Many of the early fathers use the word "theology," in the sense of "A discoursing upon the Divinity of Christ," and they called the apostle John "the Divine," or the Theologue," because he speaks so fully of the Word made flesh. To these Fathers all knowledge of God seemed comprehended in knowing Him who reveals the Father. And following their principles, we maintain that all real knowledge of God's salvation is to be attained by becoming acquainted with Him who is the Saviour sent of God.
In the days of the Reformation, we find Fox, the martyrologist, telling Roman Catholics that, "as there is no gift of God given to man, no virtue, work, merit, nor anything else, that is part or cause of salvation, but only this gift of faith to believe in Christ Jesus" - so also "neither does faith, as it is only a bare quality or action in man's mind, itself justify, unless it be directed to the body of Christ crucified as its object, of whom it receiveth all its virtue." *
In all ages of the Church, to know "Whom we have believed" has been felt to be all-important. In whatever light we view the matter, its importance will appear.
1. It helps us to discover the malignity of sin.
Right views
of sin have a tendency to lead us to right views of the Person of the Saviour.
But the converse also is true; right views of the Saviour's person lead to
right views of sin.
Socinians and Arians have shallow views of sin. They
do not see that it deserves never-ending woe and infinite fierceness of wrath;
nor do they feel their conscience alarmed at the enormous depravity of nature,
and at the fearfully aggravated sins against God which they daily commit. Hence
they see not the need they have of a Divine Saviour - one able to bear
infinite wrath for the innumerable sins of a multitude whom no man can number.*
They are conscious that if it required the personal interposition of a
divine surety to remove it, the sin must be very great; that it must indeed be
branded as hateful beyond conception, if, ere it be forgiven, the Lawgiver
himself must die. From these men, therefore, we learn to judge thus ; - that if
we would feel the enormity of sin aright, we must see it calling for no less a
satisfaction than what could be given by God Incarnate.
The Roman
Catholic, whose eye turns oftener far to the Virgin Mary than to Mary's Son,
has not surely felt the true nature of sin, the rigour of the law, or the
terror of divine judgment. Hence, such men are content to seek pardon through a
creature's merits, and think that the intercession of a multitude of such
creatures may prevail for them. But did they see sin under the teaching of the
Spirit they would trust their pardon to no one but the God-man, Christ Jesus.
And in point of fact, when Romanists are awakened by the Holy Spirit to deep
sense of sin, they forthwith begin to feel how insufficient, how
unsatisfactory, how incomplete is any kind of peace that does not come from the
Incarnate Son of God. They begin to see sin to be such an evil as only God can
remedy. From these, therefore, let us learn to judge thus; - it is in Christ,
the Son of God, substituted for the sinner, that we see the abyss of evil in
our sin, and that we become aware that sin is so clamorous for wrath as to be
silenced only by the interposed Person of the Son of God.
But turn aside
again; approach an infant newly born, drawing its first breath in this fallen
world. There is sin in that soul, and small as the sin may seem when
compared with that of sinners who have lived forty or seventy years, yet even
the sin of that infant is such an evil as nothing can remedy but the blood of
the Son of God. If the sin of that infant is to be forgiven, the Son of
God must "pour out his soul unto death" in its behalf.
Set before you
any one of your own acts of disobedience, selecting those which may, in your
judgment, appear the smallest and slightest. Yet that act was sin; - such an
act that, ere it can be forgiven and you received into favour, Godhead must
be moved! God the Son must rise from His place on the Father's bosom and
haste to your rescue. Less than this would be insufficient; less than this
would be entirely useless. For the abyss is bottomless. No angel's strength
could bear the burden of the wrath due to your one sin, while certainly no
angel's love could endure the trial of interposing as your substitute. Sin is
something that only God can deal with - a mysteriously tremendous evil.
These lessons are taught us when we fix our attention not on the mere blessing
of forgiveness, but also on the Person who brings it. If we were to
adopt another plan too commonly pursued, and merely speak of salvation as a
work done and finished well - or as a door opened at which the vilest may come
in - or as a free invitation to the chief of sinners - we might in that case
miss altogether the clear light cast on sin by the Gospel. But on the other
hand, connect all with the Person (and in this case with the divine nature of
the Person) - show that here is the work of God in our nature, God occupying
our law-room - that here is the door of access opened, but only in consequence
of Almighty love shedding the blood of the Beloved Son, heaven's Isaac - that
here is a free invitation to the vilest, but that it is thus free only because
the Saviour who came was Creator of all creatures, and therefore able to fulfil
all conditions, and pay the last mite - show all this, and forthwith the light
of the cross is cast on sin, and you see it to be an infinite evil, an evil
understood by God alone.*
Such is the heat of wrath against sin, that unless the "shadow" which interposed between me and that heat had been the broad, far-extending shadow of a "Great Rock," the air around me would have burnt as an oven still. Such is the burden of sin on my single person, that never could I have been lifted up as a "lively stone," and my weight borne by the foundation-stone, unless the foundation had been God the Son. Surely, then, it was a gaping wound that sin had made, when such balm alone could heal it. O my soul, thou wert sinking fast in the swelling stream, and none could beat back the might of the wave but God, God in thy nature. A whole Christ was needed by thee, and that Christ, God ! - "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God" (Acts viii. 37.)
2. The application of Salvation.
A sinner may see that there
is none other to whom we can go but Jesus only, and yet he may not go. He may
imagine difficulties, and magnify these into impossibilities. But it is
remarkable how many of these difficulties and apparent impossibilities flow
down at the presence of the Person of the Lord - the soul beholding a full
Saviour in Him who is God and man in one person. Clement of Rome (" whose name
is in the Book of Life," Phil. iv. 3), writes to the Corinthians,*
"Brethren, in our thoughts of Jesus Christ we ought to conceive of Him
as God, and the Judge of quick and dead. We ought not to cherish low thoughts
of Him who is our Saviour; for if our thoughts of Him are low, we will hope for
little at His hand." This truth admits of wide application. A soul very deeply
convinced of sin, or indeed convinced of sin at all as an awful reality, will
find no object fit for its necessities but the person of God-man, associated
with all he did. It was thus with a minister who lies buried in Bunhill Fields,
Mr. Bradford. He was for a time an Arian, but was awakened to feel that he must
be born again, while writing a. sermon on the words of Christ to Nicodemus. He
felt sin in its power; he saw his sins to be innumerable, as well as
inexpressibly heinous. "And now," says he, "the first relief I felt was from
the view that Jesus Christ was GOD. His deity I
now saw as the ground of all my confidence." No wonder! for it is there we see
how the atonement could be sufficiently precious to avail for sinners such as
we; it is only there we see how the Holy One could find a sacrifice for us
pleasing and acceptable, and admitting of the widest application.
But, in
cases where there is a tacit assent to the doctrine of the Person of Jesus,
there is often a real and practical overlooking of it. Often the deeply
exercised soul looks at all else rather than the Living One Himself -
thinking of his ways, purposes, work, but shutting its eyes on Himself.
Now, let that soul be led for a time to deal with the Person, and the
effect will be marvellous, if the Holy Spirit enable him to see who this
Person is.
"How am I to cross that mountain ?" says an anxious
soul, pointing to the doctrine of electing love. "How am I to find myself among
the number of the elect?" "And," says another, "if you cannot assure me that
the blood of Christ was intended as much for me as for Peter or Paul, Mary
Magdalene or Mary of Bethany, how can I rest on it?" Another, yet more bold,
comes forward and declares that "if Christ did not die alike for all men, and
bear all sinners alike on His heart when He died, then there is no truth
sufficient for a sinner seeking salvation to rest upon."
Now, to all those
travellers who would willingly (if they could) find out that there is no such
mountain as electing love, because they fancy it is an insuperable one, we say
at once, the Person of the Lord Jesus stands in front of that glorious
mountain whose top touches heaven; and you have to do with His
Person ere you set a foot on that mountain.
Our warrant for believing
in Christ is simply this, that He cries to the children of men, "To you, O
men, I call." And he bids them ALL come in the first
place to HIMSELF. Come and see this Person.
(Prov. viii. 2.) "If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink" (John
vii. 37). "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden" (Matt.
xi. 28) - ye that are toiling up that mountain with a load on your souls that
almost crushes you at every step.
All your difficulties about election are
thus set aside for the time - set aside until you have found Christ
Himself, "who will show you plainly of the Father" in due time. All your
difficulties about election are in this manner transferred to Christ
Himself, who it is (and not we) that must reconcile the universal call with
His special love to His elect. Well, be content to leave the difficulty with
Jesus; and meanwhile deal with a personal Saviour, not with words, and
doctrines, and propositions. Say, if you will, “Perhaps I am not elected,
and if so it will be in vain for me to expect a place among His redeemed “
- say this, if you will, but only go and see. Go to the Person, of the
Christ, and throw thyself at His feet.
Now, you do throw yourself at
Christ’s feet, when, letting alone for the time all these thoughts of
election and the inquiry whether you are or are not in the Book of Life, you
allow your soul to think of Christ Himself. Will Christ Himself
refuse a coming sinner? He cannot; for it is written, “Him that cometh
unto Me I will in no wise cast out” (John vi. 37). He will not say
that He has not a price sufficient to pay for you. He will not say that the
foundation is not broad enough for you to build on. He will not say that he has
not love sufficient to lead Him to have compassion on you. You may not be able
to make out from some of Christ's words whether or not there be room for
you; but try Christ’s heart - appeal to Him as one “who
receiveth sinners “ - and tell Him that such a sinner are you.
Never
forget the Syrophenician mother’s dealing with the Lord. It is a case
recorded as if on very purpose for such a state of soul as yours. This woman
came, full of desire and hope, but was told, “I am not sent but to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Was not this confronting her at
once with the darkest shadow of the highest height of the mountain of Election?
It seemed to say, “There is no place for you.” It did not
leave her an opening (as there is in your case) to say, “Possibly I am in
the number “ - it seemed to deny that she was thought of at all. If ever
there was a trying case it was here. But how did this woman act? She did not
try to prove, as some do in our day, that there was not, and could not be, such
a thing as special electing love - but she left that difficulty to be solved by
the Lord Himself, and threw herself upon the Person of Jesus. She
renewed her appeal to Himself “Lord, help me.” “Truth,
Lord, but the dogs (and such am I) under the table eat of the crumbs.” She
probed His heart; she believed there were depths of mercies there; and she
found she was right! She has left us a proof that when a sinner repairs to the
Person of the living Saviour, that sinner is at once met by Him; and the
gracious colloquy begins - ”Come now, let us reason together, saith the
Lord” (Isa. i. 18); and it will end with nothing less than absolution,
“Though your sins have been as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they have been red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
Believest thou this? In believing this, thy soul shall find acceptance with
God; and in the same hour, thy Lord will let thee know that He had thee in His
heart from eternity. It is thus that an anxious soul’s stumbling on the
difficulty of election may become a real advantage. It guides the soul away
from a thing to a person. His first question now is not, What does
Christ think of me? But, What am I to think of Christ? The traveller is
confronted by the frowning mountain-height, and this leads him at once to
discover, ere he climbs even one height, the Person to whose dwelling he
imagined he must come by long and laborious efforts. Boldly encounter the
question, “Am I one of God’s elect? Am I one given to Christ by the
Father from all eternity?” It will lead you directly to the Person of
Jesus, as the only mode of reaching a true and sure solution. It will send
you not to the Book of Life, but to the Lamb who writes it; and
in asking about Him, you find that He has singular love to sinners, and that
“He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him”
(Heb. vii. 25).*
Is this not enough?
We may here take occasion to observe that a
fresh view of His Person, especially in its human aspect, seems, from
the Gospels, to be the Lord’s way of removing the after fears of
His own. We find that the Lord when on earth used to remove fear by revealing
Himself. On that memorable night of storm, when wind and waves tossed
the vessel, and darkness had spread its thickest veil over moon and stars,
Jesus walked on the waters and approached them. The thought that it was “a
Spirit” (Matt. xiv. 26), or angelic messenger (it might be some one of the
“ ministering spirits “), was no consolation to men who at that hour
were ready to perish, and who felt worthy to perish. They saw nothing in an
angel’s presence but what might remind them, by contrast, of their own
unholiness; and they knew nothing of the depth of an angel’s compassion.
But no sooner did Jesus speak, “IT IS I,” than
there was a calm in their souls, such as the after-calm on the surface of the
lake was but an emblem of: “It is I!” I am here! was all He
said. But they knew His heart as well as hand. They knew His love to them,
unworthy as they were. They knew His sinner-love - His love to men. And why
should we not have this same remedy for our anxieties? The living Jesus
- Jesus full of human sympathies and divine glories!
It was so again after
the Resurrection. In Luke xxiv. 36-47, we read of the scene. The disciples had
lately sinned, and were not as yet altogether at rest. When, therefore, one
enters the Upper Room who seemed to be from the other side of the Veil, they
are sore afraid - as if tidings from that side must be evil tidings to them,
and as if a holy angel, even a holy ministering “spirit,” must have
been sent on some errand of reproof or judgment. But it was the Lord!
and He lifted up His voice with the salutation, “Peace” -
man’s salutation taken up by the God-man’s lips into which grace is
poured. And then He drew all their attention to His Person, as not that
of an angel, but of one who had “flesh and bones - that is, who had man's
nature. He showed them “hands and feet; “ - the hands that had
so often touched the sick to heal them, and been laid on themselves to bless
them ; - the feet that for them had been weary on the highways of Judea and
Galilee, and had got no rest till they touched the cold stone of Joseph’s
sepulchre. “Why are ye troubled?” said He, as if to recall the
night of the last supper: “Let not your hearts be troubled” (John
xiv. 1-26). “And why do thoughts arise in your minds ? “ -
thoughts or disputings as to who this was. He hastened yet farther to show them
His true humanity - that He was the God-man, the Lord of glory, who put on
their very nature; for He asked for fish and honey-comb, and did eat with them
as a guest at their board.
No wonder that (v. 24) they were so full of joy
at the very possibility of His very self being there, so full that they could
scarcely allow themselves to believe it. But they show us in what manner
immediate calm is to be found; and true rest from anxiety; they show us the
real removal of questionings and troubles, and the simple means of being filled
with joy unspeakable. The streams from Lebanon furnish it all! The Person of
the God-man presents thoughts, and declares truths, and reveals feelings
towards us, such as may well cause a soul to cry, “All my springs are in
thee!” He did not come saying, “Peter, I love thee;”
“Bartholomew, I love thee,” “And I love thee, Thaddeus,”
“And thee, Philip “ - but He took a way which made all of them feel
more than even if He had done and said this very thing, He presented among them
Himself in His humanity! Lo! (as if he had said) Lo! I am among
you, the Incarnate God, whose love has led me to be man’s Redeemer. Handle
me and see! Draw out of this well - wherein is love not only to you, Peter, and
to you, Bartholomew, and to you, Thaddeus, and to you, Philip - but to “a
great multitude whom no man can number,” out of every kindred, and tongue,
and people. Draw from this Well and thirst no more.
"He that hath ears to
hear let him hear." To have rejected the Saviour - to have slighted Him - to
have refused to make Him welcome, on the pretext of imagined difficulties, will
be as the “worm that never dies” to your soul! And further we say, to
have received less than the Person of Him who died and rose again - to
have been satisfied with mere propositions and statements, with mere doctrines
and truths, instead of embracing in your heart the very Person to whom
all these referred will be to you the “worm that never dies” - a
subject of endless regret in eternity, when regret is unavailing. You are like
a man laying himself to repose on the bosom of a cloud, on the white down of
the ocean’s foam. Oh, the misery of the soul that is content with a shadow
instead of substance ! - content with a vague belief that there was a sort of
general love and mercy to all, and a kind of general vindication
of righteousness and moral govern- ment, instead of taking the full, ample
soul-filling and conscience-filling atonement, - salvation. for him by means of
such a personal substitute as the Lord Jesus, the Son of the Highest !
What is “Wrath to come,” if, to avert it from sinners, the Lord
Jehovah rose from His throne! But on the other hand, where is the possibility
of perishing if a sinner accept Him who has come ? Yonder is the baring of. the
Almighty’s bosom, proclaiming, “Yet there is room.” Yonder is an
ocean-depth of love, which even Manasseh has not yet fathomed - yonder is an
atmosphere of love to the height of which even Paul has never soared! And
(herein indeed is love!) we may taste it, each for ourselves! It is the bosom
on which even we may for ever rest.
Transcribed from The Person of Christ by Andrew A.Bonar
D.D.,
first published
EDINBURGH, ANDREW STEVENSON,
9 NORTH BANK
STREET,
1888
HTML transcription files copyright © 2001-2006.
Jane Newble
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