2. It is said, he ought. Not an absolute, but a conditional ought; not
consequently theirs; the foundation of his own exaltation, and the redemption of mankind, being laid in his being a sacrifice.
Ought not?
1. It is not said, it is convenient or becoming. As it was said of his baptism, Matt. 3:15, 'It becomes us to fulfil all righteousness.' His baptism had more of a convenience than necessity.* He might have been the Messiah without subjecting himself to the ceremonial law, or passing under the baptism of John. But it was impossible he should be a redeeming Christ without undergoing an accursed death.
No sin was expiated merely by his submission to the yoke of legal rites, or the baptismal water of John; all expiation of sin was founded only in his bloody baptism.
2. It is said, he ought. Not an absolute, but a conditional ought; not his original duty as the Son of God, but a voluntary duty as the redeemer of man. He voluntarily engaged at first in it, and voluntarily proceeded to the utmost execution, yet necessarily after his first engagement. Necessity there was, but not compulsion. All necessity doth not imply constraint, and exclude will. Paul must necessarily die by the law appointed to all men, but willingly he
'desires to be dissolved, and to be with Christ.' God is necessarily holy and true, yet not unwillingly so. Angels and glorified souls are necessarily holy by their confirmation in a gracious and glorious state, yet voluntarily so by a full and free inclination; necessary by the decree and counsel of God, necessary by the engagement and promise of Christ, necessary by the predictions and prophecies of Scripture.† All which causes of necessity are linked together, because the restoration of man required such a suffering; therefore it was from eternity decreed by God, embraced by Christ, published in Scripture. It was ordained in heaven, and set out in the manifesto of the Old Testament; so that if this death had not been suffered, the counsel of God concerning redemption had been defeated, the word and promises of Christ violated, and the truth of God in the predictions of the prophets had fallen to the ground. The decree of
God was declared in many prophecies before the execution; and this will of God is an evidence of the necessity of it.‡ Why did he ordain it, if it were not necessary to so great an end? Though the end, the redemption of man, was not necessary, yet, when the end was resolved on, this, as the means, was found necessary in the counsel of God. The natural inclination and will of Christ, as man, did startle at it, when he desired that this cup might pass from him. It was contrary to the reason and common sense of men. How, then, should that infinite Wisdom, that wills nothing but what is unquestionably reasonable, have determined such a means, if it had not been necessary for his own glory and man's recovery? But both the Father and the Son were moved to it by the height of that good will they bore to the fallen creature.
These things, ταῦτα. Every one of those severe and sharp circumstances. The whole system of those sufferings, not a dart that pierced him, not a reproach that grated upon him, but was ordained; every step he took in blood and suffering was marked out to him.
Since Christ was to die for the reparation of man, for the expiation of sin, it was necessary that his death should be attended with those particular sharpnesses that might render his love more admirable, the justice of God more dreadful, the evil of sin more abominable, and the satisfaction itself more valuable. The intenseness of his love had not been set off so amiably in a light and easy death, as in a painful and shameful suffering; and though the greatness of his merit and the fulness of his satisfaction did principally arise from the dignity of the suffering person, yet some consideration might be also had of the greatness of his suffering. Not only his death, as he was considered equal with God, but his shameful death in the circumstance of the cross, is a mark of his obedience and a cause of his exaltation, Philip. 2:8. Both were regarded in the crown of glory, and that high dignity wherein he was instated, so that the sum of Christ's speech amounts to this much: be not doubtful whether the person so lately suffering, whom you account so great a prophet, were the Messiah. You clearly may see in the prophets that nothing hath been inflicted on him but what was predicted of him; so that it
is not merely the malice of man that hath caused those sufferings; that was only a means God in his infinite wisdom used to bring about his own counsel. He was not forced to what he suffered, but willingly delivered up himself to perform the charge and office of a Redeemer, which could not else have been accomplished by him; and that glory which you expected, was not by the order of God to be conferred upon him till he abased himself to such a passion. He will have a glory to your comfort, though not answering your carnal expectations. Be not dejected, but recover your hopes of redemption which you seem to have lost, and let them be rectified in the expectation, not of an earthly, but an heavenly, glory.
Observe, 1. The nature of Christ's sufferings, these things.
2. The necessity, Ought not Christ to suffer?
3. The consequence, and to enter into his glory.
There are two doctrines to be insisted on from these words:
1. There was a necessity of Christ's death.
2. Christ's exaltation was as necessary as his passion.
For the first, there was a necessity of the death of Christ. It was necessary by the counsel of God, Acts 2:23; 'Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, Acts 4:28. It was not a fruit of second causes, which God only suffered by a bare permission, but it was a decree of his will fixed and determined, and that before the world began, an irrevocable decree God made to deliver his Son to death for the sins of men, and according to this counsel he was in time delivered, and by the merit of his death hath reconciled to God all those that believe in him.
In handling this doctrine, I shall shew,