The pride and self-sufficiency of the natural heart of man in considering a passage such as this, are ever prone to wrest it to his own destruction, and to convert that which, when rightly understood, contains a most glorious truth, into a poisonous and deadly error. Men of legal and Arminian spirits contend that we are hereby taught that, in the great work of conversion, the first effective movement is and must be on the part of man—that the sinner first, of his own free will, returns unto God, and that then, but not till then, does the grace of God take effect upon his soul.
Wisdom continues still to cry unto men with the affectionate authority of a parent. The incarnation of the Son is God’s grand utterance to mankind. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. He came to make known the Father. “No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared him.”
In the opening verses of the chapter, God had pronounced a woe on unfaithful pastors—referring probably to rulers, both civil and ecclesiastical—who had destroyed and scattered the sheep of his pasture. He had promised to gather his flock in due time together, and set up faithful shepherds over them. Then he passes, at the fifth verse, by a natural and beautiful transition, to that prediction of Messiah, the great Shepherd of the sheep—King and Priest of his church both—of which the text forms a part: “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD”—(Jehovah)—“OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
The soul is priceless. “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:37). One need only consider the rich man’s words while in hell, “I am tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:24), to realize how highly we should esteem our soul’s salvation. Yet, however highly we ought to concern ourselves about our soul, God’s Word is clear in indicating that many will be deceived regarding their salvation until the final day: “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt. 7:23). What help is available to the one wanting to know whether he is deceived regarding his own soul and salvation?
Christ cried with a loud voice in death, “Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit!” Then our Lord died; because it was His will. Death could not bind Him, but love to His wife bound Him. Love is stronger than death; nay, love was as strong as Christ. The law was weak now, for Christ satisfied it; and now it has no power over you. Ye are in Christ; and He is a better Master than the law. Change not with any Master again. Follow Him all the way to heaven. Christ’s new love got an exchange in His blessed manhood. How do ye since ye married Christ last? Tell your mind of Christ. Let faith speak, let love speak of slain Christ Jesus; of His kissing you. Ye are now at Christ’s pierced side; get heaven and mercy when Christ has the cross on His back.
The wise man prepares for eternity today; the foolish man puts off his preparation for eternity till tomorrow. The wise man has his eye always on the day of his death; the foolish man shuts his mind to the obvious fact that death, and what follows death, must soon be experienced by everyone.
In the original transaction of the new covenant, all the promises bear a special and particular direction to the elect,—all their names being, as it were, severally recorded therein; so that the promises, as there laid, are an expression of God’s gracious purpose concerning each of them particularly, and them only: But the matter is far otherwise, in the administration of that Covenant by the Gospel. For the Gospel, as it were, brings forth an extract from that glorious original,—in which extract, the promises bear only an indefinite direction; a blank being left, where the names of the elect are recorded in the original; So that these promises, as laid out to men in the Gospel, do abstract from all regard to any as elect,—to any, more than others; or they have a respect to them only as sinners, mankind sinners.
I do not think that enough of stress has been laid by theologians or Christian ministers on the various particular terms in which the overtures of the gospel are couched for presentation to the world. Each man would understand the import of a special message to himself, but he may not see how the Bible can be understood, as being adequately and fully such a message. An express letter from the upper sanctuary, with his name and designation, might satisfy him; but in the general record of Scripture, that name and that designation are nowhere to be found.
“For I am persuaded, that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38–39). The comforting and invigorating doctrine of this precious passage is, that a soul in Christ cannot be separated from the Love of God.
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.
