Further, let us not miss the emphasis upon 'Himself'.  Reuben offered

his two sons.  Judah offered himself.  Paul, in Galatians 2:20 just quoted,

glories in the fact that 'the Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me'.

The innocent lamb or the splendid bull died as sacrifices, but it could never

be said of such, 'It loved me and gave itself for me'.  That is where these

sacrifices and offerings failed, and that is why the Surety said, 'Lo, I

It is 'His own blood', not the blood of others (Acts 20:28; Heb. 9:12).

It is 'His own body' (Heb. 10:10; 1 Pet. 2:24).  It is 'His own self' (1 Pet.

2:24).  Christ 'gave Himself for our sins' (Gal. 1:4).  'He loved me and gave

Himself for me' (Gal. 2:20).  'He gave Himself for the church' (Eph. 5:25).

'He gave Himself a ransom for all' (1 Tim. 2:6).  'He offered up Himself'

(Heb. 7:27; 9:14).  We therefore glory in the fact that while Christ

exhausted all the meaning of the sacrifices and offerings in His own once -

offered Sacrifice, He did something infinitely more -- He became not only our

Substitute and Sacrifice, but Surety, and this identification with Himself is

our great pledge of life; 'Because I live, ye shall live also'.

Even if Reuben had fulfilled his promise to slay his two sons, this

would not have brought Benjamin back, nor satisfied the father's heart for

the loss of his son.  Judah's suretyship did not offer to forfeit something

if Benjamin were lost.  Judah identified Benjamin with himself.  If Benjamin

stayed, he stayed, and if Judah returned, Benjamin would return with him.

The Offering of Christ transcends all sacrifices ever offered in many ways,

but does so in this particular -- He was raised again from the dead.  That

feature belongs to His position as Surety: 'He was raised again because of

(not "for") our justifying' (Rom. 4:25).  As the Risen One, He became 'the

firstfruits of them that slept'.  The thought of Surety is also seen in 1

Thessalonians 4:14: 'If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so

them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him'.

As our Surety He lives now at the right hand of God.  As our Surety He

is yet to be manifested as 'our life' and we are to be manifested 'with Him'

in glory.  As our Surety He will present us holy and without blemish.

May this blessed fulness of Christ satisfy each heart, as it satisfies

the Father.

One of the reasons why some hesitate to believe that once they are

saved, they are saved for ever, is because salvation, justification,

forgiveness and eternal life, all depend upon 'faith' and so the argument

proceeds, 'if faith should or can fail, certainty is thereby put in

jeopardy'.  This, however, is because we allow ourselves to be too fully

occupied with our end of the matter and forget the Lord's.  Perhaps an

illustration will help.  A man who was rescued from drowning could say, 'I

was saved by a rope', but while that may express a truth it would not express

the whole truth.  That rope, if it had not been held by the man on the bank,

would probably have hastened his death.  While, therefore, we must never

minimize our faith, for it is vital, we must most certainly not minimize His.

Several passages of the New Testament speak of 'The faith of Christ'

and unless we are careful we shall assume this simply refers to our faith in

Christ, and so miss a blessed ground of assurance.  The following extract

from The Berean Expositor, Vol. 12, pages 91 -94, contains the initials

W.H.G. -T.  These initials stand for Dr. W.H. Griffith -Thomas, a Prebendary

of the Church of England and later of Philadelphia, U.S.A.