4. Wisdom. The work of grace being a new creation, is not only an act
matter, but the ruggedest timber full of knots, to plane and show both his strength and art upon.
4. Wisdom. The work of grace being a new creation, is not only an act of God's power, but of his wisdom, as the natural creation was. As he did in contriving the platform of grace, and bringing Christ upon the stage, so also in particular distributions of it, he acts according to counsel, and that infinite too, even the counsel of his own will, Eph.
1:11. The apostle, having discussed before (ver. 9) about God's making known the mystery of his will in and through Christ, and (ver. 11) about the dispensation of this grace, in bestowing an inheritance, 'being predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his own will,' does not say God predestinated us according to the counsel of his own will, but refers it to all he had said before, namely, of his making known the mystery of Christ, and their obtaining an inheritance. And ver. 8, speaking before about the pardon of sin in the blood of Christ, according to the riches of God's grace, wherein, he says, 'he has abounded towards us in all wisdom.' As there was an abundance of grace set apart to be dealt out, so there was an abundance of wisdom, even all God's wisdom, employed in the distribution of it. The restoring of God's image requires at least as much wisdom as the first creating of it. And the application of redemption, and bestowing of pardoning and converting grace, is as much an act of God's prudence as the contrivance of it was of his counsel.
Grace, or a gracious person in relation to their grace, is referred to as God's workmanship in Ephesians 2:10, poema, not ergon - a work of God's art and strength, and an operation of his mind as well as his hand; his poem, not simply a work of omnipotence, but an intellectual spark. A new creation is a fascinating piece of divine art, fashioned by God's wisdom to showcase the excellence of the creator, just as a poem is, by a person's reason and imagination, to publish the cleverness and abilities of the composer. It is a great skill of a craftsman, with a combination of a few sands and ashes, by his breath to inflate such a clear and transparent body as glass and make
various vessels of it for several purposes. It is not only his breath that does it, for other people have breath as well as he; but it is breath managed by art. And isn't it a marvellous skill in God to make a muddy soul so pure and crystalline suddenly, to endow an irrational creature with a divine nature, and by a powerful word to create such a beautiful model as a new creation!
The more complex and difficult any task is, the more impressive a person's capability is in accomplishing it. The more severe the wound, the more honourable the surgeon's skill in the cure. Christ's healing of a soul that is at the point of death, and given up for lost by everyone, shows more of his art than restoring an ordinary sinner.
Our apostle acknowledges the wisdom of God in his own conversion here; for when he relates the story of it, he breaks out into an Hallelujah, and sends up a volley of praises to God for the grace he has received. And in that doxology, he emphasizes the wisdom of God: 'Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise
God, be honour and glory forever and ever,' ver. 17. Only wise God; only, which he does not add to any other attribute he there gives him.
This wisdom appears, (1.) In the subjects he chooses. We will go no further than the example in our text. Our apostle seems to be a man full of heat and zeal. And the church had already felt the pain of his activity, so much so that they were afraid to approach him after his change, or to allow him into their company, believing that his anger was not changed, but concealed, and he who was an open persecutor had turned a trapper, Acts 9:26. No one can express better than he does himself how much of a lion he was: "Many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities," Acts 26:10, 11. He also appears to have been a man of high and ambitious spirit. This persecution was probably done so vigorously by him to gain favor with the chief priests, and as a means to step into a higher position, for which he
was gifted with intelligence and knowledge, and would not lack enthusiasm and hard work to achieve it. He seems to have been of a proud spirit, by the temptation which he faced: "Lest I should be exalted above measure," 2 Cor. 12:7. He says it twice in that verse, indicating that his natural disposition led him to be lifted up with any excellence he had; and usually God directs his battery to beat down what is the sin of our constitution.
He was a man of a very honest mind and was eager to follow every point his conscience directed him to; for what he did against Christ, he did according to the dictates of his conscience, as then informed:
"I verily thought with myself," Acts 26:9, i.e. in my conscience, "that I ought," not that I might, but that it was his duty. His error commanded with the same power that truth does where it reigns.
Now it shows the wisdom of God to lay hold of this man who was thus tempered, who had the honesty to obey the dictates of a rightlyinformed conscience, as well as those of an erroneous one; zeal to execute them, and height of spirit to preserve his activity from being blunted by any opposition, and intelligence and prudence for the management of all these. I say, to turn these emotions and excellencies to run in a heavenly channel, and to guide this natural passion and heat for the service and advancement of that interest which before he tried to destroy, and for the propagation of that gospel which before he persecuted, is an effect of a wonderful wisdom; as it is a rider's skill to order the mettle of a headstrong horse for his own use to carry him on his journey.
(2.) This wisdom appears in the timing. Just as human wisdom involves choosing the right time to act as well as devising plans, so too does God's wisdom. He seizes the most opportune moments to bring his wonderful providences onto the stage. He has appointed times to deliver his church from her enemies (Psalm 102:13) and also to save every individual soul that he intends to make a member of his church from the devil. He waits for the most appropriate time to reveal his grace: "Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you, for the Lord is a
God of justice" (Isaiah 30:18). Why? Because the Lord is a God of wisdom, and he times things for the best possible outcomes for both his glory and the sinner's good. His timing of his grace was excellent in the conversion of Paul.
[1.] With regard to himself, there could not have been a more fitting time to glorify his grace than when Paul was almost at the end of his rope; almost committing the sin against the Holy Spirit. If he had gained just a little more knowledge and acted out of malice instead of ignorance, he would have been lost forever. But he received mercy because he did it ignorantly, as it says in verse 13. As I mentioned earlier, he followed the dictates of his conscience, for if he had possessed knowledge commensurate with his rage, it would have been the unpardonable sin. Christ allowed him to run to the edge of hell before taking hold of him.
[2.] In respect of others. He was converted at a time when he went as full of madness as a toad of poison to spit it out against the poor
Christians at Damascus, armed with all the power and credential letters the high priest could give him, who, without question, promised himself much from his industry. And when he was almost at his journey's end, ready to execute his commission, "And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus," Acts 9:3, about half a mile from the city, as Gulielmus Tyrius thinks, at this very time Christ grapples with him and overcomes all his mad principles, secures Paul from hell and his disciples from their fears of him. Behold the nature of this lion changed just as he was going to fasten upon his prey. Christ might have converted Paul sooner, either when Paul had heard of some of his miracles, for perhaps Paul was resident at Jerusalem at the time of Christ's preaching in Judea, for he was brought up in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel, Acts 22:3, who was one of the council, Acts 5:24. He might have converted him when he heard
Stephen make that elegant and convincing oration in his own defence, Acts 7, or when he saw Stephen's constancy, patience, and charity in his suffering, which might have somewhat startled a moral man as Paul was and made him look about him.
But Christ omits doing it at all these opportunities and suffers him to kick against the pricks of miracles, admonitions, and arguments of Stephen and others, yet has his eye upon him all along in a special manner, Acts 7:58. He is named there when none else are: "And the witnesses laid their clothes at a young man's feet, named Saul." And "Saul was consenting to his death," Acts 8:1. Was there none else that had a hand in it? The Spirit of God takes special notice of Saul here.
He runs in God's mind, yet God would not stop his fury: "As for Saul, he made havoc of the church," Acts 8:3. Did nobody else show as much zeal and cruelty as Saul? Surely he must have some instrument with him. Yet we hear none named but Saul, and "Saul yet breathing," etc., Acts 9:1, yet, as much as to say, he shall not do so long. I shall have a fit time to meet with him presently.
And was it not a suitable time, when the devil hoped to defeat the Christians by him, when the high priests were certain of success from this man's zealous fervour, when the church was filled with fears of him? But Christ sent the devil slinking away for the loss of such an active instrument, frustrated all the expectations of the high priests, and calmed all the stormy fears of his disciples; for Christ first set him preaching at Damascus in the synagogues which were to assist him in his cruel design: 'And immediately he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God, and increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is the very Christ,' Acts 9:20–22.
Did not Christ show himself to be a God of judgment here? He sat watching in heaven for this season to turn Paul with the greatest advantage. His wisdom serves many purposes at once, and killed so many birds with one stone. He struck dead at one blow Paul's sin, his people's fears, the high priests' expectations, and the devil's hopes.
He triumphs over his enemies, secures his friends, saves Paul's soul, and promotes his interest through him; he disappoints the devil of his expectations, and hell of her longing.
(3.) This wisdom appears to maintain the credibility of Christ's death. The great excellence of Christ's sacrifice, which surpasses the sacrifices under the law, is that it perfectly atones for all sins. It first satisfies God, and then calms the conscience, which they could not do, as there was still a sense of sin after those sacrifices, as stated in Hebrews 10:1-2. The agreement of the covenant of grace that God makes with his people is based on this sacrifice, "This is the covenant
I will make with them, and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more," as mentioned in Hebrews 10:16-17. "Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin," verse 18. This covenant applies not only to minor sins, as there is no limitation, but major sins are included as well. Therefore, Christ made satisfaction for great sins; otherwise, if ever they are forgiven, there must be another sacrifice, either of himself or some other, which the apostle claims there need not be on the basis of this covenant, because this sacrifice was complete. Otherwise, there would be a remembrance of sin. As the covenant implied the completeness of Christ's satisfaction, so the continuous fulfilment or application of the agreement of the covenant implies the perpetual favour and force of this sacrifice.
And, indeed, when God delivered him up, he intended it for the greatest sins: "He was delivered for our offences," as stated in Romans 4:25, παραπτωματα, which signifies not stumbling, but falling. It denotes not a light, but a significant transgression. Now, if Christ's death is not satisfactory for significant debts, then Christ must be too weak to fulfil what God intended through him, and thus infinite wisdom was frustrated in its intention, which cannot and ought not to be imagined. Therefore, God takes the greatest sinners to demonstrate the magnitude of Christ's sacrifice.
[1.] First, the value of this sacrifice. If God should only accept people with lesser guilt, Christ's death would be suspected to be too small a ransom for monstrous crimes; and that his treasure was enough to pay off smaller debts, but insufficient to discharge greater debts; which would not have been a suitable design for the grandeur of Christ, or the boundlessness of the mercy God proclaims in his word.
But now, the conversion of giant-like sinners gives credit to the atonement which Christ made, and is a great renewed approval of the infinite value of it, and its equivalence to God's demands; for it has some similarity to the resurrection of Christ, which was God's general discharge to Christ, to show the sufficiency of his payment.
And the justification of every sinner is a part of that discharge given to Christ at his resurrection; 'Raised again for our justification,' Rom.
4:25; and a specific discharge to Christ for that particular soul he had the responsibility of from his Father.
All the power that works in the initial creation of grace or the progress of regeneration bears some proportion to the acquitting and approving power manifested in Christ's resurrection. "And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead," Ephesians 1:19-20. In verses 17 and 18, the apostle prays for the continuation of the work of grace and regeneration that has begun in them, so that they may more clearly understand that power which worked in Christ, namely, that approving power of what Christ has done, which he exerts daily in conversion and its effects. For by raising any soul from death in sin, God shows the particular value of Christ's blood for that soul, just as he demonstrated the general fullness of that satisfaction in raising Christ. And he will continue to do this until the end of the world, "raised us up together with Christ;" "kindness through Christ
Jesus," Ephesians 2:6-7. All of his grace in all ages, even until the end of the world, shall flow through this channel to put credit and honour upon Christ. The greater the sin that is pardoned, and the greater the sinner who is converted, the more it shows the sufficiency of the price Christ paid.
The virtue of this sacrifice is that he is a "priest for ever," Hebrews 7:17, and therefore, the virtue as well as the value of his sacrifice remains forever. He has "obtained an eternal redemption," Hebrews
9:12, that is, a redemption of eternal efficacy. As long as men receive any venom from the fiery serpent, they may be healed by the antitype
of the brazen one, even though it has been so many years since he was lifted up. And those who were stung all over, as well as those who are bitten but in one part, may draw virtue from him as diffusive as their sin by believingly looking upon him.
Now the new conversion of men of extraordinary guilt proclaims to the world that the fountain of his blood is inexhaustible; that the virtue of it is not spent and drained, though so much has been drawn out of it for these five thousand years and upwards, for the cleansing of sins past before his coming, and sins since his death. This evidences that his priesthood now is of as much efficacy as his sufferings on earth were valuable; and that his merit is as much in virtue above our iniquity, as his person is in excellency above our nothingness. He can wash the tawny American, as well as the moral heathen; and make the black Ethiopian as white as the most virtuous philosopher. God fastens upon the worst of men sometimes, to adorn the cross of Christ; and makes them eminent testimonies of the power of Christ's death: 'He made his grave with the wicked,' Isa.
53:9. Heb. 'He shall give the wicked (not grave), and the rich in his death.' God shall make man, wallowing in sinful pleasures, tied to the blandishments and profits of the world, to come to Christ, and comply with him, to be standing testimonies in all ages of the virtue of his sufferings.
(4.) For the fruitfulness of this grace in the converts themselves. The most rugged souls prove most eminent in grace upon their conversion, as the most orient diamonds in India, which are naturally more rough, are most bright and sparkling when cut and smoothed. Men usually sprout up in stature after shattering agues.
PART III The Fruits of Converting Grace