CHAPTER VII: A greater difficulty to overcome, how to give him for us.
And which when revealed is, without controversy, so great a mystery, 1 Tim. 3:16, that the very revelation of it is the greatest argument that can be brought to prove the truth of our religion; for all men that understand it, must and will with amazement acknowledge and confess, that so great a plot could not have been hatched in the womb of any created understanding. As sin was our invention, Eccl. 7:29, so Christ alone was God's; and therefore Christ is called, 'The Wisdom of God,' which is not spoken of him essentially as second person, but manifestativè as mediator, because in him his wisdom to the utmost is made manifest.
CHAPTER VII
When God's wisdom had found out a fit person, yet since this must be his only Son, here was a greater difficulty for him to overcome; how to give him for us.—The depths of God's love here, as of his wisdom before, seen in not sparing his own Son, but exposing him to all the rigours of justice, which would not make the least abatements.
—It was of free choice that he made thus of his Son to be a Redeemer, to which he was not obliged or necessitated.—He appointed his Son to death for us, and laid his injunction and charge on him to perform this his will.
Now the person is found out, and the way clear how it should be done, which difficulty his wisdom hath expedited; yet the finding out the person hath brought a greater with it; for if none but he that was his Son could do it, and though a Son, yet if he become a surety, justice will not have him spared. 'He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?' Justice would abate nothing; 'Without blood there is no remission,' and not the best blood of his body would serve, but of his soul too. He must bear our sins: Isa. 53:5, 'But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.' He must pay God in the same coin we should, and therefore
must 'make his soul an offering for sin:' Isa. 53:10, 11, 'Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.' And if he be made sin, he must be made a curse; and which is more than all this, God himself must be the executioner, and his own Son the person who suffers, and no creature could strike stroke hard enough to make it satisfactory.
Many a tender mother hath not the heart to see her child whipped, much less to whip it herself, although she knows it to be for its own profit and good, when it is in fault; but God here in this case must put his Son to grief, Isa. 53:10.
To find out the way to accomplish it, and the person by whom, drew out but the depths of his wisdom; but now, if the business go forward, it will draw out the depths of his love. It cost him but his thoughts afore, now it must cost him his Son, the Son of his love. If it were to sacrifice worlds for us, he could have easily created millions, and destroyed them again for us; as he gave nations for their sakes,
Isa. 43:4. But what? To sacrifice his only Son, here was the difficulty.
And if this be the only way (God might have said), bury the invention of it in eternal silence; let it never be made mention of or come to light, that ever there were such a thing; let it here die, rather than
Christ die; and therefore though his heart was much set upon this project, yet this might likely have dashed all, that nothing should serve but the death of his Son; his will might be more set upon this business of reconciling us, than ever on any, but yet not upon such terms as these. He might be glad to see it done, yet not to cost so dear.
Behold therefore and wonder, and stand aghast! He takes this way to choose, and chooseth Christ to this work; and thus to choose him was God the Father's work, and indeed a work of wonder. Isa. 42:1,
'Behold my servant, whom I uphold; my elect, in whom my soul delights.' And so Mat. 12:18, 'Behold my servant whom I have chosen, in whom my soul is well pleased.' That ever these two should be put together in one sentence,—Scil., 'In whom my soul delights,' with this, 'Behold my servant whom I have chosen,' to such a harsh and difficult a business; yet that was the very reason of this choice, therefore he chooseth him, and therefore it is mentioned with it; for the more he loved him, the more love he should shew in giving him for us.
And observe it. It is made an act of choice in him, full and free. He had other ways; at least, he was no way necessitated unto this. He might have destroyed us, and lost nothing by us. He might have pardoned us, and shewn more love therein than unto millions of new created friends. Yea, suppose a creature could have satisfied, yet he takes this way to choose; it suits with the utmost extent of all his ends. If the sacrifices of bulls and goats could (as they could not), have taken away sin, yet these 'thou wouldst not,' says Christ, Heb.
10:8, 'but a body hast thou fitted me. He takes away the first' (says the apostle, Heb. 10:9), 'that he may establish the second.' That is, he layeth aside all other means (if other could be supposed), and chooseth this, and however resolves to take this course ex abundanti; and as in making his promises it is said, Heb. 6:17, 'God being willing more abundantly to shew to the heirs of salvation the immutability of his counsel, confirms them by an oath,' which puts an end to all controversies; ver. 16, 'And because he can swear by no greater, he aware by himself.' So say I in this: What if God, ex abundanti, if upon supposition other means could have done it; yet out of his abundance of love to us, whom he thinks he can never love enough, nor to shew his love, do too much for; what if he means to give his Son because he cannot give a greater, and so at once to give the greatest instance of his love and justice: of his love, in that he is not only content to commute the punishment, but lay it on his Son; of his justice, in that he will not only punish sin in us, but even in him. He will not spare his own Son, Rom. 8:32, and so he will make sure work indeed, and put an end to all suppositions, fears, yea, possibility of miscarriage; a
way whereby to accommodate all things so fully, as all conveniences requisite to this work should concur, yea, abound indeed in Christ's alone mediation. The demonstration of which doth depend upon the second part of the story, when we hear what Christ did do to the effecting of it.
So as it is, and may be a great question, whether God hath shewn more love in pitching on this way, when by other means he might have saved us if he would; or if no other means could be had, and God was confined to this, yet that God would do so much rather than we should not be saved? We could have had pardon without Christ, yet to have not pardon only, but Christ also, this is infinitely more.
The pardon of sin is a greater gift than millions of worlds; but to have pardon through Christ, and Christ with the pardon, though but of one sin, is more than the pardon of worlds of sins.
And, further, consider what he chose Christ unto; 'He appointed him to death,' as the apostle says of himself in another case. Therefore
Peter, 1 Pet, 1:18, 19, speaking of our redemption by his blood; 'which (says he) was verily foreordained before the foundation of the world.'
So as he chose him not as a head only, but as a lamb to be slain: Rev.
13:8, 'And all that dwell on the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.'
I have elsewhere* shewed how he was appointed to be an heir; but there is some dignity in that, and yet it was a humiliation in him to take that by appointment which was his own by natural inheritance; but to be appointed to death so long afore, and to such a death, and there was not a circumstance in it but his Father appointed it, that it should be thus shameful, thus painful, &c., this was love indeed; Acts
2:23, 'Him being delivered by the determinate counsel of God, ye have crucified and slain.' All was done by the determinate counsel of God. He not only secretly determined it, but which is more, called him to it, moved him in it himself to undertake to do all this; for
calling and election of us are two distinct things; and so in the designing of Christ to this office, they are to be considered apart.
Now the Father was not only the contriver and designer, but had the heart (such was his love to us) to be himself the first propounder also of it to him, and withal to tell him he was to be the executioner, or he should not be satisfied by him for sin. And who should break this to Christ, and persuade him, or bring him off to be willing to it? No creature had interest enough in him, to be sure. None of us did ever speak to him to die, nor no creature mentioned it for us; for none durst so much as to think it. Who did then? His Father owns it as his own work; Isa. 42:6, 'I have called thee in righteousness;' and it was necessary he should. Both because, First, Christ was not to begin to offer it of himself. That conceit of Bernard's, bringing Christ in offering himself for poor man (as he doeth), saying, 'Take me, sacrifice me for them,' hath no ground, for he doeth nothing but what his Father propounds; John 5:19, 20,
'Then answered Jesus, and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself; but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.' He is the second person, and all motions are to begin and come from the Father, who is the first person. And as to this particular, Christ speaks in this wise, John 8:42, 'I came from God, neither came I of myself, but my Father sent me.'
Secondly, It being an office, and an office of priesthood, he was to be appointed to it. Heb. 5:4, 5, 'No man takes this honour to himself, but he that was called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ' (though he had all excellencies and abilities in him) 'glorified not himself to be made an high priest for us.'
God therefore called him to it; and this as making it his own business, as he was pleased to account it, and as such commended it
to Christ, and therefore Christ calls it his 'Father's business:' Luke 2:49, 'And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?'
And now will you see how and in what manner it was he called him, and be amazed at it, to see how earnest he is in it. See his own words
(as the Holy Ghost, the great secretary of heaven, who alone was by at that great council, hath recorded it), Heb. 5:5, 6, 'So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec;' where we find the very words he spake to him recorded, 'He that said to him, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee, says in another place,' which records another passage then spoken, 'Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Mekhisedec.' The Holy Ghost brings in both these, and joins them together, and brings that which was in the first as the argument or motive which God used to him to persuade him, when he moved him to it. He that said, 'Thou art my Son,' says, 'Thou art a priest' also, to shew the ground of authority which ho urgeth in it. He that was his
Father, and so had power to appoint his Son his calling (as other parents have), appointed him as his begotten Son thus to be a priest.
And therefore he tells him, in the first speech, that he is his Son, and he begat him; and therewithal wooes him, that as he was his Son, and he his Father, and puts him in mind of all that mutual love which was between them upon so high a relation; and so much the higher, by how much the thing communicated was greater, in that he was God by his begetting him; that therefore and thereupon he would take on him this so hard and harsh an undertaking. He calls him indeed, and speaks (as if he meant not to be denied) in the highest language of a father, and useth his whole interest in that, mentions the deepest obligation, and he notes out the time; it was on his birthday, 'This day have I begotten thee.' As parents often dedicate their children, when first born, to such and such a calling, as Hannah did Samuel to the priesthood, so doth God his Son. Yea, he is yet more earnest, he laid his express command on him, John 10:18, though the other