Chapter 11. Uses of God's Beginning with Man to Be Reconciled
But someone who is offended with another might say, "I have been willing to go as far as to come to him and offer him peace, but I will never do it again; if there is ever to be any reconciliation between us,
I assure you, he shall come to me next time." God does not say this to us. We would be undone if He did. If God were to come once and offer peace to us, and upon our refusal, stood on such terms as men do and said, "Well, I have offered peace once; but now they must begin next, or there will be no peace between us," where would we be? No, says God; though I have offered it once, and it has been refused, I will offer it again.
Help 5 Yea further, God is often the first to yield to His poor creature.
Perhaps a man might be persuaded to send to such a person a second time; but when they are in discussion together (if one is superior to the other), they will stand on this: who shall yield first? And it will be difficult to bring the superior to yield. But God is not so. When we come to treat with God about our peace and reconciliation with Him, though our hearts resist, yet God yields first.
For this, you have a notable text in Romans 5:10: "If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God." This phrase clearly indicates that God is first willing to yield on His part. This is the infinite grace and goodness of God towards man—to begin with man in the matter of reconciliation.
Chapter 11.
Uses of God's Beginning with Man to Be Reconciled
Use 1: Admire His goodness in beginning, seeing He had no need of us and had such great advantage against us.
Use 2: Begin to seek peace even with our inferiors.
Use 3: The certainty of our salvation being reconciled.
Use 4: Not to be backward and hang off when God calls to duty.
A fourth particular propounded at the beginning of this treatise in the first chapter is this: that God begins first with man to be reconciled to Him. In this great work of making peace, it is God who initiates it. "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." In this part of the verse, there are these four things further to be addressed:
First, that God begins the work.
Secondly, that it is in Christ.
Thirdly, that God was doing this, even from eternity.
And lastly, that the subject of this is the world.
There was a word or two hinted at regarding the first of these in the last chapter. It is God who begins the work of our reconciliation; and if He had not begun, we would never have had thoughts of it. We would never have known how to go about reconciling ourselves to Him, and even if we could have known how to do it, our stubborn and hardened hearts would never have yielded to God. It is God who must begin the work.
And He does not only begin with us, but indeed He continues as well.
Although He has begun, if He does not continue—and after our rejecting being reconciled to Him the first, second, third, and fourth time; if He did not again and again take the initiative—we would never come to be reconciled to Him.
I will only provide two or three observations by way of application, having already addressed this matter somewhat; and so, I shall proceed further.
Use 1 First, let us learn to admire the goodness of God to wretched man, His goodness that He should be pleased to begin this work of reconciliation with us. For consider the infinite distance that is between God and us. Oh! infinite goodness, that so great a God should begin with such a poor, vile creature as man is. Among men, if one is but a little inferior to another, and if he has fallen out with someone beneath him, he takes it as a matter of scorn to begin making peace. "No," says he, "let him come to me and seek me if he will." If God had stood upon such terms, all the children of men would have been damned eternally.
When God saw that we would perish forever, and that we would never even think of being reconciled to Him, oh, then the bowels of His compassion yearned towards us; and He said, "I will begin with them first, for I see they will not begin." Indeed, they began to make the breach; they began to sin against Me. And that will be a second consideration which makes the grace of God even more marvellous, that the breach is made on man's part: that all the wrong done is on man's part. Among men, if one is great, though he himself has done the wrong, he expects his inferior to come and bow before him. But if his inferior began the quarrel and did the wrong, he will surely stand firm and expect his inferior to seek reconciliation with him. But here, behold, though we began the quarrel, though we did all the wrong and God never did us any, yet so infinitely gracious is the Lord that He begins first. "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself."
Yea, further, the Lord has no need of us. Among men, if one falls out with another, he may perhaps say, "Well, I see I shall have use of this man; I shall have need of him for this or that business, or for such and such employment." And upon this account, though he be his inferior (for superiors may have need of their inferiors), he is willing to be reconciled to him. But God has no such need of us. God knows how to glorify His own name, even if we all perish eternally. It is not for any use that God has of us that He comes to begin the work of reconciliation with us.
Moreover, God has us at an infinite advantage to do with us as He pleases. Indeed, a man may be willing to be reconciled with his enemy because he sees it will cost him much to maintain his position against him; it will put him to much trouble. But there is no such reason between God and us, for God has us under His feet. For a man who has his enemy under his feet, and has him at every advantage, to then sue for reconciliation—one would say it is a rare thing, and where is there such a thing in the world? But behold, God does this with us. Though He has us at infinite advantage to do with us whatsoever He pleases, and can draw out His glory even from our ruin and eternal misery, yet He begins the work of reconciliation with us. Oh! admire the infinite grace of God toward wretched and sinful man. This will be the work of the angels in heaven for all eternity—to admire God's rich grace, even in this one branch of the Gospel: His beginning the work of reconciliation.
Use 2 Another use of this may be to teach us not to think it beneath us to begin seeking peace even with our inferiors. Let us learn by the example of God that if there be a falling out between one neighbour and another, or between one friend and another, not to think it
undignified to begin the work of peace. We often think it would be a dishonour for us to yield so far. We say, "Is he not my inferior? Shall
I send to him?" But why, it is God's glory to do it! God does not only do it to us, but He counts it His glory to do so.
It is a great part of the glory of God that He is willing to yield to us and to send to us about terms of reconciliation. And shall that which makes God glorious be considered a dishonour to you? Shall it make you inglorious, when it makes God glorious? If it be an excellency in God, surely it is no baseness, no dishonour in you. What a proud heart you must have to think that something which elevates God should diminish you! As if your honour were to be higher than the honour of God Himself! Certainly, those men who are of such implacable dispositions, who will never yield to begin making peace with others but will stand firm to the uttermost, even when their consciences tell them they have done much wrong, and who could be willing there was peace, only they will not begin—this proud and stubborn spirit in men is evidence that they have not experienced
God's reconciling work in themselves. For God's beginning to be reconciled to you will incline you to begin reconciliation with your inferior.
You may say, "Why should he not begin first?" It is true; why should he not? It is his duty indeed, and so it is our duty to begin with God.
But suppose he does not begin; you should rather pity him and consider him to be in a more miserable condition. And know that though you have the advantage over him, you are still to be like unto
God in this matter.
USE 3 Thirdly, a third use of God's beginning the work of reconciliation with us is the use that the Apostle himself makes in Romans 5:10: "If
when we were enemies to God we were reconciled unto Him by the death of His Son, how much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Here you see the Apostle's inference upon God's graciousness in Himself: He, being willing to be reconciled when we were enemies, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved. As if he had said, "Considering all the goodness of God towards poor, wretched, sinful creatures, when we were desperate enemies to Him and never thought of coming in to be reconciled, yet the Lord
Himself finds out a way and begins the work of making peace between Him and our souls. Surely then, being reconciled unto Him, we shall be saved."
What! Shall God, when we were going on in a desperate way of enmity against Him, come to us then and have thoughts of peace, love, and mercy toward us? Surely when we are reconciled, when we have hearts in some measure to love this God, and to serve and fear
Him, He will not cast us off. Certainly not; it is better with us now than before. When we were enemies to Him, and desperate enemies at that, it would have been no wonder if God had cast us off and sent us to our own place to lie forever under the infinite burden of His wrath. But the Lord had thoughts of peace toward us then. It is therefore now far otherwise with us. Though it is true we have many corruptions in us, we can appeal to God that our souls love Him, and that the desire of our hearts is to fear and serve Him.
We can, in some measure, say: "Lord, You who know all things, know that there is nothing in the world our souls desire more than to overcome these corruptions. There is no burden in all the world like the burden of sin. There is nothing so grievous to us as this: that we have such vile hearts and natures that we cannot serve You better than we do. And if God were to ask us what we would have from Him, we could say, in the sincerity of our souls: 'Lord, You know we
would not ask for riches or honours, to be kings and princes in the world; but, oh, that we might be delivered from the remainder of the corruption that is in our hearts, from such and such distempers of our souls whereby we dishonour Your name continually.'"
Certainly, if the hearts of men are in this disposition, they may draw a comforting argument for themselves and conclude thus: "There was a time when I went on as a desperate enemy to God. I lived without God in the world and never acknowledged His power, majesty, or dominion over me. As if I were born for nothing else but to sin against God, I followed my own lusts with all manner of greediness. But behold, even at that time, the Lord had thoughts of mercy toward me, and He took me—perhaps when I came to hear the word with the intention to scorn and despise it, even to mock it. Yet, at that very time, He took me, spoke to my heart, and showed me
Jesus Christ and His mercy, and then He broke my heart. Now the Lord knows, though I do not profit as I should when I come to His word, yet I come with a heart desiring to profit, and I earnestly wish to know the mind of God in it. Before I come, I go to God and ask
Him to show me some part of His will."
"Will God now cast me off, when, being a desperate enemy to Him, He had thoughts of mercy towards me? Will He cast me off for the infirmities I have now? I know I do not have a heart opposed to that grace, though my heart is full of distempers. I am not an enemy to God as I was before, nor an enemy to His people and ordinances. No, my heart is toward Him, toward His people, and toward His ordinances. And was God reconciled to me then, even whilst I was an enemy? Will He now cast me off for weaknesses and infirmities?
Certainly, it cannot be." Oh, make much of that place of the Apostle:
"If when we were enemies unto God we were reconciled unto Him; much more," says he, "certainly now God will not cast us off, but we