Chapter 9.

CHAPTER 9.

That Jesus Christ is the Redeemer and Saviour of lost mankind.

1. As the inspired penmen represent the Word, that was in the beginning with God, as the Creator, Preserver, and Lord of all,—so it will readily be allowed that they point him out as the Redeemer and Saviour of fallen man. “Unto you is born, in the city of David, a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; the Son of man is come to seek and save that which was lost; looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God, even our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”

2. The foundation of this doctrine of our redemption and salvation by Christ Jesus, it is well known, is laid in the depravity and guilt of mankind. “All have sinned (says the apostle) and come short of the glory of God: the whole world is guilty before God;” and Jews and Gentiles, even all mankind, are “by nature children of wrath,” Romans 3:19-23; Ephesians 2:3. According to the Scriptures, all have forfeited the everlasting life and happiness for which they were created, and have deserved death and everlasting destruction: for “the wages of sin is death,” even such a death as stands opposed to that “eternal life which is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

3. Now it is the uniform doctrine, both of the Old and New Testament, that the Lord Jesus hath ransomed our lives by laying down his own. “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and give his life a ransom for many; he gave himself a ransom for all; he died for our sins according to the Scriptures; he died for all, when all were dead; tasted death for every man: the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree; was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and bore the chastisement of our peace; was made sin (a sin offering) for us, though he knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,” or might be justified through him. Hence we are said to be “redeemed, not with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ,” 1 Peter 1:18; to be “bought with a price,” and therefore not to be “our own,” 1 Corinthians 6:20; “and to have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins.”

4. But if Jesus Christ, whose life is thus represented to be laid down as the price of man’s redemption from everlasting death and destruction to everlasting life and salvation: if Jesus Christ (I say) be but a mere man, it is certain his life must be of incomparably less value than this eternal salvation of all mankind, thus said to be procured by it. For however holy and excellent we may suppose him to be, yet his life could not be worth the lives of all men—especially his temporal life could not be worth the eternal lives of all men. His parting with a short, uncertain, and afflicted life, and coming under the power of death with regard to his body merely, and that only for two or three days, (his soul in the meantime neither dying nor suffering the loss either of its holiness or happiness;) and doing this in sure and certain hope of being raised again, and receiving, in exchange, after that short space of time, an eternal and most blessed life: this surely was no such great thing, as that it could be any proper consideration, or redemption price, on account of which Divine and infinite justice should deliver an innumerable multitude of rational and immortal beings, of exactly the same nature with this man thus dying for them, not only from temporal, but also from eternal death; and should put them in possession of glory and felicity greater beyond conception than that which they had forfeited, and lasting without end.

5. According to the apostle, one principal end of the death of Christ was to demonstrate “God’s righteousness;” that is, the purity of his nature, implying his infinite hatred to sin; the authority of his law, which denounces vengeance against the sinner; and the equity of his government, or, in one word, his justice. “Justified freely (says he, Romans 3:24, &c,) by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, [viz. the blood he hath shed, Ephesians 1:7, the price he hath paid, 1 Corinthians 6:20,] whom God hath set forth a propitiation, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness, by [or on account of] the remission of past sins, through the forbearance of God, for a demonstration [I say] of his righteousness, in this present time, that he might be just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.” But surely, if satisfaction could be made for the injury done to the glory of God by all the sins of all mankind, and their salvation from eternal destruction into everlasting life and happiness, could be rendered consistent with the Divine attributes, (in consequence of their repentance,) upon such easy terms as the giving up one mere man to temporal death for two or three days, and then rewarding him with supreme dominion and glory at God’s right hand for ever: whatever inference the intelligent creation of God might draw from hence in favour of his clemency, they could draw none in favour of his righteousness or justice. They could not learn from this to form more exalted views of this: but, on the contrary, their ideas of it would become more contracted; and they would be inclined to suppose, both that sin is no very great evil, and that God is not much displeased with it; inasmuch as he would forgive the complicated and aggravated guilt of so many myriads of sinners, forbear to execute upon them the vengeance threatened in his holy and righteous law, and even raise them to glory and felicity inconceivable and eternal, merely because one mere man, like themselves, died for them. Surely to talk of God’s righteousness being demonstrated by such a scheme as this,—to say that all this was done to save the honour of his justice, that he might be (and appear to be) just, while he is the merciful “Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus,” would be highly absurd and ridiculous.

6. “If we be truly sensible of our sins, (says Bishop Pearson,) we must acknowledge that, in every one, we have offended God; and the atrociousness of every offence must needs increase proportionably to the dignity of the party offended, in respect of the offender: because the more worthy any person is, the more reverence is due unto him, and every injury tendeth to his dishonour: but between God and man there is an infinite disproportion, and, therefore, every offence committed against him must be esteemed as in the highest degree of injury.” Hence we know (as the apostle hath assured us) “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins;” and we may very well doubt how the blood of him, who hath no other nature than that of a mere man, can take away the sins of other men; there appearing no such difference as will show a certainty in the one, and an impossibility in the other.

7. “But since we may be ‘bought with a price,’ well may we believe the blood of Christ sufficiently precious, when we are assured,” that, through the union of the human nature with the Divine, “it is the blood of God, (as St. Paul calls it, Acts 20:28,) nor can we question the efficacy of it in ‘purging our conscience from dead works,’ if we believe Christ ‘offered up himself through the eternal Spirit.’“ For, “as the atrociousness of the offence beareth proportion to the person offended, so the value of reparation ariseth from the dignity of the person satisfying, because the satisfaction consisteth in a reparation of that honour which by the injury was eclipsed: and all honour doth increase proportionably as the person yielding it is honourable.” Notwithstanding, therefore, “by every sin we have offended God, who is of infinite eminency, according unto which the injury is aggravated;” yet we may be “secure of our reconciliation with God, because the person who hath undertaken to make the reparation is of the same infinite dignity, so that the honour rendered by his obedience is proportionable to the offence, and that dishonour which arose from our disobedience.”

8. This point is set in a clear light by Dr. Abbadie:—”If Jesus be God-man, the intimate union of the humanity with his divinity may well be conceived to render his life and blood infinitely precious. Of this we may assure ourselves by reasoning from the less to the greater. A clod of the valleys, for instance, is of no worth or dignity; we do not care how many blows it receives: it makes no difference whether it be preserved or destroyed. But if it be united to a spirit, the union will immediately confer a dignity upon it; so as to give a proportionate value to its actions, or sufferings, on the behalf of any one. Then suppose it exalted to a union with the Divine essence, and its intimate relation to God will render its vicarious obedience and suffering of infinite worth. Or thus: If the sufferings of a person of quality be of more value than those of a peasant; if those of a king’s son, than those of a person of quality; and if those of the king himself than those of his own son: it follows, if we proceed in this gradation ad infinitum, and can find a person whose dignity has no bounds, his sufferings will be of infinite value. Such, according to our hypothesis, is Jesus Christ, for he is God “manifest in the flesh.” In all his sufferings, and in the depth of his humiliation, he possessed the glories of the Godhead; which ennobled and dignified beyond conception, and beyond bounds, all that he did, and all that he underwent for the salvation of sinners.

9. “Such a Saviour, being the gift of the Divine Father to miserable men, must be a present of infinite value;” and as it could proceed from nothing but infinite mercy and love, so it renders our salvation consistent with infinite justice and purity. “But after all that can be said for the contrary sentiment, a man is but a man; and we should exalt the mercy (and justice) of God at a childish rate, were we to exclaim, ‘Unspeakable love! unbounded mercy! which gave (awful justice! tremendous holiness! which required) the temporal life of a mere man for the eternal salvation of all mankind.’ Nor would an exclamation of this kind be much more pertinent on the Arian hypothesis.” For, “is there any proportion—let common sense judge—between the temporal life of any mere creature (laid down for two or three days) and the eternal felicity of all the redeemed?”

10. And as it is not conceivable that the temporal life of a mere man, or a mere creature, could be an adequate ransom for the whole human race, innumerable as they are, so as to procure from Divine and infinite justice their forfeited everlasting life and happiness: as it is not conceivable that the blood of such a one, shed for them, should have so much more virtue than the blood of thousands and millions of bulls and goats, as to be able to effect what the blood of such creatures could not effect: as, in this sense especially, “no man can redeem his brother, or give unto God [wrpk, his atonement or] ransom,” Psalm 49:7; so every branch of the salvation wherewith Christ came to save sinners, manifests its author to be more than a mere man, or mere creature. According to the Scriptures, he is “the Light of the world,” and enlightens the amazing darkness of millions of minds: he is the “Life of the world,” and softens the extreme hardness of myriads of hearts: he is “the Sun of righteousness,” and arises upon multitudes of cold, benighted, bewildered, desponding mortals, with “healing in his wings,” so that they “go forth and grow up as calves of the stall,” as Malachi has it: he is the Physician of souls, and while he pardons the aggravated guilt, he renews and heals the fallen and disordered nature of all that apply to him. He is present with his people, all in general, and each individual in particular, at all times, and in all places throughout the whole earth; protecting them against all their enemies, ghostly and bodily, succouring them in all their temptations, comforting them in all their troubles, and supplying all their wants: he watches over them by night and by day, wherever they are, at home or abroad, in town or country, by sea or land, in Britain or in China, as the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls, feeding them “in green pastures,” leading them “beside the still waters,” and restoring their souls: he “preserves them from falling,” keeps them “by his power through faith unto salvation, and presents them faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.”

11. Now let these various branches of the salvation wherewith Christ came to save sinners be considered, and then let it be determined whether he must not be more than a mere man or mere creature? Surely to save sinners with so great a salvation, must be a work of equal difficulty with that of the creation or preservation of all things. Accordingly, the apostle joins them all together in the passage quoted from Colossians 1. For after he has spoken of Christ as the Maker, Upholder, and Lord of all, he goes on to tell us that he is “the Head of his body, the Church; the beginning, the first born from the dead also, that in all things [in those of grace as well as those of nature] he might have the pre-eminence.” For, adds he, “it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell,” viz. all the fulness of wisdom, power, and love: all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, (nothing short of this being sufficient for such a mighty undertaking,) “and having made peace through the blood of the cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself,—by him [I say,] whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.”

12. Hence the apostle assures us, that “God is in Christ, [the Divine nature in the human,] reconciling the world to himself;” and the Prophet Isaiah having a prophetical view of Emmanuel, “God with us, God manifest in the flesh,” for the redemption and salvation of lost man, exhorts us as follows:—”O! thou that bringest good tidings to Zion, [see Bishop Lowth’s translation,] get thee up into the high mountain: O! thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid; say to the cities of Judah, Behold,”—a mere man? No:— ”Behold your God! Behold, (adds he,) the Lord God will come with a strong hand, and his arm will rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young,” Isaiah 40:9-11.

13. And to the same purpose, in the 35th chapter, speaking of the happy effects of this manifestation of Jehovah in our nature, he declares, verse 2, “They shall see the glory of Jehovah, the excellency of our God,” and exhorts,—”Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a feeble heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God, with a recompense: he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped: then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing,” ver. 3, 4. All this, it is well known, was literally fulfilled, when the “Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and men beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Then were all these miracles, and many others, really and continually performed. Day by day the “blind received their sight, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, the deaf heard, the dead were raised up, and the poor had the Gospel preached unto them.”

14. And these mighty works were done in a way and manner that manifestly showed that the person performing them was more than man. Man he was undoubtedly, but not man only: Jehovah, by his eternal Word, dwelt in that man, and did the works by him. Hence, in doing this mighty work, Christ spake, and acted with an authority and power, such as neither Moses nor Elijah, nor any of the prophets or apostles ever manifested. “Lord, if thou wilt,” said the leper, “thou canst make me clean: Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will, be thou clean. Speak the word only, (said the centurion,)and my servant shall be healed. Jesus said, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.” When Peter’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever, he only “touched her hand, and the fever left her.” When the “devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go into the herd of swine; he said unto them, Go: and they went into the herd of swine. When the people were put forth, he went in and took her by the hand, and the maid arose,” Matthew 9:25; see Mark 5:29; Matthew 14:34-36; Luke 6:17, 19. “When they came nigh to the gate of the city, behold there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she a widow: and much people of the city with her: and when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not: and he came and touched the bier, and said, Young man, I say unto thee, arise: and he that was dead sat up, and began to speak: and he delivered him to his mother,” Luke 7:12.

15. Now was it thus that the prophets and apostles wrought miracles? Did they speak in this authoritative manner, as having life and power in themselves to raise the dead, and do cures? Quite the reverse. “In the name of Jesus, rise up and walk. I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth to come out of her. Eneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole. And Elijah cried unto the Lord his God, and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.” See a similar instance concerning Elisha, 2 Kings 4:18-36.

16. But these works of mercy done by the Lord Jesus upon the bodies of men, were nothing in comparison of those done for men’s souls. See one or two instances among a thousand. “Behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay: and when Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God only? And Jesus knowing their thoughts, [and was he who knew their thoughts a mere man?] said, Wherefore think ye evil in your heart? For whether is it easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed and go thy way into thine own house; and immediately he arose, and took up the bed, and went forth before them all, insomuch that they were amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion,” Mark 2:3-12.

17. We see him performing another work of still greater mercy, a relation of which is given us by an eye witness, who was also the subject of it, in the following words: “I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth; which things I also did. But as I went to Damascus, at midday, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me: and when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying, in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks; and I said, Who art thou, Lord? and he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise and stand upon thy feet; for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me,” Acts 26:9-19. And is this lustre, exceeding the brightness of the sun, the glory of a mere man? Is this voice, “Why persecutest thou me? I am Jesus whom thou persecutest;” the voice of a mere man? Is it a mere man that here appears to make a minister, and promises to deliver him “from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom he sends him?” And is it by faith in a mere man that they receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among the sanctified?

18. Let us attend to this wonderful story a little farther. Because the amazing splendour of Divine glory that had surrounded Saul, upon the appearance of this august personage, had so dazzled his eyes as to deprive him of sight; the same gracious Lord, who arrested him in his mad career to shed the blood of the saints, and of a blasphemer and persecutor made him a preacher and an apostle, commanded Ananias to go to him to restore him: and when Ananias hesitated, saying, “Lord, I have heard from many of this man how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem, and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name; the Lord said unto him, Go thy way; for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” Mark these expressions, “Thy saints that call on thy name; a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles; how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” Are the saints the property of a mere man? Do they call on a mere man for salvation? Is it the name of a mere man that apostles are constituted chosen vessels to bear? And is it for the sake of a mere man that they suffer such great things?

19. Now, as it is certainly the sole prerogative of God to forgive sins, and receive guilty sinners to mercy, so our Lord manifested himself to be God, by exercising this power, not only in these instances, but in a great many others recorded in the Gospel. Indeed, all believers are represented in the Scriptures, not only as having “redemption in his blood, the forgiveness of sins, and being accepted in Christ the beloved,” but as being actually forgiven, and accepted by him. “Forgiving one another, (says the apostle, Colossians 3:13,) even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Receive ye one another, Romans 15:7, as Christ also hath received us to the glory of God.” And as for illumination, regeneration, sanctification, consolation, and the whole work of grace upon the soul, we have already seen he is represented as the author thereof, con-jointly with the Father; and accordingly he is addressed as such in the beginning of almost all St. Paul’s epistles, and in divers other places. He is “full of truth and grace,” and out of his fulness all true believers “receive, and grace upon grace.” It is his grace that is “sufficient for them,” 2 Corinthians 12:9; and through him “strengthening them, they can do all things,” Philippians 4:13. He is the author and finisher of their faith,” Hebrews 12:2; the source and object of their love, Ephesians 3:17-19; the spring and end of their obedience, 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15; Romans 14:8, 9. They are “more than conquerors through him who hath loved them,” Romans 8:37. “He delivers them from every evil work, and preserves them unto his heavenly kingdom,” 2 Timothy 4:18; and confers upon them eternal life. “I give unto my sheep (says he, John 10:28) eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.”