The Beginning of Months

"And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you."—Exodus 12:1, 2

Reprinted from THE HERALD of December 15, 1931

Many are the lessons of scripture that emphasize the thought of the completeness of the change that takes place in those who become God’s children and who are inducted fully into his family. The word "conversion" is a very good one as applied to one in the act of turning from the life of sin and the world to that of righteousness and the service of God. It is defined as "the act of turning or changing from one state or condition to another, or the state of being changed." As the course of sin and the course of nature under the present conditions of the fall are contrary and in opposition to God, so the process of getting into harmony with God means a rever sal of the accustomed order. It means, in fact, the introduction of a new order into life.

Real Life Only in God

When God visited his ancient people in Egypt and began a dispensation of dealings with them as his peculiar people, he instituted through Moses a very interesting change in the order of time. The ordinary or civil year was rolling on in its usual course when the Lord interrupted it in reference to his people, and in so doing, taught them the lesson of a new experience—that of the beginning of a new order or era in company with him. Their past history and experience was to be regarded as a blank. Salvation, deliverance, was to mark the first advance of real life with him. We ask, is not this bit of history in Israel suggestive of some important lessons applicable to spiritual Israel?

"This teaches a plain truth," says an interesting writer commenting upon the incident. "A man’s life is really of no account until he begins to walk with God, in the knowledge of full salvation and settled peace, through the precious blood of the Lamb. Previous to this, he is, in the judgment of God, and in the language of Scripture, ‘dead in trespasses and sins;’ ‘alienated from the life of God.’ His whole history is a complete blank, even though, in man’s account, it may have been one uninterrupted scene of bustling activity. All that which engages the attention of the men of the world—the honors, the riches, the pleasures, the attractions of life, so called—all, when examined in the light of the judgment of God, when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, must be accounted as a dismal blank, a worthless void, utterly unworthy of a place in the records of the holy spirit. ‘He that believeth not the Son shall not see life’ (John 3:36). Men speak of ‘seeing life’ when they launch forth into society, travel hither and thither, and see all that is to be seen; but they forget that the only true, the only real, the only divine way to ‘see life’ is to believe on the Son of God."

Life Begins at the Cross

The natural man, ignorant of the experiences of the life of God, cannot be expected to appreciate this viewpoint. Such an one supposes that "real life," life in the sense of really being interested in living, ceases on becoming a Christian in truth and reality, not merely in a nominal or outward sense; while the word of God teaches that it is only as we come to know him that we can really see life and taste of genuine happiness. "He that hath the Son hath life" (1 John 5:12). And again, "Happy is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." Continuing, the above writer says:

"We get life and happiness only in Christ. Apart from him all is death and misery, in heaven’s judgment, whatever the outward appearance may be. It is when this thick veil of unbelief is removed from the heart, and we are enabled to behold, with the eye of faith, the bleeding Lamb, bearing our heavy burden of guilt upon the cursed tree, that we enter upon the path of life and partake of the cup of divine happiness—a life which begins at the cross and flows outward into an eternity of glory—a happiness which each day becomes deeper and purer, more connected with God and founded on Christ, until we reach its proper sphere, in the presence of God and the Lamb. To seek life and happiness in any other way is vainer work by far than seeking to make bricks without straw."

Nothing Satisfying But in Christ

The Adversary seeks to keep men in ignorance of the life of fellowship with God. His methods are legion; he has a variety of ways of alluring the human mind to keep up the mad rush after the world and its illusive bubbles. "The enemy of souls spreads a gilding over the passing scene, in order that men may imagine it to be all gold. He sets up many a puppet show to elicit the hollow laugh from a thoughtless multitude, who will not remember that it is Satan who is in the box, and that his object is to keep them from Christ, and drag them down. Outside of Christ ‘all is vanity and vexation of spirit.’ In him alone true and eternal joys are to be found; and we only begin to live when we live in, live on, live with, and live for him. ‘This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.’ The time spent in the brick kilns and by the flesh pots must be ignored. It is henceforth to be of no account, save that the remembrance thereof should ever and anon serve to quicken and deepen their sense of what divine grace had accomplished on their behalf."