Part 69
The propitiation of Christ is of so constant and universal use in the whole of our religion, that our blessed Lord would not suffer us to live without some sensible tokens and signs of it, and these are to be frequently repeated to the end of the world; and therefore he has given a most express and positive command; Luke xxii. 19. _This do in remembrance of me._ And the apostle Paul; 1 Cor. xi. 29. where he teaches the Corinthians this ordinance, assures them, _As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come_. Our blessed Lord has not given us such a peculiar memorial of any of his other actions or offices as he has of his priesthood and sacrifice.
Reflection.—“And shall I not do honour to the memory of my dying Saviour? Shall I refuse to remember my great High-priest, and his propitiation for sin, in the way and manner in which he has enjoined me? Do I not trust in the death of Christ for my salvation, and shall I not glory in his cross, and profess it before the world? Do I not stand in daily need of this bread of life which was broken for my sake, and shall I reject the memorials of his broken body, when his flesh and spirit were made an offering for my guilt: Do I not hope for forgiveness through his blood, and shall I not drink this cup of reconciliation which he has mingled! I have learned by the gospel, the excellency and virtue of the propitiation of Christ, to cancel my iniquities, and shall I not receive this propitiation in all the methods of his own appointment? Shall I dare to say, it is enough for me to read it in the bible, and to hear it in the ministry of the word, and to meditate on it in private, when my Lord has given me an express command to receive it also in those emblems and sensible figures of bread and wine, and has sanctified them for this very purpose? Is this a kind return to him that died for me?
“Blessed Redeemer, forgive all my omissions, my delays my careless or slothful neglects of this holy ordinance of thine, and all my sinful indifferency about it. O scatter all my doubts, banish all my excuses, and bring me to thy holy table as a penitent and humble disciple, as a worthy and joyful receiver; there let me join with my fellow-christians and remember thy dying love.”
X. We may use this doctrine as our most effectual defence against the terrors of dying; and as our joyful hope of a blessed resurrection.
The atonement of Christ is a divine support in the agonies of death. At such a season a thousand past iniquities will sometimes crowd in upon the memory, and fill the soul with horror, and perhaps Satan the accuser makes a dreadful assault upon the conscience at the same time, and torments the spirit with painful agonies: But the most formidable terrors, the sharpest agonies find a relief here, the very sting of death is taken away by the death of Christ; 1 Cor. xv. 56. _The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin to condemn us is the law of God: but thanks be to God through Christ Jesus_, who hath answered the demands of the condemning law, and taken away the sting of death by his atoning sacrifice.
We may now venture into the presence of a holy and righteous God, laying fresh hold of the atonement in a dying hour by a living faith, and having our departing spirits sprinkled with the blood of Christ. It was this very blood in the virtue of which Jesus himself was raised from the dead; Heb. xiii. 20. _The God of peace brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant._ It was in the virtue of this blood that he ascended and appeared before God in heaven; Heb. ix. 12. _Christ by his own blood entered into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us._
Did the cursed guilt of our sins bring the Son of God down from heaven to earth, did it smite him to death, and lay him low in the grave? But the power of his complete atonement has broken the bonds of death and the grave; this has brought him back to life again, and has raised him from earth to heaven; and by the same blood of his cross he has opened an effectual way for our rising from the dead, and our final admission into the place of blessedness. As Aaron the Jewish high-priest might not dare to venture into the holy of holies without the blood of expiation, so Christ our great High-priest, when he had once taken our sins upon him, might not ascend to heaven into the presence of God, till in the language of scripture he could carry his blood with him, till he could shew a full atonement. Now that very same blood and sacrifice which gave Christ himself a joyful admission into heaven, who was the great Shepherd and the Representative of his people, will also give every one of his sheep a safe and glorious entrance into the presence of God. This we may hope for with a chearful heart, when our departing spirits are called away from this lower world. And for the further joy of our faith, we should remember also, that in the virtue of the same blood we shall be raised from the grave: The grave shall obey the voice of him that died for us; for he has ransomed us from the power of it. Then the soul and body of every disciple of Christ shall be introduced with divine acceptance to dwell where Jesus is, and _to behold his glory_; John xvii. 24.
Reflection.—“Why then art thou so terrified, O my soul, at the thoughts of dying? Why all these shudderings of the flesh, and these agonies of spirit at the apprehensions of death and the grave? Are the sins of thy life great and numerous? Do they throng in upon thy conscience, and fill thy thoughts with tumult and terror? Remember the time, the dark and dismal hour, when Jesus thy Saviour bore all those very sins in his own body on the tree: There the demands of Divine Justice were all answered, and sin has now no power to condemn the saint, nor has death power to hurt him in his best interests;” Rom. viii. 34. “Who shall condemn? It is Christ that died, yea, rather has risen again, as a complete conqueror over death.” And is not Christ thy Head, thy Redeemer and the Captain of thy salvation?
“Let me call to mind the solemn seasons of transaction between Christ and my soul. Have I not resigned myself to him as an all-sufficient Saviour, to deliver me both from the guilt and the power of every sin? Have I not trusted in the blood of his atonement, and felt the quickening power of his Spirit as the fruit of his blood? Has he not raised me to a new life? What if the mortal body must die, because it has sin in it, yet my Spirit shall live because Christ is my righteousness. Fear not then, O my soul, but go chearfully through the gates of death when he calleth thee. Jesus has taken away the terrors of that dark passage. He has deprived death of its sting, and sanctified the grave for a sweet sleeping place. Awaken all the powers of thy faith, and triumph over the conquered enemy. The justice of God is become thy friend, and death can do no mischief to the friends of God, reconciled by the blood of Jesus. Look forward and behold thy great Fore-runner ready to introduce thee into the presence of _his Father and thy Father, his God and thy God_, with exceeding joy. Bid a joyful farewell to flesh and sense, those busy tempters; farewell to time and this world, and all things that are not divine and holy. Turn thy back on all visible objects, close thine eyes with a smiling countenance, forget earth for ever, and enter into the heavenly mansions.”
XI. The view of Christ as our propitiation, is not only a safe defence against the terrors of death, but it is a divine allurement toward the upper world. There lives our dear Redeemer, our blessed and beloved Lord, who ransomed our souls from sin and hell. There he reigns on the throne as king of glory, who once hung on the cross as our sacrifice of atonement: The Lamb of God in the midst of the throne, with the signals of his death upon him. The sight of these signals shall open all our springs of love: Joy, love, and gratitude shall fill the departed spirit: As soon as we are absent from the body, we are present with the Lord who died for us.
Reflection.—“O happy day and happy hour indeed, that shall finish the long absence of my beloved, and place me within sight of my adored Jesus! When shall I see that lovely, that illustrious Friend, who laid down his own life to rescue mine, his own valuable life to ransom a worm, a rebel that deserved to die. He suffered, he groaned, he died: but he rose again, the blessed Saviour arose, he lives, he reigns exalted over all the creation. Faith beholds him risen, and reigning, but it is through a glass, it is at a distance, and but darkly. I wait, I hope for a more divine pleasure; it is a delight worth dying for, to behold him face to face, to see him as he is, to converse with his wondrous person, and to survey his glories. Alas! my soul is too patient of this long distance and separation. O for the wings of love, to bear my spirit upward in holy breathings! Methinks I would long to be near him, to be with him, to give him my highest praises and thanks for my share in his dying love. I would rise to join with the blessed acclamations, the holy songs of the saints on high, while they behold their exalted Saviour. How sweet their songs! How loud their acclamations! This is the man, the God-man who died for me! This is the Son of God, who was buffetted, who was crowned with thorns, who endured exquisite anguish, and unknown sorrows for me, who was scourged, and wounded, and crucified for me! This is the glorious Person, the Lamb of God, who washed me from my sins in his own blood. Blessing, honour, and salvation to his holy name forever.” _Amen._
HYMN FOR SERMON XXXVI. _Christ’s Propitiation improved._
Lord, didst thou send thy Son to die For such a guilty wretch as I? And shall thy mercy not impart Thy spirit to renew my heart?
Lord, best thou wash’d my garments clean In Jesu’s blood from shame and sin? Shall I not strive with all my power That sin pollute my soul no more!
Shall I not bear my Father’s rod, The kind corrections of my God, When Christ upon the cursed tree Sustain’d a heavier load for me?
Why should I dread my dying day Since Christ hath took the curse away, And taught me with my latest breath To triumph o’er thy terrors, death?
O rather let me wish and cry, “When shall my soul get loose and fly To upper worlds? When shall I see, The God, the man, that dy’d for me?”
I shall behold his glories there, And pay him my eternal share Of praise, and gratitude, and love, Among ten thousand saints above.
SERMON XXXVII. _The Christian’s Treasure._ 1 COR. iii. 21.—All things are yours.
It is a peculiar delight of this apostle to survey the blessings we derive from Christ, and to run over the glories of the gospel in flowing language. At the end of this chapter he reckons up the privileges of the saints, and tells them, they have an interest in all things: “It does not become you, says he, to enter into parties, and to glory in any single man, no, not in Paul, Apollos, nor Cephas, _for all things are yours, whether life or death, whether this world or the other, whether things present or things to come, all are yours_.”
To improve this proposition, and to bring it down to some practical purposes, let us consider,
I. What we are to understand by this extensive privilege of true christians, contained in this expression, _All things are yours_; and what is the true limitation of the sense of it.—II.—It shall be proved, that notwithstanding the limited sense of these words, yet the saints have a richer treasure in them, than the greatest riches of a sinner.—III. We shall enquire how christians come to possess such a treasure. And,—IV. See what use may be made of this doctrine:
_First_, What are we to understand by this expression, _All things are yours_? To answer this enquiry clearly, I am constrained to introduce these two negatives:
1. We are not to suppose here that all things are in the possession of true christians, and under their power. This truth every man is a witness of, that the saints have neither heaven nor earth in their present possession. The sun and stars are not at their command, nor the riches of this world in their chest, nor the kingdoms of this world under their government. No, by no means, for they are most times poor and mean in this world, many of them destitute of the common supports of nature, and the comforts of life. Christ himself their Lord and Master had not where to lay his head: And the apostles, who were the chief of christians, suffered “hunger and thirst, were naked and buffetted; they had sometimes neither food nor raiment, neither rest nor peace, nor any certain dwelling-place;” 1 Cor. iv. 11.
2. And as all things are not in their possession, so neither are we to understand that all things in a civil sense are their right and property. They have not a just claim and demand of the good things which their neighbours possess, nor ought they to take possession of them, though they had power to do it. It is a very wicked principle which has no countenance from scripture, and has been abused to most unrighteous and bloody purposes, that dominion is founded in grace, or that the saints have a present civil right to all the earth, and the good things of it. From this sort of doctrine, some men of furious zeal and enthusiasm have been tempted to rise and seize on the property of their neighbours. And indeed, all the persecution in the world upon the account of religion, is built on this principle, “that the saints alone have a right to peace and liberty, to honour and money, and all the good things of this life; and that the heretic and the sinner have no right to any thing.” And though persecutors are very much ashamed to own this doctrine in words, yet they confirm it and comment upon it, in all their oppressive and bloody practices.
But the christian religion knows no such principles; it allows every man’s property and interest in the goods of this world, whether he be a Turk or a Jew, a heathen or a christian, a saint or a sinner. It is providence has disposed of these outward things in the civil life, and men become entitled to them, by the laws and agreement of civil society: And thus a rich wicked man may be righteously possessed of a fine house, and purple raiment, may have a well spread table, and large lands, and dominions, while a saint may happen to lie at his door destitute of bread and clothing.
But in what sense than can it be said, that “all things are theirs.”
To give a just answer to this enquiry, we must take notice, that the apostle’s first design here, is to shew, that believers need not be so fond of assuming to themselves a peculiar interest in one minister or another, for they may enjoy the gifts of all; _all are for their sakes_: And from this single hint he rises high into the privileges of the saints. Not ministers only, as Paul and Cephas, are designed for their benefit; but all are theirs: All things in heaven or earth, in time, or in eternity, are appointed to do some service to them. This therefore I take to be the true sense of my text, _viz._ “That all things in the creation of God, all things in all his vast dominions, which a christian can or shall at any time have to do with, shall as certainly serve to promote his true interest, and his final happiness, as though he himself had sovereign dominion over them, or present possession of them:” Always supposing that the christian maintains his character, and acts in his station becoming the dignity of his holy and heavenly calling.
The plain meaning of the words is, that _all things shall work for the good of the saints_. But the apostle chuses to express this in a noble manner here, and by such an exalted figure of speech as aggrandizes the character of the saints, and raises their dignity: And therefore he represents them as having a property in all things, and speaks sublimely of them, as though they were possessors of heaven and earth. Now the ground on which he builds this manner of speaking, may be set in a just and easy light. We can properly be said to possess nothing but what turns to our account, what is of some service or advantage to us; and therefore in the common language of life, we say, concerning a rich covetous man, “he is a poor wretch, he has nothing, because he receives benefit from so small a part of his estate: And in truth, he has no more than he enjoys or uses.” Now the true christian reaps the benefit of all things; and God, the great God, the Possessor of heaven and earth, makes all things work together for the benefit of his people; and in this sense it is that all things are theirs.
All things shall turn to their advantage, either, 1. for the support and comfort of their temporal life; or, 2. for the beginning and improvement of their spiritual life; or, 3. for their possession and enjoyment of life eternal.
But instead of collecting all the treasures and riches of the saints under these three general heads, I shall chuse rather to make a paraphrase on the whole verse of my text, and thus discover the interest that a christian has in the persons and things of earth and heaven. “Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours.”
I. The ministers of the gospel are yours.
Is Paul appointed an apostle separated to the gospel by the immediate call of Christ; it is for your sakes, O ye Corinthians, that he was chosen and called! Christ had you in his eye, and upon his heart, when he stopped him in the midst of his fury and persecution; when he overwhelmed him with glory, in the road to Damascus; and from a persecutor, made an apostle of him, and a preacher of the cross of Jesus: For he designed then to send him to Corinth, to call you from heathenism, and to save your souls.
Is Paul a man of learning and of bright parts? Is he endowed with profound knowledge of divine mysteries above his brethren? Is he fit to preach for the conversion of the heathen world, and to write the great things of God for the church, in all future ages? It is for your sakes, O christians, that he is thus endowed: It is for you, O believers in Great Britain, though you live as it were at the ends of the earth, and in the old age of the world; it is even for you that he was appointed and inspired to write his epistles to Rome, Corinth, and Ephesus, and the rest of the early churches. It is by his writings, that you have been enlightened in the mysteries of Christ, and the wonders of the gospel. Almost seventeen hundred years ago was he made the apostle of the gentiles, and that partly for your sakes. Paul himself is yours.
Was Apollos an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures? It was for you, O primitive christians, that he had the gift of oratory bestowed on him. Has any minister in our age and place of abode a peculiar talent of eloquence, hath he a vivacity of fancy, a strength of expression, a sweet accent, and a commanding voice? It is designed for the conviction and salvation of your souls. Can he thunder like the voice of God on mount Sinai, and flash the terrors of the law, like lightning, upon your consciences? It is to awaken you out of your carnal slumber and security in sin, to make you fly from the wrath to come, and cry out, _What shall I do to be saved?_ Can he set the blessings of salvation in a glorious and convincing light? It is to persuade you to accept them. Has he the art of striking the passions, and touching the inward springs of the soul? Can he spread the invitations of grace before you, in alluring language? Can he dissolve his thoughts in the tenderest accents of speech, and moisten his words with his tears? It is all designed as a means, in the hands of the Spirit, to melt your hearts to repentance, and to soften your souls to receive the impressions of the gospel. Has he the holy skill of displaying the glories of our blessed Saviour? Can he set off the miracles of his life? Can he talk of his bleeding and his dying love in the most affecting manner? Can he paint him in the honours of his resurrection, his triumph and his exalted state, in most magnificent colours? It is all for the assistance of your faith, the kindling of your love, and the advancement of your joy. Not Paul only, but Apollos is yours.
Is Cephas or Peter a man of boldness and courage to defend the truths of the gospel, or to speak for Christ amongst infidels? It is to lead you onward as the soldiers of Christ, through the midst of dangers, and to encourage you to face the persecuting world bravely in the profession of the cross.