Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
The end of the Saviour’s exaltation
Elevation is necessary to influence. Of what advantage is a candle under a bushel? While the sun is below our earth, all is dark and cold; but when he rises, he scatters his enlightening and enlivening beams. When the shrub rises up out of the ground, it requires support; but when it becomes a tree, the birds lodge in its branches. A man in the obscurity and contractedness of private life can only pour forth benevolent wishes and shed ineffectual tears. But give him pre-eminence, and thousands are protected by his power and enriched by his bounty. Take the case of Joseph, e.g. But a greater than Joseph is here. Jesus suffered from the hands of sinners; but His sufferings led to His exaltation. Some are exalted as princes who are by no means saviours. They sacrifice the lives of their subjects to save their own; but He sacrificed Himself for the welfare of His subjects. They are princes of war; but He is “the Prince of peace.” They are princes of death; but He is “the Prince of life.” They are princes and destroyers; but He is “a Prince and a Saviour.” Let us take three views of the blessings which the exalted Saviour gives.
I. Their meaning.
1. What is repentance? The inquiry is necessary because of the counterfeits of repentance. Pharaoh, Ahab, and Judas repented, and yet died in their sins. An old divine tells us that “Genuine repentance consists in having the heart broken for sin, and from it.”
(1) The subject of repentance, then, is convinced of sin. He sees that it is the greatest evil in the universe. Hence he feels shame, grief, and contrition--especially when he apprehends the goodness of God. This dissolves the heart, and makes him “sorrowful after a godly sort.” For the tear of evangelical penitence drops from the eye of faith; and faith while it weeps stands under the Cross. The pressure of these various feelings constitutes what we mean by having the heart broken for sin.
(2) But the man has now new dispositions and resolutions; and hence a new course of life. He is delivered from the love of all sin, however dear before. He is freed from its dominion, and avoids its occasions. And this is what we mean by having the heart broken from sin.
2. And what is forgiveness? It does not render a man innocent. Sin contracts guilt, and guilt binds over to punishment; forgiveness cancels this obligation, and restores the offender to safety. And frequently among men forgiveness extends no further. But God takes pleasure in those whom He pardons, and indulges them with the most intimate friendship. When two individuals have been at variance, the hardest to believe in reconciliation is the offender. A man once offended Augustus, and the emperor, to show his greatness of mind, declared that he pardoned him. But the poor creature, fearing the declaration was too good to be true, desired his majesty to give him some present as a proof that he had really forgiven him. Thus anxious is the awakened mind. Such a free and full forgiveness after all his heinous provocations seems incredible; he therefore desires a token for good: and many pledges of the most perfect reconciliation the God of all grace affords.
II. Their connection. This is not a meritorious connection, as if repentance deserved forgiveness, for they are both given; and how can one gift merit another? But there is between them a connection of--
1. Propriety. It would not accord with the wisdom of God to for give one incapable of enjoying or serving Him--yea, one who abhors Him. If a servant or a child were to behave improperly, though goodness may incline you to pardon, you would naturally require a proper state of mind, and signs of sorrow, confession, and reformation; otherwise your forgiveness would look like connivance or indifference, and encourage a repetition of disobedience.
2. Certainty. No one ever really enjoyed forgiveness without repentance; and no one ever truly exercised repentance without forgiveness. On the other hand, “He that confesseth, and forsaketh his sins, shall have mercy.”
III. Their source. Some think repentance a very legal subject; but there never was a greater mistake. For, not to mention that our Lord “came to call sinners to repentance,” and that the apostles “went forth preaching everywhere that men should repent,” repentance is peculiarly evangelical. The law has nothing to do with it; it does not even command it; all it has to do with the transgressor is to condemn. It allows him neither liberty nor ability to repent; but the gospel gives him both, and Christ was exalted to effect the purpose of the gospel. And if repentance be a gift, can the forgiveness be a purchase? Hence two things follow.
1. If we possess these blessings, we learn to whom we are to address our praise. “In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.”
2. If we want them, we see to whom we are to address our prayers. (W. Jay.)
Exalted to give
1. The murderer is haunted by the ghost of his victim. This is a part of the sublime machinery of providence for the punishment, and so for the prevention of crime. All history teems with examples of this. Witness Herod--“John the Baptist, whom I beheaded, is risen from the dead.” These high priests were compelled to undergo this inevitable sentence, “Whom ye slew, God has exalted.” Their victim has risen, and the murderers tremble. They showed Him no mercy, and expect none from Him. But now that He is exalted, and His enemies in His power, instead of taking vengeance He offers remission.
2. The water is exalted into the heavens that it may give rain. In the same way He who comes as rain on the mown grass was exalted that He might give Himself as the Living Water. The exalted Giver bestows every kind of good. “Every good and perfect gift is from above.” But the fundamental benefit, without which all others would be of no avail, is the twin gift promised in our text.
3. Repentance and forgiveness constitute one entire redemption. These two God has joined as He has joined the right and left sides of a body to make one organised life. To separate them is to destroy them. Forgiveness is an act of the Supreme God, repentance the act of sinful man, and yet both are the gift of the risen Redeemer. It is not like two portions of an extended straight line, but like two halves of a great revolving ring--as it goes rapidly round it seems as if this half were impelling that, and sometimes as if that were impelling this. From one point of view repentance seems to draw forgiveness, from another forgiveness seems to work repentance. It is true Christ says, “If any man open I will come in”; but it is also true that no one would open unless moved by the plaintive voice, “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” It is opening from within that lets the Saviour enter, but it is the pressure of the Saviour that causes the fastenings of the heart to give way.
4. We cannot determine the precise point at which the process begins. I do not know the point in the circle which the Spirit touches to communicate motion. All I know is that He gives it motion, and that when one point moves all move. And this wheel is like Ezekiel’s, so high that it is dreadful. The upper part is in heaven, while its lower edge rolls upon the earth. Forgiveness is an act done by God; the official act of the Judge on the great white throne. Repentance is a rending and a melting of the heart here upon earth. The lower part of the circle is in the chambers of the sinner’s soul, and yet every movement of a hair’s breadth is accompanied by a corresponding movement on high. So “there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.” These two were joined in Peter’s own experience. When he had denied his Lord, “the Lord looked on Peter”; that look conveyed pardon, and the repenting disciple went out and wept bitterly. (W. Arnot, D. D.)
Christ an exalted Prince and a glorified Saviour
I. The exaltation of christ, properly speaking, consists of four parts--His resurrection, ascension, sitting at the right hand of God, and His coming to judge the world. It is to His sitting at the right hand of God, however, that our attention is here called. And, regarding it, three circumstances are noticed in the text.
1. The dignity to which Christ is raised.
(1) The expression, “with His right hand,” does not denote the agency by which, but the glory to which He is exalted. It intimates that our Mediator enjoys Divine honour at the Father’s right hand, exercises Divine authority, and dispenses Divine government. This is a situation which no mere creature can occupy. I admit that the divinity of Christ being necessarily unchangeable, could not, strictly speaking, be humbled or exalted. But inasmuch as He took our nature into personal union with Him, He was humbled. And when His work was finished He dropped His lowly character, but not His human nature. Clothed in it He gloriously appeared before God on our behalf, and, as the reward of His undertaking, received, at His Father’s hands, universal authority.
(2) And let none suppose that the right hand of God in heaven denotes any visible proximity to the infinite Spirit, like nearness of place in the case of a prince at the right hand of an earthly sovereign. The human nature of Jesus, indeed, requires a local residence. But who can describe His dignity and glory in heaven? “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power,” etc.
2. The character in which He is raised, “a Prince and a Saviour.”
(1) As a Divine person, Jesus was never deprived of His royal supremacy, and therefore could never be exalted to a dignity from which He had never descended. But there was a dignity to which, as God and man in one person, He had never hitherto been formally raised, although from the beginning He had acted as King of the Church and Lord of the Universe. But this princely office arose entirely from the covenant made between the Father and the Son, which required from the latter obedience unto death, as absolutely necessary to His being formally installed into His regal authority as King in Zion.
(2) And as the nature of Christ’s kingly office is peculiar, so also is its exercise. His law, indeed, is still the immutable rule of righteousness. But there is exercised to obstinate sinners the most marvellous long-suffering; and to believers the freest and most astonishingly gracious forgiveness, joined with the choicest spiritual blessings. Such a mode of administration can only be accounted for on the principle that a system of mediatorial authority exists, in consequence of which “sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed “ on unbelievers; and pardon, purity, spiritual protection, comfort, and eternal glory, secured to all the faithful.
(3) But Christ is not only an exalted Prince, but also a glorified Saviour. We have seen that as a Prince He completely secures the happiness and dignity of His people. Rut deliverance from sin could never have been realised unless, like the high priests of old, He had entered into the holy place, and presented the blood of His atonement as the ground of His intercession. He saves to the uttermost all that come to God by Him, because He ever lives to make intercession for them.
3. The agency of the Father in the exaltation of His Son--“Him hath God exalted.” We are here carried back to the council of peace, the agreement of the Divine persons in reference to the salvation of men. The Father was bound to exalt the Mediator when His work of humiliation was accomplished.
II. Its blessed consequences. Amongst these are the glory of God, the establishment of order and harmony in the universe, the increased light thrown upon God’s character and designs; but what chiefly concerns us is that the exalted Saviour bestows--
1. Repentance.
2. Forgiveness. Conclusion: This subject ought to be improved, especially by--
(1) Those who have good reason to conclude that they are already in possession of these blessings. Such are under infinite obligations to the God of all grace, and forget not that it flows through the channel of Christ’s mediation; and while you admire this salvation in its rise and progress and application, forget not to pray for the continued communication of grace to your soul. Remember that faith needs to be strengthened, and repentance deepened.
(2) Those who doubt their interest in Christ are here encouraged. Your very sorrow is a hopeful symptom. It is well that you feel your unworthiness; and instead of making it an argument against coming to Christ, use it as a strong argument to lay vigorous hold of Him.
(3) To those who are as yet destitute of Divine grace. These are of two classes.
(a) The hypocrite knows that he is not what he pretends to be. Yet, notwithstanding your aggravated guilt, you are invited to the Saviour.
(b) Let the self-deceiver open his eyes to his true state and character.
You say you repent; but yours is a legal repentance, which consists in a dread of the Divine wrath. Such a sorrow works death. Repentance unto life, on the other hand, is that sorrow which flows from a believing view of the atonement of Christ and of the evil of sin, as manifested in the Cross, and is recognised to be genuine only by the fruits of holiness which result from it. (W. Orr.)
A Prince and a Saviour
I. Note Christ’s titles and learn their meaning.
1. A Prince. This tells of--
(1) Honour as the reward of His sufferings on earth. While He was here He was treated as a felon. What presents the Prince of Wales brought home from his travels! But the Prince of Glory took home with Him His wounds only. But the shame and the rejection are now ended, and in glory Jesus is manifestly a Prince, reverenced, obeyed, and honoured.
(2) Power. His is no nominal princedom--He has both glory and strength. Unto Him is given the mediatorial kingdom, which includes all power in heaven and in earth, so that He is well styled “the blessed and only Potentate.” There is no bound to this power:
(3) Dominion. If Christ is to be yours you must let Him rule over you. “He must reign.” He claims to be Master and Lord to those who ask salvation at His hands; and is not the claim a just one? Whom should we serve but the Lord who became a servant for our sakes? It must be so, or salvation is impossible. You must accept Jesus to be a leader and a commander to you, or you cannot win the battle of life. You must yield Him loving obedience, or He will not be married to your souls. His dominion is sweetly tempered by love; so that, as the prophet writes, “Thou shalt call Me no more Baali,” that is, “My Lord,” with a hardness of rulership, but Ishi, “My Lord,” because Thou art my Husband.
2. A Saviour. Observe here--
(1) The perseverance of the Lord’s love. He was a Saviour here; He is a Saviour now that He has reached His throne. “The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost,” and now “He is able to save them to the uttermost,” etc.
(2) The prevalence of the work He achieved here. Here He was able to save, but His salvation was not complete, for He had not yet said, “It is finished.” Now His redeeming work is done, and saving is a simple matter to Him.
(3) His approachableness. You might be abashed at coming to a prince, but you may be encouraged in coming to a Saviour.
3. Put the words together--
(1) Prince-Saviour: one who is kingly in the salvation which He brings, and deals out no stinted grace, but makes us to receive of His fulness grace for grace.
(2) Saviour-Prince whose glory it is to save, whose kingdom and power and dominion are all turned in full force to achieve the work of rescuing His people.
II. Approach him, then, under these two characters.
1. As a Prince. And how shall we do that?
(1) With the sorrowful confession of past rebellion. “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry.”
(2) Accept His great purpose and submit to His rule. He is a Prince, therefore yield yourself to be His subject. The object of His rule is to make you love God, and to be like God.
(3) Surrender everything to Him. If He has redeemed you then you belong to Him; henceforth you are not your own, you are bought with a price.
(4) Pay your loving, loyal homage to your Prince. Behold Him in His glory, where all the angels cast their crowns before Him, while the elders adore Him with vials full of sweet odours.
2. As Saviour.
(1) Confessing that you need a Saviour.
(2) Believing that He is able to save you.
(3) Submitting entirely to His processes of salvation. He will not save thee in thy way, but in His way; and His way of saving thee is to make thee feel the smart and bitterness of sin, to make thee hate that sin, and so to turn thee from it for ever.
(4) Trusting Him as Saviour.
III. Mark his gifts.
1. Repentance. This does not mean to give space for repentance, nor to make repentance acceptable, but to give repentance itself. What is repentance?
(1) It is a change of mind.
(a) He can give thee to change thy mind about all the past, so that the things which pleased thee shall grieve thee, that which charmed thee shall disgust thee.
(b) He can also change thy mind as to the present and the future, so that instead of looking for present pleasure thou wilt find thy delight in future glory realised by faith.
(2) It includes a most needful sense of sin, and the Saviour can give thee this by His Spirit.
(3) He can work in thee desires after holiness and hatred of every false way; He can take the guile out of thy soul as well as the guilt out of thy life.
2. Forgiveness.
(1) He can pass an act of amnesty and oblivion for all thy sin. “I have blotted out thy sins like a cloud, and as a thick cloud thy transgressions.”
(2) When full forgiveness comes it brings with it the eternal removal of the penalty. The forgiven man cannot be punished.
(3) With pardon there shall come a restoration of every privilege.
IV. Ask Him for these gifts.
1. Humbly. You do not deserve them. You have no claim to His love, and must not set up any.
2. Importunately. Do not come with a cold heart and a trifling spirit. Come with this resolve, “I will not leave the Cross till my sins have left me.”
3. Believingly--believing that Christ can give, and that He is as willing as He is able.
4. Now. The Romans when they meant to bring things to an issue with an Oriental tyrant, sent their ambassador to bring his answer back--yes or no, war or peace. The messenger when he saw the king stooped down, and drew a ring upon the ground round the monarch; and then said, “Step outside that ring, and it means war; before you leave that circle you must accept our terms of peace, or know that Rome will use her utmost force to fight with you.” I draw a ring round you, and I demand an answer. Sinner, wilt thou now be saved or not? To-day is the accepted time, to-day is the day of salvation. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Jesus Christ a Prince and a Saviour
I. A Prince. According to--
1. His heavenly origin.
2. His Divine credentials, even when in the form of a servant.
3. His glorious exaltation to the right hand of God.
II. A saviour.
1. Already in the manger by His self renunciation.
2. On the Cross by His sacrifice.
3. On the throne by His intercession.
III. A Prince and a Saviour.
1. If He were not a Saviour He could not be a Prince--His fairest princely ornament is His crown of thorns.
2. If He were not a Prince He could not be a Saviour--the efficacy of His sacrifice depends on His Divine dignity.
3. As a Prince we must honour and obey Him, and as a Saviour love and confide in Him, in order to become partakers of His salvation. (K. Gerok.)
Repentance the gift of Christ
The doctrine of the gospel appears to be not only that Christ taught the efficacy of repentance, but rendered it of the efficacy which it is, by what He did and suffered for us; that He obtained for us the benefit of having our repentance accepted unto eternal life; not only that He revealed to sinners that they were in a capacity of salvation by what He did and suffered for them. And it is our wisdom thankfully to accept the benefit by performing the conditions on which it is offered, on our part without disputing how it is procured on His. (Bp. Butler.)
Repentance and remission of sin
I. The offices of Christ the Lord in His heavenly state, or what He is exalted to be, viz., “a Prince and a Saviour.”
II. The gifts at His disposal, or what He is able to bestow, viz., “repentance and forgiveness of sins.” Application:
1. Give to Him whom God hath exalted an exalted place in your thoughts and affections.
2. Give to Him, at all times, the daily homage of your faith and love and obedience.
(1) Go to Him as the only Mediator between God and man, the sole appointed medium of all your communications with the most High God.
(2) Go to Him, and give heed to Him, as presenting you at once with the noblest model, and strongest motives, in every duty.
(3) Go to Him farther as the authorised source and dispenser of spiritual blessings to your souls.
3. See that you value these blessings which He is exalted to bestow, and that you faithfully seek them according to His Word.
4. Take, then, the full consolation and encouragement of having such an exalted Redeemer. (James Brewster.)
Repentance and forgiveness
There are some who would object to this phraseology as unsound, if it were not the phraseology of Holy Writ. It appears to savour too much of legalism, both because it is repentance--not faith--with which the forgiveness of sins stands connected, and because in the statement of the two things, repentance is placed first in order. But it will be seen upon examination that here, as everywhere else, the grace of the gospel and the authority of the law are equally recognised, and that there is not the slightest sacrifice of the one of these Divine dispensations to the other.
I. Repentance and forgiveness of sins are here employed to denote the whole extent of that salvation which Christ has effected in our behalf.
1. Forgiveness of sins denotes it as applied to our condition. We are in a state of guilt--Liable to God’s displeasure, and under a sentence of condemnation. But Christ by “suffering, the just for the unjust,” procures for us “redemption, even the forgiveness of sins.” And thus, the only thing which separated between God and us being effectually removed, we are restored to His favour, and regain a title to every blessing.
2. Repentance denotes it in reference to our character. A change of character is as essential for us as a change of condition. Though pardon and eternal life had been procured for us, yet these we could not enjoy so long as we were alienated from God, by whom that pardon was to be granted and with whom that eternal life was to be spent. And accordingly provision is made in the gospel scheme for producing the revolution in our moral nature which is thus found to be indispensable. Of this revolution Christ is the author, as He is of every other benefit. In this way our salvation is complete.
3. The circumstance that faith is not specified does not amount to an underrating of its value, or a depriving it of its just province. Repentance includes faith, not only as one of its component parts, but as its essential feature. Faith, whether considered simply as a belief in the Divine testimony respecting Christ, or as an actual embracing of Him, and trusting in Him, enters into the very substance of repentance. Note that it is the “repentance of Israel” that is especially spoken of. They had crucified Christ. Their repentance must necessarily have mainly consisted in a transition from their obstinate infidelity to faith in Jesus as a suffering Saviour. In like-manner the predominant sin of all who have not repented, is that Christ has been offered to them, and that they have refused the offer. So that when they repent, the great thing they have to do is to open their ears and hearts to the message which the gospel brings them concerning the Saviour, and to flee for refuge in His Divine person and finished work.
II. Though repentance is first in order, it does not bear to forgiveness of sins the relation of cause to effect, and is not the condition of forgiveness. Were there nothing in the passage itself to indicate this we should be entitled to explain it by what the Bible says as to the nature of repentance--viz., that it cannot meritoriously contribute to the attainment of any blessing from God; and by the general analogy of Scripture, one of whose great objects is to strip all human moralities of every thing like good desert, or in cancelling the guilt of man. But we have no occasion to wander front the text. Forgiveness comes to us from Divine mercy. Christ is exalted to give it. And, represented as His gift, it is not traced to repentance as its source. Nay, the very juxtaposition of the two benefits serves to put them on the same footing- Repentance is just as much a gift as forgiveness. And if this be so, does it not; exclude altogether the idea of forgiveness being earned or deserved by repentance and virtually prohibit us from attaching any merit to the change that is effected in our character, more than to the change that is effected in our condition? And by, teaching us to assign the whole of our salvation to the achievement of Christ alone, does it not discountenance every feeling of confidence in our own performances, and bid us cherish as profound humility, in respect to our need of repentance, as in respect to our need of forgiveness? We must therefore simply regard ourselves as the mere undeserving recipients of both. We may recognise the distinction, that while the one is bestowed upon us, the other is wrought in us; but still for neither of them must we feel indebted to any virtue or efficiency of our own.
III. Repentance is indissolubly linked with forgiveness, and unless the first is wrought in us, most certainly the second is not conveyed to us. Men are very apt to overlook this. The fear of hell is felt to be so awful that they are desirous to escape from it, and the hope of heaven so delightful that they willingly entertain it. And as the gospel proposes a plan, whose tendency is to deliver from the one and to encourage the other, they cherish the expectation that, through Divine mercy, all will be well with them at last. But all this while they have overlooked that moral change without which punishment cannot be shunned, nor felicity reached. Now it requires no elaborate train of argument to demonstrate the utter groundlessness and danger of such views.
1. “God commandeth all men everywhere to repent”--Christ has said, “Except ye repent, ye shall all perish” and, with all the rich mercy which it unfolds, the gospel gives no one the slightest ground to hope for salvation, if the exhortation to repent is neglected. And do not you perceive that this position is a proof more ample and conclusive than anything else, that repentance is essential? Men are so much in love with sin that they not only cherish the prospect of going into heaven, though unprepared for it, but resolutely shut out from their view all that the God of heaven has told them of the necessity of a moral renovation, and deliberately rest upon the grace He has manifested, while they as deliberately maintain the character with which that grace is declared by Him to be completely irreconcilable. Wherefore, I would say to all such, look to this declaration of the Apostle Peter, in which repentance is as emphatically announced as forgiveness. It is honoured by having conferred upon it the precedence to forgiveness. At any rate, so closely are the two conjoined that you cannot look upon either without seeing both.
2. And besides this, consider repentance and forgiveness as proceeding alike from Christ. He died to purchase them--He is exalted to communicate them. And could this have been the case, unless both of them had been necessary for you? If both of them are thus demonstrated to be necessary for you, upon what principle consistent with duty or with safety can you be contented with only one of them? Are not you, in rejecting the other, doing what you can at once to frustrate the Saviour’s sufferings on the Cross, and to dishonour the power which He exercises, the mercy which He manifests, on His throne? (A. Thomson, D. D.)
The salvation in Christ
I. Offered by Him--as the Prince and the Saviour.
II. To be appropriated by us--in repentance and forgiveness of sins. (K. Gerok.)