Part 2
salvation includes deliverance from that perdition, and eternal holiness and eternal blessedness.
2. It is here, as well as elsewhere taught, that it was the design of God to render the salvation of all men possible, by the gift of his Son. There was nothing in the nature, or the value, or the design of his work to render it available for any one class of men only. Whosoever believeth, etc. This is not inconsistent with other representations that it entered into God's design to render the salvation of his people certain by the death of his Son.
3. The passage teaches that faith is the only condition of salvation; not descent from Abraham, nor circumcision, not church connection, not outward rite, not goodness, but simple faith, which indeed secures all goodness, etc.
4. It teaches that faith includes trust. We believe upon Christ, i.e., we trust in him as our Saviour. This includes or supposes the apprehension of his glory as the Son of God; the renunciation of all other grounds of reliance; the knowledge of what he has done and has promised to do for our salvation, and the actual committing ourselves into his hands believing that he will save us.
This is a passage to which we must constantly recur for our own instruction, confirmation and consolation, and for the instruction and guidance of those committed to our care.
XII. "Who will have all men to be saved
and to come unto the knowledge of the
truth." 1 Tim. 2:4
[March 1st, 1868.]
There are two principles which must control the interpretation of the Scriptures. That is, when a passage admits of two interpretations, the
choice between them is to be determined, first, by the analogy of Scripture. If one interpretation contradicts what the Bible elsewhere teaches and another accords with it, then we are bound to accept the latter. Or, secondly, the interpretation must be decided by established facts. That is, if one interpretation agrees with such facts and another contradicts them, then the former must be true.
This passage admits of two interpretations so far as the signification of the words are concerned. First, that God wills, in the sense of purposing or intending, the salvation of all men. This cannot be true, first, because it contradicts the Scriptures. The Scriptures teach 1st, that the purposes of God are immutable, and that they cannot fail of their accomplishment. 2d. That all men are not to be saved. It is clearly taught that multitudes of the human race have perished, are now perishing, and will hereafter perish. That God intends and purposes what he knows is not to happen, is a contradiction. It contradicts the very idea of God, and is an impossibility, Secondly, this interpretation contradicts admitted facts as well as the explicit statements of the Bible.
1. It is a fact that God does not give saving grace to all men. 2. It is a fact that he does not and never has brought all men to the knowledge of the truth. Multitudes of men are destitute of that knowledge, and ever have been. By truth it is clear the apostle means saving truth, the truth as revealed in the gospel, and not merely the truth as revealed by things that are made. This interpretation therefore cannot be correct.
The second interpretation is that God desires the salvation of all men. This means 1st, just what is said when the Scriptures declare that God is good; that he is merciful and gracious, and ready to forgive; that he is good to all, and his tender mercies over all his works. He is kind to the unthankful and to the evil. This goodness or benevolence of God is not only declared but revealed in his works, in his providence, and in the work of redemption. 2d. It means what is said in Ezek. 33:11. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure
in the death of the wicked," and in Ezek. 18:23, "Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should return from his ways and live?" Also Lam. 3:33, "For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men." It means what Christ taught in the parable of the prodigal son, and of the lost sheep and the lost piece of money; and is taught by his lament over Jerusalem.
All these passages teach that God delights in the happiness of his creatures, and that when he permits them to perish, or inflicts evil upon them, it is from some inexorable necessity; that is, because it would be unwise and wrong to do otherwise. His relation is that of a benevolent sovereign in punishing crime, or of a tender judge in passing sentence on offenders, or, what is the familiar representation of Scripture, that of a father who deals with his children with tenderness, yet with wisdom and according to the dictates of right.
This is the meaning of the passage. That it is the correct one is plain,
1. Because it is agreeable to the meaning of the word θέλειν. In innumerable cases it means to love, delight in, to regard with satisfaction as a thing desirable. "Sacrifice and offerings thou wouldst not," "neither hadst pleasure therein." "Ye cannot do the things that ye would." "For what I would, that do I not, but what I hate, that I do." "We would see a sign from thee." "Be it unto thee even as thou wilt." "If he delight in him" is ἐι θέλει αὐτόν. 2. This passage thus interpreted teaches just what the Scriptures elsewhere teach of the goodness of God. 3. It does not contradict the Scriptures as the other does, or make God mutable or impotent. 4. It is accordant with all known facts. It agrees with the fact, that God is benevolent, as shown in his works, and yet that he permits many to perish.
This truth is of great importance, 1. Because all religion is founded on the knowledge of God and on the proper apprehensions of his
character. We should err fatally if we conceived of God as malevolent.
2. The conviction that God is love, that he is a kind Father, is necessary to encourage sinners to repent. The prodigal hesitated because he doubted his father's love. It was his hope that encouraged him to return.
3. This truth is necessary to our confidence in God. It is the source of gratitude and love.
4. It is to be held fast to under all circumstances. We are to believe though so much sin and misery are allowed to prevail. We are not to resort to false solutions of this difficulty, to assume that God cannot prevent sin, or that he wills it as a means to happiness. He allows it because it seems good in his sight to do so, and this is the highest and the last solution of the problem of evil.
XIII. The Promises of God
[December 2d, 1860.]
The promises of God bear an important part in the work of redemption, both as to justification and as to sanctification. They are the objects of faith and hope.
I. They are objects of faith.
The promise to fallen Adam; to Abraham, to David; to the people of God in all ages. The promise of the Messiah, of justification and salvation through him, was and is now held up as the proper object of faith.
This faith includes self-renunciation, assent, and trust. And as such, it has ever been the condition of justification.
II. They are the objects of hope, because the blessings to which they relate, not only of the present but also of the future, are the blessings which we specially need, and include all we need, in order to our deliverance from the guilt of sin, from hell, and to secure the full perfection, happiness, and exaltation of our nature, here and hereafter, for time and for eternity.
As the objects of hope and faith, they,
III. Sanetify. By them we are made partakers of the divine nature, as Peter says in his 2d Epistle 1:4, unless the word be taken for the things promised, as when it is said, we inherit the promise, or we receive the promise, or wait for the promise. In either sense the declaration is true. By the divine promises we are made partakers of the divine nature, i.e., of holiness, because, 1. Were it not for those promises, we should have neither faith nor hope, and divine life would be impossible. 2. Because it is by the power of the promises as revealed by the power of the Spirit, that the soul is purified, the heart weaned from things of earth and set on things above.
Or, if the word promises there means the blessings promised, then the meaning is that by the redemption of Christ, his work outside of ourselves to satisfy divine justice, and the work of his Spirit in the heart, and by the whole administration of his kingdom of grace, we are exalted to the participation of the divine nature, φύσις, not in the sense of essence, but of character, or disposition; so that we concur with God in judgment and feeling.
IV. They are the source of consolation and strength, 1. in times of affliction. 2. In times of conflict. 3. In times of temptation. They fill the soul with confidence and joy, and excite the purpose to persevere even unto the end, assured that we shall become more than conquerors.
These promises relate not merely to individuals, but to the church and to the government of the world.
V. The attributes of the divine promises are,
1. That they are exceeding great and precious. The blessings promised are exceeding great, and are such as give them value to us.
2. They are sure, a. Because spoken by God, and therefore his veracity is pledged, and his power and infinite wisdom are secured for their fulfilment. b. Because they are all yea and amen in Christ; that is, he has rendered them by his work absolutely certain, having performed the condition on which they were suspended, and having received power to carry them into effect.
3. They are immutable. This is involved in their being sure. But it includes the special idea not only that God's purposes will never change, but that no contingency can interfere with their fulfilment. They do not depend upon any thing in us, in our fidelity, or the fidelity of the Church, considered as something outside the promise; for the promise is that God will keep us from falling, that he will keep us all faithful, and cause us to persevere.
VI. How we are to derive the benefit of the promise.
1. There are many causes of distrust and doubt, as, a. a sense of unworthiness; b. long delay; c. apparent failure. These are the common experience of the people of God. These are the means which Satan uses to deprive them of the benefit of the promises of God. But, a. they are not founded on our worthiness. b. The promises of God have been fulfilled after long waiting for them. c. The failures are only apparent. We misinterpret them, and because our interpretation fails, we think the promise fails.
2. What we have to do is—
a. To understand the promises and to this end to study them.
b. To secure an interest in them by faith in Christ, or by accepting them.
c. To live upon them.
XIV. The Wrath of God against Sinners
[Nov. 13th, 1870.]
Meaning of the word when used of God. Anthropomorphism, i.e., the doctrine that as man is the image of God, God is like man, is the foundation of Theism.
When we predicate intelligence, will and power of God, we mean and the Scriptures mean that God really possesses attributes analogous, i.e., of the same kind as the faculties which that word expresses in us. So when we predicate of him, love, mercy, holiness and goodness, the same is true. In all these cases we must eliminate from the ideas which those words express when used of ourselves, every thing, when we apply them to God, which implies any limitation or imperfection.
In the Scriptures, wrath, anger, fury are attributed to God. These in man are perturbing, agitating, painful, states of mind, and generally more or less malignant. All these elements must be eliminated. What then remains? 1. A calm disapprobation, which is both a judgment and a feeling of which sin and sinners are the objects. 2. A determination to express this disapprobation. 3. This expression results in the banishment of the sinner from God. This is cutting him off from the source of all holiness and happiness, and consigning him to endless, hopeless, inevitable sin and misery. This is the death of the soul, the second death.
Hence it follows, 1st. That although the punishment of sinners is voluntary and judicial, it is nevertheless necessary; that is, it of necessity flows from the character of God, from the necessary opposition between sin and holiness. 2d. That this punishment is inevitable. Because among men the infliction of punishment, being a voluntary act, may or may not be inflicted, or if inflicted may be
remitted, men are apt to think the same thing is true with regard to God. Punishment at his hand is indeed voluntary, but God's will is determined by his nature, and therefore the one is as immutable as the other. As God's nature is of necessity opposed to sin, his will to punish it is also necessary, in the sense of being inevitable. As it is inconceivable that God should not love holiness, so it is inconceivable that he should not hate sin. And as it is inconceivable that he should not manifest his favor to the holy, so it is inconceivable that he should not manifest his disapprobation of the sinful.
3d. It follows that sinners cannot possibly escape the punishment of their sins. This is expressing the same idea in another form. But sinners while admitting that God is opposed to sin and that he will act accordingly, still hope to escape, either because they purpose to cease from sinning, or because they can atone for it, or because they hope that God will pity and forgive.
God has provided a way in which sin may be forgiven—a way which provides for the remission of its guilt and the removal of its pollution, and a restoration of the soul to the image of God. But to those who neglect or refuse to avail themselves of this method of salvation, there remains only a fearful looking for of judgment.
4th. The punishment of the impenitent sinner is necessarily endless, 1st. Because of the necessity of punishment. 2d. Because the ground of that necessity is permanent. The soul never ceases to be guilty and sinful, and therefore never ceases to be miserable. God has not only not revealed any purpose of bringing lost souls to repentance, but has revealed the purpose that they who reject Christ should perish forever.
5th. It follows that the punishment of the wicked will be inconceivably great. They are shut out from God and all good. They are given up to all the power of evil, which constantly increases. They must associate only with those like themselves. They have no hope.
1. We should think of these truths in their application to ourselves, and determine to avoid all sin and to flee to Christ for salvation. 2. These truths should fill us with burning zeal for the salvation of our fellow-men.
XV. Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.—
Amos 4:12
[April 1st, 1860.]
This as uttered by the prophet is a threat. It is equivalent to saying: prepare for divine vengeance. It is not in this light that it is to be now considered, but as an exhortation to prepare for judgment. It is parallel to those other exhortations: "Be ye also ready," etc.
All these exhortations assume,
I. The moral government of God; that he is to sit in judgment on the character and conduct of men, and reward or punish them according to their works.
1. This assumes not only the existence of God, but his omnipotence and his omniscience. He is assumed to take cognizance of human conduct and of all that determines human character.
This supposes not only the knowledge of all their external acts, but of the state of their mind and of all that determines it. The history of a single soul, as it must be known to God so as to be judged righteously, may be said in its acts, its states, in the circumstances that either aggravate or extenuate guilt, to present a field of knowledge too vast for any created intellect. What then must we say of the history of all the myriad millions of our race? It is plain that nothing less than omniscience could qualify any being to be judge of all the earth. If Christ is that judge he must be omniscient.
2. That this omniscient being is a judge, that he is one who administers law, who decides according to justice. The rule of judgment is justice; not pity, nor benevolence, nor expediency, but justice. This has claims paramount to pity, kindness or expediency. It is in this aspect that God is presented in the Bible as a judge, and therefore as deciding by rule, without respect of persons and with sole reference to the truth of the case.
II. The subjects of this moral government are, 1st. all rational creatures, because a rational nature is the ground of moral agency and of necessity places all rational creatures in the relation of responsible agents toward God. 2d. All men as they fall under the general category of rational creatures. Men as nations, as communities, as societies and as individuals; men in all the capacities in which they act and have moral character. Nations act as nations and have national character, and are therefore dealt with as nations. The same is true of any association. And of course, as every man stands before God, not as a member of a nation or family merely, but as an individual, so he is to be judged as such. And as this is far the most important relation in which we stand, so his judgment as an individual is far more important than any other.
III. The ground of judgment, as already stated, is character and conduct. This is true of nations and individuals. We as individuals are to be judged,
1. For every thing included under the head of conduct, all outward and inward acts, or acts of commission and of omission; for all feeling as well as for all volitions.
2. For every thing that falls under the head of character; not merely actual exercises, but abiding states.
IV. Administration of his government.
1. Over nations, it is by the providence of God in this world, for they exist as such only on earth. The moral conduct and character of
nations are rewarded and punished with certainty and inevitably. This is illustrated by the history of the Jews, of other ancient and modern nations.
Hence follows the duty of individuals to take interest in political affairs.
The rule for Christians and ministers in this matter is, not the expediency, but the morality of national acts judged by the standards of the word of God.
2. Over individuals, this moral government is administered a. By established laws of nature which regulate the sequence of events and the connection of cause and effect. b. By God's special providence. c. Mainly in the future state, immediately after death and at the last day.
V. How are we to prepare to meet God in judgment? 1. Nations, either by national repentance and reformation or by making up their minds to bear the worst. 2. Individuals either, 1. By being prepared to present a faultless life and character, or 2. By taking refuge in the righteousness of Christ, in whom God can be just and yet justify the ungodly.
There is a sense in which believers, justified by the righteousness of Christ, are to be judged according to their works.
CHRIST, HIS PERSON AND
OFFICES
XVI. The Advent
[December 24th, 1854.]
The redemption of the world by Jesus Christ is the middle point in the history, not of our race only, but of the universe.
Reasons for believing this.
1. The nature of the event.
2. The declaration of the Scriptures that through the Church is the glory of God to be especially manifested. Hence follows the obligation of regarding this event as of all others the most important to be remembered.
The reasons why we should thus remember it and cherish a fixed sentiment of gratitude for this manifestation of love, are
I. The infinite condescension and love which it displays; the exaltation of the Son of God; and the depth to which he humbled himself in becoming man.
II. From the benefits which we derive from it; first, as individuals, and second, as a race.
First. As individuals. Under this head are 1. Pardon,—a deliverance from hell. 2. Holiness, or a deliverance from sin. 3. Reconciliation to God, or the enjoyment of his favor. Communion with him who is the infinite source of all good. 4. Exaltation; first as to our persons, in glory, dignity and excellence; and second as to honor and authority.
Second. As a race. Peace on earth and good will to men. Our world is redeemed. It is not to continue under the dominion of sin. It is not to remain the kingdom of darkness. Christ is to reign over the earth. Holiness, peace, happiness are to prevail universally. And in our redeemed race, exalted by union with the Son of God, is to be made the most wonderful exhibition of the glory of God.
Third. This is the third great reason why we should thus gratefully bear in mind the coming of God in the flesh. God is thereby to be honored in the highest degree, to all beings and to all ages. He is to be adored as the God of Redemption, even more than as Creator and Governor.
The two great duties which press upon every man who hears the gospel are, 1. To accept of Christ as his own Saviour, and 2. To make him known to others as the Saviour of men.
XVII. The Advent
[December 25th, 1853.]
I. 1. The observance of Christmas is not commanded. Therefore it is not obligatory. The true Protestant principle is that what is not commanded cannot be enjoined. The importance of this principle as a protection from the burden of human authority. The Talmud and the traditions of Romanists are the two great monuments of the consequence of that principle being discarded. This is not to be confounded with the principle that what is not commanded is not to be tolerated. Against this, 1. The liberty of conscience. It is as much
an assertion of authority to prohibit as to enjoin. 2. The uniform practice of the Church, and our own practice, national thanksgiving, &c.
2. The expediency of this observance. Much may be said for it and much against it. For it. a. The natural law of our associations. b. The analogy of the Old Testament. c. The sympathy and communion of Christians. d. A means of preserving and promoting knowledge. Against it are, a. The liability of abuse; i.e., its being made sacred, or considered of divine authority. b. The gradual superseding of the Sabbath. c. The worldly manner of celebration. These are things to be guarded against, and which should regulate the observance.
3. History of the observance.
It was not celebrated before the fourth century. Origen mentions only three festivals as generally observed, Good Friday, Easter and Pentecost. Augustine places Christmas in the secondary class of festivals. Chrysostom says in his time it was new. It had, he said, been introduced within ten years.
4. The day. Unimportant. It varied for a time.
II. The uses, or the truths connected with the birth of Christ.
1. The birth of Jesus is presented as a miraculous event; as such predicted, as such recorded. The importance of this is that it conveyed our nature uncontaminated to Christ.
2. It is presented as the most wonderful event in its own nature. The Logos became flesh. The Son of God was born of a woman. He who was in the form of God was found in fashion as a man. He who was the brightness of the Father's glory, took part of flesh and blood.
3. It is presented as the most wonderful exhibition of condescension and love. God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son. God spared not his own Son. Herein is love, not that we loved God,
but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. This is the great event of the history of the universe; the union of the divine and human natures in the one person of the Redeemer.
4. It is the most fruitful of consequences, of glory to God, of good to man.
a. Of glory to God. The angels shouted for joy. They cried glory to God in the highest. All eyes turned toward the manger in Bethlehem. Correggio's idea of a luminous infant is but a faint symbol of Christ shedding light throughout the universe. It is an exhibition (a.) of his love and condescension, (b.) of his wisdom and of his power.
b. Of good to man.
1. The means of reconciliation with God, of peace, of fellowship, of participation in his nature.
2. The means of peace in the union of the whole family of the redeemed, of the exaltation of our nature, of the establishment of that kingdom of which the Theanthropos, the God-man, is the head.
3. Of the triumph of God over Satan.
1. Gratitude.
2. Joy.
3. Obedience.
4. Devotion.
XVIII. Immanuel
[Nov. 9th, 1862.]
The names of persons in ancient times, and especially among the people of God, were significant. When given by the parents they were expressive of what they the parents designed either to symbolize or to commemorate. When given by God, they were a mode of revelation. God's giving to the Son of the virgin the name Immanuel, was a revelation of the fact that God was to be with us.
I. The sense in which God is said to be with his people, or with man. 1. It expresses the general sense of nearness. God is, of course, every where, but he is said to be where he especially manifests himself as present. He is not far from any one of us, for in him we live, and move, and have our being. This kind of nearness is common to all creatures, and especially to all rational creatures.
2. It expresses the general sense of favor and assistance. When we say, "The Lord be with you," we pray that he would aid and sustain those whom we address. The Psalmist says of the Lord, "He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved," Ps. 16:8. This name of the Messiah was therefore a promise that God would be with us in the sense of showing us his favor. What the angels afterwards announced, "Peace on earth and good will to men," was foretold in this prophetic designation.
All the ways and senses in which God for Christ's sake is said to be with us or favorable to us, it would be impossible to state. a. He is reconciled to us by the death of his Son. Christ has brought us to God. b. We are not only reconciled so far as his justice is concerned, but we are the objects of his love. c. He is everywhere present by his Spirit to aid, counsel and comfort. d. His providence is ever over us and watchful. The Lord is with us, at our right hand, around about us, near as a light, as protection, as strength, as consolation, as the infinite portion of the soul.
3. God with us, expresses that union which is effected by the incarnation; for it was because of the miraculous birth of this infant, more fully explained by the annunciation of the angel to the Virgin Mary, that the Holy Thing that was to be born of her was the Son of God. It was because the human and the divine natures were to be united in one person in that child that he was to be called Immanuel.
This union brought God and man into the most intimate fellowship in the person of Christ. But it did not stop there. It brought God into a relation to man such as he sustains to no other creature. a. It is such a relation that a divine person can say, we are one, i.e., of one nature. b. That he can call us brethren. c. That he can sympathize with us. d. That what is done to us is done to him. e. That he lifts our nature above that of angels. f. That he forever remains in this relation, filial, fraternal, conjugal, with his people.
4. God with us, means that he dwelleth with us and is in us; παῤ ὑμῖν μενει καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν ἐ͂σται. Jno. 14:17. In virtue of the incarnation as a preliminary condition, and of the indwelling of the Spirit, Christ lives in his people. That is, he is the source of their spiritual life. The thoughts, feelings and actions which belong to that life are due to this peculiar relation between him and us. He is with us intimately, perpetually and everlastingly. It is a union nearer, dearer, and more lasting than any other.
Our great duty therefore is, 1. To live worthily of that union ourselves. 2. To endeavor to bring others to enjoy its blessings.
Consult the following passages and meditate upon them:—
"The Lord of hosts is with us." Ps. 46:7.
"My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him." Ps. 89:24
"As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee." Josh. 1:5.
"Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." Josh. 1:9.
"When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee." Isaiah 43:2.
XIX. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of
the Godhead bodily. Col. 2:9
[Nov. 13th, 1864.]
God is the God of history and of the Bible. He guides the course of events and of revelation. All the books of the Scriptures are historical, i.e., they have their place in history. In one sense they are the product of history. They were written not only in different periods of history, but they meet the wants of persons living in those periods.
Thus in two great parallel lines, as it were, of historical events and of divine revelations, controlled by the same hand, the whole of the great system of truths was gradually brought out. The books of the Old Testament were written to meet the wants of God's people before Moses, under Moses, and in the successive periods from Moses to the advent. The books of the New Testament, especially the epistles, were not written as essays or discourses, but as letters to particular congregations to meet their historical wants. But all, both under the old and the new economy, was so ordered that all truth necessary or desirable has been made known.
The epistle to the Colossians could have been sent appropriately to no other people and at no other time. They were exposed to the seductions of a peculiar class of heretics, such as never existed before or since. They were Jews, but Jewish Christians, who held much of the old system and much of the new. They acknowledged Christ to be the Messiah and the Saviour, but held to the necessity of
circumcision, to the efficacy of rites, to the observance of months, days and years. In this, however, they did not differ from the Judaizing teachers by whom the churches of Galatia, Jerusalem, Antioch and Rome, had been corrupted and disturbed. The peculiarity of the false teachers in Colosse was that they were philosophers as well as Judaizers. They combined the theosophy of the east with the traditions of the Jews. They held to the elements of the Gnostic system, to emanation, to the existence of æons, to the evil of matter, to angel worship, and to the necessity of asceticism. They regarded Christ not as God, but as one of the higher æons, and therefore taught that we were not complete in him, that the believer needed more than he could give, and more than could be attained through his work and Spirit.
Paul's design in the epistle is to teach the all-sufficiency of Christ and the worthlessness of everything else, especially of the vain philosophy and the vain observances on which the Colossians had been taught to rely. He teaches therefore
1. That Christ is God, the Creator of all things visible and invisible; that all things are for him and by him.
2. That he is the head of the Church, the source of its life, from whom comes all good, and union with whom is the indispensable condition of salvation.
3. That he is the Saviour of the Church. a. Because through the blood of the cross we are reconciled unto God, and b. Because from him through the Spirit, spiritual and eternal life is diffused by joints and bands, as in the natural body.
This being the case, they should beware lest any one had beguiled them and led them to look elsewhere than to Christ; or to depend on any thing except the merit of his death and the efficacy of his power.
If they had a divine Saviour, a Saviour truly God, what did they want besides? This is the main point. It is want of faith in this great
doctrine in some form that leads to false dependence on something else, or something in addition to Christ and his work for salvation. It is Christ and Christ alone that we need. This is Paul's doctrine.
As we have Christ Jesus we should walk in him, be rooted and built up in him; and beware lest any man should spoil us through philosophy or vain deceit. Why? Because in Christ dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
The πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος means the plenitude of the divine essence. It dwells in him σωματικῶς, not merely really or essentially, but clothed in a body. As in Luke 3:22, the Holy Spirit is said to have appeared σωματικῷ ἐίδει. If this be so then we are complete, πεπληρωμένοι, filled in him. Filled, not with the fulness of the Godhead, as Christ was and is, but with all the fulness of God, with the plenitude of all the good of which God is the author, and which flows from fellowship with him. We are thus filled; we need nothing more. A divine Saviour as Christ, being truly God and God clothed in our nature, is all-sufficient.
1. Because he has in himself all that is necessary as an object of worship, and of supreme admiration and love. We are finite, but nothing short of what is infinite can satisfy the soul. It is because Christ is infinite in his being and perfections that he is a full and satisfying portion of the soul.
2. Because he is not only God but God clothed in our nature. Therefore, a. God is more perfectly known. b. He is more accessible. c. Who can have more intimate union and fellowship with us.
3. Because infinite merit thus belongs to his righteousness, and infinite efficacy to his blood; superseding the necessity of all things else.
4. Because he is infinite in power, by his Spirit, to subdue our sins, to transform our souls into his likeness, to protect us from all his and our enemies, to deliver us from all evil, to bestow upon us all good.
5. Because in him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So that full provision is made not only for our wants as sinners and as religious beings, but for our minds.
6. Because he is everywhere present, so as to be always accessible, and eternal so as to save ἐις τὸ παντελές, both perfectly and always, all who come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
XX. The Unsearchable Riches of Christ.
Eph. 3:8
[April 4th, 1858.]
The connection and the design of the passage.
What Paul was called to preach was the unsearchable riches of Christ. This may mean either the riches which belong to Christ— those things which make him rich—or the riches of which he is the author, the unsearchable treasures of grace and benefits which flow from him to both Jews and Gentiles. The former includes the latter, and is the natural sense of the words.
This passage is of special interest. First, as teaching us where we, in ourselves poor, may find true riches, and where only they can be found; and, second, as teaching the precise or specific duty of the ministry. If they do what is here mentioned they do their duty; if they do not this, whatever else may be done in promoting virtue, knowledge, or the well-being of man, they are unprofitable servants. What then are the unsearchable riches of Christ? The word Christ here is a personal designation, not an official title. It is the historical person sometimes designated Jesus, sometimes Christ, sometimes Lord, the Saviour, etc., who is here intended. And therefore his riches are those things which rendered the Lord Jesus infinitely rich, and
being in himself infinitely rich, therefore infinitely valuable and precious to us. These are,
1. The fulness of the Godhead, the plenitude of the divine perfections. In the constitution of his person, the divine nature was united with a perfect human nature, so that the one person known as Christ, possessed and possesses all the divine perfections. He is infinite, eternal, and immutable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice and truth. Bring any man to the side of Christ, compare the intellect, the intelligence, the power, the goodness of the one with the other. Then we see how poor man is and how unsearchable are the riches of Christ. The highest angel sinks in like manner into absolute insignificance when brought into comparison with Christ. His preciousness to us as a portion, as an object of affection, and his value to us as Saviour depends on his being in this sense rich, rich to an unsearchable, i.e., to an infinite degree in all divine perfections. If they were taken away, what would be left? It is the great object of the ministry to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, i.e., to proclaim him as possessing all divine perfections in an infinite degree. If men are brought to see and acknowledge this, then are they converted and saved.
2. The unsearchable riches of Christ includes his infinite love, compassion, condescension and tenderness. These are divine attributes as belonging to his divine nature, and human attributes as belonging to his human nature; they are distinct. Christ's love to us as the Logos and his love as a man, are as different as the divine and human. In Christ both are united, as the natures are, in one person. It is altogether impossible to trace out or to comprehend the value, the preciousness, the attractiveness, the suitableness, which results from this union of the divine and human natures in the person of the Lord. If simply God, he is too intangible, too august, too unapproachable; if simply man, he is nothing. But as God and man, he is all we can desire and possess. Our blessedness depends on our approaching and confiding in this infinite love, tenderness and compassion of our Lord. And our great business as ministers is to
persuade men that these treasures of love and mercy are to be found in him.
3. The riches of Christ includes, a. His infinite merit. The efficacy of his blood to cleanse from all sin, the merit of his righteousness to satisfy the divine law. b. The inexhaustible fountain of holiness, i.e., of sanctifying power which resides in him, and which flows out in ever increasing streams for the healing of the soul and for the healing of the nations. c. The infinite resources which he possesses to render his people blessed and complete in him.
OBSERVATIONS
(1) He is ours by appropriating faith. (2) The sin and folly of neglecting this richness. (3) Duty and glorious privilege of offering and recommending him to others.
XXI. The Love of Christ
[No date given.]
No words can express the varying states of the mind. We must use them in different senses, as the words, fear, repentance, belief. So of the word love. We love an infant and we love God. In all cases love includes delight in its object, and the desire for its possession and enjoyment according to its nature.
If human language cannot express what is in us, it must be still more inadequate when used of God. We speak of God being angry, of his hating the wicked, of his repenting, etc.
Two dangers:1st. That we take these words literally. 2d. That we deprive them of all meaning. The true ground is, that the essential idea, what they express as removing all imperfection, is true of God. He is truly holy, just and good. He truly lives.
What is meant by the love of God, or of Christ?
1. Not mere benevolence. The distinctions between the two are universally recognized and must be observed.
2. Not mere philanthropy. But love in the true sense of the word.
Now of this love it is to be noted,
1. That it is personal. Its objects are individuals. Christ loves his friends, his Church, his sheep. Paul says he loves me. There is the greatest difference between love that has a class of beings for its object, and love which fastens on particular persons. We know this from consciousness.
2. This love is mysterious. It is unaccountable. We are not only unlovely, but vile and offensive, and enemies. It is compared to the love of a mother for a child, which is independent of its character.
The love of Christ is therefore of the nature of grace. This is its peculiar character. This is insisted upon in the Scriptures. This is of the utmost practical importance.
3. It is infinitely great. a. The love of an infinite being. b. It led to the greatest sacrifice. c. It secures infinite blessings.
4. It is immutable. This is insisted upon in Romans 5. and 8. This too is of great practical importance.
5. It is peculiar and exclusive. Compared to the love of a bridegroom to his bride. In this no one can share. This peculiarity of the love of Christ is dwelt upon in the Scriptures with great particularity. Thy Maker is thy husband. The Church is the bride of Christ. This is reciprocated.
6. It is the love of the Theanthropos, of the God-man. It includes all that is divine and all that is human.
This is the love of Christ. The wonder of wonders. The glorious mystery of redemption. The admiration of angels, the delight and blessedness of the saints.
The effects of this love on the soul.
When revealed by the Spirit, and shed abroad in the heart, it produces,
1. Wonder, astonishment.
2. The greatest humility.
3. It awakens love. We love him because he first loved us.
4. It leads to entire devotion, to consecration. The love of Christ constrains us.
5. It purifies and exalts.
6. It fills the soul with unutterable delight.
7. It supports under all trials and brings heaven down to earth.
XXII. The Death of Christ
[December 9th, 1865.]
I. Its Nature.—Who was it who died? What is predicated of the body is predicated of the man. What is predicated of the humanity of Christ is predicated of his person. It was a divine person who died. It is right to speak of the death of God. As the death of a man is of more importance than the death of a brute, because he has a rational soul; so the death of Christ is as much more important than the death of a mere man, as his divine nature is higher than his human nature. It is
therefore a stupendous event; the most important in the history of the universe, the central point of all history.
II. Its Design—was to save his people, and hence was
1. The most wonderful exhibition of love.
2. It was a full satisfaction of justice.
3. It satisfied the covenant; or, was a federal sacrifice.
4. It confirmed the truth.
5. It was the greatest exhibition of humility and of patience.
III. Its Results.
1. The actual salvation of the Church.
2. The destruction of the kingdom of darkness.
3. The development of angels.
4. The highest display of the divine perfections.
OUR DUTIES
1. To embrace it as the foundation of our confidence towards God. There is no other. This is all-sufficient. It is freely offered to all, and therefore to us. The greatest guilt is contracted by our neglecting and despising it. The unpardonable sin is to trample under foot the blood of the Son of God. 2. To declare it. a. By the Lord's Supper. b. By making known all that is revealed concerning it. 3. To bring others to appropriate to themselves its blessings. 4. To recognize the obligations which it imposes.
XXIII. Death of Christ
[March 14th, 1852.]
I. Its Nature,—who died. II. Its Design. III. Its Relation to Us. IV. To the Universe.
I. Its Nature.—1. What is death? It is the dissolution of the soul and body. It is departure from this world. 2. Christ experienced the usual accidents of death. His soul left his body. His body was inanimate. His soul entered ᾴδης. His body would have returned to dust. 3. But it was not the death of a man. It was the death of a divine person—of the Lord of glory—of the Son of God—of God. The divine nature as little affected as the human soul. To this is due its infinite value and efficacy.
II. Design.—In general the redemption of man, including deliverance from condemnation and restoration to the image and favor of God.
This it effects:
1. By being a satisfaction to justice, a propitiation. 2. And hence he becomes our ransom, by delivering us from the law and from Satan. 3. Presents us as righteous before God. 4. Secures the gift of the Holy Ghost. 5. Secures access to God, and with his favor all the blessings of the covenant of grace.
III. Its Relation to Us.
1. It is our death. Because it was the death of our representative, endured in our place. Proof of this.
2. Hence it is also our death effectively as well as legally. It involves a death to the law, a death to sin, a death to the world.
3. It becomes the source of life. The motive for avoiding sin. The reason why we should live to God. The ground and source of our joy.
IV. Its Relations to the Universe.
1. The great means of exhibiting the manifold wisdom, i.e., the perfections of God.
a. To fallen angels. b. To lost men. c. To good angels.
2. Hence to sustain the authority of God.
3. To promote the holiness and happiness of the kingdom of God.
1. The death of Christ should be the constant theme of our meditations.
2. The ground of gratitude and devotion.
3. The means by which we should endeavor to convert the world, i.e., by preaching Christ crucified, holding him up as having purchased the world with his blood, and entitled to reign in and over all mankind.
XXIV. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the
testator.—Heb. 9:16
[Dec. 9th, 1866.]
Exposition of the passage.
Two views. 1. That διαθήκη (diatheke) here as elsewhere means a covenant. 2. That notwithstanding the context, it means a testament. In either case the passage teaches the same truths; first, the necessity of the death of Christ, and secondly, the benefits which it secures.
I. The Death of Christ was Necessary.—This necessity arises out of the nature of God. It is not a governmental necessity, or one of
expediency, but absolute; because we are sinners and God is just. This is an important truth, teaching us that there is no other way in which men can be saved; that no other sacrifice is of any avail; that those who reject this have only a fearful looking for of judgment.
II. The other truth is that the Death of Christ secures us great blessings.
If viewed as a federal offering, it secures the blessings promised in the covenant. If viewed as the death of a testator, it secures to us the inheritance which he has acquired for us. If viewed as a sacrifice, it secures pardon and reconciliation with God.
These different views of the death of Christ are not inconsistent. The one does not exclude the other, as some theologians have assumed. They are only different ways of exhibiting the same truth.
The benefits which Christ has secured are,
1. Justification. 2. Sanctification. 3. Reconciliation to God. 4. A title to eternal life. 5. Consequently all the exaltation and blessedness of heaven. Viewed as the death of a testator it secures us these benefits, because this is an inheritance which Christ has acquired for us. Viewed as a federal offering it ratifies the covenant in which these benefits are promised to his people. And viewed as a sin-offering it is a full satisfaction to the justice of God, and not only removes the difficulties in the way of the gift of all these benefits, but renders them certain.
The first and most obvious duty of all who hear the gospel, is to avail themselves of the offer of these benefits. The neglect or rejection of them through indifference or unbelief is the great condemning sin of the world.
2. Gratitude and love to the adorable Redeemer, whose sufferings and death have secured to us such blessings.
3. The consecration of ourselves to his service. The abiding purpose of consecrating all we have to the advancement of his cause and kingdom.
4. Living conformably to the design of his, which was to save us from sin, to deliver us from the power of Satan and to make us fit for heaven.
5. The desire and effort to bring others to the knowledge and enjoyment of the benefits of Christ's death.
XXV. Who died for us, that whether we
wake or sleep, we should live together
with him. 1 Thess. 5:10.
[April 5th, 1857.]
The Old Testament is filled with descriptions of the Messiah, of his work, and of his kingdom. This, the object of their expectation and longing, was ever present to the minds of the ancient people of God. When he came, his person secured the recognition and love of those who were called; but his kingdom, where was that?
It was not established under the anticipated form, nor in its glory. That was reserved for his second coming. The second advent therefore became to the early Christians the great object of longing expectation. With regard to this they made three mistakes. 1. That it was to occur soon. 2. That those of their friends who had already died would perfect their portion in that kingdom. 3. That they themselves, should they die before Christ came, would fail of salvation in its full sense. To correct these errors Paul tells 1. That the coming of Christ was to be unexpected, and subsequent to events not yet accomplished. 2. Those who had died before the advent, Christ would bring with him. 3. That as to themselves, they would be as fully saved, whether they should be alive or dead when Christ came.
The exhortation in the context is that Christians should live as children of the light, as members of the kingdom of light as distinguished from the kingdom of darkness. Light stands for knowledge, holiness and happiness. Darkness stands for ignorance, sin and misery. The exhortation therefore is, in its negative form, not to sink back into the world which belongs to the kingdom of darkness, i.e., not to give themselves up to the opinions and practices of the world, and thus inevitably involve themselves in the ruin in which the kingdom of darkness must ultimately issue. It is an exhortation to act as became those who were members of the kingdom of Christ, i.e., to exhibit the knowledge and holiness, especially in faith, hope, and charity which characterize those who belong to that kingdom.
The motive by which this exhortation is enforced is, that we are destined not to wrath but to salvation. And this salvation is secured by Christ who died, that whether we live or die, we should live together with him.
This teaches, 1. That the certainty of salvation is secured by the death of Christ. He did not die merely to render salvation possible, but to make it certain. This it does because it is a complete satisfaction of justice. It answers all the ends which our perdition could possibly answer, and therefore it renders that perdition unnecessary. Christ cannot fail to see of the travail of his soul. Those cannot perish for whom he died. That Christ died to render salvation not only possible, but certain, is true, secondly, because the salvation of his people was promised him in that covenant, in the execution of which he laid down his life.
This is the one great ground of consolation here promised. God has died for us. Let this truth operate on your mind. What effect does it produce? Suppose we bow our heads before God and hear him say that he loved us from eternity, and out of love he gave his Son for our salvation; that we hear the Lord Jesus say that to deliver us from the power and guilt of sin, to make us holy, to bring us back to the image
and favor of God, he took on him the form of a servant, and was found in fashion as a man and humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross; what effect would this have upon us? Would it lead us to carelessness, to the indulgence of sin, to live with the world, since we were not to perish with the world? This is not the effect such a conviction of the certainty of salvation would produce on the renewed heart; and such an effect would give clearest evidence that we were the children of the devil. But the renewed, those whose earnest desire is to be delivered from sin, and to live with Christ, and who know that redemption is deliverance from sin, these words would fill with peace, joy, patience, resignation, zeal, overflowing gratitude and love, and devotion to the service of Christ.
If these are the effects which we feel they would produce on us, then they are addressed to us, and we may take the comfort of them, and drink our fill of this fountain of pure and living water.
2. This passage teaches us the nature of salvation. First, it is life. We shall live. This is the common Scriptural designation of all that we include in spiritual and eternal life. All that is opposed to death is included in the idea. It is a holy, happy and immortal existence of the whole man, soul and body. Secondly, it is a life with Christ. This includes two things, association or communion, companionship with Christ, and also participation of his life, of its power, holiness, blessedness and glory. Thirdly, it is a life of all, ἅμα; we shall all, all the redeemed, all those dear to us who belong to Christ, all in every age and nation who love him, are to be associated and made the subjects of this life. Therefore comfort and edify one another.
XXVI. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of
man be lifted up
[March 19th, 1868.]
Nicodemus was a type of the better class of educated Jews. He believed in the Scriptures. He was devout and serious. He was solicitous to attain the knowledge of the truth. He was open to conviction and free from the self-righteous and proud spirit of the Pharisees. Yet he was in darkness. He had been brought up in Judaism, as then understood, a system which assumed that salvation belonged exclusively to the Jews. If men of other nations were to be saved, they must become Jews by being born again. The natural descendants of Abraham needed no regeneration. This he evidently believed, and yet he clearly was convinced that something more was necessary, than being a Jew and external conformity to the Mosaic law. He was more than a mere formalist. In this state of mind he came to Christ. His coming at all was a proof of his sense of ignorance, of his desire for instruction and of his candor; as also of his reverence for Christ. His coming by night was a probable intimation of his timidity, and of the weakness of his faith in Christ as one who had come from God. Our Lord met him with kindness, and adapted his discourse to his state of mind. The two fundamental errors of Judaism were, 1. That natural descent from Abraham, or at least external union with the chosen people was essential to salvation, and 2. That works,—what a man does and what he is, his inward state,—was the ground of his acceptance with God. Our Lord teaches, 1. That an inward spiritual change was essentially necessary to salvation, as much for the Jew as for the Gentile. 2. That the true method of acceptance or of justification was not by works but by faith; that men are to be saved in a manner analogous to that in which the Hebrews bitten by the serpents were healed.
The points of analogy are mainly these. 1. The serpent was lifted up, suspended on a pole in the sight of the people; so Christ was to be lifted up, suspended on the cross in the sight of all men. To be lifted up is not to be understood of Christ's exaltation, as some explain it in order to get rid of the idea of his sacrificial death. a. Because "to be lifted up" was in the Aramaic dialect and probably in the Hellenistic, almost as definite as the expression with us to be "hanged," or "crucified." Malefactors among the Jews were hung upon a tree, if
not before, at least after death. b. The analogy forbids that interpretation. The serpent was not exalted in the sense of being honored. c. Christ elsewhere uses the word in the same sense. "I, if I be lifted up from the earth," signifying by what death he should die. The people understood him, and therefore said "We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth forever; and how sayest thou, the Son of man must be lifted up?" That is, publicly put to death by suspension on the cross. Christ told Nicodemus that he was to be crucified, that as the serpent was lifted up, so was he to be publicly executed.
2. The design of the elevation of the serpent was the salvation of the people from temporal death, and their restoration to health and all the enjoyments of life. So the design of Christ's being lifted up was to save his people from perdition, and to secure for them eternal life.
3. In both cases the means was indispensable to the end. There was no other means by which the people could be healed but by the elevation of the serpent. This God had ordained. None other could be substituted in its place. To reject or neglect this was to reject the only means of cure. So Christ's death is the only means of salvation. If that be unknown, neglected or rejected, the soul perishes. Men have attempted a thousand substitutes, but all in vain. As they cannot see the fitness of the means to the end, they refuse to embrace it and so perish. If the Hebrews had asked how can a brazen serpent heal the bite of a living serpent, and refused to avail themselves of the means of life, until they could see the causal connection between the events, they would have died. And so it is with sinners.
4. The condition of cure was merely looking,—the simplest thing in the world,—adapted to all, to the old and to the young, to the ignorant and to the wise; to the good and to the bad, to the rich and to the poor. This condition alone was required. Nothing subsequent, no pledge or engagement as to future conduct. So in the case of Christ. We have only to look, not with the eye of the body but of the soul. This includes, a. Knowledge or apprehension of the subject. b.
Conviction of its being the appointed means of cure. c. Trust in its saving efficacy. This method of salvation is therefore adapted to all men, of every class.
5. The nature of the cure. The bitten Hebrew was freed from the venom of the serpent, rescued from death, restored to activity and life. So we are freed from the venom of sin, and from its condemnation, and receive a new, imperishable and eternal life.
This teaches us:
1. That the gospel method of salvation is perfectly gratuitous. It excludes all idea of merit.
2. It has its ground and source outside of ourselves.
3. It shows that no man co-operates in his regeneration or first reconciliation with God. It is not partly his work and partly the work of God.
4. No preparation for healing is possible or necessary. "Just as I am."
5. The Hebrew's cure was instantaneous and final. So, in one sense, is ours. But in another it is gradual. We need to look again and again, to keep always looking, and looking only unto Jesus.
6. We learn how we are to direct sinners.
XXVII. Christ is the Lamb of God
[October 14th, 1866.]
Numerous designations are given to the Messiah. The Shiloh, the Seed of Abraham, the Branch, the Servant of God, a Light, the Sun of Righteousness, &c. All these are intended to set forth his character.
He is called the Lamb of God,
I. Because He was a Sacrifice for Sin.—The lamb in the Old Testament was the principal sacrificial animal. a. Because the freest from defects and the most attractive and pleasing of all domestic animals. b. Because harmless and gentle. c. Because unresisting, going dumb to the slaughter. In all these characteristics it was typical of Christ. It was especially the paschal lamb, and the lamb as used at the morning and evening sacrifice that the lamb was a type of Christ. He is our passover. And he is our perpetual sacrifice, needed not occasionally but constantly. Christ, as the Lamb of God, is declared to be our sacrifice, to be acceptable and divinely appointed, and constantly efficacious.
II. In the Evangelists and the Epistles Christ is called the Lamb of God only three or four times and then always in reference to his sacrificial death.—In the Revelation he is called the Lamb twenty times, and in different relations.
1. As a sacrifice. The Lamb that was slain. As he in whose blood the saints had washed their robes.
2. As the ruler of the Church and of the world, he is set forth as the Lamb. It is the Lamb who opens the seals, who is opposed by the wicked, and who overcomes them, who is the Lord of lords and King of kings, who is seated on the throne of God.
This teaches that the ruler of the Church and of the world, the Theanthropos, has the attributes of a lamb; and hence, a. That opposition to him is unprovoked and malignant. b. That his people may confide in his gentleness and tenderness. He is not like a ferocious, or even an austere ruler, but one whose sceptre is love, who rules by and in love.
3. As judge he is called the Lamb. The saints are enrolled in his book of life; and the wicked shall call upon the rocks to hide them from the
wrath of the Lamb. This teaches that even in the administration of justice, Christ acts with the greatest tenderness and forbearance.
4. That as the Lamb he is the object of supreme worship to all orders of beings. The elders, the living creatures, the redeemed, all bow down before him. All ascribe salvation to him; all unite in worshipping God and the Lamb.
This teaches a. That the God-man, the Theanthropos is the proper object of worship. A man, or a person, clothed in humanity is to be worshipped. There is a difference between the ground and the object of worship. b. It teaches that he is worshipped, because he is the Lamb of God. It is because he has redeemed us that saints and angels worship him. c. That although he is thus highly exalted he is still the Lamb, and may be approached with confidence and love.
5. That he as the Lamb is the source of the blessedness of heaven. The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of water, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. The pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of the holy city, New Jerusalem. The city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. According to the Hebrew parallelism, these two last clauses are synonymous.
It is God therefore, not in his awfulness, not in his infinitude, not in his abstract perfection; but God as the Lamb, i.e., as clothed with gentleness, with whom we are to have communion.
6. In his relations to the Church, he is called the Lamb. The Church is the bride, the Lamb's wife. The consummation will be the marriage supper of the Lamb.
a. This expresses the relationship of Christ to the Church collectively and to each individual believer. b. The nature of the relation is
peculiar, intimate, tender and indissoluble; the strongest bond and the highest love. c. The bridegroom of the soul and of the Church, although infinite in power, wisdom, goodness and truth, is a Lamb. There is a world of consolation in that.
XXVIII. The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. 1 Jno. 1:7
[February 14th, 1864.]
The operations of our moral nature are more mysterious than any other element of our constitution. By the senses we are in communion with the external world. By our reason we are in connection with truth, or with the intelligent world. By our social affections, with our fellowmen. By our moral nature, with God. This, so to speak, is the point of contact between the soul and God. Here we recognize the idea of law, of responsibility, of liability to punishment. Of this department of our nature we can give less account than of any others. It is not under our control; that is, we cannot give it laws or decide how it shall act.
1. The conscience is not the will. We cannot will to approve or disapprove. We cannot will to feel remorse, or not to feel it, any more than we can will to suppress pain.
2. Neither is it under the control of the reason; that is, we cannot argue ourselves into the conviction that sin is not sin, and virtue is not virtue. We cannot persuade ourselves that we are not responsible for our character; or that the remorse which we feel is unreasonable or unfounded.
3. Though in this sense independent of the understanding, it can only act under its guidance, that is, ignorance of the moral law prevents its exercise. Without the law, sin is dead. Men live in sin without knowing the extent of their sinfulness. As this ignorance is never
total, there is no man free from the sense of guilt; but the inactivity and insensibility of conscience is in proportion to that ignorance. Paul coveted without knowing it was wrong. He persecuted Christ, thinking thereby he did God's service.
4. The moral nature is the seat and source of the greatest blessedness and exaltation, and of the greatest degradation and suffering of which we are susceptible. Every man carries within, the elements of heaven or hell. We have within us principles of evil, which are like a nest of sleeping scorpions which may sting the soul to madness; and which a ray of light may excite to vigorous activity.
As we are sinful, and as sin includes guilt, pollution, and power; how can we be delivered from it?
1. Not by the power of the will. The will is totally powerless to remove guilt or its consequent remorse, or pollution; or to counteract the power of sin.
2. Not by the force of reason, not by knowledge, not by truth, and certainly not by error.
3. Not by self-inflicted penances or active observances.
4. Not by rites or ceremonies. Not by the power of the Church, nor by the influence of our fellow-men. No man can redeem his brother.
5. Not by the wisdom or power of angels. The angels doubtless deemed the pardon of sin and the restoration of a sinner as much an impossibility as undoing the actual, or recalling the past.
What is impossible with man is possible with God. What the law could not do, God has done by sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, and thereby condemned sin in the flesh. This teaches, 1. That the person sent was God, the Son of God, a divine person, and that it was necessary that he should be divine, if he were to do what no creature could do. 2. He was like sinful men, like them
in being of the same nature and subject to the same infirmities. 3. That he came as a sacrifice for sin. That is, a. That he took our place. b. That our sins were laid upon him. c. That he bore the penalty due to them. 4. It teaches that this was a judicial condemnation of sin, i.e., of sin in us.
This is the way in which the Scripture teaches that the blood of Christ cleanses from sin. It removes the guilt of sin, as it satisfies divine justice. And as it satisfies justice, it removes remorse, which is the clamoring of the conscience for the punishment of sin. And it removes all sin. No matter how numerous or how aggravated, there is no difficulty and no difference. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, and the difference between one sinner and another is, in this matter, of no account.