Demonstration of Christ's Willingness to Receive Sinners that Come to Him
apostle there speaks, 'If we confess our sins.' But if any soul does say, 'I have sinned and it profited me not;' God then cannot withhold from throwing down his bond cancelled, saying, 'Deliver him, I have found a ransom,' Job 33:24, God will not have innocent blood, such as his Son's is, to lie upon him. If he should not pardon sinners,
Christ's blood would be upon him, for it was for them only that Christ died, being in himself innocent.
6. God mends not himself by damning those for whom Christ died.
Now there would not only be an injustice to Christ and us in it, but God himself also would prove a loser. For the end of Christ's death was not simply to satisfy justice, so as without it justice could not have permitted a pardon, that might have been dispensed with, but it was chiefly to declare the glory of God's justice, which required such a satisfaction, as the apostle says, Rom. 3:25, 'To declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through God's forbearance.' It was, we see, the manifestation or declaration of the glory of his justice that he aimed at in it. So as if any one man's sin satisfied for by Christ should be left unforgiven, God's justice would lose so much glory. And if justice should think to get a greater glory out of the sinners, that could never be; for the sinner is unable ever to satisfy, and so to glorify God's justice by suffering, as Christ has done. Yea, and besides, God would be a further and a greater loser in the glory of his mercy also, which by his pardoning sin is advanced.
The second part of the observation First, how his heart stood from everlasting.
And so now I come to Christ's willingness, which was the second thing proposed in the doctrine to be demonstrated. Now, though his will was not first in it (as was said), yet we shall find him to have been no less willing than his Father. As Christ in subsisting is the second person, and has his personal subsistence from his Father, so he is second also in order of working, and consequently of willing too, yet he is not second to him in heartiness of willing; but as his
Father and he are equal, so in all that his Father wills, his will is equal with his Father, and so, is as much in this business as his.
In the demonstrating of this, I will take the same course that I did in the former:
First, I will show how hearty he was in this, to have sinners saved, before he came into the world.
And secondly, how willing he was since he came into the world, and since his death and going out of the world.
And as a general introduction to either, I shall premise this, which shall be as the cornerstone in this building, joining both parts of this discourse together, and is a consequent of what has formerly been delivered.
The thing to be premised is this: That if God the Father be willing, then Jesus Christ must needs be willing also, and look how much the will of the one is in it, so much the will of the other must be in it also, for 'the Father and he are all one.' And this will serve for our further assurance of the wills of either; and we make use of it both ways, either to argue to our faith, that if the Father be willing, Christ must needs be so also; and that if Christ be willing, the Father is so also.
That whereas some men's thoughts have been more taken up about, and so more taken with, the consideration of how much the Father's
heart was in it, and how active and plotting he was about it; and again, other men's apprehensions have been carried more unto
Christ's heart in the work; this demonstration which I have in hand shall be a help to the faith of either of these: so that if your hearts have a 'door of faith,' (as the apostle speaks) 'set open,' or a window to see either into God's heart or Christ's, you may raise a confidence of the one from the other, and so come to be sure of both.
And this also I do first mention, because it is the most intrinsic bottom demonstration that can be made of Christ's willingness, and is the utmost reason for it.
This demonstration I found upon John 10:30, 'I and my Father are one.' That whereas in this my text he shows how his Father's will and his agree in one, he there gives the reason for it, for (says he) we are one; and the words there, as they stand in their coherence, are proper to the purpose in hand. For Christ there alleges them as the reason why his heart, and power, and all in him is so engaged for the salvation of his own, that if he has any power in him, and be able to do anything, 'not one of them shall perish,' because 'his Father and he are one.' For, mark the occasion upon which he speaks this, it is the same that here in my text. He had been speaking of saving his sheep, and of his power and will to save them; and concludes, that 'they shall never perish.' And he says not only that he will never cast them out (as here), but that 'neither shall any man pluck them out of his hand.' And in that speech, he shows and utters the strength of his will as much as of his power. For otherwise, although his hand of power had been never so potent to have held them against all opposition, yet if his will had not as strongly resolved to hold them in his hand, and so, if they were not as deep in his heart as they are fast in his hands, this speech of his had not been made good, that 'they shall never perish.' And then he gives the reason both of this
resoluteness of his will and this prevalence of his power from his Father's both will and power, engaged as much as his own, in this fullness.* 'My Father,' says he, 'that gave them me is greater than all, and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hands.' He pleads here, first, his Father's will—'He gave them me;' and then, secondly, his power, whom these Jews he spoke to acknowledged greater than all, though him they did not. 'He is greater than all; none can pluck them out of his hands;' and then argues to himself, 'My Father and I are one.' One in nature, therefore much more in will. Two persons that have distinct essence may yet be one in will, as the ten kings are said to be of one mind when they agreed in one thing, Rev. 17:13, 17; so Acts 4:32, it is said that they that believed were of 'one heart and of one soul,' that is, in judgment and consent of mind. But Christ and God the Father are one yet nearer, one in nature, and therefore much more entire in will, for by nature they have but one will between them. And that place speaks at once in relation to both their willingness to save, as to both their powers to save sinners. And this is not only an argument that they did both agree, and were likely to agree, in it, but that they can never disagree. Two that essentially have two wills, though for the present agreeing in one, yet it may be supposed that they may come to disagree, and not will the same thing; but if they essentially have but one will, it is impossible then but that they must ever agree. This great security, therefore, does
Christ give for the salvation of sinners. You have not only two persons engaged, persons greater than all, but all that is in them engaged, both their power and will; and what more can be desired?
And if the one holds his purpose, the other must also, for they are one. You have the oneness of God and Christ given you for security; so that if they can never be made two, and worked asunder, then sinners must needs be saved. Until these two persons do disagree, you are sure enough; and they must cease to be ere they can cease to agree, for they are one, and one in being.
We have another testimony as full as this, 1 John 5:7: 'There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy
Ghost' (we are yet surer, here is a third person that comes in), 'and these three are one.' Now, what is the thing that these do witness to?
Ver. 11 it follows, 'This is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.' Here their truth is pledged, as in that other place their power was, for the apostle alleges this as such a truth as they all agree and stand in to make good. And to prove this, he says (as in that other place, John 10) that 'these three are one,' that is, one in nature, therefore one in will, and so also one in witness to this truth. He says not only they agree in one, for you shall observe that whereas there are three other witnesses mentioned to be on earth, there is this difference put between their concurrency in their testimonies and that of these, that 'they agree in one' (so ver. 8), but there is more said of these, namely, that they are one, that is, in nature, and so in will and purpose, and so must needs much more agree in one. Now, that thing which their wills and testimonies and all agree in is, as has been said, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son, to all that shall come for it. So that for demonstrations of this I need go no further. If there be any will, power, or truth in these persons, sinners shall be saved.
This being premised, as the most bottom ground of Christ's being at first, and his continuing to be forever, willing to pardon sinners, let us more particularly see, first, how his heart stood to the salvation of them before he came into the world; and then, secondly, how it stood inclined to it after he was come; and what confirmations our faith may have from both. So that the thing I am herein to speak to is not so much his willingness to the work of redemption itself (that I have elsewhere handled apart), but his willingness and readiness to save sinners.
1. Let us see how his heart stood to this before the world was, and before he came into it. And for this we find that his delights were set upon it; so Prov. 8:31, 'Rejoicing in the habitable parts of his earth, and my delights were with the sons of men:' which words are more properly spoken of Christ than of God the Father, and therefore I produce them under this head. For they are said to be spoken by Wisdom, that is, Christ himself, he therein showing how his mind stood towards us before the world began; for he speaks what he and his Father did 'before the mountains were,'
&c. 'I was set up from everlasting,' ver. 22. 'Then I was by him,'
&c., ver. 30. And how did they pass away that long aeon, as the apostle calls it? In nothing but rejoicing and delights. He there speaks of nothing else that they did. And what was the matter of delight unto them?
(1.) He and his Father delighted one in another, ver. 30.
(2.) In the salvation of men, 'My delights were with the sons of men,' so ver. 31. And he speaks of men as fallen, for it is said in the beginning of the same verse that he 'rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth,' which is spoken not of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles too, and of men all the earth over. Now, first, delights arise out of the strongest and choicest desires. Men are pleased with many things in which they delight not. Christ's heart and desires must needs have been most on that which his delights are in. Again, secondly, the greater the persons are, and the greater their minds are, the greater are their delights. Things of great concernment are usually the objects which are the delights of kings, and which they take pleasure in. Now, the great God and Jesus Christ singled out the pardon and reconciliation of sinners for their chief delights.