Great Themes of the Bible
Christ 35
2. THe Duties oF Curist
(a) He was to be a preacher. That is, He was to execute the office of a prophet. So well pleased was He with the good will God showed towards men through Him, that He would Himself be a preacher of it; that an honour might thereby be put upon the ministry of the Gospel, and the faith of the saints might be confirmed and encouraged. He must "preach good tidings'' (so Gospel signifies) '"'to the meek"', to the penitent, and humble, and poor in spirit; to them the tidings of a Redeemer will be indeed good tidings, pure Gospel, faithful sayings, and worthy of all acceptation. The poor are commonly best disposed to receive the Gospel (Jas. ii. 5), and then it is likely to profit us when it is received with meekness, as it ought to be. To such Christ preached good tidings, when He said: '' Blessed are the meek."'
(0) He was to be a healer. He was sent "to bind up the brokenhearted"'; as pained limbs are rolled to give them ease, as broken bones and bleeding wounds are bound up, that they may knit and close again. Those whose hearts are broken for sin, that are truly humbled under the sense of guilt, and dread of wrath, are furnished in the Gospel of Christ with that which will make them easy, and silence their fears. Those only who have experienced the pains of penitential contrition may expect the pleasure of divine cordials and consolations.
(c) He was to be a deliverer. He was sent as a prophet to preach, as a priest to heal, and as a king to issue out proclamations; and those of two kinds. One, proclamations of peace to His friends. He shall "proclaim liberty to the captives" (as Cyrus did to the Jews in captivity), 'and the opening of prison to them that are bound."" Whereas by guilt of sin we are bound over to the justice of God, are as lawful captives, sold for sin till payment be made of the great debt, Christ lets us know that He has made a satisfaction to divine justice for that debt, that His satisfaction is accepted. If we will plead that and depend upon it, and make over ourselves and all we have to Him, in a grateful sense of the kindness He hath done for us, we may by faith sue out our pardon and take comfort of it. There is, and shall be, no condemnation to us.
This is the Gospel proclamation, and it is like the blowing of the Jubilee trumpet, which proclaimed the great year of release (Lev. xxv. 9, 40): in allusion to which it is here called
"the acceptable year of the Lord'', the time of our acceptance with God, which is the origin of our liberties. Or, it is called the year of the Lord, because it publishes His free grace to His own glory; and an acceptable year, because it brings glad tidings to us, and what cannot but be very acceptable to those who know the capacities and necessities of their own soul.
The second kind of proclamations are those of war against His enemies. Christ proclaims "'the day of vengeance of our God". The vengeance He takes is in the first place on sin and Satan, death and hell, and all the powers of darkness. These Christ triumphed over on the cross, having spoiled and weakened them, shamed them, and made a show of them openly, and therein took vengeance on them for all the injury they had done both to God and man (Col. ii. 15). In the second place, He took vengeance on those of the children of men that stand it out against those fair offers. They shall not only be left as they deserve in their captivity, but be dealt with as enemies. We have the Gospel summed up (Mark xvi. 16), where the part of it, "He that believeth shall be saved"', proclaims "the acceptable year of the Lord" to those who will accept of it; but the other part, "He that believeth not shall be damned'', proclaims "the day of vengeance of our God'', that vengeance which He will take of those that '"'obey not the Gospel of Jesus Christ'' (2 Thess. 1. 8).
(d) He was to be a comforter. 'Thus He is a preacher, healer, and deliverer. He is sent '"'to comfort all that mourn"', and, mourning, seek to Him, and not to the world, for comfort. Christ not only provides comfort for them, and proclaims it, but He applies it to them; He doth by His spirit comfort them. There is enough in Him to comfort all that mourn, whatever their sore or sorrow is. He will give them "'beauty for ashes". Whereas they lay in ashes, as was usual in times of great mourning, they shall not only be raised out of their dust but made to look pleasant. The holy cheerfulness of Christians is their beauty, and a great ornament to their profession. There is a play on words here in the original Hebrew: He will give them pheer (beauty) for epher (ashes). He will turn their sorrow into joy as quickly and as easily as they can transpose a letter, for He speaks and it is done. The "'oil of gladness" makes the face to shine, instead of mourning, which disfigures the countenance and makes it unlovely. The ''garments of praise"