The duty of Christ as our prophet is to reveal to us the Father, as he saith, “Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him”; and again it is said, “No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” Now, how did Christ reveal to us the Father? Not by any set proofs of his existence, nor by any abstract discussions upon his nature or character, nor by didactic discourses, but by action; a mode of instruction as level to the comprehension of the meanest capacity, as to that of the loftiest; as intelligible to the peasant as to the philosopher.
Three miles from our village was an old church, a favorite and memorable resort of the villagers on special occasions. Built of blue limestone, blackened by the pencil of time, with a steep stairway to the gallery outside on the front, crowning the summit of a beautiful knoll, and peering out from a dense grove of majestic old oaks, it was the very beau ideal of an ancient rural house of God. For many years it was under the same pastoral charge with our village congregation; and after this connection was severed, it was customary for our minister to assist the pastor on ‘Sacrament days,’ and for many of his people to resort thither.
We read in scripture of those who believe the word of God, and yet are not saved, as in Luke 8:13: “They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away,” or in Acts 26:27–28: “King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” Or James 2:19: “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” Faith of a certain kind, constrained by evidence, will be found even in those who hate the truth with which they are confronted. Gardiner Spring comments, “We receive, compound, and compare ideas, whether we wish to or not. When we see the evidence of a religious doctrine to be clear and convincing, we cannot withhold our assent from it, while at the same time we may hate what we believe and love what we reject.”
On the way to the ruler’s house, where Jesus raised the dead Maiden to life, an unusual interruption occurred. This tried the anxious father’s spirit by his child’s death during the delay. We have now to take up the case of the Sufferer whose urgency occasioned it. But first of all it is to be observed, that the interruption itself is of a most remarkable character; there being nothing similar to it in the New Testament. Jesus, though hindered, was not stopped by the crowd, nor by an importunate petitioner that would not be denied, but simply by the change that passed on his own spirit. Virtue has gone out of him; a portion of the Spirit within him has entered into some one else. He has undertaken a great work which he goes to perform, and there is a pressing throng around him; but he instantly marks the alteration that has occurred within himself, and will not proceed till it is accounted for; although he possesses the Spirit without measure, and that is not lost by him which is gained by another.
Thus I have shortly shewed what are the effects or works of the law, when managed by the Spirit of God for this end, to bring an elect vessel to become dead to the law. The man, I say, getting a discovery of these things, must now conclude that there is no hope or expectation of life for him by the works of the law; and therefore he must turn his back upon that and seek relief from some other airth, and row to another shore. For clearing of this matter, let us speak a little to some few questions.
None of the Evangelists or Apostles speak so much of the Father as John, who knew most of his Son Jesus Christ, and leant upon his bosom. The reason is, John felt that the mind of the Father and the mind of the Son were the same—entirely the same. He was, therefore, engaged in the same topic when he unfolded the Father’s love.
This Psalm of the royal installation of our Jesus, and of His proclamation to all men, forms a most appropriate sequel to the warnings and promises which had preceded. The ground alike of the world’s doom and the safety of the church is that Christ has been anointed King forever. Their folly must become manifest, and His grace must be established, for He reigneth.
It can hardly have escaped the observation of anyone who has read the Bible with attention, that in all the communications which the Almighty has been pleased to make to his rebellious subjects, he has employed language the best calculated to make its way to the heart and affections of mankind—that, while his remonstrances with the impenitent present a lamentable picture of the most unreasonable hostility, and unprovoked aggression on their part, they bear testimony, at the same time, to the most compassionate forbearance on his—and that, as often as he directly addresses the penitent and believing, whether it be in the way of reproof or of consolation, it is still in terms that breathe all the affectionate tenderness of a father’s love.
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30). The apostle had been, a few verses before this, observing the sovereign and wise manner in which God had dispensed his grace, with regard to the calling of sinful men, as verse 26, “Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called,” or are made the instruments of the calling of grace, “but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.” The wise purpose and design is, as in verse 29, “that no flesh should glory in his presence,” as if his own endowments or the advantages of his condition had entitled him to divine grace. In the next following words, which are those of my text, the apostle shows what is the true matter of glorying to a Christian: “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus.”
The formation of a partner for Adam out of a portion of his own frame, and the junction of the two under the direct sanction of their Maker, so as to form in a manner one flesh, however important in a social and economical respect, however fitted also to bear indirectly on the higher interests of the world, was still not formally of a religious nature. For the world’s secular well-being alone, there were reasons amply sufficient to account for its Divine author resorting to such a method, when bringing into being the first family pair, and in them laying the foundations of the world’s social existence.
