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- Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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THE DEATH OF DEATH IN THE DEATH OF CHRIST
John Owen
KYPROS PRESS
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This book is a work of nonfiction and is intended to be factually accurate.
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Copyright © 2016 by John Owen
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Death of Death in the Death of Christ
BOOK 1
Chapter 1: In general of the end of the death of Christ, as it is in the Scripture proposed.
Chapter 2: Of the nature of an end in general, and some distinctions about it.
Chapter 3: Of the agent or chief author of the work of our redemption, and of the first thing distinctly ascribed to the person of the Father.
Chapter 4: Of those things which in the work of redemption are peculiarly ascribed to the person of the Son.
Chapter 5: The peculiar actions of the Holy Spirit in this business.
Chapter 6: The means used by the fore-recounted agents in this work.
Chapter 7: Containing reasons to prove the oblation and intercession of Christ to be one entire means respecting the accomplishment of the same proposed end, and to have the same personal object.
Chapter 8: Objections against the former proposal answered
BOOK 2
Chapter 1: Some previous considerations to a more particular inquiry after the proper end and effect of the death of Christ.
Chapter 2: Containing a removal of some mistakes and false assignations of the end of the death of Christ.
Chapter 3: More particularly of the immediate end of the death of Christ, with the several ways whereby it is designed.
Chapter 4: Of the distinction of impetration and application — The use and abuse thereof; with the opinion of the adversaries upon the whole matter in controversy unfolded; and the question on both sides stated.
Chapter 5: Of application and impetration.
BOOK 3
Chapter 1: Arguments against the universality of redemption-The two first; from the nature of the new covenant, and the dispensation thereof.
Chapter 2: Containing three other arguments.
Chapter 3: Containing, two other arguments from the person Christ sustained in this business.
Chapter 4: Of sanctification, and of the cause of faith, and the procurement thereof by the death of Christ.
Chapter 5: Being a continuance of arguments from the nature and description of the thing in hand; and first, of redemption.
Chapter 6: Of the nature of reconciliation, and the argument taken from thence.
Chapter 7: Of the nature of the satisfaction of Christ, with arguments from thence.
Chapter 8: A digression, containing the substance of an occasional conference concerning the satisfaction of Christ.
Chapter 9: Being a second part of the former digression—Arguments to prove the satisfaction of Christ.
Chapter 10: Of the merit of Christ, with arguments from thence.
Chapter 11: The last general argument.
BOOK 4
Chapter 1: Things previously to be considered, to the solution of objections.
Chapter 2: An entrance to the answer unto particular arguments.
Chapter 3: An unfolding of the remaining texts of Scripture produced for the confirmation of the first general argument for universal redemption.
Chapter 4: Answer to the second general argument for the universality of redemption.
Chapter 5: The last argument from Scripture answered.
Chapter 6: An answer to the twentieth chapter of the book entitled, “The Universality of God’s Free Grace,” etc., being a collection of all the arguments used by the author throughout the whole book to prove the universality of redemption.
THE DEATH OF DEATH IN THE DEATH OF CHRIST
BOOK 1
CHAPTER 1: IN GENERAL OF THE END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, AS IT IS IN THE SCRIPTURE PROPOSED.
BY THE END OF THE death of Christ, we mean in general, both,—first, that which his Father and himself intended in it; and, secondly, that which was effectually fulfilled and accomplished by it. Concerning either we may take a brief view of the expressions used by the Holy Ghost:—
I. For the first. Will you know the end wherefore, and the intention wherewith, Christ came into the world? Let us ask himself (who knew his own mind, as also all the secrets of his Father’s bosom), and he will tell us that the “Son of man came to save that which was lost,” Matt. 18:11,—to recover and save poor lost sinners; that was his intent and design, as is again asserted, Luke 19:10. Ask also his apostles, who know his mind, and they will tell you the same. So Paul, I Tim. 1:15, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Now, if you will ask who these sinners are towards whom he hath this gracious intent and purpose, himself tells you, Matt. 20:28, that he came to “give his life a ransom for many;” in other places called us, believers, distinguished from the world: for be “gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father,” Gal. 1:4. That was the will and intention of God, that he should give himself for us, that we might be saved, being separated from the world. They are his church: Eph. 5:25-27, “He loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish:” which last words express also the very aim and end of Christ in giving himself for any, even that they may be made fit for God, and brought nigh unto him;—the like whereof is also asserted, Tit 2:14, “He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Thus clear, then, and apparent, is the intention and design of Christ and his Father in this great work, even what it was, and towards whom,— namely, to save us, to deliver us from the evil world, to purge and wash us, to make us holy, zealous, fruitful in good works, to render us acceptable, and to bring us unto God; for through him “we have access into the grace wherein we stand Rom. 5:2.
II. The effect, also, and actual product of the work itself, or what is accomplished and fulfilled by the death, blood-shedding, or oblation of Jesus Christ, is no less clearly manifested, but is as fully, and very often more distinctly, expressed;—as, first, Reconciliation with God, by removing and slaying the enmity that was between him and us; for “when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,” Rom. 5:10. “God was in him reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them,” 2 Cor. 5:19; yea, he hath “reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,” verse 18. And if you would know how this reconstruction was effected, the apostle will tell you that “he abolished in his flesh the enmity, the law of commandments consisting in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby,” Eph. 2:l5, 16: so that “he is our peace,” verse l4. Secondly, Justification, by taking away the guilt of sins, procuring remission and pardon of them, redeeming us from their power, with the curse and wrath due unto us for them; for “by his own blood he entered into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” Heb. 9:12. “He redeemed us from the curse, being made a curse for us,” Gal. 3:13; “his own self bearing our sins in his own body on the tree,” 1 Pet. 2:24. We have “all sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” but are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins” Rom. 3:23-25: for “in him we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins,” Col. 1:14. Thirdly, Sanctification, by the purging away of the uncleanness and pollution of our sins, renewing in us the image of God, and supplying us with the graces of the Spirit of holiness: for “the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself to God, purgeth our consciences from dead works that we may serve the living God,” Heb. 9:14; yea, “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin,” I John 1:7. “By himself he purged our sins,” Heb. 1:3. To “sanctify the people with his own blood, he suffered without the gate,” chap. 13:12. “He gave himself for the church to sanctify and cleanse it, that it should be holy and without blemish,” Eph.5:25-27. Peculiarly amongst the graces of the Spirit, “it is given to us,” in-behalf-of Christ “for Christ’s sake, to believe on him,” Phil 1:29; God “blessing us in him with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places,” Eph. 1:3. Fourthly, Adoption, with that evangelical liberty and all those glorious privileges which appertain to the sons of God; for “God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons,” Gal 4:4, 5. Fifthly, Neither do the effects of the death of Christ rest here; they leave us not until we are settled in heaven, in glory and immortality for ever. Our inheritance is a “purchased possession,” Eph 1:14: “And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance,” Heb. 9:15. The sum of all is,—The death and blood-shedding of Jesus Christ hath wrought, and doth effectually procure, for all those that are concerned in it, eternal redemption, consisting in grace here and glory hereafter.
III. Thus full, clear, and evident are the expressions in the Scripture concerning the ends and effects of the death of Christ, that a man would think every one might run and read. But we must stay: among all things in Christian religion, there is scarce any thing more questioned than this, which seems to be a most fundamental principle. A spreading persuasion there is of a general ransom to be paid by Christ for all; that he died to redeem all and every one,—not only for many, his church, the elect of God, but for every one also of the posterity of Adam. Now, the masters of this opinion do see full well and easily, that if that be the end of the death of Christ which we have from the Scripture asserted, if those before recounted be the immediate fruits and products thereof, then one of these two things will necessarily follow:—that either, first, God and Christ failed of their end proposed, and did not accomplish that which they intended, the death of Christ being not a fitly-proportioned means for the attaining of that end (for any cause of failing cannot be assigned); which to assert seems to us blasphemously injurious to the wisdom, power, and perfection of God, as likewise derogatory to the worth and value of the death of Christ;—or else, that all men, all the posterity of Adam, must be saved, purged, sanctified, and glorified; which surely they will not maintain, at least the Scripture and the woeful experience of millions will not allow. Wherefore, to cast a tolerable color upon their persuasion, they must and do deny that God or his Son had any such absolute aim or end in the death or blood-shedding of Jesus Christ, or that any such thing was immediately procured and purchased by it, as we before recounted; but that God intended nothing, neither was any thing effected by Christ,—that no benefit ariseth to any immediately by his death but what is common to all and every soul, though never so cursedly unbelieving here and eternally damned hereafter, until an act of some, not procured for them by Christ, (for if it were, why have they it not all alike?) to wit, faith, do distinguish them from others. Now, this seeming to me to enervate the virtue, value, fruits and effects of the satisfaction and death of Christ,—serving, besides, for a basis and foundation to a dangerous, uncomfortable, erroneous persuasion-I shall, by the Lord’s assistance, declare what the Scripture holds out in both these things, both that assertion which is intended to be proved, and that which is brought for the proof thereof; desiring the Lord by his Spirit to lead us into all truth, to give us understanding in all things, and if any one be otherwise minded, to reveal that also unto him.
CHAPTER 2: OF THE NATURE OF AN END IN GENERAL, AND SOME DISTINCTIONS ABOUT IT.
I. THE END OF ANY thing is that which the agent intendeth to accomplish in and by the operation which is proper unto its nature, and which it applieth itself unto,—that which any one aimeth at, and designeth in himself to attain, as a thing good and desirable unto him in the state and condition wherein he is. So the end which Noah proposed unto himself in the building of the ark was the preservation of himself and others. According to the will of God, he made an ark to preserve himself and his family from the flood: “According to all that God commanded him, so did he,” Gen. 6:22. That which the agent doth, or whereto he applieth himself, for the compassing his proposed end, is called the means; which two do complete the whole reason of working in free intellectual agents, for I speak only of such as work according to choice or election. So Absalom intending a revolt from his father, to procure the crown and kingdom for himself, “he prepared him horses and chariots, and fifty men to run before him,” 2 Sam. 15:1; and farther, by fair words, and glossing compliances, “he stole the hearts of the men of Israel” verse 6; then pretends a sacrifice at Hebron, where he makes a strong conspiracy, verse 12,—all which were the means he used for the attaining of his fore-proposed end.
II. Between both these, end and means, there is this relation, that (though in sundry kinds) they are mutually causes one of another. The end is the first, principal, moving cause of the whole. It is that for whose sake the whole work is. No agent applies itself to action but for an end; and were it not by that determined to some certain effect, thing, way, or manner of working, it would no more do one thing than another. The inhabitants of the old world desiring and intending unity and cohabitation, with perhaps some reserves to provide for their safety against a second storm, they cry, “Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth,” Gen. 9:4. First, They lay down their aim and design, and then let out the means in their apprehension conducing thereunto. And manifest, then, it is, that the whole reason and method of affairs that a wise worker or agent, according to the counsel, proposeth to himself is taken from the end which he aims at; that is, in intention and contrivance, the beginning of all that order which is in working. Now, the means are all those things which are used for the attaining of the end proposed,—as meat for the preservation of life, sailing in a ship for him that would pass the sea, laws for the quiet continuance of human society; and they are the procuring cause of the end, in one kind or another. Their existence is for the ends sake, and the end hath its rise out of them, following them either morally as their desert, or naturally as their fruit and product. First, In a moral sense. When the action and the end are to be measured or considered in reference to a moral rule, or law prescribed to the agent, then the means are the deserving or meritorious cause of the end; as, if Adam had continued in his innocency, and done all things according to the law given unto him, the end procured thereby had been a blessed life to eternity; as now the end of any sinful act is death, the curse of the law. Secondly, When the means are considered only in their natural relation, then they are the instrumentally efficient cause of the end. So Joab intending the death of Abner, “he smote him with his spear under the fifth rib, that he died,” 2 Sam. 3:27. And when Benaiah, by the command of Solomon, fell upon Shimei the wounds he gave him were the efficient of his death, I Kings 2:46. In which regard there is no difference between the murdering of an innocent man and the executing of an offender; but as they are under a moral consideration, their ends follow their deservings, in respect of conformity to the rule, and so there is chasma megas between them.
III. The former consideration, by reason of the defect and perverseness of some agents (for otherwise these things are coincident), holds out a twofold end of things,—first, of the work, and, secondly, of the workman; of the act and the agent: for when the means assigned for the attaining of any end are not proportioned unto it, nor, fitted for it, according to that rule which the agent is to work by, then it cannot be but that he must aim at one thing and another follow, in respect of the morality of the work. So Adam is enticed into a desire to be like God; this now he makes his aim, which: to effect he eats the forbidden fruit, and that contracts a guilt which he aimed not at. But when the agent acts aright, and as it should do,—when it aims at an end that is proper to it, belonging to its proper perfection and condition, and worketh by such means as are fit and suitable to the end proposed,—the end of the work and the workman are one and the same; as when Abel intended the worship of the Lord, he offered a sacrifice through faith, acceptable unto him; or as a man, desiring salvation through Christ, applieth himself to get an interest in him. Now, the sole reason of this diversity is, that secondary agents, such as men are, have an end set and appointed to their actions by Him which giveth them an external rule or law to work by, which shall always attend them in their working, whether they will or no. God only, whose will and good pleasure is the sole rule of all those works which outwardly are of him, can never deviate in his actions, nor have any end attend or follow his acts not precisely by him intended.
IV. Again; the end of every free agent is either that which he effecteth, or that for whose sake he doth effect it. When a builds a house to let to hire, that which he effecteth is the building of a house; that which moveth him to do it is love of gain. The physician cures the patient, and is moved to it by his reward. The end which Judas aimed at in his going to the priests, bargaining with them, conducting the soldiers to the garden, kissing Christ, was the betraying of his Master; but the end for whose sake the whole undertaking was set on foot was the obtaining of the thirty pieces of silver: “What will ye give me, and I will do it?” The end which God effected by the death of Christ was the satisfaction of his justice: the end for whose sake he did it was either supreme, or his own glory; or subordinate, ours with him.
V. Moreover, the means are of two sorts:—First, Such as have a true goodness in themselves without reference to any farther kind; though not so considered as we use them for means. No means, as a means is considered as good in itself, but only as conducible to a farther end; it is repugnant to the nature of means, as such, to be considered as good in themselves. Study is in itself the most noble employment of the soul; but, aiming at wisdom or knowledge, we consider it as good only inasmuch as it conducteth to that end, otherwise as “a weariness of the flesh,” Eccl. 12: 12. Secondly, Such as have no good at all in any kind, as in themselves considered, but merely as conducing to that end which they are fit to attain. They receive all their goodness (which is but relative) from that whereunto they are appointed, in themselves no way desirable; as the cutting off a leg or an arm for the preservation of life, taking a bitter potion for health’s sake, throwing corn and lading into the sea to prevent shipwreck. Of which nature is the death of Christ, as we shall afterward declare.
VI. These things being thus proposed in general, our next task must be to accommodate them to the present business in hand; which we shall do in order, by laying down the agent working, the means wrought and the end effected, in the great work of our redemption; for these three must be orderly considered and distinctly, that we may have a right apprehension of the whole: into the first whereof, sun theo, we make an entrance in [chapter third.]
CHAPTER 3: OF THE AGENT OR CHIEF AUTHOR OF THE WORK OF OUR REDEMPTION, AND OF THE FIRST THING DISTINCTLY ASCRIBED TO THE PERSON OF THE FATHER.
I. THE AGENT IN, AND chief author of, this great work of our redemption is the whole blessed Trinity; for all the works which outwardly are of the Deity are undivided and belong equally to each person, their distinct manner of subsistence and order being observed. It is true, there were sundry other instrumental causes in the oblation, or rather passion of Christ but the work cannot in any sense be ascribed unto them;—for in respect of God the Father, the issue of their endeavors was exceeding contrary to their own intentions, and in the close they did nothing but what the “hand and counsel of God had before determined should be done,” Acts 4:28; and in respect of Christ they were no way able to accomplish what they aimed at, for he himself laid down his life, and none was able to take it from him, John 10:17, 18: so that they are to be excluded from this consideration. In the several persons of the holy Trinity, the joint author of the whole work, the Scripture proposeth distinct and sundry acts or operations peculiarly assigned unto them; which, according to our weak manner of apprehension, we are to consider severally and apart; which also we shall do, beginning with them that are ascribed to the Father.
II. Two peculiar acts there are in this work of our redemption by the blood of Jesus, which may be and are properly assigned to the person of the FATHER:—First, The sending, of his Son into the world for this employment. Secondly, A laying the punishment due to our sin upon him.
1. The Father loves the world, and sends his Son to die: He “sent his Son into the world that the world through him might be saved,” John 3:l6,.17. He “sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us,” Rom. 8:3,4. He “set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood,” chap. 3:25. For “when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons,” Gal. 4:4, 5. So more than twenty times in the Gospel of John there is mention of this sending; and our Saviour describes himself by this periphrasis, “Him whom the Father hath sent,” John 10:36; and the Father by this, “He who sent me,” chap. 5:37. So that this action of sending is appropriate to the Father, according to his promise that he would “send us a Saviour, a great one, to deliver us,” Isa. 19:20; and to the profession of our Saviour, “I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me,” Isa. 48:16. Hence the Father himself is sometimes called our Saviour: I Tim. 1:1, “According to the commandment of God our Saviour.” Some copies, indeed, read it, “of God and our Saviour;” but the interposition of that particle “kai” arose, doubtless, from a misprision that Christ alone is called Saviour. But directly this is the same with that parallel place of Tit. 1:3, “According to the commandment of God our Saviour,” where no interposition of that conjunctive particle can have place; the same title being also in other places ascribed to him, as Luke 1:47, “My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.” As also I Tim. 4:10, “We trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe;” though in this last place it be not ascribed unto him with reference to his redeeming us by Christ, but his saving and preserving all by his providence. So also Tit. 2:10, 3:4; Deut. 32:15; 1 Sam 10:19; Ps. 24:5, 25:5; Isa. 12:2, 40:10, 45:15; Jer. 14:8; Micah 7:7; Hab. 3:18; most of which places have reference to his sending of Christ, which is also distinguished into three several acts, which in order we must lay down:—
(1.) An authoritative imposition of the office of Mediator, which Christ closed withal by his voluntary susception of it, willingly undergoing the office, wherein by dispensation the Father had and exercised a kind of superiority, which the Son, though “in the form of God,” humbled himself unto, Phil 2:6-8. And of this there may conceived two parts:—
[1.] The purposed imposition of his counsel, or his eternal counsel for the setting apart of his Son incarnate to this office, saying unto him, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession,” Ps. 2:7, 8. He said unto him, “Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool;” for “the Lord swore, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek,” Ps. 110:1, 4. He appointed him to be “heir of all things,” Heb. 1:2, having “ordained him to be Judge of quick and dead,” Acts 10:42; for unto this he was “ordained before the foundation of the world,” 1 Pet. 1:20., and “determined, (horizo), to be the Son of God with power,” Rom. 1:4, “that he might be the first-born among many brethren,” chip. 8:29. I know that this is an act eternally established in the mind and will of God, and so not to be ranged in order with the others, which are all temporary, and had their beginning in the fullness of time, of all which this first is the spring and fountain, according to that of James, Acts 15:18, “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world;” but yet, it being no unusual form of speaking that the purpose should also be comprehended in that which holds out the accomplishment of it, aiming at truth and not exactness, we pass it thus.
[2.] The actual inauguration or solemn admission of Christ into his office; “committing all judgment unto the Son,” John 5:22; “making him to be both Lord and Christ,” Acts 2:36; “appointing him over his whole house,” Heb. 3:1-6;—which is that “anointing of the most Holy,” Dan. 9:24; God “anointing him with the oil of gladness above his fellows” Ps. 45:7: for the actual setting apart of Christ to his office is said to be by unction, because all those holy things which were types of him, as the ark, the altar, etc., were set apart and consecrated by anointing, Exod. 30:25-28, etc. To this also belongs that public testification by innumerable angels from heaven of his nativity, declared by one of them to the shepherds. “Behold,” saith he, “I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all people; for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord,” Luke 2:10, 11;—which message was attended by and closed with that triumphant exultation of the host of heaven, “Glory be to God on high, on earth peace, towards men good-will,” verse 14: with that redoubled voice which afterward came from the excellent glory, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased,” Matt.. 3:7, 17:5; 2 Pet. 1:7. If these things ought to be distinguished and placed in their own order, they may be considered in these three several acts:—First, The glorious proclamation which he made of his nativity, when he “prepared him a body,” Heb. 10:5, bringing his First-begotten into the world, and saying, “Let all the angels of God worship him” chap. 1:6, sending them to proclaim the message which we before recounted. Secondly, Sending the Spirit visibly, in the form of a dove, to light upon him at the time of his baptism, Matt. 3:16, when he was endued with a fullness thereof, for the accomplishment of the work and discharge of the office whereunto he was designed, attended with that voice whereby he owned him from heaven as his only-beloved. Thirdly, The “crowning of him with glory and honour,” in his resurrection, ascension, and sitting down “on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Heb. 1:3; setting “him as his king upon his holy hill of Zion,” Ps. 2:6; when “all power was given unto him in heaven and in earth,” Matt, 28:18, “all things being put under his feet” Heb. 2:7, 8; himself highly exalted, and “a name given him above every name, that at,” etc., Phil. 2:9-11. Of which it pleased him to appoint witnesses of all sorts; —angels from heaven, Luke 24:4, Acts 1:10 ; the dead out of the graves, Matt. 27:52; the apostles among and unto the living, Acts 2:32; with those more than five hundred brethren, to whom he appeared at once, 1 Cor. 15:6. Thus gloriously was he inaugurated into his office, in the several sets and degrees thereof, God saying unto him, “It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth,” Isa. 49:6.
Between these two acts I confess there intercedes a twofold promise of God;—one, of giving a Saviour to his people, a Mediator, according to his former purpose, as Gen. 3:15, “The seed of the woman shall break the serpent’s head;” and, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, till Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be,” chap. 49:10. Which he also foresignified by many sacrifices and other types, with prophetical predictions: “Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you; searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into,” 1 Pet 1:10-12. The other is a promise of applying the benefits purchased by this Saviour so designed to them that should believe on him, to be given in fullness of time, according to the former promises; telling Abraham, that “in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed,” and justifying himself by the same faith, Gen, 12:3, 15:6. But these things belong rather to the application wholly, which was equal both before and after his actual mission.
(2.) The second act of the Father’s sending the Son is the furnishing of him in his sending with a fullness of all gifts and graces that might any way be requisite for the office he was to undertake, the work he was to undergo, and the charge he had over the house of God. There was, indeed, in Christ a twofold fullness and perfection of all spiritual excellencies:— First, the natural all-sufficient perfection of his Deity, as one with his Father in respect of his divine nature: for his glory was “the glory of the only-begotten of the Father,” John 1:14. He was “in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God,” Phil. 2:6; being the “fellow of the LORD of hosts,” Zech. 13:7. Whence that glorious appearance, Isa. 6: 3, 4, when the seraphims cried one to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.” And the prophet cried, “Mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts,” verse 5. Even concerning this vision the apostle saith, “Isaiah saw him, and spoke of his glory,” John 12:41. Of which glory, he as it were emptied himself for a season, when he was “found in the form” or condition “of a servant, humbling himself unto death,” Phil. 2:7, 8; laying aside that glory which attended his Deity, outwardly appearing to have “neither form, nor beauty, nor comeliness, that he should be desired,” Isa. 53:2 But this fullness we do not treat of, it being not communicated to him, but essentially belonging to his person, which is eternally begotten of the person of his Father.
The second fullness that was in Christ was a communicated fullness, which was in him by dispensation from his Father, bestowed upon him to fit him for his work and office as he was and is the “Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” I Tim. 2:5; not as he is the “LORD of hosts,” but as he is “Emmanuel, God with us,” Matt. 1:23; as he was a “son given to us, called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace, upon whose shoulder the government was to be,” Isa. 9:6. It is a fullness of grace; not that essential which is of the nature of the Deity, but that which is habitual and infused into the humanity as personally united to the other; which, though it be not absolutely infinite, as the other is, yet it extends itself to all perfections of grace, both in respect of parts and degrees. There is no grace that is not in Christ, and every grace is in him in the highest degree: so that whatsoever the perfection of grace, either for the several kinds or respective advancements thereof, requireth, is in him habitually, by the collation of his Father for this very purpose, and for the accomplishment of the work designed; which, though (as before) it cannot properly be said to be infinite, yet it is boundless and endless. It is in him as the light in the beams of the sun, and as water in a living fountain which can never fail. He is the “candlestick” from whence the “golden pipes do empty the golden oil out of themselves,” Zech. 4:12, into all that are his; for he is “the beginning, the first-born from the dead, in all things having the pre-eminence; for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell;” Col. 1:18, 19. In him he caused to be “hid all the treasurer of wisdom and knowledge,” chap. 2:3; and “in him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (somatikos),” substantially or personally, verse 9; that “of his fullness we might all receive grace for grace,” John 1:16, in a continual supply. So that, setting upon the work of redemption, he looks upon this in the first place. “The Spirit of the Lord God,” saith he, “is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn,” Isa. 61:1, 2. And this was the “anointing with the oil of gladness” which he had “above his fellows,” Ps. 45:7; “it was upon his head, and ran down to his beard, yea, down to the skirts of his garments,” Ps. 133:2, that every one covered with the garment of his righteousness might be made partaker of it “The Spirit of the LORD did rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD,” Isa. 11:2; and that not in parcels and beginnings as in us, proportioned to our measure and degrees of sanctification, but in a fullness, for “he received not the Spirit by measure,” John 3:34;—that is, it was not so with him when he come to the full measure of the stature of his age, as Eph. 4:13; for otherwise it was manifested in him and collated on him by degrees, for he “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man,” Luke 2:51 Hereunto was added “all power in heaven and earth, which was given unto him,” Matt. 28:18; “power over all flesh, to give eternal life to as many as he would,” John 17:2. Which we might branch into many particulars, but so much shall suffice to set forth the second act of God in sending his Son.
(3.) The third act of this sending is his entering into covenant and compact with his Son concerning the work to be undertaken, and the issue or event thereof; of which there be two parts:—
First, His promise to protect and assist him in the accomplishment and perfect fulfilling of the whole business and dispensation about which he was employed, or which he was to undertake. The Father engaged himself, that for his part, upon his Son’s undertaking this great work of redemption, he would not be wanting in any assistance in trials, strength against oppositions, encouragement against temptations, and strong consolation in the midst of terrors, which might be any way necessary or requisite to carry him on through all difficulties to the end of so great an employment;—upon which he undertakes this heavy burden, so full of misery and trouble: for the Father before this engagement requires no less of him than that he should “become a Saviour, and be afflicted in all the affliction of his people,” Isa. 63:8, 9: yea, that although he were “the fellow of the LORD of host,” yet he should endure the “sword” that was drawn against him as the “shepherd” of the sheep, Zech. 13:7; “treading the winepress alone, until he became red in his apparel,” Isa. 63:2, 3: yea, to be “stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted; wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; to be bruised and put to grief; to make his soul an offering for sin, and to bear the iniquity of many,” Isa 53.; to be destitute of comfort so far as to cry, “my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Ps. 22:1. No wonder, then, if upon this undertaking the Lord promised to make “his mouth like a sharp sword, to hide him in the shadow of his hand, to make him a polished shaft, and to hide him in his quiver, to make him his servant in whom he would be glorified,” Isa. 49:2, 3; that though “the kings of the earth should set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against him, yet he would laugh them to scorn, and set him as king upon his holy hill of Zion,” Ps. 2:2, 4, 6; though the “builders did reject him,” yet he should “become the head of the comer,” to the amazement and astonishment of all the world, Ps. 118:22, 23; Matt. 21:42, Mark 12:10, Luke 20:17, Acts 4:11, 12, 1 Pet 2:4; yea, he would “lay him for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation,” Isa. 28:16, that “whosoever should fall upon him should be broken, but upon whomsoever he should fall he should grind him to powder,’ Matt. 21:44. Hence arose that confidence of our Saviour in his greatest and utmost trials, being assured, by virtue of his Father’s engagement in this covenant, upon a treaty with him about the redemption of man, that he would never leave him nor forsake him. “I gave,” saith he, “my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting,” Isa. 50:6. But with what confidence, blessed Savior, didst thou undergo all this shame and sorrow! Why, “The Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know; that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that condemn me? Lo! they shall all wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up,” verses 7-9. With this assurance he was brought as a “lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth,” Isa. 53:7: for “when he was reviled, he reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously,” 1 Pet. 2:23. So that the ground of our Saviour’s confidence and assurance in this great undertaking, and a strong motive to exercise his graces received in the utmost endurings, was this engagement of his Father upon this compact of assistance and protection.
Secondly, [His promise] of success, or a good issue out of all his sufferings, and a happy accomplishment and attainment of the end of his great undertaking. Now, of all the rest this chiefly is to be considered, as directly conducing to the business proposed, which yet would not have been so clear without the former considerations; for whatsoever it was that God promised his Son should be fulfilled and attained by him, that certainly was it at which the Son aimed in the whole undertaking, and designed it as the end of the work that was committed to him, and which alone he could and did claim upon the accomplishment of his Father’s will. What this was, and the promises whereby it is at large set forth, ye have Isa. 49: “Thou shalt be my servent,” saith the Lord, “to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation to the end of the earth. Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful.” And he will certainly accomplish this engagement: “I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; that thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall be guide them. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim,” verses 6-12=2E By all which expressions the Lord evidently and clearly engageth himself to his Son, that he should gather to himself a glorious church of believers from among Jews and Gentiles, through all the world, that should be brought unto him, and certainly fed in full pasture, and refreshed by the springs of water, all the spiritual springs of living water which flow from God in Christ for their everlasting salvation. This, then, our Saviour certainly aimed at, as being the promise upon which he undertook the work,—the gathering of the sons of God together, their bringing unto God, and passing to eternal salvation; which being well considered, it will utterly overthrow the general ransom or universal redemption, as afterward will appear. In the 53rd chapter of the same prophecy, the Lord is more express and punctual in these promises to his Son, assuring him that when he “made his soul an offering for sin, he should see his seed, and prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD should prosper in his hand; that he should see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied; by his knowledge he should justify many; that, he should divide a portion with the great, and the spoil with the strong,” verses 10 12. He was, you see, to see his seed by covenant, and to raise up a spiritual seed unto God, a faithful people, to be prolonged a preserved throughout all generations; which, how well it consists with their persuasion who in terms have affirmed “that the death of Christ might have had its full and utmost effect and yet none be saved,” I cannot see, though some have boldly affirmed it and all the assertors of universal redemption do tacitly grant, when they come to the assigning of the proper ends and effects of the death of Christ. “The pleasure of the LORD,” also, was to “prosper in his hand;” which what it was he declares, Heb. 2:10, even “bringing of many sons unto glory;” for “God sent his only-begotten Son into the world that we live through him,” I John 4:9; as we shall afterward more abundantly declare. But the promises of God made unto him in their agreement, and so, consequently, his own aim and intention, may be seen in nothing more manifestly than in the request that our Saviour makes upon the accomplishment of the work about which he was sent; which certainly was neither for more nor less than God had engaged himself to him for. “I have,” saith he, “glorified thee on earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do,” John 17:4. And now, what doth he require after the manifestation of his eternal glory, of which for a season he had emptied himself, verse 5? Clearly a full confluence of the love of God and fruits of that love upon all his elect, in faith, sanctification, and glory. God gave them unto him, and he sanctified himself to be a sacrifice for their sake, praying for their sanctification, verses 17-19; their preservation in peace, or communion one with another, and union with God, verses 20, 21, “I pray not for these alone” (that is, his apostles), “but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us;” and lastly, their glory, verse 24, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me.” All which several postulata are no doubt grounded upon the fore-cited promises which by his Father were made unto him. And in this, not one word concerning all and every one, but expressly the contrary, verse 9. Let this, then, be diligently observed, that the promise of God unto his Son, and the request of the Son unto his Father, are directed to this peculiar end of bringing sons unto God. And this is the first act, consisting of these three particulars.
CHAPTER 4: OF THOSE THINGS WHICH IN THE WORK OF REDEMPTION ARE PECULIARLY ASCRIBED TO THE PERSON OF THE SON.
SECONDLY, THE SON WAS AN agent in this great work, concurring by a voluntary susception, or willing undertaking of the office imposed on him; for when the Lord said, “Sacrifice and offering he would not: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin he had no pleasure,” then said Christ, “Lo, I come, (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, 0 God,” Heb. 10:6, 7. All other ways being rejected as insufficient, Christ undertaketh the task, “in whom alone the Father was well pleased,” Matt. 3:17. Hence he professeth that “he came not to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him,” John 4:38; yea, that it was his meat and drink to do his Father’s will, and to finish his work, chap. 4:34. The first words that we find recorded of him in the Scripture are to the same purpose, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” Luke 2:49. And at the close of all he saith, “I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do,” John 17:4; calling it everywhere his Father’s work that he did, or his Father’s will which he came to accomplish, with reference to the imposition which we before treated of. Now, this undertaking of the Son may be referred to three heads. The first being a common foundation for both the others, being as it were the means in respect of them as the end, and yet in some sort partaking of the nature of a distinct action, with a goodness in itself in reference to the main end proposed to all three, we shall consider it apart; and that is,—
First, His incarnation, as usually it is called, or his taking of flesh, and pitching his tent amongst us, John 1:14. His “being made of a woman,” Gal 4:4, is usually called his incarnation; for this was “the mystery of godliness, that God should be manifested in the flesh,” 1 Tim. 3:16, thereby assuming not any singular person, but our human nature, into personal union with himself. For, “forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil,” Heb. 2:14. It was the children that he considered, the “children whom the Lord gave him,” verse 13. Their participation in flesh and blood moved him to partake of the same,—not because all the world, all the posterity of Adam, but because the children were in that condition; for their sakes he sanctified himself. Now, this emptying of the Deity, this humbling of himself, this dwelling amongst us, was the sole act of the second person, or the divine nature in the second person, the Father and the Spirit having no concurrence in it but by liking, approbation, and eternal counsel.
Secondly, His oblation, or “offering himself up to God for us without spot, to purge our consciences from dead works,” Heb. 9:14; “for he loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,” Rev. 1:5. “He loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it,” Eph. 5:25, 26; taking the cup of wrath at his Father’s hands due to us, and drinking it off, “but not for himself,” Dan. 9:26: for, “for our sakes he sanctified himself,” John 17:19, that is, to be an offering, an oblation for sin; for “when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly,” Rom. 5:6;—this being that which was typified out by all the institutions, ordinances, and sacrifices of old; which when they were to have an end, then said Christ, “Lo, I come to do thy will.” Now, though the perfecting or consummating of this oblation be set out in the Scripture chiefly in respect of what Christ suffered, and not so much in respect of what he did, because it is chiefly considered as the means used by these three blessed agents for the attaining of a farther end, yet in respect of his own voluntary giving up himself to be so an oblation and a sacrifice, without which it would not have been of any value (for if the will of Christ had not been in it, it could never have purged our sins), therefore, in that regard, I refer it to his actions. He was the “Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” John 1:29; the Lamb of God, which himself had provided for a sacrifice. And how did this Lamb behave himself in it? with unwillingness and struggling? No; he opened not his mouth: “He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth,” Isa. 53:7. Whence he saith, “I lay down my life. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again,” John 10:17, 18. He might have been cruciated on the part of God; but his death could not have been an oblation and offering had not his will concurred. “But he loved me,” saith the apostle, “and gave himself for me,” Gal. 2:20. Now, that alone deserves the name of a gift which is from a free and a willing mind, as Christ’s was when “he loved us, and gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour,” Eph. 5:2. He does it cheerfully: “Lo, I come to do thy will, 0 God,” Heb. 10:9; and so “his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,” I Pet 2:24. Now, this oblation or offering of Christ I would not tie up to any one thing, action, or passion, performance, or suffering; but it compriseth the whole economy and dispensation of God manifested in the flesh and conversing among us, with all those things which he performed in the days of his flesh, when he offered up prayers and supplications, with strong cries and tears, until he had fully “by himself purged our sins, and sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,” Heb. 1:3, “expecting till his enemies be made his footstool,” chap. 10:13,—all the whole dispensation of his coming and ministering, until he had given his soul a price of redemption for many, Matt. 26:28. But for his entering into the holy of holies, sprinkled with his own blood, and appearing so for us before the majesty of God, by some accounted as the continuation of his oblation, we may refer unto,—
