F. B. Hole.
There is this difference however, that whereas Paul had to write "I will repay it" our risen Saviour does not use the future tense. His word to us in the gospel as the fruit of His death and resurrection is, "I have repaid it." He has been delivered for our offences and has been raised again for our justification. Hence it is that, justified by faith, we have peace with God. In this point therefore the illustration falls far short of the reality illustrated.
Our illustration also fails in this, that God needs no such persuasion to the full exercise of grace as was needed in the case of Philemon. He is Himself the Source of grace. He does however need a righteous groundwork whereon to display His grace even as Paul provided Philemon with a righteous reason for grace in assuming all the liabilities of Onesimus. Mediatorship involves the acceptance of such liabilities if it is to be fully and effectively exercised, for only then can grace reign through righteousness.
Praise be to God for the effective mediatorship of our Lord Jesus, the results of which are eternal. As to these our illustration again helps us.
In the first place, Paul's word as to Onesimus is, "receive him" (verse 12). He was not to be ignored and much less to be rejected, but to be received. How fully and really has God received us who have believed.
In the second place, the word was, "receive him for ever." Formerly the relations between Onesimus and his master were of a sort that could be broken, and in fact were broken by the misconduct of Onesimus. Now there were to be new relations of an order that could not be broken. It is just thus in God's gracious dealings with us. As the fruit of Christ's work we stand before Him in relations that are indefectible and eternal.
In the third place we have Paul making a request of Philemon which might seem utterly beyond his powers to comply with. "If thou count me a partner," he says, "receive him as myself." Philemon might well have replied, "With all the good will in the world I simply cannot do it. Receive him, I will. Receive him for ever, I will. But it would be mere hypocrisy to pretend that I can bring myself to the point of receiving him as, my beloved Paul, I would receive you."
That which Philemon could hardly have done, as we venture to think, God has done. Every believer, from Paul himself down to ourselves, and down to the weakest of us and those most recently converted, has no other standing before God than "accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6). We have been received in all the acceptance and favour of Christ Himself — a thing amazing beyond words, and utterly incredible were it not so stated in the Word of God.
In this the illustration is entirely to the point, as also in regard to the underlying facts which govern the whole. As before remarked, the link between Paul, the mediator, and Onesimus, the offender, was love. Between Paul and Philemon, the offended party, it was partnership.
As we look up by faith to the glorified Man Christ Jesus, the one Mediator, we adoringly acknowledge that His link with God is that of PARTNERSHIP, for He is God. He is great enough therefore to "lay his hand upon us both" (Job 9:33). He can lay His hand upon God Himself, being His "fellow" (Zech. 13:7). Yet He has laid His hand upon us to our eternal blessing. He has brought us into His own place and relationship, linking us up in the strength of His eternal LOVE.
Yet here again we need to note how the illustration falls short, for God the Father loves, equally with Christ the Son. The Father's love and the love of Christ are sweetly intertwined. We rightly sing: —
"Father,
Thy sovereign love has sought
Captives
to sin, gone far from Thee.
The
work which Thine own Son has wrought,
Has
brought us back in peace and free."