Selected from: The Free Presbyterian Magazine and Monthly Record, Vol. 1, No. 4 (August, 1896), 149.
The situation, intending communicants, in which you are now placed is one of peculiar interest and solemnity. In obedience to the commandment of the King of Zion, you are professedly met to commemorate the decease, which, in the days of his flesh, he accomplished at Jerusalem. The event is, in every view, deserving to be held in remembrance, for it is the point on which turn the dispensations of God in all ages toward the church, from the beginning to the end of time. Nay more, it is the key by which are unlocked the treasures of infinite wisdom and sovereign love that were hid in God from before the foundation of the world. For this event, as the theatre on which it might be displayed, were the earth and its kindred planets created; so this event, as the end of their faith and the consummation of their hopes, did the patriarchs look; in this event, did the law of Moses, with its types and symbols and significant shadows, meet its accomplishment; of this event, as the grand resource of the church in times of trouble and perplexity, did the prophets write.
And when the old economy was abolished, and the new dispensation ushered in, what was the theme on which its ministers continually dwelt? The death of Christ. “I determined,” says one of them, “not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.” And now that generations have passed away, and ages run their course, the event is as fresh and full of interest as it was when the heavenly host in the plains of Bethlehem sang, “Glory to God in the highest; on earth peace, and goodwill to men.” For he whose justice was satisfied, whose law was honoured, whose mercy was manifested in the death of Christ, is the same now that he was and ever shall be; and the people whose guilt was expiated, whose enemies were conquered, and whose redemption was effected by the death of Christ, are substantially the same in their character and state in every age of the church.
When the communion service, in which you are about to engage, was observed in primitive times, they were guilty, depraved, and wretched men, who had fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them in Christ, that sat around the table of the Lord. And now, who are you intending communicants that have assembled yourselves together in the sanctuary, and taken your seats at the communion table? Are you not also guilty in person, depraved in nature, and miserable in condition? And as such, have you not embraced the crucified Saviour as your righteousness to justify, your sanctification to cleanse, and your redemption to bless you? To you only who know and feel that this is your character can the death of Christ appear in its true light, its divine greatness, and eternal importance. The glory of the Holy One of Israel must have been revealed to you, the depravity of your own souls must have been discovered by you ere you could see the death of Christ in its proper meaning and design. It is like the light of the sun, which at once reveals the heavens and the earth; and he that neither sees the beauties of the former nor the irregularity of the latter, has certainly no proper idea of the light which manifests both.
He that possesses the death of Christ so as acceptably to remember it must have been convinced that it is with God he has to do, and also that let him bring from his nature what he pleases, if placed before God, it must be utterly burnt up by the fire of his wrath. “Who would set the briars and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.” But that presenting the death of Christ the Lord rests on his love, he rejoices over his people to do them good. What the death of Christ is to the history of the world at large it is to the experience of every individual believer—it is the hinge on which turns the death of the flesh and the quickening of the spirit; it is the point in which terminates the reign of sin, and at which commences the reign of righteousness; it is the grave of the old man, and the cradle of the new man; it is the death of sin and hell, and the birth of holiness and heaven. Well then might the enraptured apostle exclaim, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and well may you, brethren, take into your hands “the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
You have now, communicants, outwardly commemorated the death of the Lord Jesus, and have publicly testified your faith in the reality of that event. But this is not enough. To confine your respect to it to a communion table were as great an error in practice as to restrict its influence to the moment of its accomplishment were a mistake in fact. The death of Christ, though an event which took place nearly 2,000 years ago, is one which has shed its influence over the church during all ages that have since evolved, else what had become of us in these latter days? And just so ought it to be in your experience. To eat bread and to drink wine in remembrance of Christ is well, but it is not less befitting that you bear continually about with you the recollection of this glorious event.
To live spiritually without the death of Christ is impossible; you may as soon expect to breathe without air or see without light. How can you find access to God without the death of Christ? The only pathway to the throne of mercy lies through the veil of his flesh that was rent by the avenging sword that shed his blood, for “through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father,” but to live without access to God is to be practical atheists. How can you maintain peace of conscience without the death of Christ, for by it, and by it alone, is the Lord of the conscience satisfied, and it is utterly vain to hope that conscience will yield to any authority but his, whose vice-regent it is. “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God, purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God?” How will you mortify indwelling sin without the death of Christ? For by it is the law fulfilled and magnified, and thus sin deprived of its strength, for the “strength of sin is the law.” To think of making headway against sin otherwise than by the faith of Christ is to rush against the bosses1A buckler is a small leather hand-held shield with a spiked central iron element called a boss. The primary use of the buckler was to protect the sword hand. It was common as a companion weapon in hand-to-hand combat during the Medieval and Renaissance periods. (Ed.) of the Almighty’s buckler, but “who hath hardened himself against God and prospered?”
How can you escape from the dominion of the world that lieth in wickedness without the death of Christ? For to this enemy have men been sold by their iniquities. But “Christ gave himself for their sins that he might deliver them from this present evil world.” How can you stand against the power of the devil without the death of Christ? For he alone hath conquered this malicious foe, and hath promised redemption to his believing people. “He spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them, openly triumphing over them in his cross.” How can you be delivered from the fear of death without the death of Christ? For “through death he abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light by the gospel.” For these and other purposes connected with the Christian life, the death of Christ is indispensable, and therefore, if you would receive them, you must live habitually by the faith of Christ crucified. We are aware that it is no easy task that is thus imposed on you, for though the death of Christ be that in which the glory of God appears in its highest lustre, and the happiness of men established on its most valid foundation, it is the principal object of hatred to the devil, the world, and the flesh. You, believing communicants, know the truth of this statement by painful experience, for while you can without much difficulty remember and prosecute the paltry designs of this world, you have daily to lament your daily forgetfulness of him who loved you and gave himself for you. To you therefore, it will prove welcome tidings to be told that there is an infinite store of grace laid up in Christ, which, by the Spirit, he dispenses to his people according to their season of temptation, and their time of need. In the faith of this all-sufficient help, descend from the mount of ordinances to the vale of conflict and trouble, and let Christ be your song in this the house of your pilgrimage, and in due time, he will convey you to his Father’s house, where you shall be privileged to unite in the hallelujahs of saints. “To him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.”—Amen.
Footnotes
- 1A buckler is a small leather hand-held shield with a spiked central iron element called a boss. The primary use of the buckler was to protect the sword hand. It was common as a companion weapon in hand-to-hand combat during the Medieval and Renaissance periods. (Ed.) ↩︎
