A JUST GOD AND A SAVIOUR
Isaiah 45:21. A just God and a Saviour.
These words occur in an assertion of the sovereignty of God, which is repeated again and again throughout this chapter, and forms the essential truth around which all its predictions cluster. Isaiah has foreseen that the Almighty would make Cyrus His servant in breaking the captivity of Babylon, and freeing the people from its thraldom. In this he hears the voice of the one Lord above the changes of the world, saying, “I am the Lord, and there is none else: there is no God beside me.” Again, over the wreck of ancient heathendom—Egypt and Ethiopia—the voice of the Sovereign King rings the proclamation, “I am the Lord,” &c. And then he gazes into a day when all the ends of the earth shall look to heaven for salvation; and once more he hears the chorus, “There is no God beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me.” Hence we see the force of these words for Isaiah; God was just because He was a Saviour, and as a just God He sought to save.
How may this great truth be illustrated, and what lessons flow from it?
I. “A just God and a Saviour.” There is in God an everlasting harmony between the just and the merciful. He is just, because He is a Saviour; He is a Saviour, because He is justice seeking to save.
1. Mark the truth on which Isaiah founded this mighty truth, viz., the supreme and solitary sovereignty of God—“I am the Lord,” &c. The same Lord was over all; in Him was no double nature; He, the one God, was at once the just God and the Saviour. Realise this, and the idea of the atonement which represents Christ as inducing God to be merciful passes away (H. E. I. 390).
2. What is God’s justice, and what His salvation?
(1.) God’s justice is not merely the infliction of penalty; God’s salvation is not merely deliverance from penalty. It is true that He does execute penalty and award retribution. He is just to-day. We see it in the stern laws of life. Penalties are the outflashings of a holy anger.
(2.) His salvation is more than the mere deliverance from penalty. It is that; but it is the deliverance from evil. God would save men from evil by making them righteous; and thus He is at once the just God and a Saviour.
3. Take the two great revelations of law and mercy, and we shall see how the law is merciful, and mercy holy.
The law, the revelation of justice, came to lead men to God the Saviour. To save man from evil two things are requisite.
(1.) The sense of immortality. Sin destroys this sense; to awaken him, there is no other voice so powerful as that of the law he cannot obey; the Divine voice in the law speaks to him, and the man feels the sublimity of his nature; and there is the beginning of salvation.
(2.) The sense of sin as a power in life. Man thinks of sin as a misfortune, &c.—anything but a power in him; the law, cursing evil, curses him.
Christ, the revelation of God the Saviour, came to glorify God the just. Men often lose sight of this. Mount Sinai is less terrible than the purity of the man of Nazareth. Men felt it as they said: “Depart from us, for we are sinful.” Look at His sufferings. Nothing could tear Him from them—nothing alter His course. Where is there a greater revelation of the righteousness of God? Beneath the Cross we read that God would not pardon without glorifying to the utmost the majesty of the just and holy law. Mark the consummate power of Christ crucified. Sin never was so slain as by Him whom sin slew. The law never was so attested as by Him who bare its penalty.
II. We infer two lessons from this great truth.
1. The necessity of Christian endeavour. We are forgiven at once. In one sense, we are justified at once; for the germ of a righteous manhood exists in the first act of faith. But the realisation of it is progressive. Every day we have to wash the robes of our spirits in “the blood of the Lamb.”
2. The ground of Christian trust
We are delivered from condemnation; and we are reconciled to God’s purity. We rely on God’s justice; for He will make us righteous and holy in Christ.
There are men who trust in the infinite mercy of God, and feel that He will deliver them at last. Remember, to remain in unbelief is to adopt the spirit which killed Christ. To refuse His salvation is to challenge the holy indignation of the Most High: “See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh,” &c.—E. L. Hull, B.A.; Sermons, First Series, pp. 112–120.
The view we have of the Divine character must have a powerful influence on our own, and will materially affect the whole system of our faith and worship. Everything relating to the perfections and glory of God must be important to us as creatures who live under His government, are dependent on His will, and amenable to His high tribunal. Before Him we must come hereafter, with Him we have immediately to do now. Delightful to know that though just He is still a Saviour, that though a Saviour He is still just.
1. He is a just God. The plenitude of His perfections guards Him from the possibility of injustice. Injustice between man and man is occasioned by the desire of some good which could not otherwise be obtained, or the avoidance of some evil which could not otherwise be warded off. But these things can have no possible application to Him who is infinite in wisdom and power (James 1:13).
2. He is a merciful God. This is plain from His dealings with sinful men both in providence and grace (Matthew 5:45; John 3:17). “A just God and a Saviour!”
I. The union of justice and mercy in the character of God is illustrated by the mixed character of His dispensation in every age.—His dealings with our first parents after their sin. He appears a just God in the Deluge, a Saviour in the Ark. In the Old Testament sacrifices justice was seen in the death of the victim, mercy in the forgiveness of the transgressor. A just God in the fiery serpents, a Saviour in the brazen serpent. Just in the plague, a Saviour in the censer of Aaron (Psalms 99:8).
II. It appears in the appointment of Christ as a suffering Saviour. Christ’s death respected God as a judge, ourselves as criminals. Here mercy triumphed in the triumph of justice. Justice must have its sword as well as its even balance. Crimes unpunished seem authorised. Had sinners been pardoned without a substitute or a sacrifice, the law and the Lawgiver would have been dishonoured. But in the cross of Christ God has given the most eminent display both of His justice and of His mercy; of His justice in requiring such a sacrifice, of His mercy in providing such a substitute (Romans 5:20-21). Only thus could the law of God and the conscience of man be satisfied. When the conscience is truly awakened, the mind is acute to discern the hindrances and obstacles to salvation. The mind which abused God’s patience before, now painfully discerns the claims of justice; it needs to be shown that God can pardon sin honourably. [1450]
[1450] To human apprehensions, light and darkness are not more opposed to each other than justice and mercy. We cannot conceive how they can meet together; for as long as strict justice is executed, no mercy is shown, and the very moment mercy is extended, there is an infringement upon the claims of justice. When a criminal is tried and condemned by the laws of our country, if the just sentence pronounced upon him by the judge be permitted to remain in force, then he receives simply what he deserved—he is treated with strict justice, and there is no mercy in the case. But if the king interpose, and exercise his prerogative to set aside the sentence of the judge and pardon the convict, then the man receives simply what he did not deserve—he is treated with free mercy, and there is no justice in the case. The king is permitted to be unjust on the side of mercy, and it is only by reverting the sentence of justice that his mercy can possibly be exercised. He may, indeed, confer a distinguished favour on one of his subjects without any injustice, but this is not what we usually understand by mercy. Mercy implies previous guilt and exposure to just punishment; and we repeat the important statement, that it is only by reversing the sentence of justice that any human authority can extend mercy to the guilty. But God’s “ways are not as our ways;” God can exercise mercy to the uttermost without reversing the slightest jot or title of the sentence of the most even and inexorable justice. He is “a just God,” leaving not the smallest possibility of escape to the smallest sin; and He is “a Saviour,” freely and completely pardoning the most atrocious sinner.—M‘Neile.
III. Our perception of it should have a powerful influence upon us.—
1. It should lead us to admire the Gospel, in which these Divine attributes are presented in such glorious harmony.
2. It should give sweetness and solemnity to all God’s invitations and promises of mercy.
3. It should deepen our humiliation and repentance, since it is against such purity and mercy we have offended.
4. It should awaken caution against sin and desires after holiness.
5. It should kindle our desires at length to be admitted to heaven, where we shall see these glorious divine attributes fully displayed.—Samuel Thodey.
A UNIVERSAL CALL FROM THE ONLY SAVIOUR
Isaiah 45:21-22. There is no God else beside me, &c.
In the words which immediately precede the text, the Lord is showing the gross ignorance and folly of the heathen, whom He represents as setting up the wood of their graven images, and praying unto gods that could not save them. As their idols had not been able to deliver them from the judgments He had inflicted on them for their sins, He calls upon them to take counsel together, that they might be convinced of the vanity of their worship, and of the sinfulness of their conduct; and as He had predicted those judgments long before they were executed, and their idols had not, He appeals to them to acknowledge that it was He alone who could foretell things to come. He then, in the words before us, assures us that there was no god else beside Him; a just God and a Saviour; and invites them all to look unto Him for deliverance from every evil.—Let us consider,
I. THE GRACIOUS INVITATION CONTAINED IN OUR TEXT. “Look unto me,” &c. Observe,
1. To whom it is addressed. “All the ends of the earth.” To Gentiles as well as Jews (Matthew 28:19); to you. Your past sins may have been as numerous as the leaves of the forest, or the sand of the sea, but that does not shut the door of mercy against you.
2. What is implied in it.
(1.) That “all the ends of the earth” need to be “saved.” Is that true of you?
(2.) That there is now no obstacle whatever in the way of salvation. The claims of Divine justice have been fully satisfied, and now mercy can be shown.
3. What it calls upon us to do, in order to secure our salvation. “Look unto me.” Not to any other person or thing, but to Him. The explanation of the phrase we have in Numbers 21:6-9; John 3:14-15. It must be the look of faith.
II. THE POWERFUL REASONS BY WHICH IT IS ENFORCED.
1. He who addresses it to us is GOD—God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19).
2. He is a just God—one from whom the guilty cannot hope to escape; one who will show mercy righteously.
3. He is a gracious God, for He is “a Saviour.” Because of what He has done for us, He can dispense grace to the guilty without tarnishing the lustre of His character, and without any disparagement of His justice and holiness.
4. “He is the only God, and consequently the only Saviour.” This important fact is twice referred to in our text. Rejecting Him, there is no deliverance for us from the consequences of our sins. As the bitten Israelites would have died had they refused to look upon the brazen serpent, inasmuch as it was the only remedy provided for their cure, so we also must die, miserably and for ever, if we apply not to Him who is the only Physician of souls. Will you not believingly look to Him who alone can rescue you from destruction? Does the shipwrecked mariner turn away his face from his deliverer? Does he reject the assistance of the life-boat that comes to save him? Look to Jesus, and be saved! Believe, and live!—Daniel Rees: Sermons, pp. 68–81.
I. The Person who thus calls. “Look unto Me.” II. The invitation given. “Look, and be saved.” The command to Naaman: “Wash, and be cleansed,” as if leprosy could thus be got rid of! But obeying that simple command he was cleansed; and obeying this, we shall be saved. [1453] III. To whom it is addressed. “All the ends of the earth.” IV. The reason assigned why we should look unto Him and be saved. “For I am God, and there is none else.”—A. V. Griswold, D.D.: American National Preacher, vol. i. pp. 153–160.
[1453] This precept implies a sense of personal need, and a reliance upon the Saviour to supply this necessity. For this is frequently expressed by a look. What mother is there who does not know the eye of her child? When unable to speak, an infant will express its wants by a look in a language she perfectly understands. And who has walked in this great city, and has not been moved by the look of a silent sufferer—some poor distressed object, too timid to ask for alms, but yet turning his eye with a look that expressed far more poignant distress than the most vociferous cries? And where is the eye directed? To those on whom they rely for relief. A child looks not upon a stranger, but upon its parent. A poor man looks not to his still poorer companion, for he expects nothing from him. Jehoshaphat, when invaded by the Moabites, thus addressed the Lord: “We have no might against this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what to do; but our eyes are upon Thee.” And David, when he would express the confidence of various creatures, says, “The eyes of all wait upon Thee, and Thou givest them meat in due season.” This sense of our need, and this confidence in the Saviour, are essentially necessary. For never shall we really close with His offers till thus convinced—till we are brought to see that sin has defiled our best performances, and that by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified. Neither shall we then look to Him, unless we have confidence in Him; unless we believe that He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him; and that He is as willing as He is able, freely inviting the chief of sinners.—Stewart.
Salvation! A word of large meaning. The soul’s salvation! It suggests the idea of danger, from which rescue is needed. It is pardon for the sinner; holiness for the impure; heaven for the wandering and the lost. Here is—
I. AN IMPORTANT TRUTH.
“For I am God, and there is none else.” This is not merely an assertion of the Divine unity. It expresses the idea that GOD, and God alone, is competent to man’s salvation.
Man is not competent to his own. He cannot change his nature any more than the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the river return to the source whence it arose. Nor can he atone for sin. He cannot perfectly keep the Divine law, starting from any point. And even if he could, it would be nothing more than his duty; it would not cover past sins, any more than the felon’s subsequent honesty would cover and atone for his frauds.
No creature is competent. Under the Levitical dispensation, sacrifices of animals were Divinely appointed. Yet it is expressly stated that in the nature of the case they were inefficacious (Hebrews 10:4). Their utility consisted in their typical reference to the sacrifice of Him whose offering possessed a Divine element. No mere creature can repair man’s ruin.
Yet he need not perish. For God can save. He has personally interposed by means of the incarnation, obedience, death, resurrection, and ascension of His dear Son, by which satisfaction has been made to the demands of righteousness, and the Holy Spirit has been sent to renew the hearts of men.
II. A SIMPLE DIRECTION.
“Look unto me.” No man understands the care of his soul until he sees his helplessness through sin; nor will he apply to God for salvation until then. God’s work in men begins with the truth respecting themselves. Then it proceeds to the truth respecting Christ. This revealed condition on which salvation becomes possible is that the sinner believes in the Saviour (John 3:16). The metaphor in the text is an expressive one, as setting forth the nature of faith. The Israelites bitten by the serpents were to look to the brazen serpent. You make a promise to a man; he looks to you for the fulfilment. A man is shipwrecked: he looks for deliverance to the lifeboat which he sees making its way to him over the waters. Thus the sinner trusts to the Saviour wholly and only (H. E. I. 1957–1968).
III. A GRACIOUS ASSURANCE.
“Be ye saved,” i.e., Ye shall be saved. It is a promise in the shape of a command. The two are inseparable. The believing man is a saved man. The two ideas should be placed together always. Many illustrations of this can easily be collected from the New Testament. The question is, “Do you believe?” Then you are saved, and may rejoice in the fact of your salvation. Your liberty is proclaimed—your pardon written in the Book. If it were possible for a believer to be lost, God’s word would be falsified. Many Christians darken their spiritual experience by failing to see the certainty with which salvation follows upon faith, or by losing themselves in metaphysical inquiries as to the nature of faith.
IV. A UNIVERSAL CALL.
“All the ends of the earth.” In ancient times the earth was believed to be an extended plain. By the ends of the earth are meant all mankind, even the farthest inhabited point. The call of the Gospel is addressed to mankind in a similarly universal way (H. E. I. 2417).
1. All the ends of the earth need it. The ruin is universal. The helplessness is universal. The plague is everywhere. The race perishes. In all history, in all the world’s present population, the exception does not exist. You are no exception. Only thus is salvation possible (H. E. I. 2418–2420).
2. It is sufficient for all the ends of the earth. There is no limit to the sufficiency of the salvation God has provided. The value of the atonement can only be estimated by the infinite value of the Son of God, which is the same thing as to say it is immeasurable. The Gospel is compared to a feast which a king has provided. But the provision is so ample that, if the whole world accepted the invitation, it would be sufficient. All things are ready. The universal invitation is issued (2421–2424).
3. It is God’s will that all the ends of the earth be informed of it. One is to tell another. “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” The disciples of Christ have been from the beginning providentially scattered abroad that they might preach this word. The Church in every age, and every separate church, should be missionary in its character. We must stand in the way, point to the Cross, invite the world (H. E. I. 2448).
4. Its reception by the ends of the earth is predicted. It shall be universally proclaimed, generally received, by all classes and individuals. The present moral desolation shall be fruitfulness and beauty. The desert shall be the garden of the Lord. We expect this on the authority of His word (H. E. I. 2451).
We have seen that God is the only source of salvation for sinners; that in the work of salvation God is everything, man nothing; and that He has authorised all sinners to look to Him for salvation. It follows—
1. That all the glory of salvation must be ascribed to God. Human boasting is excluded. In man’s utter ruin and helplessness, God’s love in Christ undertook and accomplished the work.
2. That the personal salvation of sinners turns upon their observing the direction to believe. The implication is that the unbeliever is not saved. Refuse to look by faith to Christ, and you exclude yourself. It is a personal matter. See that you are united to Christ.
3. That it is the duty of ministers to direct all sinners to look to Him and be saved. Nothing short of this is preaching the Gospel. Not that we can command acceptance. But we can convey God’s message to men, leaving the result between Him and them.—J. Rawlinson.
(Sermon to the Young.)
This is an invitation of surprising mercy to dying, perishing sinners, wherever they may be. It is the great and blessed God Himself calling the Gentile and heathen world to salvation. It is Immanuel, God with us, God who put on our flesh and blood, calling us to look unto Him and be saved. If we are sensible of our misery by nature and practice, if we are weary of sin, and would escape the wrath to come, we must look to Him with an eye of faith and holy dependence as our only Saviour.
I. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved.” This reminds us of the time when the Israelites were bitten by fiery serpents. Moses was directed to lift up a serpent of brass, which shone brightly under the rays of an Eastern sun, and was visible from all parts of the camp. By a miracle, every one who looked at this serpent was healed. No doubt every wounded parent directed his eyes to the appointed remedy, and exhorted his children to do the same. As the cure of the brazen serpent extended to the farthest distant part of the Israelitish camp, so the effect of Christ’s sacrifice extends to those who dwell in the farthest away parts of the earth; God calls upon “all the ends of the earth,” the north and the south, the east and the west. The cleansing power of Christ’s blood has no geographical limits; it is not measured by longitude and latitude. Colour and race make no difference. The descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth have an equal claim. All are to come. For what? To be saved. To be saved from their sins; and from the consequences of the crimes they have Committed, the vices they have indulged in, the angry passions they have cherished, from the curse under which they were born, and which many have so well earned for themselves.
But who is it that issues this general invitation? This question brings us to the other part of the text:—
II. “For I am God, and there is none else.” God here gives the reason why we should attend to the call, because it is made by Him who has a right to make it, and who is alone able to save.
I. “I am God:” therefore
(1.) I am all-sufficient to save. What is there that the most miserable of creatures can stand in need of, that is not to be found in ample measure in the treasure-house of God? When the Creator undertakes to be a Saviour, the creature cannot perish. There is wisdom enough in Him to make the fool wise; light enough to scatter all our darkness; power enough to make the weakest strong in grace, and active in every duty.
(2.) It is for Me to prescribe the means of obtaining salvation. “I am God;” look unto Me, therefore, ye sinners, and be saved; I will give salvation to him that looks; he that believeth on Me shall be saved from sin and death.
2. “There is none else;” there is none that can save beside Me. The salvation of a sinner is too great a work for any except God. A man cannot change a dead sinner into a living saint; he can make a house, a watch, a ship, foretell an eclipse, calculate the distance of a star; but of God alone can it be said, “You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” It requires a Divine Power to secure one in temptation, to fit him for the society of God and angels, to bring him through death to eternal glory; and yet all this is to be done if the sinner is to be saved.
None but God has a right to declare the terms of salvation. If He says, “Look and be saved,” who shall forbid the banns, or narrow the breadth of the invitation? If the Lord of Heaven says to perishing sinners on earth, “Ye shall be saved, if only ye believe,” who dare impose painful rites or laborious ceremonies, or human absolution? The faith spoken of must be a vital principle, showing itself in repentance and aiming at holiness; for a dead faith cannot save (H. E. I. 1978–1986).
CONCLUSION.—How broad and glorious is the salvation of Christ! how it answers to the weaknesses and the wants, the miseries, the dangers, and the fears of the awakened sinner! It reaches not only to us, but to even the savage nations, such as our fathers once were. But we must not trust to wearing the name of Christ; we must learn to look to Him with the eye of faith, the heart of love, and the life of sincere obedience.—George Clark, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 279–285.
I. THE BLESSING OFFERED: salvation.
II. THE PERSONS TO WHOM IT IS OFFERED: “all the ends of the earth;” Gentiles as well as Jews; every one who needs it.
III. THE CONDITION ON WHICH IT IS OFFERED. “Look unto Me.”
IV. THE ARGUMENT THE BENIGNANT SAVIOUR EMPLOYS TO INDUCE GUILTY SINNERS TO ACCEPT IT. “For I am God, and there is none else;” “a just God and a Saviour.” The argument is twofold:
1. Sinners may trust Christ without suspicion, for He is omnipotent.
2. Sinners should trust Christ alone, for there is none else able to save.
CONCLUSION.—The duty of all immediately to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that they may be saved It is the voice of infinite love that entreats us to be saved. Shall we then turn away from the invitation of such a Saviour? Besides, it is an authoritative command to us to do our duty. It is outrageous folly to trifle with the injunctions of the King of heaven. To those who are looking to Christ, the text is fraught with the richest consolation. “He is able to save you to the uttermost.”—W. France: The Scottish Pulpit, vol. iv. pp. 42–48.
Give your most earnest thought to these four great facts: I. All need to be saved. II. There is One who can save. III. The salvation He offers is worthy of Him. It is present, ample, certain, complete. IV. There is only one way by which that salvation can be made ours, by looking to Jesus.—J. A. Spurgeon: The Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 351.
THE NATURE AND AUTHOR OF SALVATION
Isaiah 45:22. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.
The glorious end which the Spirit contemplates in calling upon all men everywhere to look unto Jesus is their salvation. [1456]
[1456] There is no intended enriching of men with the titles, honours, incomes of earth; there is no intended extension of the span of mortality, or wisdom, or scientific attainments of man. These are beheld by the Creator of men as scarcely worth a moment’s reflection, while everlasting concerns remain unknown and unravelled, or disproportionately felt by those whom they wholly concern.… If you saw your child sinking amid the waters of the deep, would you feel that the time for gathering pebbles to amuse him, or meditating schemes of improving his mind? Would you not rather dash into the waves, and at the risk of your life rescue the child from his perilous situation? Even so the Almighty sees that the short time that is measured out to humanity needs something better than trifles on which to expend itself.—Cumming.
I. WHAT IS IMPLIED IN THIS WORD, “AND BE SAVED.”.
There is implied in it,
1. Deliverance from the dominion of sin in this world. We argue the necessity of this deliverance from the facts—
(1.) That sin is the root and fountain of misery. To remove effects, we must remove the cause: before man can be happy, he must be holy; before he can be saved from sorrow, he must be saved from sin.
(2). That they who enter heaven must be identified with heaven in character (H. E. I. 2730–2738).
(3.) That deliverance from the power of sin is the very purpose for which the Spirit of Christ is given to them that believe. Hereby we dissipate the false and misleading ideas of those who imagine that salvation is a state into which we are not introduced till we die.
2. Deliverance from the consequences of sin in the world to come. These include,
(1.) Irretrievable exile from the presence, and the glory, and the joy of Jehovah—the radiating centre of all happiness and peace.
(2.) The righteous punishment of all the sinner’s transgressions.
(3.) The extinction of hope.
(4.) That bitter remorse which springs from the recollection of having lost a heaven that might once have been won, and plunged into a misery which might once have been shunned. This is the worm that never dies, this is the fire that is never quenched.
II. THE WAY IN WHICH THIS SALVATION IS TO BE SECURED.
“Look unto Me, and be ye saved.” There is in this verse no preliminary required of man, only a look at the Saviour! No preparatory reformation, no preparatory repentance even! Repentance itself is the gift of Christ (H. E. I. 4225–4231, 4249, 4250).
Look! when God commands a work, He presents the might to do it. [1459]
[1459] Men’s regards have too often been tortured and twisted aside and directed to faith, to repentance, and to a vast variety of preparations for learning and living on Christ, instead of being summoned, without restriction and delay, to Christ the Saviour, who is the dispenser of these most precious graces, not the requisitionist of their previous existence. When you are told to look to repentence, to faith, to previous reformation of any kind, you are told to look to an idol, and you stand as far off from the true worship of Jehovah as they who bend the knee to Baal, or they that did homage to the stones, and images, and paintings in the Roman Pantheon. When Paul preached Jesus and the resurrection, many of his auditors supposed that he proclaimed two distinct and equal Deities; and many still, when we preach Christ, repentance, and faith, suppose, though they allow it not, that we preach separate Saviours, to any of which they may look and be saved.… Does not the Scripture declare most pointedly, that Jesus is “exalted a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and remission of sins.” And does not this imply that we must look to Him before we can repent? Man may sorrow when he looks back upon the threatenings of the law of God, and fear and tremble when he looks forward to the awful punishment of hell; but repent, in the Scriptural sense, he never will, till he look to Jesus. Repentance is in fact the expression of a changed heart, the fruit of being born again.—Cumming.
III. THE CHARACTER IN WHICH THE SAVIOUR PRESENTS HIMSELF TO SINNERS.
Look at Christ,
1. As having borne the punishment which you deserved, and thereby made it inconsistent with the equity of God to punish the believer.
2. As our High Priest who pleads for us within the veil, and sends His Spirit forth to seal us to eternal glory.
3. As able to instruct us savingly in all the will and word of God.
4. As the Sovereign King, whose laws we are unreservedly to reverence and obey.
5. As the source and distributor of all blessings, who has a right to all we hold on earth.
IV. How ARE WE TO LOOK TO JESUS?
1. In looking to Jesus, there is involved a looking away from every other ground of pardon, of salvation, of recovery (H. E. I. 1944–1951).
2. We must look under strong convictions of our helplessness and imbecility.
3. Look to Jesus, not only under a conviction of your insufficiency, but of His fulness (H. E. I. 934–941).
4. We are to look intently, just as the beggar looks into the face of him who has the world’s wealth around him; just as the shipwrecked seaman gazes in the face of him that has the means to rescue.
5. We must look continually. It will not do to look at the Redeemer to-day, and to-morrow forget His existence and His claims; we must look to Him from first to last (P. D. 2313, 2314).
VI. WHO ARE PERMITTED TO LOOK TO HIM FOR SALVATION. [1462]
[1462] H. E. I. 379, 381.
We hold the doctrines of election and of predestination to be scriptural and precious truths; but if a man will make these drags upon our efforts to proclaim the everlasting Gospel, and dampers on our zeal in the cause of perishing souls, we will stand up for their defence, and maintain that these doctrines are desecrated and abused, and instead of being, as meant, consolations to all true believers, are made barriers in the way of heaven’s going forth to recover the lapsed children of Adam, and to rescue the heirs of eternity from going down to perdition. We are to act upon the principle that there is sufficiency in Christ for all; that His blood can wash the most inveterate stains of guilt; and we are to bound its saving efficacy by nothing short of the limits of the globe.—Cumming.
J Cumming, D.D.: “The British Pulpit,” vol. i. pp. 321–334.
LIFE FOR A LOOK
Isaiah 45:22. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, &c.
The precious truth contained in this statement has been put in this memorable form: “We have here the greatest possible blessing, for the greatest possible number, under the best possible guarantee, and on the easiest possible terms.” While we proceed along these lines, let us breathe the prayer that God would remove the scales from blind eyes, and unstop deaf ears, that His message of grace may be understood and believed.
I. THE GREATEST POSSIBLE BLESSING. Moses was instructed to make a serpent of brass, and set it upon a pole, “that every one that was bitten, when he looked upon it, might live” (Numbers 21:8). Life and salvation are the same thing, for life is salvation from death, and no blessing can bear comparison with this. A patient may have every attention, but there is one blessing he earnestly desires—to have his life spared, his health restored. The shrieking passengers in wild commotion on that burning ship are seeking one thing—to save their lives. And the most urgent need of the soul is life. Every other blessing is included in this salvation. Your sins expose you to the curse of the law; but Christ has redeemed you, being made a curse for you. What greater blessing can there be? It is not mere deliverance from punishment, but also the rectification of your disordered spiritual nature. Nothing deserves the name of salvation which does not purify the heart. Salvation is complete and final (Mark 8:36).
II. FOR THE GREATEST POSSIBLE NUMBER. “All ye ends of the earth,” “every one that is bitten,” however far gone he might be. What a significant emblem of the Cross in its far-reaching efficacy (John 3:14-15). Some years ago a terrible story came from sea. Fire was spreading fast along the decks, and left only two boats available for the 477 souls on board. These were soon filled, leaving the large number for whom there was no accommodation to the alternative of death by fire or water. In this fearful plight the captain first threw his wife overboard, and then himself plunged into the waves. If the lost family of mankind were placed in similar circumstances with respect to the salvation of the soul, many of us might with reason plunge into the deeps of despair; but, blessed be God, there is room for all. “All ye ends of the earth.” Where can you go to be beyond the sweep of these words? To what end of the earth can you retire where this voice will not reach? (Proverbs 8:4). There is only one place where it is not heard. It does not run, “All ye ends of hell;” but you are still in a world of hope.
III. UNDER THE BEST POSSIBLE GUARANTEE. “For I am God, and there is none else.” The serpent on the pole was no human device. It was the Divine method of recovery to the suffering Israelites. Moses might have said, How can healing come from a serpent of brass? but he stumbled not through unbelief. God’s ways are not our ways. Jesus was lifted up to draw all men unto Him. Despise the Cross, and there is no other way of recovery, for this is God’s way. If He guarantees life and salvation, who shall gainsay or oppose His will? Here, then, is the highest possible security. The Almighty gives us eternal life through His Son, and signs the deed with His own hand. Anything short of this would be unworthy of our confidence; but when a faithful God thus binds Himself, we may surely rest on His word. It is no hazardous speculation in which we are called to embark; no doubtful venture, for the highest authority in the universe has pledged His honour and faithfulness to make it sure.
IV. ON THE EASIEST POSSIBLE TERMS. “Look unto me.” We have but to look to Christ to save us; to depend on Him for salvation; to use a good Scotch word, we have to “lippen” all to Him. He has died to secure your salvation. Why, then, should you distrust Him? Look away from your poor sinful selves, away from all your feelings and strivings, to Him the one source of salvation (John 3:36). Nothing can be easier, and it has been made thus easy to be within the power of all. We make it difficult by our prejudices, our ignorance, our despair. There is no deficiency in the provisions of the Gospel. All things are ready. Yet there is room. You dare not doubt the efficacy of the Redeemer’s sacrifice, nor question the boundlessness of His love. Nor can you plead that you are too sinful to be forgiven. Were you not sinful you would need no salvation. It may be you try to make yourself better before you look to Him; but you cannot make yourself better except by looking to Him. The longer you refuse to look the worse you will become. Come to Him as you are, sinful and wretched, and He will take you as you are (John 6:37).—William Guthrie, M.A.
It is to the second person in the Godhead—to our Lord Jesus Christ—that we are to look (John 3:14-15). In the language of metaphor, the mind, as well as the body, has eyes. We say, “Look at this fact; look at this or that other historic personage—at Julius Cæsar, Luther, Abraham;” and we all understand what is meant when such language is employed. It is in some such way that we are told to look at the Saviour.
I. If you look unto the Lord Jesus, you will see God manifest. How shall we find out the Almighty unto perfection? How shall we know the dispositions and character of that great Being with whom our eternal destiny is linked far more intimately and enduringly than with the dearest friend of our bosom? Philosophy answers: “In nature” (H. E. I. 361). But the Gospel replies: “You will see Him better still in Jesus Christ” (H. E. I. 847, 855–857, 1495–1497, 2243).
II. You will see not only God manifest, but Divine love incarnate. According to the medium through which it shines, the same light gives a radiance of a very different colour and influence—it cheers or depresses; through a clear or gold-tinted glass of a lantern it sheds a bright and summer-like ray, through a blue glass of the same lantern it darts a cold, pallid beam. In a sinful world like this, we could easily imagine an awful incarnation from which the Divine attributes should have shone out upon us cold, lurid, or ghastly, just as they do when viewed through that sin-smoked glass which guilt holds up when it tries to look upon God; an incarnation in which the vindictive attributes of the Almighty had come on errands of severity into the midst of our sinfulness. But what was the actual fact? (John 1:14; John 3:17). Look to Jesus, and you will see that God is love.
III. Looking unto the Lord Jesus, there is yet another sight with which the penitent sinner is regaled, and that is righteous reconciliation. We behold a Saviour who so completely made satisfaction for us that God’s very righteousness is declared in the remission of the sinner’s transgressions. The Son of God offered a sacrifice so infinitely acceptable that no other offering, no further supplementary sacrifice on the part of the sinner, nay, nor on the part of the Saviour Himself, will ever be required. Now forgiveness is offered to each one of us. Do we accept it? God has set forth His Son as a propitiation for our sin, and whenever the sinner puts forth as his plea, that Christ hath died, the controversy is ended, and God sees no iniquity in the now humble and penitent transgressor. This is the atonement, the at-one-ment: God pacified toward the sinner, and the sinner reconciled to God by the peace-speaking Cross.
IV. Whoever looks at the Saviour long enough, will find life transmitted from Him into his own soul. The moment that God’s injunction is obeyed, and the sinner casts himself on Christ for salvation, that moment he is safe; but it may be a long time before he can realise his safety—before the blessings of the Gospel, which are actually his, are also his in conscious possession. When the serpent-bitten Israelite obeyed God’s command, and gazed at the serpent of brass, he lived; in that very look the virus of death was miraculously countervailed, and his recovery began. But just as you can imagine the anguish so intense that one moment could not charm it into ease and ecstasy—nay, the smart so keen that the stings which had been received would mingle for a time with the throbs of convalescence, and in half-slumberous moments the patient might dream that he was still death-doomed; so when you reflect what a malignant malady is sin, how deep it has dug its fangs into our inmost nature, and how long we have been tossing in its consuming torture, you can scarcely wonder that the surviving smart or the returning twinges of the old death-stroke sometimes startle the believer, and make him question if he can be really recovered, or dread a fatal relapse. But what would you have advised the man in such a case to do? To look again, look constantly, eagerly, till every qualm of doubt, every fear of death was drowned in the tide of transmitted life and healing. And you who still feel the discomfort of the old disease, and fear lest the ancient wound should fester afresh and kill your soul at last, look again steadfastly, solely, unto Jesus Christ. As in the old miraculous cure, through the gazing eye health flowed into the poisoned blood, and passed into the twinging nerves; so through the eye that fixes trustfully and lovingly on the Lord Jesus—God’s beloved Son and the sinner’s propitiation—renovation flows into the corrupt nature, and comfort into the wounded spirit, till by and by recovery mantles on the cheerful countenance, bounds in the obedient step, and swells out in the psalm of thanksgiving.
V. If you look to Jesus as God reveals Him in His Word, and as He is in Himself, you will see a Saviour who, when He attracts your love, will assimilate your life to His. If you look to a right purpose, and long enough and simply enough, you will not only get sensible, but visible salvation; that is, you yourself will look like one who has looked to Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:18).—James Hamilton, D.D.: The Penny Pulpit, No. 1713.