe that Deity is
emotionless, or stoical. I believe the sending forth of the Son was
something which the heart of the Father felt—that it was a real
sacrifice on His part.

Weigh well then, the solemn fact which premises the sure promise
that follows: God "spared not His own Son!" Expressive, profound,
melting words! Knowing full well, as He only could, all that redemption
involved—the Law rigid and unbending, insisting upon perfect
obedience and demanding death for its transgressors. Justice, stern
and inexorable, requiring full satisfaction, refusing to "clear the
guilty." Yet God withheld not the only Sacrifice which could meet the
case.

God "spared not His own Son," though knowing full well the humiliation
and ignominy of Bethlehem's manger, the ingratitude of men, the not
having where to lay His head, the hatred and opposition of the
ungodly, the enmity and bruising of Satan-yet He did not hesitate. God
did not relax ought of the holy requirements of His throne, nor abate
one whit of the awful curse. No, He "spared not His own Son." The
utmost farthing was exacted; the last dregs in the cup of wrath must
be drained. Even when His Beloved cried from the Garden, "if it be
possible, let this cup pass from Me," God "spared" Him not. Even when
vile hands had nailed Him to the tree, God cried "Awake, O sword,
against My Shepherd, the man who is my Partner, says the Lord
Almighty. Strike down the Shepherd!" (Zech. 13:7)

2. The Father's Gracious Design.

"But delivered him up for us all." Here we are told why the Father
made such a costly sacrifice. He did not spare His Son—that He might
spare us! It was not lack of love to the Savior—but wondrous,
matchless, fathomless love for us! Oh marvel at the wondrous design
of the Most High. "God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten Son." Truly, such love passes knowledge. Moreover, He made
this costly sacrifice not grudgingly or reluctantly, but freely—out of
love for us.

Once God had said to rebellious Israel, "How shall I give you up,
Ephraim?" (Hosea 11:8). Infinitely more cause had He to say this of the
Holy One, His well-beloved, the One in whom His soul daily delighted.
Yet, He "delivered Him up"—to shame and spitting, to hatred and
persecution, to suffering and death itself. And He delivered Him up for
us—descendants of rebellious Adam, depraved and defiled, corrupt and
sinful, vile and worthless! For us who had gone into the "far country"
of alienation from Him, and there spent our substance in riotous
living. Yes, "for us" who had gone astray like sheep, each one turning
to "his own way." For us "who were by nature the children of wrath,
even as others," in whom there dwelt no good thing. For us who had
rebelled against our Creator, hated His holiness, despised His Word,
broken His commandments, resisted His Spirit. For us who richly
deserved to be cast into the everlasting burnings and receive those
wages which our sins so fully earned.

Yes, for you fellow Christian, who are sometimes tempted to

interpret your afflictions as tokens of God's hardness; who regard
your poverty as a mark of His neglect, and your seasons of darkness
as evidences of His desertion. O, confess to Him now the wickedness
of such dishonoring doubtings, and never again question the love of
Him who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.

Faithfulness demands that I should point out the qualifying pronoun in

our text. It is not God "delivered him up for all," but "for us all." 'This
is definitely defined in the verses which immediately precede. In v. 31
the question is asked, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" In v.
30 this "us" is defined as those whom God did predestinate and has
"called" and "justified." The "us" are the high favorites of heaven, the
objects of sovereign grace. God's elect. And yet in themselves they
are, by nature and practice, deserving of nothing but wrath. But yet,
thank God, it is "us all"—the worst as well as the best, the five-
hundred pounds debtor, equally as much as the five-pence debtor.

3. The Spirit's Blessed Inference.

Ponder well the glorious "conclusion" which the Spirit of God here
draws from the wondrous fact stated in the first part of our text,
"He who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how
shall he not with him also freely give us all things." How conclusive
and how comforting is the inspired reasoning of the apostle. Arguing
from the greater to the lesser, He proceeds to assure the believer of
God's readiness to also freely bestow all needed blessings. The gift of
His own Son, so ungrudgingly and unreservedly bestowed, is the
pledge of every other needed mercy.

Here is the unfailing guaranty and pledge of perpetual reassurance to

the drooping spirit of the tried believer. If God has done the greater—
will He leave the less undone? Infinite love can never change. That
love which spared not Christ—cannot fail its objects nor begrudge any
needed blessings. The sad thing is that our hearts dwell upon what we
have not—instead of upon what we do have. Therefore the Spirit of
God would here still our restless self-communings and quiet the
repinings of ignorance with a soul-satisfying knowledge of the truth,
by reminding us not only of the reality of our interest in the love of
God, but also of the extent of that blessing which flows therefrom.

Weigh well what is involved in the logic of this verse. First, the great
Gift was given unasked; will He not bestow others for the asking?
None of us supplicated God to send forth His Beloved; yet He sent
Him! Now, we may come to the throne of grace and there present our
requests in the virtuous and all-efficacious name of Christ.

Second, the one great Gift cost Him much; will He not then bestow
the lesser gifts which cost Him nothing but the delight of giving! If a
friend were to give me a valuable picture, would he begrudge the
necessary paper and string to wrap it in? Or if a loved one made me a
present of a precious jewel, would he refuse a little box to carry it
in? How much less will He who spared not His own Son, withhold any
good thing from them that walk uprightly.

Third, the one Gift was bestowed when we were enemies; will not
then God be gracious to us now that we have been reconciled and are
His friends? If He had designs of mercy for us while we were yet in
our sins, how much more will He regard us favorably now that we
have been cleansed from all sin by the precious blood of His Son!

4. The Comforting Promise.

Observe the tense that is used here. It is not "how has he not with
him also freely given us all things," though this is also true, for even
now are we "heirs of God" (Romans 8:17). But our text goes further
than this: "How shall he not with Him also freely give us all things?"
The second half of this wondrous verse contains something more than
a record of the past; it supplies reassuring confidence both for the
present and for the future. No time-limits are to be set upon this
"shall." Both now in the present and forever and ever in the future
God shall manifest Himself as the great Giver. Nothing for His glory
and for our good, will He withhold. The same God who delivered up
Christ for us all "does not change like shifting shadows."

Mark the manner in which God gives: "How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things?" God does not have to be coaxed; there is no
reluctance in Him for us to overcome. He is ever more willing to give
than we are to receive. Again, He is under no obligations to any; if He
were, He would bestow of necessity, instead of giving "freely." Ever
remember that He has a perfect right to do with His own as He
pleases. He is free to give to whom He wills.

The word "freely" not only signifies that God is under no constraint,
but also means that He makes no charge for His gifts, He places no
price on His blessings. God is no retailer of mercies or barterer of
good things; if He were, justice would require Him to charge exactly
what each blessing was worth, and then who among the children of
Adam could find the payment? No, blessed be His name, God's gifts are
"without money and without price"—unmerited and unearned.

Finally, rejoice over the comprehensiveness of this promise: "How

shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" The Holy Spirit
would here regale us with the extent of God's wondrous grant. What is
it you need, fellow Christian? Is it pardon? Then has He not said, "If
we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9)? Is it grace? Then
has He not said, "God is able to make all grace abound toward you;
that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to
every good work" (2 Cor. 9:8)? Is it a thorn in the flesh? this too will
be given "there was given to me a thorn in the flesh" (2 Cor. 12:7). Is it
rest? Then heed the Savior's invitation, "Come unto Me . . . and I will
give you rest (Matt. 11:28). Is it comfort? Is He not the God of all
comfort (2 Cor. 1:3)? "

"How shall he not with Him also freely give us all things?" Is it
temporal mercies that the reader is in need of? Are your
circumstances adverse so that you are filled with dismal forebodings?
Does your cruse of oil and barrel of meal look as though they will soon
be quite empty? Then spread your need before God, and do it in simple
childlike faith. Do you think that He will bestow the greater blessings
of grace—and deny the lesser ones of Providence? No! "My God shall
supply all your need" (Phil. 4:19). True, He has not promised to give all
you ask, for we often ask "amiss." Mark the qualifying clause: "How
shall he not with Him also freely give us all things?" We often desire
 things which would come in between us and Christ if they were
granted, therefore does God in His faithfulness withhold them.

Here then are four things which should bring comfort to every
renewed heart.

The Father's costly sacrifice. Our God is a giving God and no good
thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

The Father's gracious design. It was for us that Christ was delivered
up; it was our highest and eternal interests that He had at heart.

The Spirit's infallible inference. The greater includes the less; the
unspeakable Gift guarantees the bestowment of all other needed
favors.

The comforting promise. Its sure foundation, its present and future
scope, its blessed extent—are for the assuring of our hearts and the
peace of our minds.

May the Lord add His blessing to this little meditation.

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