The Main Observation Out of the Words.
Father hath given me shall come unto me.' And this is his will, that I should lose none, but give him an account of every soul of them at the last day. They are given him as jewels, and as his Benjamins, to look to, and see to bring back and keep from destruction. Now whom he so solemnly gave to Christ to save, he will never cast away, when they shall come unto Christ.
Then, 2, he shows how much, and how deeply, his Father was engaged, and makes it his Father's will rather than his own: 'I come not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me.' The meaning whereof is, not to show that he came unwillingly, or receives sinners unwillingly, but that his Father's will was first in it (as I shall show anon), and so much in it, that, if you will resolve it into its first principles, Christ's coming was principally to please his Father. It is such a speech as that in John 5:22, 'The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son,' &c. Not that God is not a judge as well as Christ, for, Heb. 12:23, he is termed the 'judge of all men,' but because all judgment is visibly committed unto Christ; therefore the Father is said to judge no man. So here, because the Father's will is chief and first in it, Christ therefore says, he came not to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him.
And so you have the meaning of the words.
The Main Observation Out of the Words —Demonstrations of God's heart herein, from his engagements from everlasting.—How his heart stood to sinners before the world was.
The observation which I single out of these words to insist upon, is this, that
Both God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son are fully willing and resolved to save sinners.
1. For God the Father. There are many demonstrations of his will herein, that may be taken ab extra from his oath, word, promise,
&c., which I shall handle in another method; but those which I shall first hold forth are more intimate and intrinsic, and homogenous to the argument which Christ uses here in the text; which we have seen to be these, that it was God's will first, and Christ's but because it was his—'I come not to do mine own will;' and that it was he that dealt with Christ about it, and worked him off to it, and made it his business—'but the will of him that sent me.' So that the demonstrations which I shall pitch upon shall be drawn from God's engagements, both from his transactions with Christ from everlasting, before he came into the world, and those that now lie upon him from Christ's having fully performed what he sent him into the world for. And from either may be fetched strong consolations and confirmations to our faith, that God's will must needs continue most serious and hearty to save sinners.
Many other sorts of demonstrations of this point might be fetched and drawn from the riches of his mercy, lying by him to bestow on some great purchase; and on what greater purchase could they be bestowed, to show forth the glory thereof, than upon the salvation and pardon of sinners? But these also I shall at the present let lie by untold, having elsewhere counted them up and set them forth, such demonstrations being only proper to this text as argue an engagement of his will; whereas all those riches of mercy that are in him (although the moving cause of all) might have forever remained in him as his nature, without any determination of his will to save any man. When therefore a poor sinner shall hear, besides the
merciful disposition of God's nature, that acts and resolutions of his will have passed from him about the pardoning of sinners, so as his will has engaged all the mercies of his nature to effect it, this brings in strong consolation.
Now the depth of these engagements of his will to pardon sinners may be demonstrated, (1.) From such transactions of his as were held by him with Christ from everlasting; which have both put strong obligations upon him, and also argue him fully and firmly resolved to save sinners. Now all the particular passages of those treaties of his with Christ, about the reconciliation of sinners from everlasting, I have elsewhere also at large handled; and therefore it is not my scope now to enumerate them. I shall now only draw demonstrations from some few of them, by way of corollary, to help our faith in this point in hand, namely,
God's resolvedness to pardon sinners.
The first is drawn from this, That God the Father had the first and chief hand in this matter of saving sinners, as I then showed; the project was his, and the first motion his.
[1.] The project; he laid the plot of it, and contrived all about it, for the effecting of it. Therefore, John 5:19, Christ says, 'The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do.'
[2.] The first motion was his. 'I came not to do mine own will,' says Christ, 'but the will of him that sent me.' Both of which (project and first motion) are summed up in that one sentence, Eph. 1:11, 'He worketh all things by the counsel of his own will.' Now, for God thus to have the first hand in it, did put a great and deep engagement upon his will in it. We see among men, the projector and first motioner of a business is always most forward in it; because then it is
most peculiarly his own, and the greater will be his honour in the accomplishing of it. How many great affairs have been spoiled, because some men have not been the chief and first in them, that affect the pre-eminence? Now this honour God the Father may challenge, that he was the first in reconciling and saving sinners. It is therefore called God's wisdom, Eph. 3:10, and his purpose, Eph. 1:9,
God's righteousness, Rom. 1:17, and the pleasure of the Lord, Isa.
53:10.
Secondly, this project and motion did rise up in him to a strong resolution and purpose, and to an unalterable decree to save sinners by Christ; so Eph. 1:9.
And [1.] for his purposes, they are immutable. Would not Paul lightly alter purposes taken up by him, 'When I therefore was thus minded
(says he, 2 Cor. 1:17), did I use lightness? or the things that I purpose do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea, yea, and nay, nay?' Would not Paul, I say, alter his purpose because he preached the gospel, and will God (think you) alter them, who gave the gospel? No; it is the 'eternal gospel,' Rev. 14:6, and God is of the same mind still, so it follows in that place to the Corinthians, 'But as God is true' (or varies not), 'so was our word to you,' which yet is his more than Paul's, &c.
[2.] For God's decrees, whereof this was one, they are also immutable. The great monarchs of the earth, the Persians, took to themselves that infallibility, that they would not alter the decrees which they made: therefore when a thing was unalterable, it was said to be 'as the laws of the Medes and Persians;' which was to show their greatness and their wisdom, that they could so resolve as no person or power whatever should be strong enough to cause them to change their resolutions; and yet they were forced, though not to
alter a former decree, yet to give countermands to it, as Ahasuerus did; and men do alter, because they cannot foresee all events, and so cannot make unalterable decrees without prejudice. Therefore the pope, who takes on him the style of infallible, and so assumes to himself the highest prerogative that ever man did, yet of him it is said, Papa nunquam ligat sibi manus, that he never binds his own hands by any decree he makes, because he cannot foresee all inconveniences, notwithstanding whatever he assumes. But with God it is not thus, 'He is not a man that he should' have cause to 'repent,' for he knows and foresees all that can or will follow.
Now this immutability of his counsel he shows by two oaths; the first made to Christ, the second to us.
[1.] To Christ, Heb. 7:21, 'This priest (Christ) was made with an oath, by him that said unto him, The Lord swore, and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever, &c.' And this was from everlasting; for then it was that Christ was first made priest. Now then God foresaw that he could never have a relenting thought at the pardoning of sinners through him, this his Son would so satisfy and please him; and thereupon he swore.
[2.] To us, Heb. 6:17, 18, 'God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation,' &c. The thing I allege this place for, and which I would have observed, is, that this oath is not mentioned as that now which makes God so immutable, though that be a truth; but God's oath is here made that whereby God did declare unto us the immutability of his purpose, formerly and from everlasting taken up, and so that immutability of his counsel was the
cause of his oath, and that was to pardon sinners; for it is the promise made to Abraham and his seed that is there specified.
Yea [3.] God set his seal unto all further to confirm it. He both 'sealed Christ to the work,' John 6:27, and likewise sealed up in his decrees the persons of those sinners that shall be saved. 2 Tim. 2:19, 'The foundation of the Lord remains sure, having this seal, The Lord knows who are his.' And if it were but a king's seal, it could not be reversed; but this is God's. Yea, he has sealed up their sins also by and through Christ, Dan. 9:24, never to be remembered or looked upon more.
Thirdly, God rested not in a decree only, but entered into covenant with Christ to save sinners by him if he would die. This covenant you have dialogue-wise set out, Isa. 49. First, Christ begins at the first and second verses, and shows his commission, telling God how he had called him, and fitted him for the work of redemption, and he would know what reward he should receive of him for so great an undertaking. God answers him, ver. 3, and at first offers low, only the elect of Israel. Christ who stood now making his bargain with him, thought these too few, and not worth so great a labour and work, because few of the Jews would come in, but would refuse him, therefore, ver. 4, he says, he should 'labour in vain,' if this were all his recompense; and yet withal he tells God, that seeing his heart was so much in saving sinners to satisfy him, he would do it however for those few, comforting himself with this, that his 'work was with the Lord.' Upon this God comes off more freely, and opens his heart more largely to him, as meaning more amply to content him for his pains in dying. 'It is a light thing,' says God to him, 'that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob;' that is not worth the dying for, I value thy sufferings more than so, 'I will give thee for a salvation unto the ends of the earth.' Upon this he made a
promise to Christ, Titus 1:2, and a promise is more than a purpose. A purpose may be in one's self, as Eph. 1:9, but a promise is made to another. Now God cannot lie in himself, but most of all, not to his
Son.
A second sort of demonstrations.—The engagements of God's heart to sinners, from and upon Christ's having died at his request.
A second sort of demonstrations are drawn from Christ's having already come and performed all this: for,
1. Christ is now to be satisfied for that his dying, as well as he by his death had satisfied God; he is now to have his reward. God never set any on work but he gave them wages. Thus unto
Nebuchadnezzar he gave Egypt as his hire for his service at Tyre, and to Cyrus he gave hidden treasure. Now it is not Christ's own glory that will satisfy him; for that he could have had, and never have died; there remains therefore nothing that can or will satisfy him but to have the end of his death, 'to see his seed and be satisfied, and to see of the travail of his soul; and to justify many,' as it is, Isa. 53:11. He died, as himself speaks, John 12:24, that he might not be alone in heaven; his desire is, that those whom he died for might see his glory.
2. If we consider the act itself, of delivering Christ unto death, there was not, nor could there ever be, anything more abhorrent unto God; no act ever went so much against his heart; for if he be 'afflicted in all our afflictions,' and does 'not willingly punish the sons of men,' neither 'wills the death of a sinner' that deserves it, much less would he will the death of his own Son.
Now what was there to sweeten the death and sufferings of his Son unto him, except his end in it? for it is the end that sweetens and facilitates the means tending unto it. Now the end of
Christ's death could be no other but to take sins away, and to procure the pardon of sinners; and so it must needs be infinitely delightful unto him, and his heart strongly set upon it, seeing it did sweeten unto him an act otherwise so abhorrent; and of this end therefore it is impossible he should ever repent. Now, Eph.
5:2, the very offering of Christ is called a 'sacrifice of a sweetsmelling savour;' and what was it that made it so, but even the end for which it was done, and which is there put upon it, that it was out of love unto us, and out of a mind to have sinners pardoned? For else in itself it must needs have been abominable unto him.
3. If at any time he would have repented him of his purpose, it would have been at the time of Christ's being crucified, when he came to bruise him: then his heart would have recoiled, and especially when Christ poured out his soul with such strong cries and tears as he did. At other times, in punishing but his children, we find, that when he comes to do it, his heart as it were fails him, as Hos. 11:8. 'How shall I give thee up?' The rod falls out of his hand, and his bowels yearn within him; yet he relented not when he saw the soul of his Joseph in bitterness, but still made an impossibility of it for him to avoid suffering, because his purpose was thereby to take sins away. Therefore
Christ's request was, 'Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass.'
The necessity lay only in God's will in reference to this end, to forgive sins. If God would ever have relented or repented him of this purpose, it would have been then. We read of his repenting him of other of his works, but his mind is so fully carried to take away sins, that he did not then, or can ever repent of putting his own Son to death for the effecting of it. To pardon sinners is more natural to him than to kill his Son was unnatural. Now his end and purpose being thus fully set to pardon and save sinners,
if he should be frustrated of this his end, he would then indeed repent him of using his Son as he had done. Nay, it is not only said that he repented not, but that 'it pleased him to bruise'
Christ, in respect to that his end, which was so pleasant to him: so you have it, Isa. 53:10. And, therefore, surely it pleases him much more to pardon sinners, now he has thus bruised him; and so indeed it follows there, 'The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.' It is spoken of his saving and justifying of sinners.
It troubled God to hear a soul bemoan itself for its sin, Jer.
31:20, but we read not that it did so when Christ bemoaned himself in his sufferings; and the reason was, because the work that Christ was about to do was a sweet sacrifice to him; and it would trouble God more to condemn a sinner that Christ died for, than it did to sacrifice Christ for him.
4. Upon that ancient agreement between God and Christ, God pardoned millions of men under the Old Testament upon the bare word of Christ, before he came into the world, or had paid one penny of the debt; he must needs therefore be supposed to be much more willing now to do it, when Christ has done all that was required, and failed not, and that at the due time, as it is said, Rom. 5. If Christ had failed to come short but of a little of what he was to do, God might have denied to let the world go upon trust any longer; but now Jesus Christ has performed all, and is beforehand with him, and has put in stock enough to pardon sinners to the end of the world.
5. Now even justice itself will call upon him to discharge sinners, will not let him rest in quiet until he has pardoned and shown mercy unto poor sinners that come to Christ, and has given in their bond, and this, though we had no promise to show for it, yea, though Christ himself had nothing to show for it: God's very
justice would trouble him (I may so speak with reverence, for he himself says, that he was 'troubled for Ephraim,' Jer. 31:20), until he had given out an acquittance, because he knows the debt is paid, and also, that Christ's and his own intent was, that when Christ had once died, sinners should thereby be justified.
Even as if an honest man had a bond for a debt that is discharged lying still in his hands, of which payment he whose debt it is knows nothing, although he or they that paid this debt were dead, so that there were no one left that were able to challenge an acquittance from him, and a cancelling of that bond, yet mere honesty would cause him to give it in. Now Jesus
Christ died, and God himself put him to death, merely to pay our debts; and, says Christ at his death, Let sinners require my blood, and the merits of it at thy hands, and have it out in pardon.
That was Christ's will that he made at his death, as you have it, Heb.
9:16, 17, where the apostle calls it 'a testament confirmed by the death of the testator.' Now there is nothing so sacred as the performance of the will of the dead. And now Christ himself is alive again, and is ordained by God to be his own executor, and so lives to claim an acquittance; therefore certainly God will never withhold it.
In justice he cannot, he will not, have a bond lie by him that is discharged. Hence it is said, that God is 'just to forgive our sins,' 1
John 1:9.
There are three things which do cry for justice, and all do meet in this.
(1.) The wages of a hireling (if detained) are said to cry. So in James 5:4, it is said, 'The wages of hirelings detained do cry in the ears of the Lord of Hosts.' They cry, wages being due in justice, and because
God's justice is thereby provoked, and cannot be quiet until God has avenged it. And so would Christ's satisfaction having been made for us; it would restlessly cry to God, and not suffer his justice to be quiet, unless we were pardoned. For he was truly and indeed God's hired servant in this work; and God covenanted to give him the salvation of those he died for as his wages and reward, as Isaiah often represents it, chap. 53, and elsewhere. So that if God be just, he must give forth salvation, otherwise Christ's obedience would cry as the work of a hireling does for wages.
(2.) A second thing that cries for justice is the will of one that is dead unperformed, who has bequeathed legacies, and left wherewith to pay and discharge them. And this is yet a louder cry than the former.
Now Christ, before he died, did thus make his will, and bequeathed pardon of sin and justification, and that eternal inheritance in heaven, as legacies to those for whom he died, and to be given out by God after his death, as I observed even now out of Heb. 9:15, 16, 17, where it is said that Christ was 'The Mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death they who are called might receive the promise
(or bequeathed legacy) of eternal life.' And thereupon, ver. 16, 17, the apostle calls this 'a testament confirmed by his death,' and which at his death 'began to be in force,' so ver. 17. And of all things in justice that are held due, the performance of the will of the dead has ever been held most sacred.
(3.) There is yet a third thing which cries for justice, and that is innocent blood spilt. And this cries louder than the rest. So Gen.
4:10. And the apostle, Heb. 12:24, sets forth the cry of Christ's blood for us, by Abel's blood crying against Cain.
It may be notwithstanding this, that God may put the bond in suit against a sinner, to make him come to acknowledge the debt, as the