I am crucified with Christ.
The believer’s riddle
This verse enunciates three striking paradoxes which are realized in the experience of every Christian.
I. The judicial paradox, or the mystery of the believer’s legal standing. The believer, be it remembered, is a dead man to begin with, i.e., before he becomes a believer. In his natural condition he is an unpardoned transgressor, and therefore in the law’s eye as good as dead. He is already taken, charged, tried, convicted, sentenced, shut up to the just judgment of wrath, and only waiting the hour of death to meet its execution. But now in Christ, who before the law acted as his representative, and for his sake became obedient unto death, he is executed too. So far as the claims of justice are concerned, he is crucified with Christ, i.e., Christ’s crucifixion stands for his, and he personally is free. He has died, and yet he lives!
II. The spiritual paradox, or the mystery of the believer’s inner life. The moment a man becomes a believer, he at the same time becomes the subject of an inward change, by which his old corrupt nature of sin is destroyed, and a new principle of holy life is implanted. Christ lives in him.
III. The practical paradox, or the mystery of the believer’s outer walk. While living in the body and in the world the believer is not under the dominion of either, but regulates his conduct and conversation by principles superior to both--by faith in the Son of God. Christ’s law is his rule of life; Christ’s person the object of his love. Conclusion:
1. The text examines us about our standing in the eye of the law. Are we crucified with Christ or not?
2. The character of our inner life. Are we spiritual men, or sensuous?
3. Our walk and conversation. Are we walking by faith, or by sight? (Anon.)
Christus et ego
I. The personality of the Christian religion. This verse swarms with I and me. Christianity brings out a man’s individuality, not making him selfish, but making him realize his own separate existence, and compelling him to meditate on his own sin, his own salvation, his own personal doom unless saved by grace.
1. In proportion as our piety is definitely in the first person singular, it will be strong and vigorous.
2. In proportion as we fully realize our personal responsibility to God shall we be likely to discharge it.
II. The inter-weaving of our own proper personality with that of Jesus Christ. I think I see two trees before me. They are distinct plants growing side by side, but as I follow them downward, I observe that the roots are so interlaced and intertwisted that no one can trace the separate trees and allot the members of each to its proper whole. Such are Christ and the believer.
1. Dead to the world with Christ.
2. Alive to God in Christ.
3. The link between Christ and the believer--faith.
4. A union of love.
5. A union by sacrifice.
III. The life which results from this blended personality.
1. A new life.
2. A very strange life.
3. A true life.
4. A life of self-abnegation.
5. A life of one idea.
6. The life of a man.
7. The life of heaven. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Practical faith
Faith is not a piece of confectionery to be put upon drawing-room tables, or a garment to be worn on Sundays; it is a working principle, to be used in the barn and in the field, in the shop and on the exchange; it is a grace for the housewife and the servant; it is for the House of Commons and for the poorest workshop. I would have the believing cobbler mend shoes religiously, and the tailor make garments by faith, and I would have every Christian buy and sell by faith. Whatever your trade may be, faith is to be taken into your daily calling, and that is alone the true living faith which will bear the practical test. You are not to stop at the shop door and take off your coat and say, “Farewell to Christianity till I put up the shutters again.” That is hypocrisy; but the genuine life of the Christian is the life which we live in the flesh by faith of the Son of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Christian’s life of faith
Every moment the life of the Christian is to be a life of faith. We make a mistake when we try to walk by feeling or by sight. I dreamed the other night, while musing upon the life of the believer, that I was passing along a road which a Divine call had appointed for me. The ordained pathway which I was called to traverse was amid thick darkness, unmingled with a ray of light. As I stood in the awful gloom, unable to perceive a single inch before me, I heard a voice which said, “Let thy feet go right on. Fear not, but advance in the name of God.” So on I went, putting down foot after foot with trembling. After a little while the path through the darkness became easy and smooth, from use and experience; just then I perceived that the path turned: it was of no use my endeavouring to proceed as I had done before; the way was tortuous, and the road was rough and stony; but I remembered what was said, that I was to advance as I could, and so on I went. Then there came another twist, and yet another, and another, and another, and I wondered why, till I understood that if ever the path remained long the same, I should grow accustomed to it, and so should walk by feeling; and I learned that the whole of the way would constantly be such as to compel me to depend upon the guiding voice, and exercise faith in the Unseen One who had called me. On a sudden it appeared to me as though there was nothing beneath my foot when I put it down, yet I thrust it out into the darkness in confident daring, and lo, a firm stop was reached, and another, and another, as I walked down a staircase which descended deep, down, down, down. Onward I passed, not seeing an inch before me, but believing that all was well, although I could hear around me the dash of falling men and women who had walked by the light of their own lanterns, and missed their foothold. I heard the cries and shrieks of men as they fell from this dreadful staircase; but I was commanded to go right on, and I went straight on, resolved to be obedient even if the way should descend into the nethermost hell. By and by the dreadful ladder was ended, and I found a solid rock beneath my feet, and I walked straight on upon a paved causeway, with a balustrade on either hand. I understood this to be the experience which I had gained, which now could guide and help me, and I leaned on this balustrade, and walked on right confidently till, in a moment, my causeway ended and my feet sank in the mire, and as for my other comforts I groped for them, but they were gone, for still I was to know that I must go in dependence upon my unseen Friend, and the road would always be such that no experience could serve me instead of dependence upon God. Forward I plunged through mire and filth and suffocating smoke, and a smell as of death-damp, for it was the way, and I had been commanded to walk therein. Again the pathway changed, though all was midnight still: up went the path, and up, and up, and up, with nothing upon which I could lean; I ascended wearily innumerable stairs, not one of which I could see, although the very thought of their height might make the brain to reel. On a sudden my pathway burst into light, as I woke from my reverie, and when I looked down upon it, I saw it all to be safe, but such a road that, if I had seen it, I never could have trodden it. My journey could only be accomplished in childlike confidence upon the Lord. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The life of faith
I. Death to the law is the condition of life unto God.
1. The part which the law performs in bringing about this death. By its own teaching the law proclaims its impotence, forbids our reliance on it, and prepares the way for Christ who delivers from its bondage.
2. The connection between death to the law and life unto God. Emancipation. Abject slavery exchanged for filial freedom.
II. Life unto God is a life of faith in the Son of God. It introduces the believer to
(1) a new power--even the power of a Divine life;
(2) a new motive--love. The believer works no longer up to the point of acceptance with God, but from that of sin forgiven and acceptance secured. (Emilius Bayley, B. D.)
Freedom from the law through death
“I am crucified with Christ”--wondrous words! I am so identified with Him that His death is my death. When He was crucified, I was crucified with Him. I am so much one with Him under law and in suffering and death, that when He died to the law I died to the law. Through this union with Him I satisfied the law, yielded to it the obedience which it claimed, suffered its curse, died to it, and am therefore now released from it--from its accusations and its penalty, and from its claims on me to obey it as the means of winning eternal life. By means of law He died; it took Him and wrought its will on Him. As our Representative in whom we were chosen and in whom we suffered, He yielded Himself to the law, which seized Him and nailed Him to the cross. When that law seized Him, it seized at the same time all His in Him, and through the law they suffered and died to it. Thus it is that by the law taking action upon them as sinners they died to the law. (John Eadie, D. D.)
Christ the source of sanctity
What principle can tend to cherish tenderness, lowliness, modesty, recollectedness, dignity, quietness in speech and manner, devotion and the winning grace of a pervading charity, so effectually as the abiding consciousness of our Lord dwelling and walking in one’s self as a tabernacle of His own gracious election, and in others as in oneself according to the same promise? What can so sustain the soul above natural desires, in a higher sphere of life, in an ever-upward advance towards the glory of the heavenly Court, as the instinctive sense, rooted and grounded in the soul’s life, that there is a wedded union between the soul and the Lord who bought it with His own blood, and now Himself within it claims it for His own? What gives so keen a remorse at the hatefulness and horror of sin, as a conviction of its desecrating the organs, the limbs, the faculties which God inhabits and uses as the chosen vessel of His own sanctity? It is not what he himself is that forms the joy of the saint, nor the failing to be what God had willed him to be, that constitutes the remorse of the true penitent; but it is to the one the consciousness that God is in him, and he in God; and to the other the loss of a Presence in Whom alone is peace, and out of Whom is utter darkness. To realize what we are, or what we fail to be, we must appreciate what His abiding in us causes us to be. We can never truly look at ourselves separate from Him. Our power is His power in us. Our efforts are the putting forth of His strength. Our sin is, that after He had come to us, we resisted Him. (T. T. Carter, M. A.)
Christ in man
Christ liveth in the flesh still, in the body of every believer; not merely Jesus the humbled man, but Jesus the Christ of God; Jesus, who by the resurrection was declared to be the son of God with power, and proclaimed to angels and men as both Lord and Christ! Who liveth in me? Yourself! Nay, I am dead; I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I--Not thee! Ah, who then? “Christ liveth in me.” Yes, the mighty God liveth in thee, believer. Not thyself; not thy poor, weak, helpless self; but Christ by His power, the power of His Spirit liveth in thee. Ah, why then dost thou talk about impossibilities? Why say, “I cannot do this; I cannot do that; I cannot attain to this or to that; I cannot overcome this or that enemy”? Thou speakest foolishly, if thou speakest thus: and if thou now persistest in saying so, thou wilt speak falsely, aye, and blasphemously too: for not thou, but Christ liveth in thee. And who is mighty as He? Is Satan too many for Him who trampled on the power of all His enemies, who triumphed over them openly, and who led captivity captive? Ah, and is the flesh too powerful for Him? Who is the man who says, “I must sin--I must sin; while I continue in the flesh I must continue to sin”? And is sin too great, too powerful for Jesus, for Him who, when in the flesh, a Man of sorrows, encompassed with infirmities, beset by perils, a weak man, overcame it, and remained holy, harmless, undefiled? Did He, when thus weak through the flesh, put sin far away from before His face? And shall He not, now that He sits on the right hand of the Majesty on high, prevail against all your sins? O speak not so lightly of Him and of His power! (Edward Irving, M. A.)
The sinner’s Substitute
The Eternal Being gave Himself for the creature which His hands had made. He gave Himself to poverty, to toil, to humiliation, to agony, to the Cross. He gave Himself “for me,” for my benefit; but also “for me,” in my place. This substitution of Christ for the guilty sinner is the ground of the satisfaction which Christ has made upon the cross for human sin. But on what principle did the Sinless One thus take the place of the guilty? Was it, so to speak, an arbitrary arrangement, for which no other account can be given than the manifested will of the Father? No; the substitution of the suffering Christ for the perishing sinner arose directly out of the terms of the Incarnation. The human nature which our Lord assumed was none other than the very nature of the sinner, only without its sin. The Son of God took on Him human nature, not a human personality. He becomes the Redeemer of our several persons, because He is already the Redeemer of this our common nature, which He has made for ever His own (1 Corinthians 15:20). As human nature was present in Adam, when by his representative sin he ruined his posterity, So was human nature present in Christ our Lord, when by His voluntary offering of His Sinless Self, He “bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” Christ is thus the second Head of our race. Our nature is His own. He carried it with Him through life to death. He made it do and bear that which was utterly beyond its native strength. His Eternal Person gave infinite merit to its acts and its sufferings. In Him it died, rose, ascended, and was perfectly well-pleasing to the All-Holy. Thus by no forced or artificial transaction, but in virtue of His existing representative relation to the human family, He gave Himself to be a ransom for all. (Canon Liddon.)
Christ’s universal love
“He loved me and gave Himself for me.” Each sinner, each saint around His cross might have used these words of the apostle. For His blessed mother and St. John; for the Roman judge and for the Roman soldiers; for the chief priest and for the Pharisee; for the vilest and hardest of His executioners, and for the thieves who hung dying beside Him, our Lord gave Himself to death. For all who have been first and greatest, for all who have been least and last in human history, for all whom we have loved or seen, for our separate souls, He gave Himself. True, His creatures indeed are still free to accept and appropriate or to refuse His gift. But no lost soul shall murmur hereafter that the tender loving-kindness of God has not willed to save it. No saint in glory shall pretend that aught in him has been accepted and crowned save the infinite merit, the priceless gifts of his Redeemer. The dying love of Jesus embraces the race, and yet it concentrates itself with direct--as it seems to us--with exclusive intensity upon each separate soul. He dies for all, and yet he dies for each; as if each soul were the solitary object of His incarnation and of His death. (Canon Liddon.)
How Christian life is sustained
A Christian life is the living Christ manifesting Himself. It is the vital power putting forth leaves and fruits--the vine sending out its strength into the branches. It cannot be too deeply impressed upon us that Christianity is a profound connection of the soul with Christ--that it is not the imitation of a splendid model, but the indwelling of a living Person--that the Christ form is only the outward development of the Christ nature, the life manifesting itself after its kind. You all know that the various forms of vegetable creation are sustained and perfected by a secret, silent, but resistless power which we call life. It is this that lifts the oak in the forest am! spreads its mighty branches to the storm; and this that carpets the earth with verdure and decks the fields with teeming flowers. In the great and in the small, in the tree and in the herb, in the pine of the mountain and the grasses of the field, this secret but resistless principle asserts its power. Now, thus is it with us as Christian men; our Christianity is a principle of life; we are not imitations, we are alive; we are not artificial flowers, we are flowers growing in the garden, branches growing in the vine. (J. W. Boulding.)
Derived life
Christ is our life. How His life is made to be, at the same time, our own, is a mystery of grace, of which you have seen types in the garden, where just now so many millions of God’s thoughts are springing and growing into beautiful expression. You once grafted something on to a fruit tree. The process, though delicate, was most simple. You only had to be careful that there should be clean, clear, close contact between the graft and the tree. The smallest shred or filament of wrapping round the graft would have prevented the life of the tree from flowing into it. The weak, bleeding graft was fastened on to the strong stem just as it was, then in due time it struck, then gradually the tiny slip grew into the flourishing bough, and lately, as you stood looking at that miracle of tender formation and soft bright flush, you almost fancied it was conscious. It seemed to say, “I live; nevertheless not I, but the tree liveth in me; and the life I now live in the foliage, I live by faith in the shaft of the tree. I trust to the tree only; every moment I am clinging to it, and without it I can do nothing.” (Chas. Stanford, D. D.)
How Christ is appropriated by the individual soul
My conception of Christ is that He is mine: not mine in any sense which appropriates Him to me alone; but mine as really and truly as though I were the only human being in the universe. My father was absolutely mine, although my next younger brother could say the same thing, and though every brother and sister could say the same thing. I had the whole of him, and each of my brothers and sisters had the whole of him. And I have the whole of my God. The God of all the heaven, and the God of the whole earth, and of time, and of physical law and its sequence, and of all invisible laws and their sequences--He is my God. (H. W. Beecher.)
Man’s double life
We all live in the midst of two worlds--a material world and a spiritual world. The material world is visible to all. We see it, and deal with it, every moment. The spiritual world is visible only to those whose eyes have been supernaturally opened to see it. But the one is as real and as great a fact as the other. They both are close to us. And every man is a centre round which they both are circulating.
1. The material world is the world of our senses. The spiritual world is the world of our faith. We come into the first at our natural birth; we enter the second at our regeneration. When we have entered it, it is far grander than the other.
2. The material world is beautiful and pleasant, but it has its dark shadows. It is not what it was once made to be. It brings its sorrows, disappointments, and regrets. It is always passing away. And soon, very soon, it will be but as the shadow of a dream! The spiritual world remains unfallen. It is hidden. But all the elements of our immortality are there, and it can never pass away.
3. In the material world are our friendships, ambitions, businesses, professions, earthly work, bodily pleasures. In the spiritual world are the ministrations of angels; the operations of the Holy Ghost, the presence of Christ; the sweet sense of pardon; the peace and love and service of God; an eternity begun; heaven always in sight; thoughts that satisfy; occupations that will never tire; joys that cannot fade. To the man who lives in the spiritual world, the material world is becoming small. He uses it, and enjoys it; but it is not his life. It is his servant, whom he employs; not his master, whom he obeys. And of that great spiritual and eternal world, which is about us everywhere, and in the midst of which, consciously or unconsciously, we are all walking every step, the circumference is glory--the key which opens it is faith--and its centre, from which all radiates and to which all converges, is the Son of God, His person and His work. (James Vaughan, M. A.)
Life in Christ
;--Life--the higher and truer life of a man--resolves itself into one thing, viz., trust in Jesus. Expand that trust, and you will find it life--life indeed--life for ever. Consider this life. The question was, How can a sinner live at all, and not die? seeing God has said, “The soul that sinneth it shall die;” and every one of us has sinned? Can God falsify His own word?
1. When Jesus died we died. We died in Him. So we have died, and our death is passed. We can live, and God be true.
2. But what makes life? Union with life. Christ is life. We are united to Christ, as a member is united to the head. And as the member lives because the head lives, we live by and in the life of Jesus Christ. That is life.
3. Now life thus possible, and thus made--what is it? Life is to live in every part of our being--body, intellect, heart, soul. Now what can engage the whole man but religion? And what is religion? The indwelling of Christ and the service of God.
4. Then of that life what is the motive power? Love. The love of God. Who can really love God but those who are forgiven, and who therefore can feel, “God is my Father”? And who can say that out of Jesus Christ?
5. And of that life what is the root? The Exemplar, the great Exemplar--the pattern of Christ.
6. What is its aim and focus? To please and glorify Him to whom it owes itself.
7. What is its consummation and rest? The presence, and the image, and the enjoyment, and the perfect service of God throughout eternity. (James Vaughan, M. A.)
The secret of the spiritual life
The secret of this life, which alone is life, is faith. And what is faith? Trust. And what is trust? Taking God simply at His word. Now, let us see what God has said concerning this life. God has said--He has repeated it under many forms and by many images--“Believe and live.” “Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” Now you must take that without any deduction, or any qualification, or any condition whatsoever. It is for all sinners--for sinners of every dye--without one single exception! The promise is to every one who will accept it. Accept what? Accept that the Son of God (and no other but the Son of God could do it, for no other would be an equivalent) the Son of God has, by His death, paid all the penalty and cancelled all your debt to God; and so the mandate has gone forth from the throne, “Live!” “Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom.” That done, your life from that moment--if you have faith enough--may be a life without any fear. Your sins forgiven are sins buried. And buried sins have no resurrection. They shall “never be mentioned.” They are “remembered no more.” (James Vaughan, M. A.)
Self-crucifixion the source of life
I. That self-crucifixion is the source of life. This is the reason; there is an old life which must utterly perish, that by its death and out of its death the new life may arise.
1. The death of the old life. The life that must be crucified before the Divine life can rise is the self-life in all its forms. Why must man’s self-life die? It is the very ground and root of all sin. The assertion of the “I” of the self is the perpetual tendency of the flesh. “I live” is the watch-word of carnalism--there is no sin which is not an assertion of self as the principle of life. Man not always conscious of this, blinded to it. Thus the sensualist may be conscious only of the wild cravings of desire, but by yielding to them he is asserting his passion, his pleasure, to be greater than the law of God. The old self-life must die. Before the Cross, faith and love are self-crucifixion. Faith renounces self and destroys the old life. Love goes out of self to Christ.
2. The awakening of the new life. “Nevertheless I live.” This is more than being constrained by any new emotional motive of love; literally Christ was in St. Paul by His Holy Spirit. This is best understood by experience. You know that when you by faith died with Him to the flesh you felt the impulse of a life not yours possessing you, and inbreathing a Divine energy and a heavenly love. Christ living in you will consecrate all.
II. Nature of the life that springs from it.
1. Purity. The inspiration of the indwelling Christ will free from sensual and low temptation; it means perfect devotion to God.
2. Peace. Christ in us calms the troubled spirit; becomes the fulness of emotion.
3. Power. If the self-life is crucified with Christ, and Christ is dwelling in us, we have His power to overcome sin. The Cross-life is power, kingship over self. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)
The presence of Christ in the soul
Some men have called this doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the soul mystical and untrue. I only know that if it be so, the Bible is mystical and untrue, for the Saviour and His apostles assert it again and again in words which cannot be explained away. They speak little of motives or influences; they speak plainly of man being inspired by the actual contact of God, through the Eternal Spirit. It only seems mystical because we are so prone to fancy that we can explain spiritual processes by outer motives and influences. But what are the motives, what are the influences, which change a man’s nature? They are only the words by which we feebly express the great mystery of the real touch of God. All creation seems to me to confirm this spiritual truth. We are driven to believe in the present action of God in the world. We speak of law, but law is only a phrase by which we hide our ignorance. What we call law is the act of God. The seed bursts into life not by dead laws, but the Eternal finger touches it, and it lives. The stars burn, not by dead laws; God’s glory smites them, and they light the firmament. The earth moves, not by dead laws; God’s arm propels it, and it rolls on its destined path through the untravelled infinity of space. And if the eternal power of the present God thus blooms in the flower, glows in the stars, and is seen in the majestic march of worlds, shall we not much rather believe that the real Spirit of the living Christ is in actual contact with the soul when, crucified with Him, it wakes to a life of immortal beauty? This, then, is the life springing from self-crucifixion--Christ in the soul, forming it into a new creature. Until the old life has perished He cannot live there, for only when the forces of the carnal nature are destroyed can His holy presence dwell within. I cannot describe it, but you may know it. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)
The Christian’s communion with the death and life of Christ
Peculiar language. One clause seems to contradict another. Yet no real contradiction; but strikingly suitable language to express the mysteries of faith respecting Christ’s union with His people, and their consequent participation of the benefits of His sufferings and death.
I. The believer’s crucifixion with Christ, or his communion with Him in His death. The meaning is: “The ends of Christ’s crucifixion are accomplished in me.”
1. Believers are crucified with Christ, in virtue of their legal union to Him as their Head of righteousness. Christ and His people are as one body, one mass; He the Sanctifier, and they the sanctified, are all one.
2. Really and spiritually crucified with Him, through union to Him as their Head of living and quickening influence.
II. The believer’s life in Christ, or communion with Him in His life.
1. He is invested with a righteousness commensurate to all the demands of the Divine law.
2. With respect to his sanctification also, it may be said that the believer lives--yet not he, but Christ lives in Him.
3. With respect to the life of consolation and glory, it may be said that it is not the believer who lives, but Christ lives in him.
III. The influence of faith in maintaining this life.
1. Faith as the means of our union with Christ, is necessary to our communion with Him, both in His righteousness and His grace.
2. By faith our communion with Christ is carried on, in our receiving of all His benefits.
3. Faith is the means of the spiritual life, as it terminates on the promises, the apprehension of which has so powerful an influence both on our peace and our purity (2 Corinthians 7:1; Psalms 27:13-14).
4. Faith is the means of the spiritual life, as by bringing eternal things near, it counterbalances the temptations and terrors of the world (1 John 5:5; Hebrews 11:1-40.).
5. Faith is the means of the spiritual life, as it supplies from its contemplation of the love of Christ fresh motives to obedience and patience (2 Corinthians 5:14).
6. As it refers to the authority of Christ’s law, and enables the Christian to perceive the reasonableness even of the most difficult of His precepts, as well as the awful responsibility under which he lies to Christ’s judgment (2 Corinthians 5:9-11; Hebrews 11:6).
7. Faith, by making the Christian habitually conversant with spiritual objects and motives of conduct, gives a spiritual character even to the common actions and enjoyments of this natural life. (M. Willis.)
Crucified with Christ
This extremely bold, startling, and paradoxical assertion of the apostle, is a metaphorical, pictorial statement of a great spiritual truth, about all really Christian life. Every genuine Christian, who is really united to Christ by living faith, has been crucified with Christ; and since he still lives, his life thereafter is the life of Christ in him.
I. The context will furnish us with the first ray of the light we seek. St. Paul is combating an error subversive to Christianity itself, viz., ritualism. He declares that if you go back to that--to the old notion that by deeds you can be justified--you are going back again to law, and have left Christ behind,
II. What is the universal spiritual truth represented by these images--“dead with Christ,” “Christ living in us”? If you have really gone to God with the prayer and hope of faith, resting on the propitiation of Christ, you have died to sin. It is as if you had been crucified with Christ. It may be that your Christian history contains no moment of mighty conscious change; that your change took place by slow and imperceptible degrees, more like education than conversion. In that case, it would not be likely that you should feel this great truth about yourself as Paul felt it. Your death to sin may have been less like a crucifixion, a sudden, painful, yet blissful, inevitably conscious severance from it, than like a slow, lingering, almost painless process; like a disease whose stages of advance could never be marked by hours or days. But still it is true of you; if you be hoping in God through Jesus Christ our Lord, you have been crucified with Christ to that huge guilt of which law, just and holy law, convicted you; and having thus died to it, you have no more to fear from it. God has severed it and you. And it is now for you to recognize the grand truth, and rejoice in it.
III. This crucifixion has respect to something else than the previous guilt or debt to Divine law. Sin is not merely an external thing; an ever-accumulating mass of wrong deeds and words, of omissions and neglects. All these are the results of what we are. The seat of sin is in the soul. The working of the evil element has produced evil habits and tendencies. These must be eradicated. The old nature has to be mortified, crucified; and in its place Christ is to reign. (G. W. Conder.)
The old life and the new
Think of a man who is living to himself, without any thought of God, or any earnest endeavour to serve or please Him. Living to gratify only his own tastes, passions, desires, and none else’s. Self-interest his law, self-love his inspiration, self-satisfaction his end and aim, self his god. This is the man. Not the caricature of him--his faithful portrait. If he be not living unto God, he must be that; there is no alternative. Look well at him as such. Scan him closely for an instant more, a man whose whole principle, law, motive, aim, end, is self. And now, see him again, emerging, as it were, from Christ’s sepulchre with Christ, his hand in his Saviour’s, yielding to the loving entreaty of the Lord to come hopefully to God; to confess his sin, and be pardoned. How completely altered his mien! How relaxed that stiff unbending erectness which formerly marked him! How softened down that stern unlovely expression which spoke from his every feature. Surely the proud, harsh, unyielding spirit of self must have been outcast from him, left behind him in the grave of Christ. It is not the same man. God! God’s law! ,God’s favour! tits anger, His pardon, His help and guidance, that used to be nothing to him, are everything to him now. If he could, he would so grave that law in him as that its force could never depart from him. If he might, he would stay there for ever gazing on God, never to look at anything else, lest he should sin again. (G. W. Conder.)
Christ in the soul
Hear the testimony of one who has experienced this. He says to you, “You know my former life. It was I who lived then. It was my ideas, my wishes, my passions, my tastes, which moved me then. But it is not so now. I have seen Christ, I have heard Him, have begun to love Him, and He is to me, in addition to being my glorious and living Friend outside-me, with whom I can converse and to whom I can pray, also a living system of truths, a living revelation of Divine ideas. Truth has laid hold of me by Him; has entered into me; has won my approbation, my choice, aye, my intense desire. Eternity touches me by Him. Law attracts, governs me through Him. God is very near to me in Him. Man is more beautiful and great to me in Him. He is the portrait of what I may be, and desire to be. I see obstacles overcome in Him. Hope fills me from Him. Holiness begins to suffuse me from Him. He is all in all to me. And so my new life is no longer that self-prompted thing it once was. It is, though still my life, because I choose and love it, nevertheless all of it derived, drawn, inspired from Christ. ‘I live--nevertheless not I, but Christ liveth in me.’” (G. W. Conder.)
The part of faith in the new life
And now you will see what part faith plays in the matter. Obviously it is the connecting link betwixt that Incarnate Truth and my inner self. Here is a man who once did not see, and therefore could not believe it. And he had no Divine life in him--nothing but what was perishable; all of it, its joys, hopes, attainments--perishable. But, he came at last to see, aye, to believe. The record, the saying, the preaching, was fact in his esteem. And immediately--as the fluid flies along the galvanic wire when it has contact--immediately, by the contact of a living faith, a faith of the heart, the influence, the vitalizing, Divine force of that truth begins to flood his being, and he begins to live a life that shall never rile. (G. W. Conder.)
Faith and the spiritual life
I. The nature of faith
1. As described in the Bible.
2. As defined by theological writers.
3. As elucidated by familiar illustrations.
II. The relation of faith to the spiritual life.
1. It is a realizing grace.
2. It is a strengthening grace.
3. It is a receiving grace.
4. It is a uniting grace. (George Brooks.)
The spiritual life
The apostle had said before, that “we are justified by faith alone, and not by the works of the law;” and that a believer was crucified with Christ. Now, says he, this doctrine that I have preached unto you, is no way opposite unto our spiritual life, or unto our holiness; yet, now I live, or “nevertheless I live.”
I. Every true believer, every godly, gracious man, is a living man, lives a spiritual life, is in the state of life (John 6:40; John 6:47-48; John 6:54-55).
1. What is this spiritual life?
(1) It is a supernatural perfection (Ephesians 4:18).
(2) It rises from our union with Christ by the Spirit.
(3) It is that supernatural perfection whereby a man is able to act, and move, and work towards God as his utmost and last end.
2. Whereby may it appear, that every godly, gracious man, is thus a living man, made partaker of this spiritual life, so as to be able to act, and move, and work towards God as his utmost end?
(1) Take the life of plants and herbs, or of flowers; and what is the essential property of the vegetative life? It is to grow. So with saints; they grow in grace (Psalms 84:7; Romans 1:27; 2 Corinthians 3:18).
(2) What is the essential property of the sensitive life, of the life of beasts and birds? To be sensible of good or evil suitable to it. This is found also in saints (Romans 7:23-24).
(3) What is the essential property of the life of reason? To understand, to know, and to reflect on a man’s own actions. This distinguishes a man from a beast. Every godly, gracious man, especially, has this power. So, then, take the argument in the whole, and it lies thus: If a godly, gracious man have all the essential properties of those three lives, in a spiritual way and manner, then certainly he is in the state of life, and doth lead a spiritual life.
3. But how does it appear that others are not in this state of life?
(1) He that believeth not is spiritually dead (John 3:36; John 5:40).
(a) If we be alive indeed, and made partakers of this spiritual life, why then should we not live at a higher rate than the world do, which have none of this life?
(b) If we be alive indeed, and made partakers of this spiritual life, why should our hearts run after the things of the world, so as to feed on them as our meat, to be satisfied with them?
(c) If we be alive indeed, why is our communion and fellowship together no more living? A living coal warms.
II. Our justification by faith alone is no enemy, but a real friend to our spiritual life. How comes this to pass?
1. The more a man forsakes any good thing of his own for Christ, the more Christ is engaged to give a man His good things. There is no losing in losing for Jesus Christ.
2. God never causes any man to pass under any relation, without giving him the ability needed for its duties.
3. The more a man agrees with God and the law, the more fit he is to walk with God and observe the law.
4. Faith establishes a man in the covenant of grace. (W. Bridges.)
Fellowship with the Redeemer’s death
This must be taken in connection with two other texts in this crucifixion Epistle, viz., 5:24, and 6:14. The three together exhibit--
I. The order.
II. The characteristics.
III. The perfection of personal religion as fellowship with the Redeemer’s death.
I. The sinner, condemned by the law, makes the sacrifice of the great Substitute his own, and is, therefore, legally released from its penalty.
II. The flesh, or the old man remaining in the pardoned believer, is hanged up, and delivered to death in the same mystical fellowship.
III. The saint glorying in Christ crucified as the ground of his acceptance, and the source of his sanctification, is crucified with Rim to the world and all created things that belong not to the new creation. Let us read these words, where they were written, at the foot of the Cross. (W. B. Pope, D. D.)
The Christian’s crucifixion with Christ
I. Christ crucified.
1. A great mystery.
2. The way to glory.
(1) For Christ.
(2) For us.
3. The ground of our highest glorying.
II. Paul crucified.
1. Sin has a body (Romans 7:24; Colossians 3:5.).
2. Sin and grace cannot co-exist any more than life and death.
3. Kill your runs or they will kill you.
4. And this not only in the matter of notorious crimes, but in the whole carriage of your lives.
5. Thus to be a Christian is a serious thing.
6. Afflict not so much your bodies as your souls.
III. Paul crucified with Christ.
1. Many are crucified, but not with Christ.
(1) The covetous and ambitious man with the world.
(2) The envious man by his own thoughts: Ahithophel’s cross.
(3) The desperate man with his own distrust: Judas’s cross.
(4) The superstitious man.
(5) The felon and justly: the cross of the two malefactors.
2. Paul was crucified with Christ.
(1) In partnership. Christ s crucifixion is re.acted in us.
(a) In His agony, when we are afflicted with God’s displeasure against sin.
(b) In His scourging, when we tame our flesh with holy severity.
(c) In His crowning with thorns, when we bear reproaches for His name.
(d) In His affixion, when all our powers are fastened to his royal commandments.
(e) In His transfixion, when our hearts are branded with Divine love.
(2) In person.
(a) As in the first Adam all lived and then died, so in the second Adam all die and are made alive.
(b) Our real union with Christ makes His Cross and Passion ours.
(c) Every believer may comfort himself that having died with Christ he shall not die again. (Bishop Hall.)
Life in Christ
I. Christ dwelling by faith in the heart becomes the principle of a new life.
II. From this life, as an inexhaustible fountain, the believer draws to the supply of his wants and fruitfulness in well doing.
III. What properly distinguishes the believer’s life in the flesh and makes it what it is, is its being kept in perpetual fellowship with Christ.
IV. The recognition of the truth that as dying and atoning Jesus becomes a source of new life runs out into appropriating confidence. (Principal Fairbairn.)
Death and life
I. Death by sin.
1. Its guilt makes us liable to condemnation.
2. Its filth, which makes us odious.
3. Its punishment, which is death eternal.
II. The tree of life affords the antidote to sin.
1. The life of justification. The righteousness of Christ, cancelling the obligations of the law, frees us from the first.
2. The life of sanctification, which is Christ in us.
3. The life of joy and cheerfulness, which makes us more than conquerors. (T. Adams.)
Christian enthusiasm
I. Christian enthusiasm is possible under great natural disadvantages.
II. This enthusiasm must be maintained by continued faith in Christ.
III. It is heightened by the consciousness of the personal love of Christ.
IV. It is gloriously aroused by thankfulness to God for His unspeakable gift.
V. The Christian feels free to serve Christ enthusiastically because Christ has borne the penalty due to sin.
VI. Christian enthusiasm, so far from crushing individuality and independence, emphasizes them.
VII. It overpowers unhealthy self-consciousness.
VIII. The source of it all is the indwelling Christ. (C. Stanford, D. D.)
Paradoxes
I. Christian existence is a death and yet a life.
II. The believer lives and yet he does not live.
III. The believer’s life is a life in the flesh, but nor according to the laws of the flesh. (T. Hamilton, A. M.)
The life of faith
may be considered with respect to--
I. Its object, the promises of the new covenant as--
1. Our justification.
2. Sanctification.
3. The supplies of the present life.
4. Everlasting blessedness.
II. Its trials, or the evils that seem to infringe the comfort of the promises.
1. Afflictions.
2. Temptations.
III. Its effects, as--
1. Holy duties and exercises of grace.
2. The ordinances by which it is fed and increased, as the Word, prayer, and sacraments.
3. The duties of charity, of public and private relations, as honouring God, in our generation and callings. (T. Hamilton, A. M.)
The faith of the Son of God
So called because--
I. He is the revealer of it (John 1:17).
II. He is the author of it (Hebrews 12:2).
III. He is the object of it. (T. Adams.)
An idyll of the Divine life
I. Its personal interest.
II. The burthen of it.
III. Its inspiring power. (A. J. Muir, M. A.)
Paul’s estimate of the religion of Christ
The living Person in whom we trust, not the system of precepts which we follow, or of dogmas which we receive, is the centre of the Christian society. The name by which religion in all subsequent times has been known is not an outward “ceremonial” (θρήσκεια) as with the Greeks, nor an outward “restraint” (religio) as among the Romans, nor an outward “law” as among the Jews; it is by that far higher and deeper title which it first received from the mouth of St. Paul, “the faith.” (Dean Stanley.)
Lent and Easter
A Lent of mortification--“I am crucified with Christ.” An Easter of resurrection--“I live, etc.” (Bishop Hall.)
Sharing Christ’s Cross
We must have our part with Christ in every part of His Cross. In the transverse, by the ready extension of our hands to all good works of piety, justice, and charity; in the arrectary, or beam, by uninterrupted perseverance in good; in the head, by an elevated hope and looking for of glory; in the foot, by a lively and firm faith, fastening our souls upon the affiance of His free grace and mercy. And thus shall we be crucified with Christ. (Bishop Hall.)
Crucifixion with Christ
The phrase carries us back to the historical scene. There Christ was crucified with two thieves. Jesus was crucified with us, that we might be crucified with Him. He entered into our pain that we might enter into His peace. He shared the shame of the thieves, that Paul might share His glory. This double truth was manifest at the time of Christ’s suffering. You remember the penitent thief, as their crosses were lifted side by side, he saw Christ entering into his wretchedness. Before the feeble tortured breath had left the body, he had entered into Christ’s glory. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)
The power of the Cross
The other night a friend of mine witnessed a drunken brawl. There was a man there who continued in the brawl, and his wife came out of the crowd and said: “I will go and fetch baby to him; that will bring him out if anything will.” Ah! she was a philosopher, though she did not know it. She wanted to get to the deepest part of the man’s nature. She did not talk of policemen and prison; she wanted to bring the innocent one before him, as much as to say, “Will you make a thorny couch for this little one to lie upon? Will you forge a dagger with which to pierce this little one’s heart?” And in a measure she came in the spirit of the gospel; for the gospel comes to make us hate sin by showing that another suffered and died for it. (C. Vince.)
Life in Christ
This is a striking” point of union,, between Paul and John; the Pauline form of “He that hath the Son hath life.” (W. B. Pope, D. D.)
As the mistletoe, having no root of its own, both grows and lives in the stock of the oak, so the apostle, having no root of his own, did live and grow in Christ. As if he had said, “I live, I keep a noble house, am given to hospitality, but at another’s cost, not at mine own. I am beholden to Christ. I have not a farthing of mine own. He carrieth the pack for me, and gives out to me according to my necessities.” (Surinnock.)
The immortality of life in Christ
The sun might say every morning in the spring, I am come that the earth may have life and have it more abundantly; I am come that the fields may grow, that the gardens and vineyards be more fruitful, that the beauty of the landscape may appear, that the dead may become alive, and the world be filled with joy. And the sun might add, I am the resurrection and the life; I raise the buried flowers and herbs from their graves, and cause them to live. But they perish in the autumn. The Christian shall never perish; never by annihilation, absorption, or eternal misery. (Thomas Jones.)
The progressiveness of the life of Christ
Man was made to grow. To stand still in the course of nature is to die. When the force that raised the mountain to its height had ceased, that moment the mountain began to sink again; when the tree stops growing it begins to decay; when the human body has attained its perfection, when the tide of growth has reached its highest mark, it begins to recede. But the life that Christ gives means everlasting progress in knowledge, love, usefulness, and bliss. (Thomas Jones.)
Paul’s flesh
It was hard for an enthusiast to live in flesh like Paul’s. He suffered so much from his eyes that the rough Galatians felt so much for him that they would have been willing to give him their own. He suffered so much from his hands, that when his great heart was full, and he longed to dash off a missionary letter, he was unable to hold a pen. He suffered so much from shattered nerves, that his first appearance among strangers was “in weakness, fear, and much trembling.” Who can always be calm and wise and bold, have a commanding presence, and secure a fascinated silence, when he always works in weakness, when pain is ever crashing through the sensibilities, when the smallest frictional touch can sting the life to agony. (Thomas Jones.)
Strong in Christ
Plant the tenderest sapling in the ground, and all the elements of nature shall minister to its wants. It shall feed upon the fatness of the earth, its leaves shall be wet with dew, it shall be refreshed with the showers of spring, and the warmth of summer shall cause it to grow. In like manner the man who is rooted in Christ, united to Him by faith and love, shall be energized and made strong for the work which he has to do. (Thomas Jones.)
The personal love and gift of Christ
All that Christ did and suffered He did for thee as thee; not only as man, but as that particular man, which bears such and such a name; and rather than any of those whom He loves should appear naked before His Father, and so discover the scars and deformities of their sins, Christ would be content to do and suffer as much as He hath done for any one particular man yet. But beyond infinite there is no degree; and His merit was infinite because both an infinite Majesty resided in His person, and because an infinite Majesty accepted His sacrifice for infinite. (John Donne, D. D.)
Life in the flesh
When Paul and his companions were shipwrecked at Melita, the apostle set to work like other people to gather fuel for the fire. Even so you and I must take our turn at the wheel. We must not think of keeping ourselves aloof from our fellow-men as though we should be degraded by mingling with them. We are men, and whatever men may lawfully do we may do; wherever they may go we may go. Our religion makes us neither more nor less than human, though it brings us into the family of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Luther’s motto
Luther’s motto was, Vivit Christus, Christ liveth. How to use life:--Two friends gathered each a rose; the one was continually smelling at it, touching its leaves, and handling it as if he could not hold it too fast; you do not wonder that it was soon withered. The other took his rose, enjoyed its perfume moderately, carried it in his hand for a while, then put it on the table in water, and hours after it was almost as fresh as when it was plucked from the bough. We may dote on our worldly gear until God becomes jealous of it and sends a blight upon it; and, on the other hand, we may, with holy moderateness, use these things as not abusing them, and get from them the utmost good they are capable of conveying to us. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Great love
We read in English history of the rare affection of Eleanor, wife of Edward
I. The king having received a wound by a poisoned dagger, she put her mouth to the wound to suck out the poison, venturing her own life to preserve her husband’s. But the love of Christ was greater than this. (R. B.)
Christ’s love is an individual love
The great trouble is that people take everything in general, and do not take it to themselves. Suppose a man should say to me: “Moody, there was a man in Europe who died last week, and left five million dollars to a certain individual.” “Well,” I say, “I don’t doubt that; it’s rather a common thing to happen,” and I don’t think anything more about it. But suppose he says: “But he left the money to you.” Then I pay attention; I say: “To me?” “Yes, he left it to you.” I become suddenly interested. I want to know all about it. So we are apt to think Christ died for sinners; He died for everybody, and for nobody in particular. But when the truth comes to me that eternal life is mine, and all the glories of heaven are mine, I begin to be interested. (Moody.)
The substitute
A negro of one of the kingdoms on the African coast who had become insolvent, surrendered himself to his creditor, who, according to the custom of the country, sold him for a slave. This affected his son so much that he came and reproached his father for not selling his children to pal his debts; and, after much entreaty, he prevailed on the captain to accept him, andliberate his father. The son was put in chains, and on the point of sailing to the West Indies, when the circumstances coming to the knowledge of the governor, he sent for the owner of the slaves, paid the money that he had given for the old man, and restored the son to his father. (Biblical Treasury.)
The life of faith
I. What is this faith? Faith is a grace, by which we believe God’s Word in general, and in a special manner do receive Christ, and rest upon Him for grace here and glory hereafter.
1. There is assent.
2. Consent.
3. Affiance. Resting on Christ.
II. How, and why, are we said to live by faith? Distinct graces have their distinct offices. In Scripture language we are said to live by faith, but to work by love. There must be life before operation. Now we are said to live by faith--
1. Because it is the grace that unites us to Christ.
2. Because all other graces are marshalled and ranked under the conduct of faith. It is the first stone in the spiritual building, to which all the rest are added. Without faith, virtue would languish, our command over our passions be weak, and the back of patience quite broken, and our care of the-knowledge of Divine things very small.
3. Because whatever is ascribed to faith, redounds to the honour of Christ. The worth lies in the object, as the ivy receives strength from the oak round which it winds. Faith does all, not from any intrinsic worth and force in itself; but all its power is in dependence upon Christ. We are said to live by faith, as we are said to be fed by the hand; it is the instrument.
4. Because faith removes obstructions, and opens the passages of grace, that it may run more freely. Expectation is the opening of the soul (Psalms 81:10).
III. Observations concerning this life.
1. Life must be extended, not only to spiritual duties and acts of immediate worship, but to all the actions of our natural and temporal life. A true believer sleeps, eats, drinks, in faith. Every action must be influenced by religion, looking to the promises.
2. We never act nobly in anything, till we live the life of faith.
3. We never” live comfortably, till we live by faith.
4. The life of faith is glory begun. First we live by faith, and then by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Faith now serves instead of sight and fruition (Hebrews 11:1). (T. Adams.)
Humanity in union with God
The late Bishop Ewing, writing of his friend Thomas Erskine, said, “His looks and life are better than a thousand homilies; they show you how Divine a thing humanity is, when the life we live in the flesh is that of conscious union with God.”
Real religion
Here is the whole sum of St. Paul’s experience, the heart of his heart, the gem out of which his life grew. It was this inward conviction that made him what he was. And this is the one thing the world wants. You who work for God, keep your own consciousness of His love alive; if that gets dim, your word is poverty-stricken and empty.
I. Here is real religion: the inward conviction that the son of God loved me, and gave himself for me. After seeking religion for thirty-nine years, John Wesley stands in a little room in Aldersgate-street, London, reading the Epistle to the Galatians and Luther’s notes on it; and as he reads it, he says, “I felt a strange warmth at my heart, and a blessed persuasion wrought into me, that the Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me”; and up he leapt, mighty, resistless, sweeping through this land like the flame of the fire of God. What does it avail to know all about the life of Christ, if thy heart has not got hold of Him?
1. It is not knowledge that saves. A man in the desert may die for thirst, and yet he may know all about water and its properties.
2. It is not hope that saves. You must have a right foundation for your hope.
II. There are three steps up to this.
1. Here is all majesty--“He;” and utter insignificance--“me.” “He” stands over “me,” and so redeems my life from its lowliness.
2. Here is all goodness, and all unworthiness. He draws us to His heart and tells us of His love. Claim this love, rest on it, exult in it.
3. Love alone cannot save. “He” must “give Himself for me.” Here is the condemned prisoner in his cell, and there beside him is his Friend, who loves him; and the tears are flowing down His cheeks as He says, “I am so sorry for you.” But that doesn’t loosen the fetters and open the prison doors. But look! that Friend is gone, and the door is shut, and now hark! Without the prison walls is heard the shout, “Crucify Him.” What does it mean? Now steps approach the door, and it is flung open, and the chains are knocked off. “Come forth; thou art free.” How? Why? And the man is told, “Why, He who loved thee hath given Himself for thee, and hath satisfied the claims of the law.” That is our Friend, Jesus Christ. Let the hand of thy faith claim Him now. (New Outlines.)
Christ’s love for individuals
When the Prince of Wales went over to Ireland in the spring of 1885, he went about and saw with his own eyes how poor some of the people of Dublin were. He went down to the places where they lived, and into their houses, and spoke to them, and was as kind as kind could be; and they were glad of it. For a real prince--the son of a great queen, and a prince who is to be a king himself one day if God spares him--for him to go down to the poor quarter of the city and be interested in the poor people there and be friendly with them, it was just like sunshine I And that is just what it is like when a boy or girl, a man or woman, can say these words truly, “The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” I once read of a man who was so loving, and good, and kind, that it was said he loved everybody in the “London Directory.” Now the “London Directory” is a big, big book, for there are some millions of names and addresses there, and my name is there too; and when I heard that this good man loved everybody whose name was in that directory, I supposed that he loved me too; but I confess I didn’t mind it much, for I didn’t think he could love my very self, because he didn’t know me, myself. If I had only been sure that when he saw my name he thought about me really, as any friend of mine would have done, then it would have been very different, and I would have been touched by his kindness. And that is how many people think when they say, “God so loved the world.” Of course they know He must have loved them too; but then, it is such a different thing to be loved like one in a crowd, and to be loved your very own self. Yet that is how Jesus loves us. He loves us, every one; He knows us, every one; and so we can each say truly, “He loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (J.R. Howatt.)
God’s love specific and personal
The presentation of this thought stirs up a great many doubts in those who have been exercised thereby. Men think that Paul probably was beloved, that Peter was beloved, and that many others were beloved. Men look around, and think that their mother was beloved, and that others, with superior natures and symmetrical parts, and full of moral excellences, were beloved. They can well conceive how those who draw upon their amiable feelings, might likewise excite in the Divine mind personal affection. But they say, “When men love single persons, it does not follow that they love all persons. And God loves men, doubtless; but does He love every one?” “God so loved the world,” is the comprehensive answer to that question. God loved the world, and the whole world. And the word, “world,” for its definition and boundaries, runs through all time and among all races. It included in it all individuals, from age to age. Everywhere God loved “the whole world.” “Yes,” men say, “But God loves men after He has made them loveable.” But the apostle says, “God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Love, which death tested but could not measure, was shed abroad toward each man and the whole world, without moral conditions. That is the import of what the apostle says. God’s disinterestedness is made plain, in that He loves each man, not on condition of repentance, but whether he repents or not. He loves men, not because there is that in them which has a tendency to excite complacency, but though they are sinful. He loves unlovely men. Yea, men that we could not love, God loves. And His love is not generic. It is not a part of the governmental benevolence: It is individualized both ways--in the heart of God, and in the heart of the recipients. It is God’s nature to love what His eye looks upon. Every human being, whether good or bad, God loves. I do not say that it makes no difference to God whether men are good, or whether they are bad, but I do say that the great crowning fact of Divine love has no respect of character--that it precedes character, and is not founded upon it. To be sure, the benefit of that love to us depends very largely upon our faith, and upon our repentance, but the existence of the Divine personal love does not depend on us in anywise. It is--if I may apply to God language which belongs to men--the constitutional nature of God. It is the tendency of His attributes. Love is the test of Divinity. It carries with it a great many other things. It carries with it in God the conception of purity, and of uprightness, and of integrity of disposition, and of justice, and of truth. It carries with it, also, the full idea of instrumentality--both penalty and reward, pleasure and pain. And back of all these, as the root-ground out of which they spring, as the source from which they come, as the animating influence which runs through them all, is love. And that love is personal to us. It is Divine, infinite; and yet it touches each one by name throughout the whole realm.
1. The love of God is the one truth which nature, as it is developed by matter alone, cannot teach us. It is one of the most profound pieces of speculation, how there can be a moral government, and yet so much suffering and power of evil in this world. The world has been the stumbling-block of thoughtful men from the beginning.
2. This truth of the Divine love is the one truth through which nature looks, beyond all others in our apprehension, in our systems of theology, and in our preaching. Though men speak of the love of God, there are comparatively few who have that crowning knowledge of it which indicates that it is genuine, deep, certain, abiding. We think that if we fix ourselves up a little, God will perhaps love us. A man is in deep distress, and there is a great heart in the neighbourhood, and he is told that if he will go and tell that great heart what his mistakes have been, and what his misfortunes are, that great heart will certainly relieve him. And instantly he begins to think of himself, and to fix himself to go to that great heart, covering up his rags the best way he can, and hiding his elbows so that they shall not be seen, and putting a little touch on his shoes that are clouted and ruptured; and then goes in. But do you suppose it makes any difference to that great heart to whom he goes, that his clothes are a little less dirty, or that they have a few less patches on them, or that his shoes are a little less soiled or torn? It is the man behind the clothes that the benevolent heart thinks of. It is not what the needy man is, but what the benefactor is, that determines what he will do. Why does he take that man into his compassion, and say to him, “Come again?” Does he do it because of what he sees in the man? or because of what he feels in himself? Why does a bird sing? because he thinks you would like to hear him? No; but because there is that in him which tickles him and fires him till he has to sing. He sings to bring joy out of himself. He sings because it is his nature to sing. A music-box does not play because you say, “Do play”; nor because you say, “It is exquisite and charming.” It does not care for your compliments and comments. And so it is with the Divine nature. That is the way God is made--if I may use human language in application to the Divine nature. That is being God. And yet how few there are who think of God as generously as He thinks of them! We have attempted to build a theology which shall prevent men from going wrong. But God Himself never prevented a man’s going wrong; and you will never do it. What we want in that direction is to get an influential conception of God; and our theology must bring God out in such lines, in such lineaments, and in such universal attractiveness, that men shall follow their yearnings and drawings, rather than their cold reasonings and intellections. One would think to hear theologians reasoning about God and the methods of salvation, and the motives of Divine procedure, that He was a fourth-proof lawyer judge, and that He sat surrounded by infinite volumes of statutes and laws, running back to eternity, and running forward to eternity; and that in every case of mercy He said, “Let Me consider first. Does it agree with the statute?” When a poor sinner comes to Him, undone, wretched, miserable, has He to consult His books to see whether he can be saved so as not to injure the law, saying, “Let us examine the law, to see if it will do to save him”? Oh I away with this pedantic judge. Such a judge is bad enough in the necessities of a weak earthly government, and is infinitely shameful when brought to the centre of the universe, and deified, There I behold God, flaming with love, backward and forward, either way, filling infinite space with the magnitude and blessedness of His love; and, if some questioning angel asks, “How shalt Thou save and keep the law?” I hear Him saying in reply, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, My own will, My own impulse, My own desire, My own heart--that shall guide Me. What are laws, and what are governments, and what is anything compared with a sentient Being? I am law, and I will govern.” In our preaching I think we fall just as much behind as we do in our personal experience and our theology. The influence of Divine love has not been the real central working power of the ministry. It is that which melts the heart, it is that which encourages hope, it is that which inspires courage, it is that which cleanses, that is needed. Fear does but very little. Fear may start a man on the road to conversion; but fear never converted a man. Truth does something. It shows the way, it opens a man’s eyes; but simple truth, mere intellection, never converted a man. No man’s heart ever grew rich, no man’s heart ever had a God-touch in it, until he had learned to see God as one whom he loves. (H. W. Beecher.)
The supreme faith
The great special faith is that by which a soul, beholding Christ who is altogether lovely and loving, realizes it, or takes Him home to itself, and says, “That is my God. He loves me. He gave Himself for me.” This is the supreme act of faith, and this saves. It brings the mind into such a condition that it instantly is in communication with God. A young man stands in a telegraph office, and along the line of the wires is the passage of electricity; and he hears the dumb ticks of the instrument; but they mean nothing to him. He looks on, as a child would look on; but still these various ticks signify nothing to his ear. But by and by the operator draws out from under the needle-point a long strip of printed paper; and it is a message from the man’s father, saying to him, “Come home.” Homesick he has been, and longing for permission to go. And oh! in one instant, in one flash, how that young man’s feeling is changed! A moment ago, as he looked on that dumb wire, it was nothing to him; but now he sees it as the instrument whose ticks have written that message from his father, “Come home.” (H. W. Beecher.)
Belief in God’s love
I know very little about God. The sum of my knowledge is this: I do believe in the Divine Being. My soul says, “Certainly there is a God”; and it says that God is paternal; and that the Divine government is a family government, and not a magisterial nor monarchical government; and that it is a personal government, generated in love, carried out in love, and to be consummated in love; and that behind the blackness, the tear, the pang, the wrong and the sin, there is to be evolved in the eternal ages the triumph of love. For everybody? I cannot measure. All I know is this: if there be one soul that at last comes short of eternal life, it will be because that soul has stood up in the very tropical atmosphere of Divine love, and that love has poured itself upon that soul without obstruction, and it was absolutely immedicable and unhealable. Only those will be lost whom love could not save; and if you are lost, it will not be because you missed a narrow switch, and just did not come out right; nor because you run off the track by being moved one-tenth part of an inch in the wrong direction; nor because you made mistakes in your faith; nor because you were unfortunate; nor because you did not do this, that, or the other thing which the churches prescribe; nor because you did not believe this, that, or the other doctrine held by the churches. You will never be God’s castaway until rivers of infinite love have been poured on you. And then, if you are not changed, ought you not to be a castaway? What those steps are, or how they are to be taken, I know not. Only this I know: love is a fact; and the Divine administration of love is a truth; and the ages are God’s. And I have more faith in what; Love will think it best to do, than in what theologians think it is best to do; and I believe God will take this great sinning, sorrowing, blood-shedding world up into His arms, and comfort it as a mother comforts her sorrowing children. And I believe that sighing shall flee away, that God will wipe all tears from men’s eyes, and that all the sorrows which have made the earth wretched in days gone by, He will, in His own way, and according to His own good pleasure, medicate; so that at last the universal Father, with the universal household, shall sit central in the universe, God over all, blessed and blessing for evermore. (H. W. Beecher.)
Holy inclination to Christ
We must give our understandings to know God, our wills to choose God, our imaginations to think upon God, our memories to remember God, our affections to fear, trust, love, and rejoice in God, our ears to hear God’s word, our tongues to speak God’s praise, our hands to work for God, and all our substance to the honour of God. As everything moves towards its proper centre, and is at no rest until it comes to that: so doth the sanctified soul incline and move to Christ, the true centre of the soul, and resteth not until it comes to Christ, and has the fruition of Christ. There is in a gracious soul such a principle of grace, such a communication of Christ, such a suitableness between the soul and Christ, such a fervent and operative love towards Christ, such a vehement longing after Christ, that it mightily moves to Christ as the rivers to the sea; that nothing but Christ can answer it, quiet and content it. There is in the soul such a blessed residence, such a powerful and gracious energy, and operation of the Spirit of Christ, that as the wheels in Ezekiel’s vision moved wheresoever the living creatures moved, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels: so the soul moves after Christ, because the Spirit of Christ is in the soul; this makes it pant after Christ, as the hart after the water-brooks; this makes it thirst for Christ, as the dry ground for waters; this makes it follow hard after Christ, as the child with cries and tears after the father going from it. The soul denies all, leaves all, passes through all, prostrates itself and all that it has under Christ, that it may enjoy Christ; it hates all that hinders its coming to Christ, and embraces all that may further its communion with Christ. (A. Gross, B. D.)
Care to see Christ living in us
As Christ lives in all God’s children, so let all that profess Christ, and call God Father, see and discern Christ living in them. This is the crown and comfort of a Christian--to have Christ living in him; and without this he has but the naked and empty name of a Christian, like an idol that has the name of a man, and is no man: a name that he lives, and yet is dead. Feel Christ, therefore, living in your understanding, by prizing the knowledge of Christ above all learning, by determining to know nothing in comparison of knowing Christ and Him crucified, by learning Christ as the truth is in Him, being filled-with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Feel Christ living in your will, in making your will free to choose and embrace Him and the things of God, to intend and will Him and the glory of God above everything, making His will the rule of your will, and fashioning and framing you to be a willing people in and about His work and service. Feel Him living in your imaginations, by thinking upon Him with more frequency and delight than of any other thing, by having more high, honourable, and sweet apprehensions of Christ, than of all the creatures. Feel Christ living in your affections, by being rooted in Christ by a lively faith, as a tree in the earth; by fearing Christ above all earthly powers, as the subject his sovereign, above all civil rulers; by loving Him, as the bride the bridegroom, above all other persons; by rejoicing in Him, as the rich man in his jewel, above all the residue of his substance. Feel Him living in your members, by circumcising and preparing your ears to hear with meekness and reverence, by returning to your tongues a pure language, that your speech may minister grace to the hearers, by restraining your eyes from beholding vanity, by disposing your hands to work that which is good, and by making your feet swift to every good duty. As you discern your soul living in your human body, moving all the members to human services, so discern Christ living in your bodily members, disposing and framing them to religious duties. Feel Christ living in all your services, as the chief worker of them, and enabler of you to do them, doing all in His name, by His assistance, and for His glory. Feel Christ living in the prayer which you make, praying by the Spirit of Christ, in the name of Christ, and for the honour of Christ. Feel Christ hying in the Word which you hear, making it an immortal seed to regenerate you, a sacred fire to purge you, a heavenly light to guide you, and a message of peace to comfort you. Feel Christ living in the sacrament which you receive, making it a celestial manna feeding you; a seal of righteousness, assuring you of your justification; an obligation binding you to new obedience; and a pledge of God’s unchangeable love towards you. All holy ordinances, if Christ live not in them, show not Himself powerful by them, are but an empty shell without kernel, and a dry breast without milk, ministering no nourishment. All the religious duties we perform, if Christ live not in them, are but a sacrifice without fire, a dead carcase, of no esteem with God. Our affections, if Christ live not in us, are a chariot without wheels; they sink and fall into the earth, they cannot incline nor move towards the Lord. All our best abilities, if Christ live not in them, are as standing waters without a living spring; they putrify, and rot, and prove unprofitable. If Christ live not in us, our understandings are blinded, and we cannot savingly know God; our will is enthralled, and we cannot intend God; our faith, like Jeroboam’s arm, is withered, and we cannot lay hold upon the promise of God. The whole sufficiency of a Christian is from Christ’s living in him. (A. Gross, B. D.)
The believer’s life
The Christian life is full of paradoxes. The crucified lives; and yet the life is peculiar. “Not I, but Christ liveth in me.”
I. The believer’s life is unlike what it used to be.
1. Once it was a weary captivity under sin.
(1) Then it was a wretched struggle against Satan.
(2) Then it was a wild complaint against self.
2. But the changed life grew out of the altered ideas.
(1) Christ loved me. That was the dawn of hope.
(2) Christ for me! That became the plea of faith.
(3) Christ gave Himself! That was found to be the secret and the stimulant of love.
II. The believer’s life is still human life.
1. It has the sorrows to which flesh is heir.
2. It has the temptations to which flesh exposes.
3. It has the duties which flesh entails.
III. The believer’s life is by faith of the son of God.
1. Faith in His prevailing advocacy at the Throne.
2. Faith in His abiding sympathy in the world.
3. Faith in His directing wisdom on the soul.
4. Faith in His sustaining help under the soul.
5. Faith in His certain return for soul and body.
But if such things are, then--
(1) Christian life must be conspicuous among other modes of living.
(a) It will be a devoted life.
(b) It will be an imitative life.
(c) It will be an appreciative life.
(d) It will be an expectant life.
(2) If this be Christian life, is it mine?
(i) There ought to be the memory of a break, with the world, into light and liberty,
(ii) There ought to be the consciousness of a union.
(a) The heart cleaving to Christ.
(b) The conscience grasping the pardon.
(c) The will choosing the service.
(d) The soul filled with the peace.
(iii) There will be acceptance of the conditions of the life.
(a) Willing to wait.
(b) Determined to testify.
(c) Prepared to follow.
(d) Meaning to triumph.
(e) Bound to love. (The Clergyman’s Magazine.)
To prove that faith is an excellent way of living
1. It is a singular way of living.
2. It is a substantial way of living; to live in faith is to live indeed.
3. It is a noble way of living.
4. It is a most sweet and comfortable way of living; joy and peace come in by believing.
5. It is a safe way of living; like a bird while he is in the air is safe from snares.
Use
1. To those that are yet strangers to this way of living by faith, pray to God to bring you acquainted with it. Many do live by sense, walking after their own hearts’ lusts.
2. To those that, acquainted with it, abound in it more and more. It is but a little while that we are to live by faith, then we come to vision and fruition, then we shall see Him in whom we have believed; faith and prayer shall be no more, and God shall be all in all to eternity. (Philip Henry.)
“I live; yet not!: but Christ liveth in me”
The broad leaf of the garden vegetable lifted sunward, is fed by the sun’s rays; the sun so grows into it and becomes pair of it, that the very sunlight could be chemically extracted from it in the form of carbon, and it would hardly be unscientific to say, “It lives, yet not it, but the sun liveth in it.” (Canon Wilberforce.)
Crucifixion with Christ and its results
I. The chief event and circumstance in Paul’s history. “I am (or have been) crucified with Christ.” The apostle’s reflections upon the arguments already given, threw him back upon this as the starting-point in his religious experience. In the contemplation of this he knew what had led to the death of Christ, as far as that event was determined by human purpose. Christ had assailed the traditionalism of the Jews--had exposed their hypocrisy--had exalted the spiritual law above the ceremonial. These works of His, combined with His lofty and sublime claims as the Son of God, led the Jews to resolve upon His death. This was the truth on the human side. On the Divine side, according to the revelation made to St. Paul, Christ suffers for our sins--He was delivered for our offences. But He not only dies for sins--He died to sin: “In that He died, He died unto sin once.” The conflict with sin ended upon the cross. The risen Saviour knew no temptation. Now Paul, by a union of which he afterwards speaks, felt that in Christ’s death he also died. “He has been planted--in the likeness of His death.” Thus, so profound was his fellowship with Christ--so intimate was that bond that bound him to the Saviour--that in reference to the actual sufferings and death of the Redeemer, he could say: “I am crucified with Christ.” This was the permanent thought in Paul’s mind. So in all Christian life of the same type. It has its origin in what the world regards with shame and contempt. Being dead with Christ is one of the first principles of His doctrine.
II. This “crucifixion” determined Paul’s relation to the law, and originated and directed a new life. The 19th verse has an intimate and essential connection with the first clause in the 20th verse. Hence--
1. His relationship to the law. “I through the law am dead to the law.” The law, whether regarded in its highest moral character, or in its mere ceremonial requirements, had demanded of Paul that which he could never render. None had ever tried more sincerely, more arduously, than had Paul. But at the end of all there was the most apparent failure. The law viewed in the light of the Cross had shown him the futility of his efforts. The law became his schoolmaster to lead him to Christ, but from that moment he had parted company with it as the means of justification. The law by itself, whether moral or ceremonial, had no further attraction for him; and so complete wag the separation between him and it, that he could say, that being crucified with Christ he had died to the law. His most intimate acquaintance with the law had shown him that salvation could never be obtained through it. “Through law he died to law.”
2. This crucifixion was the beginning of a new life--“Nevertheless I live.” As the Saviour’s crucifixion was followed by His entrance into a new and higher life, so was it with Paul. He had been buried with Christ, but he had also been planted in the likeness of His resurrection. This life was Christ in him--“Christ liveth in me.”
3. Paul had, through crucifixion with Christ, received direction in this new life.
It was--
1. A life unto God (verse 19). Thus was it in the resurrection of the Saviour--“In that He liveth, He liveth unto God.” So with the believer. He has died unto law and sin, that he may live unto God. This is the end and aim of the Christian life--“To know Thee, the only true God.”
2. A life of faith. Faith in the Son of God. Not belief in a law merely, but in a Person, and that Person the Divine Redeemer.
3. A life in which love and selfsacrifice are ruling principles. Paul distinctly recognizes the character and work of the Saviour--“Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” These principles are reproduced in, and are continuous with, Christian life. The surrender of Christ produces in His people a similar devotion, and the love of Christ creates an undying affection.
4. A life in which there is no condemnation. This is the meaning of the last verse--“I do not frustrate the grace of God,” etc. I have not this condemnation, but the assurance that in me the death of Christ has accomplished its purpose. Those who seek righteousness by the law treat with disrespect the provision of God, for if they could obtain justification by obedience to law, then the death of Christ was unnecessary. But the Christian believer is in no such condemnation. He has received the grace of God, not that he may continue in sin, but be separated from it, not that he may defy God, but serve Him in holiness and righteousness. (R. Nicholls.)
The Christian crucified
I. What is it to be crucified with Christ? By this terrible crucifixion Christ became insensible to surrounding objects. He ceased to feel, hear, see, He died. Though the Christian is not thus literally crucified with Christ, he is so spiritually. Hence he becomes dead to the law, world, and to sin; dead to human pride, pleasures, and degraded passions. Though Christ was in the flesh, He did not live the life of the flesh. His visible crucifixion on Calvary was only a sign of the spiritual crucifixion within.
II. How is this crucifixion effected?
1. The power. The spirit of grace in the heart is the power that effects it.
2. The instrument. Faith is the hand that grasps the hammer, drives the nails, and deals a deadly blow to the “old man.”
3. The manner. This act of spiritual crucifying is most thoroughly effected. It is a complete work. The whole man is crucified; the will, understanding, affections, desires, delights. Every prayer, tear of repentance, tells upon it.
III. What is the natural result of this crucifixion with Christ?
1. Freedom from the law (Romans 7:1). “There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”
2. Deliverance from sin.
3. Fitness for usefulness. It was by His death that Christ became the life of the world.
4. Possession of real happiness. Nothing is so destructive to our true happiness as the “life of the flesh.” (J. H. Hughes.)
Nevertheless, etc. Inward life is
I. Conscious--“I live.”
II. Distinguished from natural feeling--“yet not I.”
III. Enjoyed in Christ--“Christ liveth in me.”
IV. Controls the life in the flesh.
V. Is sustained by faith. (J. Lyth.)
Faith in Christ the source of life
The faith which is the life of the soul, is not mere belief of the existence of God, and of those great moral and religious truths which are the foundation of all religion. Nor does the faith of Christ, spoken of here, mean faith in that unseen world which Christ has revealed. Nor is the truth in question either exhausted or accurately stated by saying, the faith which has this life-giving power has the whole Word of God for its object. It is, indeed, admitted that faith has respect to the whole revelation of God. It receives all His doctrines, bows to all His commands, trembles at His threatenings, and rejoices at His promises. This, however, is not the faith by which the apostle lived; or, rather, it is not those acts of faith which have the truth of God in general for their object, which gives life to the soul. The doctrine of the text and of the whole New Testament is, that the soul is saved, that spiritual life is obtained, by those acts of faith which have Christ for their object. Other things in the Word of God we may not know, and, therefore, may not consciously believe, but Christ we must know. About other things true Christians may differ, but they must all agree as to what they believe concerning Christ. He is, in such a sense, the object of faith, that saving faith consists in receiving and resting on Him alone for salvation, as He is offered to us in the gospel, it consists in receiving Christ, i.e., in recognizing, acknowledging, accepting, and appropriating Him, as He is held forth to us in the Scripture. It includes, therefore, a resting on Him alone for salvation, i.e., for justification, sanctification, and eternal life (Romans 3:21-31; Philippians 3:1-14; 1 John 5:1, etc.). The whole scheme of redemption is founded on this truth. Men are dead in trespasses and sin. They cannot be delivered from this state by any works or efforts of their own. Neither can they come to God without a Mediator. Christ is the only medium of access; therefore faith in Him is the indispensable condition of salvation.
I. We must believe that Christ is the Son of God. This includes His Divinity and Incarnation. The faith which has power to give life has the Incarnate God for its object. It contemplates and receives that historical person, Jesus Christ, who was born in Bethlehem, who lived in Judaea, who died on Calvary, as God manifest in the flesh.
1. Any other faith than this is unbelief. To believe in Christ, is to receive Him in His true character. But to regard Him who is truly God as a mere creature, is to deny, reject, and to despise Him. It is to refuse to recognize Him in the very character in which He is presented for our acceptance.
2. A Saviour less than Divine, is no Saviour. The blood of no mere man is an adequate atonement for the justification of sinners. The assurance of the gift of eternal life is mockery from any other lips than those of God. It is only because Jesus is the Lord of glory, the Son of God, God manifest in the flesh, that His blood cleanses from all sin, that His righteousness is infinite in value, sufficient to cover the greatest guilt, to hide the greatest deformity, and to secure even for the chief of sinners admission into heaven.
3. It must also be remembered that it is to the spiritually dead that God is declared to be the author of life. But no creature is life-giving. It is only He who has life in Himself that is able to give life unto others. It is because Christ is God; because all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him, that He is the source of spiritual life to us.
4. Spiritual life, moreover, supposes Divine perfection in the object on which its exercises terminate. It is called the life of God in the soul, not only because God is its source, but also because He is its object. The exercises in which that life consists, or by which it is manifested, must terminate on infinite excellence. The fear, the admiration, the gratitude, the love, the submission, the devotion, which belong to spiritual life, are raised to the height of religious affections only by the infinitude of their object.
II. We must believe that Christ loves us.
1. We must not exclude ourselves from the number of those who are the objects of Christ’s love. This is really to reject Him as our Saviour, while we admit He may be the Saviour of others. A very common form of unbelief; for unbelief it is, however it may assume the specious garb of humility. God loves His enemies--the ungodly, the polluted; and by loving makes them lovely. Alas! Did He not love us until we loved Him, we should perish in our sins.
2. We must appropriate to ourselves, personally and individually, the general assurance and promise of the love of Christ.
III. We must believe that Christ gave Himself for us, i.e., that He died for us. This again includes two things--
1. Faith in His vicarious death as an atonement for sin; and--
2. Faith in His death as a propitiation for our individual or personal sins.
Conclusion: If such be the doctrine of the text and of the Scriptures, it answers two most important questions.
1. It tells the anxious inquirer definitely what he must do to be saved. His simple duty is to believe that Jesus is the Son of God; that He loved us, and died for us; and that God for His sake is reconciled to us. Let him do this, and he will find peace, love, joy, wonder, gratitude, and devotion filling his heart and controlling his life.
2. It tells how the Divine life in the soul of the believer is to be sustained and invigorated. The clearer the views we can attain of the Divine glory of the Redeemer, the deeper our sense of His love, and the stronger our assurance that He gave Himself for us, the more of spiritual life shall we have; the more of love, reverence, and zeal; the more humility, peace, and joy; and the more strength to do and suffer in the cause of Christ. (Charles Hedge, D. D.)
Faith
True, justifying faith consists in three things.
1. Self-renunciation. Repentance and faith are both humbling graces; by repentance a man abhors himself; by faith he goes out of himself.
2. Recumbency. The soul casts itself upon Jesus Christ; faith rests on His person. The promise is but the cabinet, Christ is the jewel in it which faith embraceth. The promise is but the dish, Christ is the food in it which faith feeds on. And as faith rests on Christ’s person, so on His person under this notion, as He was crucified. Faith glories in the Cross of Christ. To consider Christ as He is crowned with all manner of excellences, doth rather stir up admiration and wonder; but Christ looked upon as bleeding and dying, is the proper object of our faith; therefore let it be called “faith in His blood.”
3. Appropriation, or the applying Christ to ourselves. A medicine, though it be ever so sovereign, yet if not applied to the wound, will do no good. The hand receiving of gold is enriched; so the hand of faith receiving Christ’s golden merits with salvation, enricheth us.
Wherein lies the preciousness of faith?
1. In its being the chief gospel grace, the head of the graces; as gold among the metals, so is faith among the graces. Love is the crowning grace in heaven, but faith is the conquering grace upon earth.
2. In its having influence upon all the graces, and setting them a-work, not a grace stirs till faith set it a-work. Did not faith feed the lamp with oil, it would soon die. Faith sets love a-work, “faith which worketh by love”; believing the mercy and merit of Christ causeth a flame of love to ascend. Faith sets patience a-work, “be followers of them, who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Faith believes the glorious rewards given to suffering. Thus faith is the master-wheel, it sets all the other graces a-running.
How does faith justify?
1. Faith doth not justify, as it is a work, that were to make a Christ of our faith; but faith justifies, as it lays hold of the object, viz., Christ’s merits. Faith doth not justify as it exerciseth grace. It cannot be denied, faith doth invigorate all the graces, it puts strength and liveliness into them, but it doth not justify under this notion. Faith works by love, but it doth not justify as it works by love, but as it applies Christ’s merits. Why should faith save and justify more than any other grace?
1. Because of God’s sanction. He hath appointed this grace to be justifying: and He doth it, because faith is a grace that takes a man off himself, and gives all the honour to Christ and free grace; “strong in faith, giving glory to God.” The king’s stamp makes the coin pass for current; if he would put his stamp upon leather as well as silver, it would make it current; so God having put His sanction, the stamp of His authority end institution upon faith, this makes it to be justifying, and saving.
2. Because faith makes us one with Christ. It is the espousing, incorporating grace, it gives us coalition and union with Christ’s person: other graces make us like Christ, faith makes us members of Christ. Let us above all things labour for faith. “Above all taking the shield of faith.” Faith will be of more use to us than any grace: as an eye though dim, was of more use to an Israelite than all the other members of his body (not a strong arm, or a nimble foot), it was his eye looking on the brazen serpent that cured him. It is not knowledge, though angelical, not repentance, though we could shed rivers of tears, could justify us: only faith, whereby we look on Christ. “Without faith it is impossible to please God;” and if we do not please Him by believing, He will not please us in saving of us. Faith is the condition of the covenant of grace; without faith, without covenant: and without covenant, without hope. Let us try whether we have faith. There is something looks like faith, and is not: a Bristol-stone looks like a diamond. Some plants have the same leaf with others, but the herbalist can distinguish them by the root, and taste. Something may look like true faith, but it may be distinguished by the fruits. Well then, how shall we know it is a true faith?
By the noble effects:
1. Faith is a Christ-prizing grace, it puts a high valuation upon Him--“to you that believe, He is precious.”
2. Faith is a refining grace--“the mystery of faith in a pure conscience.” Faith is in the soul as fire among metals: it refines and purifies. Morality may wash the outside, faith washeth the inside--“having purified their hearts by faith.” Faith makes the heart a sacristy or holy of holies. Faith is a virgin-grace, though it doth not take away the life of sin, yet it takes away the love of sin. Examine if your hearts be an unclean fountain, sending out mud and dirt, pride, envy; if there be legions of lusts in thy soul, there is no faith. Faith is a heavenly plant which will not grow in an impure soil.
3. Faith is an obediential grace--“the obedience of faith.” Faith melts our will into God’s; faith runs at God’s call. Faith is not an idle grace; as it hath an eye to see Christ, so it hath a hand to work for Him. Faith doth not only believe God’s promise, but obeys His command. And the true obedience of faith is a cheerful obedience; God’s commands do not seem grievous.
4. Faith is an assimilating grace. It changeth the soul into the image of the object; it makes it like Christ. A deformed person may look on a beautiful object, but not be made beautiful; but faith looking on Christ transforms a man, and turns him into His similitude. Looking on a holy Christ causeth sanctity of heart; looking on an humble Christ makes the soul humble. As the camelion is changed into the colour of that which it looks upon; so faith looking on Christ changeth a Christian unto the similitude of Christ.
5. By the growth of it; if it be a true faith it grows; living things grow--“from faith to faith.” How may we judge of the growth of faith?
Growth of faith is judged--
1. By strength.
2.--By doing duties in a more spiritual manner, with fervency When an apple hath done growing in bigness, it grows in sweetness. But I fear I have no faith? We must distinguish between weakness of faith and nullity; a weak faith is true. A weak faith may be fruitful. Weakest things multiply most; the vine is a weak plant, but it is fruitful. Weak Christians may have strong affections. Weak faith may be growing. (T. Watson.)
The old life and the new
If you will take Jesus Christ, and plant Him in your hearts, everything will come out of that. That tree “bears twelve manner of fruits, and yields his fruit every month.” With Christ in your hearts all other fair things will be planted there; and with Him in your heart, all evil things which you may already have planted there, will be rooted out. Just as when some strong exotic is carried to some distant land and there takes root, it exterminates the feebler vegetation of the place to which it comes: so with Christ in my heart, the sins, the evil habits, the passions, the lusts, and all other foul spawn and offspring, will die and disappear. Take Him, then, dear friend, by simple faith, for your Saviour. He will plant the good seed in your spirit, and, “instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Life by Christ alone
In the early summer of 1863 Archbishop Whately delivered his last charge, and soon after entered on the painful martyrdom that only terminated with his death. “He felt as if red-hot gimlets were being put through his leg,” and the pain steadily increased. The garden-chair; then the change from room to room; then the books that he read, had to be successively dropped. He felt his uselessness. “Have you ever preached a sermon on the text, ‘Thy will be done’?” he said to a friend one day; “how did you explain it?” When he replied, “Just so,” he said, “that is the meaning;” and added, in a voice choked with tears, “but it is hard--very hard sometimes--to say it.” Though he restrained every word of impatience while the agony he suffered brought streams of perspiration down his face, he would often pray during the night, “O my God, grant me patience!” If he was betrayed into a moment’s fretfulness he would immediately beg pardon. Some one remarked that his great mind was supporting him. “No!” he emphatically cried, “it is not that which supports me. It is trust in Christ; the life I live is by Christ alone.”
Believers are dead to the world
Plutarch saith of Themistocles, that he accounted it below his state to stoop to take up the spoils (though chains of gold) which the enemy had scattered in the way, but said to one of his followers, “Thou mayest; for thou are not Themistocles.” It is for worldly spirits, it is below the state of heaven-born spirits, to stoop to worldly things: worldlings may 1 they are not Themistocles, they are not saints. (Venning.)
The Christian indeed
I. Let us attentively observe the several characters here given us of true godliness, and see whether we have anything like them in ourselves. Says Paul: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” It has then a character of mystery, of wonder, or (shall I say?) paradox. How strange it is to see “a bush burning with fire and unconsumed”! How marvellous is it to find that the poor only are rich, the sick only are well, and that a broken heart is the greatest blessing we can possess! How surprising is it to hear persons saying, We are “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; having nothing, and yet possessing all things; as dying, and, behold, we live”--to hear a man say, “I am crucified,” though he has the use of all his limbs--crucified with Christ, though. Christ had been crucified on Calvary long before--and to add, “nevertheless I live”--then with the same breath to check himself, and deny this--“yet not I”--and to crown the whole, “Christ liveth in me,” though he was then in heaven I What unintelligible jargon is all this to the carnal mind! It has a character of mortification--“I am crucified with Christ.” The grace of God has to pull up, as well as sow; to destroy, as well as build. It has a character of life--“Nevertheless I live.” And life brings evidence along with it. “I am susceptible of spiritual joys and sorrows. I live, for I breathe prayer and praise; I live, for I feel the pulse of sacred passions; I live, for I have appetites, and do hunger and thirst after righteousness; I live, for I walk and I work; and though all my efforts betray weakness, they prove life--I live.” A real Christian is not a picture--a picture may accurately resemble an original, but it wants life: it has eyes, but it sees not; lips, but it speaks mot. A Christian is not a figure: you may take materials and make up the figure of a man, and give it the various parts of the human body, and even make them move, by wires; but a Christian is not moved in religion by machinery, but life--nothing is forced and artificial. It has a character of humility--“Yet not I.” This is the unvarying strain of the apostle. “Not by fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have our conversation in the world. By the grace of God I am what I am.” Compare with this language the sentiments of the Pagan philosophers. Take one as a specimen of the rest. Cicero says, “We are justly applauded for virtue, and in virtue we rightly glory; which would not be the case if we had virtue as the gift of God, and not from ourselves. Did any person ever give thanks to God that he was a good man? No, but we thank Him that we are rich, that we are honourable, that:ye are in health and safety.” Now this argues not only the most dreadful pride, but the grossest ignorance, and it would be easy to prove that goodness is much less from ourselves than anything else. The material creation has not such degrees of dependence upon God as the animal; the animal world has not such degrees of dependence upon God as the rational; and rational beings have not such degrees of dependence upon God as pure and holy beings. Finally, it has a Christian character--“But Christ liveth in me.” This life is indeed formally in me: I am the subject of it, but not the agent. It is not self-derived, nor self-maintained; but it comes from Him, and is so perfectly sustained by Him, that it seems better to say, not “I live,” but “Christ liveth in me.” He has a sovereign empire of grace, founded in His death, and He quickens whom He will. He is our life--not only as He procures it by redemption, but also as He produces it by regeneration; and He liveth in us as the sun lives in the garden, by His influence calling forth fragrance and fruits; or as the soul lives in the body, actuating every limb, and penetrating every particle with feeling.
II. Let us consider the grand influencing principle of this religion--“It is the faith of the Son of God.” “If you ask,” says the Christian, “how it is that I live so different from others, and so different from my former self, here is the secret.” To explain this, it will be necessary to observe that the communication of grace from Christ, to maintain the Divine life, depends on union with Him, and that of this union faith is the medium. Let me make this plain. It is well known that the animal spirits and nervous juices are derived from the head to the body; but then it is only to that particular body which is united to it. And the same may be said of the vine: the vine conveys a prolific sap, but it is exclusively to its own branches. It matters not how near you place the branches to the stock; if they are not in it, they may as well be a thousand miles off: they cannot be enlivened or fructified by it. “The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine: no more can we except we abide in Him, for without Him we can do nothing.” Now He is the head, and we are the members; He is the vine, we are the branches. And this union from which this influence flows is accomplished by faith only: “He dwells in our hearts by faith.” If faith be an eye, it is only by this we can see Him; if faith be a hand, it is only by this we can lay hold of Him.
III. This brings us to notice the confidence, the appropriation, which this religion allows. But I would intimate, first, that genuine religion always produces a concern for this appropriation. It will not suffer a man to rest in distant speculations and loose generalities, but will make him anxious to bring things home to himself, and to know how they affect him. I mean also to intimate, secondly, that a Christian may attain this confidence, and draw this conclusion. Thirdly, we would intimate that nothing can exceed the blessedness which results from such an appropriation of the Saviour in His love, and in His death. (W. Jay.)
The Divine life in the souls of men considered
St. Paul relates his own case in the text, in which you may observe these truths.
1. That believers are endowed with spiritual activity; or, that they are enabled to serve God, and perform good works. This is intimated by two expressions, “I am crucified,” and “I live”; which, though they seem contradictory, do really mean the same thing. “I live” signifies spiritual activity; a vigorous, persevering serving of God; a living unto God (as it is explained verse 19, and Romans 6:11). Such a principle or power is very significantly called life, to denote its intimacy in the soul, its vivacity, and permanency.
2. We may observe that the vital principle of holiness in believers, whereby they are enabled to serve God, is communicated to them through Christ only as a Mediator. This is also asserted in the emphatical epanorthosis, “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”; that is, spiritual life is formally in me, but it is not self-originated; it does not result from my natural principles (which are so essential to me, that I may represent them under the personal pronoun I), but was first implanted, and is still supported and cherished, by the power and grace of God through Christ; and it is in every respect so dependent upon Him, and His influence is so intimately diffused through my soul, that I may say, “Christ liveth in me.” A like expression is used in Colossians 3:3-4. “Christ is our life.”
3. We may take notice that believers receive supplies from Christ for the maintenance and nourishment of their spiritual life. The life which I now live (or, as it might be rendered more significantly, what I now live) “in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.” Nothing can be more profitable, nothing more necessary, than right notions about spiritual life.
I. Wherein spiritual life consists.
II. When it is communicated.
III. Whether it be instantaneously communicated, or gradually acquired by repeated acts.
IV. Who are the subjects of it, or in what extent is it communicated.
V. In what sense is it communicated and supported through Christ?
VI. How faith derives supplies from Him for its support and nourishment.
I. “Wherein does spiritual life consist?” This inquiry, though necessary both to inform your minds and to repel the charge of unintelligibleness, so frequently alleged against this doctrine, yet is exceeding difficult, both because of the mysteriousness of the thing in itself, and because of the blindness of the-minds of those that are not endowed with it. It is mysterious in itself, as every kind of life is. The effects and many of the properties of animal life are plain, but what animal life is in itself is an inquiry too sublime for the most philosophic and soaring mind. Now spiritual life still approaches nearer to the life of the Divine Being, that boundless ocean of incomprehensible mysteries, and consequently exceeds our capacity more than any other. But besides, such is the blindness of unregenerate souls, that they cannot receive or know the things of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:14), and therefore what is knowable by enlightened minds concerning spiritual life, cannot be apprehended with suitable clearness by them.
1. It supposes a living spiritual principle. There can be no life, no vital actions, without a vital principle, from whence they flow; e.g., there can be no animal life, no animal sensations and motions, without a principle of animal life. Now spiritual life must suppose a principle of holiness. A principle of life of any kind will not suffice; it must be particularly and formally a holy principle; for life and all its operations will be of the same kind with the principle from which they proceed. Now a holy principle is something distinct from and superadded to the mere natural principle of reason. To illustrate this matter, let us suppose a man deprived of the faculty of memory, and yet to continue rational (as he might in a low degree); according to this supposition, he will be always incapable of an act of memory, however strong his powers of perception, volition, etc., may be, till the power of exercising his reason in that particular way which is called remembering be conferred upon him. So let a sinner’s mere natural powers be ever so much refined and polished, yet, if there be no principle of spiritual life distinct from them infused, he will be everlastingly incapable of living religion. This gracious principle is called the seed of God (1 John 3:9), to intimate, that as the seed of vegetables is the first principle of the plant, and of its vegetative life, so is this of spiritual life, and all its vital acts.
2. Spiritual life implies a disposition to a holy operation, an inward propensity, a spontaneous inclination towards holiness, a willing that which is good (Romans 7:18). Every kind of life has some peculiar innate tendencies, sympathies, and antipathies: so animal life implies a natural inclination to food, to move at proper seasons, etc. There is a savour, a relish for Divine things, as essential to spiritual life as our natural gusts and relishes are to natural life. Hence gracious desires are often signified in Scripture under the metaphors of hungering and thirsting; and to this St. Peter expressly alludes, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). By virtue of this disposition, believers set their affections on things above (Colossians 3:2); they relish, they savour, they affect things above.
3. Spiritual life implies a power of holy operation. A heavenly vigour, a Divine activity animates the whole soul. It implies more than an inefficacious disposition, a dull, lazy velleity, productive of nothing but languid wishes. So every kind of life implies a power of operation suitable to its nature. Animal life (e.g.)
has not only an innate propensity, but also a natural power to move, to receive and digest food, etc. “They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31); that is, they have strength given them; renewed and increased by repeated acts, in the progress of sanctification. They are “strengthened with might, by the Spirit in the inner man “(Ephesians 3:16). I do not mean that spiritual life is always sensible and equally vigorous; alas! it is subject to many languishments and indispositions; but I mean there is habitually in a spiritual man a power, an ability for serving God which, when all pre-requisites concur, and hindrances are removed, is capable of putting forth acts of holiness, and which does actually exert itself frequently. Again, I do not mean an independent power, which is so self-active as to need no quickening energy from the Divine Spirit to bring it into act, but a power capable of acting under the animating influences of grace, which, as to their reality, are common to all believers, though they are communicated in different degrees to different persons. Before we lose sight of this head, let us improve it to these purposes: Let us improve it as a caution against this common mistake, viz., that our mere natural powers, under the common aids of Divine grace, polished and refined by the institutions of the gospel, are a sufficient principle of holiness, without the addition of any new principle. You see a principle of spiritual life is supernatural; it is a Divine, heaven-born thing; it is the seed of God; a plant planted by our heavenly Father. But, alas I how many content themselves with a self-begotten holiness! Let us also improve what has been said, to remove another equally common and pernicious error, namely, that gospel-holiness consists merely in a series of acts materially good. Some imagine that all the actions they do, which are materially lawful, and a part of religion, have just so much of holiness in them; and as they multiply such actions, their sanctification increases in their imagination. But, alas! do they not know that a principle, a disposition, a power of holy acting, must precede and be the source of all holy acts? That a new heart must be given us, and a new spirit put within us, before we can “walk in God’s statutes and keep His judgments, and do them?” (Ezekiel 36:26-27.) Further, let us improve our account of spiritual life, to inform us of a very considerable difference between a mere moral and spiritual life; or evangelical holiness and morality. Spiritual life is of a Divine original; evangelical holiness flows from a supernatural principle; but mere morality is natural; it is but the refinement of our natural principles, under the aids of common grace, in the use of proper means; and consequently it is obtainable by unregenerate men. Again, we may improve what has been said to convince us that a life of formality, listlessness, and inactivity is far from being a spiritual life. We proceed to inquire--
II. When spiritual life is communicated? To this the Scriptures direct us to answer, that it is communicated in that change which is generally called regeneration, or effectual calling.
1. If spiritual life were communicated in creation, there would be no propriety or significancy in the expressions used to denote the communication of it. There would be no need of a new, a second birth, if we were spiritually alive by virtue of our first birth.
III. Whether spiritual life be instantaneously communicated? Or whether (as some allege) it be gradually acquired by repeated acts?
1. It is a contradiction that it should be originally acquired by acting, or a series of acts; for that supposes that it exists, and does not exist, at the same time: as it acts, it exists; and as it is acquired by acting, it does not exist. It will perhaps be objected, “That it may be acquired by the repeated acts of another kind of life, namely, rational; or the exercises of our rational powers about spiritual objects.” But this may be answered from what was observed under the first head, namely, that a principle of spiritual life is something distinct from and superadded to our natural powers. Principles of action may be confirmed and rendered more prompt to act by frequent exercise; but can never be originally obtained that way.
2. The terms whereby the communication of spiritual life is signified as begetting, creating, quickening, or raising the dead, etc., denote an instantaneous communication.
3. Spiritual life is represented as prior to, and the source and principle of, all acts of evangelical holiness; and consequently it cannot be gradually acquired by such acts, but must be implanted previously to the putting forth of any such acts; as reason is not acquired by reasoning, but is a pre-requisite and principle of all the acts of reason. We are created in Christ Jesus to make us capable of good works (Ephesians 2:10). Hence we may see the vanity of that religion which is gained in the same manner that a man learns a trade, or an uncultivated mind becomes knowing and learned, namely, by the repeated exercises of our natural powers in use of proper means, and under the aids of common providence. We have seen that a principle of spiritual life is not a good act, nor a series of good acts, nor anything acquirable by them, but the spring and origin of all good acts. Let us then, my brethren, try whether our religion will stand this test. Hence also we may learn a considerable difference between what is commonly called morality and gospel-holiness. The one is obtained, as other acquired habits are, by frequent and continued exercises; the other proceeds from a principle divinely implanted.
IV. Our inquiry is, Who are the subjects of spiritual life? or in what extent is it communicated?
V. Our next inquiry is, In what sense is spiritual life communicated and supported through Christ? To explain and illustrate this point, let these three things be considered.
1. That by the sin of our first parents and representatives, our principle of spiritual life was forfeited, and the forfeiture is continued, and spiritual death brought on us by our personal sin.
2. The Lord Jesus, by His sufferings, made a “complete satisfaction to Divine justice,” and thereby redeemed the blessing forfeited; and by the merit of His obedience purchased Divine influence for the extirpation of the principles of spiritual death which lurk in our natures, and the implantation of holiness. Hence the regeneration and sanctification, as well as the salvation of His people, are ascribed to His merits and death. We are “sanctified through the offering up of the body of Christ” (Hebrews 10:10).
3. Christ, the Purchaser, is appointed also “the Communicator of spiritual life” to His people. “The Son quickeneth whom He will” (John 5:21).
VI. How faith derives supplies from Christ for the support and nourishment of spiritual life? I shall proceed to the solution of this by the following gradation.
1. The communication of grace from Christ to maintain and nourish spiritual life in His people is a peculiar and distinguishing communication.
2. It is fit and necessary there should be a peculiar union between Christ and His people as the foundation of this peculiar influence.
3. It is fit that that grace which has a peculiar concurrence or instrumentality in the uniting of the soul to Christ, and in continuing of that union, should also have a peculiar concurrence or instrumentality in deriving supplies of spiritual strength from Him; for since union is the true special ground of the communication, it is fit that that which is the peculiar instrument of this union should also be the peculiar instrument of receiving, or vehicle of communicating vital influences.
4. Faith has a “peculiar concurrence” or “instrumentality in the first union” of the soul to Christ, and the consequent continuation of the union. It is the grand ligament whereby they are indissolubly conjoined. It is true the spiritual man, as well as our animal bodies, consists of several essential parts. Repentance, love, and the whole system of evangelical graces and moral virtues are as necessary, in their proper respective places, as faith. But then faith has a peculiar aptitude, above all other graces and virtues, for performing the part we now appropriate to it. So heart, lungs, bowels, etc., are essential to the human body, as well as nerves and arteries; but the nerves are the peculiar vehicles to carry the vital spirits from the brain; and the arteries are the only conveyancers of the blood from the heart, through many labyrinths, to the whole body. Faith, in a special manner, implies those things in its very nature which reason directs us to look upon as suitable pre-requisites or concomitants of deriving vital influence from Christ. For instance, it is fit that all that receive spiritual life as a blessing of the covenant of grace should submit to and acquiesce in the terms of the covenant. Now such a submission and acquiescence is faith. For the particular improvement of this head, I shall make these three remarks--
(1) That a saving faith is always operative; and what renders it so is its constant dependence on Christ for quickening grace. It is designed by God, and has a peculiar aptitude in its own nature to derive strength for all acts of holiness from Christ; and He will not deny any of the influences it naturally craves. So far is a dependence on Him from leading to sloth and libertinism as some slanderously surmise.
(2) We infer that “without faith it is impossible to please God.”
(3) We observe that gospel holiness may be distinguished from all counterfeits, and particularly from what some dignify with the name of morality, by this criterion, that it pre-supposes a special union with Christ, and is cherished in the heart, and exercised in practice, by virtue of the quickening influences flowing from Him, as the head of His Church, and received by faith; whereas mere morality does not necessarily suppose such a union, but may result from our natural powers, under the common influences of Divine Providence.
I shall conclude with a short general improvement of the whole subject in the following inferences--
1. That the reason why religion is so burdensome to many is because they are “destitute of a principle of spiritual life,” and the “quickening communications of Divine grace.” Constrained by self-love, they drudge and toil in religious duties, and cry, “What a weariness is it!”
2. Let us examine ourselves whether the evidence of spiritual life, which may be collected from what has been said, give us reason to conclude that we are possessed of it. Do we feel, or have we felt, a supernatural principle working within? Is our religion heaven-born? or is it natural and self-sprung? Do we derive our strength for obedience from Christ by faith? Is He “our life?” Are we generally crying, “Lord, we have no strength; but our eyes are unto Thee?”
3. Let those who are made spiritually alive “acknowledge and admire the distinguishing grace of God, and act as it becomes their character.” (President Davies.)
The life of faith
In the words we may consider divers things.
1. That there is another manner of life than the ordinary life of nature.
2. That it is a better and more excellent life than that he formerly lived; as if he had said, Now, since I have seen the misery of my former natural estate, and the excellency of a spiritual life by faith in the Son of God, I esteem my former life to have been wretched, not worthy of the name of life, compared with that which I live now, as being founded in a better root than the “first Adam;”
3. The spring of this life is the Son of God. God is life naturally, and we have life no otherwise than from Him who quickeneth all things.
4. The conveyance of this spiritual life is by faith. Water springs not without a conduit to marry and spread it. The sun warms not without beams, and the liver conveys not blood without veins. So faith is that vessel which conveys this spiritual life, that conduit wherein all spiritual graces run, for the framing and working of spiritual life, conveying all, to pitch upon those excellencies of the Son of God.
5. The object and root of this spiritual life is, faith in the Son of God, loving Him, and giving himself for Him. So there is a life besides the natural life, and the root of it is Christ, who is our life. Life is the best thing in the world, most esteemed of us; as the devil said concerning Job (Job 2:4). Life is the foundation of all comforts; life is the vigour proceeding from soul and body. So the spiritual life is nothing else but that excellent vigour, and strong connected strength of the soul ann body renewed, grounded on supernatural reasons, which makes it follow the directions of the Word, over-master the flesh, and so by degrees be transformed into the image of Christ, consisting in holiness-and righteousness. The first point then is, that there is a better life than a natural life, because there is somewhat in a man which aspires and looks to a better estate. That there must be a better life, which is this spiritual life; for this life which we live in the flesh is a thing of nothing. Our little life we live here, wherefore is it? To live a while, to eat and drink and enjoy our pleasures, and then fall down and die like a beast? Oh no, but to make a beginning for a better life. If this life be such a blessing, what is then that most excellent spiritual life we speak of? It holds out beyond all. By this spiritual life, when one is most sick, you shall see him most lively and spiritual. When sense, and spirit, and sight, and all fail, yet by reasons drawn from spiritual life he comforts himself in Christ, the glory to come, and what He hath done for him. When the body is weakest, the spirit is strongest. A Christian furnished with this spiritual life can see Christ and glory, beyond all the things of this life; he can look backwards, make use of all things past, see the vanity of things so admired of others; he can taste things nature doth not relish; he hath strength of reasons beyond all the apprehensions of reason; he is a man of a strong working. Therefore, unless we will be dead creatures, labour we must for a spiritual life, for there is another death which follows the first death. We consider not here of life so high, though this life must be derived from Him principally. It is so naturally. The Son is the fountain of life, because He is God, who is radically, fundamentally, and essentially life. But why is faith the grace to convey life to us?
(1) Because we are saved now out of ourselves by another. Therefore that grace which brings us to this great good must lead us out of ourselves.
(2) Because faith gives all the glory to the party on whom it relies on and trusts, as Romans 3:26. Paul shows why works were excluded. Faith acknowledgeth nothing to be at home; therefore it goes to another to fetch it, which else it would not do.
(3) Because we must be brought back again to God by a contrary way than that we were lost by; for the same way we could never have recovered. So we fell by infidelity, and must return again by faith in the righteousness of another. By this time we are come to the main thing intended, how we live by the faith of the Son of God.
1. We live the life of faith in our effectual calling. The Spirit works it, the Spirit is God’s hand. This makes, that our eyes are bent upwards to see a better life, to see a calling, to live holily and righteously in all things, to see what a rich means is provided to reconcile God and man, to satisfy justice, and so to draw us in a new way and course of life, to rely on God, and look unto Him in all our actions. Then the grace of union is given. God’s Spirit works our hearts by this faith, to have first union, and then communion with God.
2. We live the life of faith in justification. This is a life of sentence that the soul lives by, peace being spoken unto it by the pardon of sin; for God by His Spirit doth report so much to the soul, giving us assurance that Christ our Surety and Peace-maker is raised up again. This is it to live by faith; every day to sue out our pardon; to look unto our Advocate and Surety, who hath paid our debts, and cancelled that obligation against us, contrary to us, as the apostle speaks, daily to wash in that ever-running fountain. Now let us see how it may be known that we live the life of faith in justification.
Trial 1. By trying how it comes in the soul; as Romans 7:4.
Trial 2. Where this life of faith is, there is a wonderful high valuing and prizing of Christ, His righteousness, merits, obedience, and wisdom of God in that way of forgiveness of our sins by this God-man, the wonderful mediator; as Philippians 3:8.
Trial 3. When we have a zeal against all contrary doctrine, as St. Paul shows to the Galatians, who would have joined works to faith: “Christ is become of none effect unto you: whosoever of you are justified by the law, you are fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4).
Trial 4. There is peace and joy settled in the heart; as Romans 5:1-2.
3. Hence springs a vigorous life. A life of cheerfulness; when a man hath his pardon sued out, then comes life and joy, strength of holy actions well rooted and grounded. Who should joy, if a triumphant righteous person should not?
4. The life of faith in sanctification. Now being brought by faith to live in justification, we must of necessity also live by faith in sanctification. There be two parts of a holy life:
(1) In mortification, dying to sin;
(2) In vivification, living to righteousness. Yet further, let us see some trials to discern whether we live this life of faith in sanctification.
Trial 1. If it be thus with us, there will be a putting of ourselves upon Christ’s government in all duties. Faith will do all that Christ commands, depending upon Him for strength; and who so depends upon Christ for strength in one duty, will depend upon Him for strength in another. There is a harmony betwixt the soul of a Christian and the command of obedience. He hearkens to the precepts of duty, as well as to the promises of forgiveness of sins. Where this universal obedience is not, here is not the life of faith in sanctification; for faith here takes not exception at one duty more than another, but looks for all the strength of performance from Christ, who for this cause is stored with all fulness, that it may drop down upon all His members.
Trial 2. Again, there will be a wonderful care not to grieve the Spirit, in such a one.
Trial 3. There will be courage to set upon any duty, to encounter and resist any sin; upon this ground, as he should say, have not I a storehouse of strength to go to? Is not He full of grace and goodness?
Trial 4. Again, in this case, all is lively in a man. As we see a lively fountain, the water whereof will sparkle and leap, so there will be living joys, speeches, delights, exhortations, sensible of good and evil. Let the use of all be this, Upon this discovery remember to go to Christ for succour, and labour to live plentifully and abundantly in Him this life of faith. Two things are opposite to this life of faith.
(1) Despair.
(2) Presumption; for this know, that in his own strength shall no man be strong. (R. Sibbes.)
The life of faith
In the last sermon we propounded many things touching the life of faith, how it lives in effectual calling, in justification and sanctification, in glorification, and in the several grand passages of this life, one of which remains yet to be unfolded, as the life of faith in glorification.
Quest. 1. But how? Vision is for glory; what hath faith to do with this, which is of things unseen?
Ans. 1. I answer, we live by faith in glorification thus, because faith lays hold on the promise, and we have the promises of glory set down in the Word, and with the promise we have the firstfruits of the Spirit, and having the earnest and first-fruits, God will surely give the harvest. We have the Spirit, and thence faith reasons, God will make good His promise, He will not take back His earnest.
Ans. 2. Again, faith lives by the life of glorification in Christ the head. There is but one life of Christ and His members, and one Spirit, one with Him in union in the first degree of life. His glory is our glory.
Ans. 3. By reason of the nature of faith, as Hebrews 11:1, which is to make things absent have a certain being. Thus it presents glory to us, as though it were present, and we in some sort live by it. How to know whether or not we live the life of faith in glorification. This, where it is in faith, makes a Christian glorious, puts him in a spirit that is glorious in all estates. There is no grace in him, but it is set a-fire by this faith of glory to come. When faith looks back on things, it hath strength, but when it looks on glory, all graces anal virtues are set a-work.
1. Hope is set on work by faith, and keeps the soul, as an anchor, stedfast against all assaults.
2. Hope doth stir up patience; for, saith the apostle, “What we hope for, we wait patiently for it.”
3. Again, it sets courage and magnanimity a-work, as Hebrews 11:1-40. What made all the patriarchs so stout to hold out and endure so many miseries, but that they had an eye to the glory to come? The like we have of Moses, who forsook Pharaoh’s court, because he saw Him who is invisible. (R. Sibbes.)
Salvation applied
Now, to come to the apostle’s particular application, which he expresseth m this word me: “Who loved me, and gave Himself for me:” wherein these points offer themselves to our consideration:
1. That Christ loves some with a special, superabundant, and peculiar love; for Christ, when He suffered upon the cross, looked with a particular eye of His love upon all that should believe in Him; as now in heaven He hath carried our names upon His breast (Exodus 28:21; Exodus 28:30). The Father sees the Church in the heart and breast of Christ.
2. That true faith doth answer this particular love and gift of Christ, by applying it to itself. True faith is an applying faith. “He loved me, and gave Himself for me.” The nature of faith is to make generals become particulars. We must know more clearly, that there is a particular faith required of us. A Christian ought to say, “Christ loved me.” And for the sacraments, what kind of faith doth baptism seal, when water is sprinkled upon the child? Doth it seal a general washing away of guilt? No; but a particular washing away of the guilt and filth of the sins of the party baptized. Wherefore are the sacraments added to the Word, but to strengthen faith in particular? Therefore every one in particular is sprinkled, to show the particular washing of our souls by the blood of Christ. What is the reason that the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is added to the Word, hut that every one may be persuaded that it is his duty to cast himself upon Christ, and to eat Christ, and to believe his own particular salvation? It overthroweth the main end of the sacraments to hold a confused faith in general. Therefore seeing it is the main end of the Word and ministry, let us labour for this particular faith, that we may say in special, “Christ loved me, and gave Himself for me.”
3. That assurance doth spring from this particular faith; so that a Christian man may be assured of the love of Christ. But here divers questions and cases must be answered and explained to clear the point, else our speech shall not be answerable to the experience of God’s people, or the truth itself. First, we must know that there is a double act of faith in the believing soul.
(1) An act of faith, trusting and relying; and
(2) an act of assurance upon that act of relying.
For it is one thing to believe and cast myself upon Christ for pardon of sins, and another thing upon that act to feel assurance and pardon. The one looks to the Word more principally; the other is founded upon experience, together with the Word. We ought to labour for both, for affiance and consent in the will, to cast ourselves upon Christ for salvation; and then upon believing we ought to find and feel this assurance. But here a question must be asked, What is the reason that, where the first act of faith is, to cast itself upon the mercy of Christ in the promises, that yet there is not the sense of pardon and reconciliation, nor that full persuasion: why is this many times suspended? Ans.
1. I answer, many causes there be of it. To name some:
(1) First, in some the distemper of the body helps the distemper of the soul; I mean a melancholy temper, which is a constitution subject to distrust, fears, and temptations. As some tempers, that are of a bold spirit, are subject to presumption, the devil suiting himself to their temper; so where there is this melancholy abounding, which is prone to fear and distrust, the devil mingling his suggestions with their constitution, causes that those tempers are inclined to fear, where there is no cause of fear.
(2) And also it is, many times, from a judgment not rightly persuaded: as when they think they have no faith, because they have it not in so great a measure.
(3) Also, they are held perhaps without this persuasion and assurance of the pardon of their sin, because perhaps they are taken up with other cares. God vouchsafes not this sweet heaven upon earth, the sense of His love in Christ to any, but it is sought for long, and valued highly, that afterwards we may be thankful for it.
(4) Again, Perhaps they are negligent in holy communion with those that are better than themselves; casting themselves into dead and dark company that want life, who bring them into the same temper with themselves. Now I come to the fourth and last point, indeed the chief of all, that this particular faith in obedience to Christ, with assurance of His particular love, is that which carries us along all our life of faith unto the day of death. “I live,” saith he, “this life of faith in the Son of God.” Why, what makes him to do so? Oh, I have good cause to love Christ and to depend upon Him. Why? “He hath loved me, and given Himself for me;” and I feel so much to my soul’s comfort, therefore I will wholly depend upon Him, in life, in death, and for ever.
Use 1. Now for the uses of this, seeing that the persuasion of Christ’s love to us in special is the spring of all holy life, this serves, in the first place, to free this doctrine of assurance from scandal. Assurance then is not the ground of presumption or security. These spring not from a particular faith; for a holy life, the clean contrary, springs from it. None can live a holy life but by a particular faith; and whosoever in particular doth believe the forgiveness of his own sins, will live a holy life, and not put himself into former bondage.
Use 2. To make another use: if particular faith and assurance be the ground of a holy life, let us labour for it by all means; and let those that are in the state of grace, let them come to this fire if they will be kindled: if they find themselves dull to holy duties, let them come to this fire.
1. Then thou hast a care to live by faith in the Son of God daily, and in all estates and conditions; and where this faith and assurance is, it is with care and conscience of duty always. Herein it is distinguished from a false conceit. Where there is no conscience of duty, there is no assurance of particular faith. This particular hath its ground from the general, from the Word of God.
2. Again, this is with conflict. You may know particular application where it is, to be good, because it is with conflict against temptations. A man never enjoys his own assurance of Christ’s particular love, But with a great deal of conflict. There are two grounds that faith lays:
(1) That general truth, that whosoever casts himself upon Christ shall be saved.
(2) The particular application hereof--but I cast myself upon Christ, therefore I shall he saved. This particular application, which is the work of faith, is mightily assaulted, more than the general. The devil is content that a man should believe the former, but he troubles us in the application, “But I believe.” The devil labours by all means to hinder application, for he knows that particular faith brings Christ home, which is all in all. But false Christians go on in a smooth course, are not thus assaulted from day to day.
3. Again, a man may know his faith to be true by his willingness to search himself, and to be searched by others. He that hath a true, sound faith, and particular assurance from thence, is willing oftentimes to search his heart.
4. Again, this particular faith it is with a high prizing and admiration of the love of God in Christ, “who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” It is a sign that he hath no interest in this love, that prizes and values other things above it. If one had any assurance of this, he would value it above all other things in the world. (R. Sibbes.)
The electing of love
Here we have to consider Christ’s own personal undertaking.
I. Speaking generally, then, and following the guidance of our text, love was the principle which caused that offering of Himself: that is to say, it was the cause of His Incarnation. And I think, my brethren, it must be quite intelligible to us that love could be the only possible reason for such a sacrifice on the part of the Son of God. We in our little world can hardly appreciate what love means in its true sense; much less the meaning of the sacrifice which springs from such a love. For in making sacrifices one of three principles must be the ruling motive; it must either be that of self-interest, or it must be dictated by a keen sense of duty, or it must be the outcome of a disinterested affection: and, rarely as we find instances of the last of these among mankind, there are instances of the two former to be met with ever and over again. But when we come to try our Lord’s conduct by any of these; when we try His self-imposed humiliation by our own standard of sacrifice; motives of self-interest no less than those of duty, are necessarily put out of court as being totally inapplicable to Him, and love is forced upon us as the only possible solution of His work of redemption.
II. Now it is this very self-evident fact which leads us to speak, first of all, of the greatness of the love of our blessed Lord. “The Son of God loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Let us see at the outset the obstacles it was called upon to surmount from its very entrance into the world. And was there nothing to repel our blessed Lord when the vision of all that must come upon Him passed before His eyes, as he lay in the bosom of the eternal Father? “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men: to see if there were any that would understand and seek after God. But they are all gone out of the way, they are altogether become abominable: there is also none that doeth good, no not one.” And yet the love of Jesus broke through this opposing barrier also. Consider now that perseverance and devotion of His which proved so wonderfully superior to these obstacles. (R. H. Giles, M. A.)
Spiritual life
This spiritual life of the believer may be explained in a twofold manner. It may be explained as--
I. A life of faith. See--
1. Faith’s exercise. Without faith there is no real religion in the soul. The men of the world know practically what faith is. They have faith in their everyday transactions. They give credit to each other’s word; and conduct their business on the supposition that each man will speak truth to, and not deceive, his neighbour. The husbandman, in faith, throws away his corn, and scatters it over the ground. The man of unbelief would say--“That corn is lost; that seed will die, and come to nothing.” But the husbandman has faith--faith gathered from past experience--that that corn-seed will not be lest; that, on the contrary, it will spring up, and become first the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear; and that he will in due season reap, it may be, sixty or one-hundred-fold, for that which he has sown. So is it in spiritual things. The children of God live by faith. All your dealings, brethren, with God, are carried on by the exercise of this blessed principle. You deal with God as one who cannot lie. You take Him at His word. For now observe, not only faith’s exercise, but also--
2. Faith’s object. To a saved sinner, what is the great object of faith? Is it not the Divine Saviour? “The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.” There are some men who call themselves Christians, but in their Christianity there is no Christ. Ignoring the very existence of Christianity, they think that Lyceums, Athenaeums, Institutes, and similar instrumentalities, are to regenerate our country. Everything which stops short of Christ must prove a failure. Some men put great faith in mere education. Other men err in another direction. They put their faith in preachers, instead of in Christ. They forget that the only use of preaching is to point to Christ. And how is your faith exercised towards Christ 7 It is exercised towards Christ as a crucified Saviour. It is exercised towards Christ as your atoning Priest, as your all sufficient Surety, as your almighty Redeemer. But then you cannot view such a sacrifice for your good without the deepest feeling. And, therefore, the present life is not only a life of faith; it is also--
II. A life of gratitude. It is a life of gratitude to Christ for--
1. His unmerited love. My dear brethren, there is no motive to obedience so powerful as the motive of love--“Who loved me.” And how has this love been shown? In the most costly manner it can. And this is our next point. The believer’s present life is a life of gratitude to Christ for--
2. His precious redemption--“Who gave Himself for me.” This.is the strongest possible proof which Christ could have given of His wondrous affection. “Greater love,” He Himself tells us, “hath no man than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends.” I now add two other remarks, by way of application.
We see hence--
1. The blessed prospects of the Christian believer.
2. The true nature of spiritual life.
“I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me?” The sun in the heavens gives light, it is supposed, at least to nine hundred millions of people. But you and I have as much enjoyment of that sun as though it had been placed in the firmament for our use alone. So is it with Christ. Christ died for all; but we should see that Christ died for us in particular, and we should look to Christ as dying for ourselves, as though He died for us, and for no one else. These words, however, are not mine, but the words of a Christian prelate. You have life, spiritual life, the secret life of faith. This is well described by Bishop Reynolds--“It is a hidden life. The best of it is yet unseen: Though the cabinet which is seen be rich, yet the jewel which it conceals is much richer. This life is hidden with Christ, and so hidden that we know not where it is. It is so hidden, that no enemy can touch it. It is hidden in God. If is life in the fountain. And this is such a fountain of life as hath in it fulness without satiety, purity without defilement, perpetuity without decay, and all-sufficiency Without defect. This life is hidden, but it is not lost. It is hidden like seed in the ground. And when Christ the Sun of righteousness shall appear, this life of ours in Him will spring up and appear glorious.” This life, this hidden life, brethren, I trust, is the portion of the greater part of this assembly--a life of joy on earth, and a life of joy and glory unutterable in the heavens. (C. Clayton, M. A.)
The spiritual death and life of the believer
In discoursing on this subject, I shall direct your attention to the leading thoughts; and therefore I shall endeavour to show, Firstly, What is implied in being crucified with Christ. Secondly, What we are to understand by Christ living in the believer; and point out the great influence of faith in the Divine life. Or, in fewer words, show--how the believer dies, and how he lives.
I. Expressions similar to this, of being crucified with Christ, are more than once used in the writings of the apostle. No one will be so weak as to imagine that Paul was a sharer with Christ in the merit of His sufferings. Such a thought would be horrid and blasphemous. There is implied in being crucified with Christ--First, a refusing obedience to the ceremonial law, as being no longer necessary to salvation. Secondly, there is implied a cheerfulness it, undergoing all that scorn and contempt with which a firm adherence to the doctrine of the cross was attended. Thirdly, there is implied in this expression, a partaking of the merits of the death of Christ, and the being dead to the moral law, in the manner mentioned in the preceding verse. As in this and other places, the ceremonial law is to be understood, so the moral law is evidently to be included In the fourth place, there is implied, in being crucified with Christ, an experience of the efficacy of His death. This is no doubt an important, if not the principal idea in the words, and which we find plainly expressed in the following passages: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts.” Thus is the believer crucified with Christ; and the death of sin in him resembles a crucifixion. It was a painful, shameful, lingering, and accursed death; and so is the death of sin. It is painful. The first entrance upon a religious course is difficult; and the more so, where sin has long had the dominion. Conversion is a strait gate through which we must pass, and holiness a narrow way, in which we must walk to eternal life. We must be denied to ourselves and to the world; difficulties are to be surmounted, temptations resisted, injuries forgiven, and reproaches endured. This is a painful work; often like to be overcome, and still renewing the combat. Again, it is shameful. When iniquities prevail, the believer is covered with shame and confusion of face. This may rise to such a degree, that he will be tempted to cease from seeking God. Again, the death of sin is very lingering. It is dying from the moment Christ is formed in the soul, till glory commences. Moreover, the death of the cross was an accursed death; inflicted on none but those guilty of the blackest crimes; such as were accursed of men, and held to be accursed of God too. From these considerations we may see the propriety and force of this expression, “crucified with Christ,” and all of the like kind in Scripture. In the last place, there is implied a self-denied temper towards this present world. Every believer, indeed, ought to be a martyr in his temper, and hang so loose to this world and its enjoyments, nay, to life itself, that he may readily part with all to win Christ. These things are implied in the crucifixion of the believer. I proceed now--
II. To consider His life. “Christ liveth in” him; and the life which he now lives in the flesh, is “by the faith of the Son of God.” This is the Divine or spiritual life which he lives in consequence of sin being mortified, and the heart renewed. As he dies to sin, so he rises to holiness. The manner in which Christ lives in the believer, is by His Holy Spirit, who begins and carries on the Divine life. We cannot make ourselves alive to God. The great instrument of this spiritual life is faith. By this they are united to the Son of God; depend upon His merits for pardon, and derive influences for sanctification. It is called “the faith of the Son of God,” because He is the great object of it, and because it is of His bestowing. Perhaps there is something in this phrase more peculiar to the time in which the apostle lived. The faith of the Son of God; that is, a firm belief that Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified on Calvary, was the true and expected Messiah; that He was no impostor, but really the Son of God; that He rose again and ascended up into heaven; and that there is forgiveness of sins through His blood. Faith in Christ, as being the Son of God, is that by which every believer lives. Allow me, in a few particulars, to point out its influence. First, faith is that act of the soul which receives and rests upon the righteousness of Christ for pardon and acceptance with God. Secondly, by faith, influences are derived for the mortification of sin and the promotion of holiness. “He that abideth in Me,” saith Christ, “and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing.” Once more, faith influences the believer to live with regard to another world. It is described in the Epistle to the Hebrews to be “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Let us now turn our attention to some improvement of this subject. First, learn, my brethren, that the religion of Jesus leads to strict holiness of heart and life. Secondly, this subject ought to be faithfully improved for the trial of ourselves. (W. Linn, D. D.)
Who loved me and gave himself for me
In the Peninsular War our troops, borne back by the superior force of the enemy, had on one occasion to retreat, and hastened to place a river between them and the foe. The last of the men had swum the stream. The bugles were sounded, and the army was about to march over the high ground, When, looking across to the opposite bank, already occupied by the French sharp-shooters, they saw a woman. She was a common camp-follower. She had lost her way when the camp was breaking up, and had been accidentally left behind. There she stood, holding out her arms in apparent dumb entreaty, for her voice was lost in the roar of the flood and the rattle of the musketry. What was to be done? Who would venture across in the face of the enemy for a common camp-follower? Suddenly the ranks opened, and out came an officer. He rode his horse into the rushing river, one man riding back to charge an army. Many a rifle was aimed at his gallant head as he stemmed the stream, and passed over amid a very shower of bullets. He reached the farther shore, swung the woman before him on the saddle-bow, turned his horse’s head again to the river, and dashed into that ride of death. But our enemies, a gallant and generous nation, saw now what was his object--saw that he had risked his life to save a woman. Down went every musket, not a shot was fired at him, and out rang the cheers of the enemy, cheers which were caught up and echoed from the British lines as he passed over safely with that living trophy of his noble gallantry, stamped true knight of God by the manly deed that for one moment had united hostile armies in a sense of their common brotherhood. (Ellice Hopkins.)
The expiatory sacrifice of Christ
I. The sufferings of Christ were strictly expiatory. He suffered not as an example, as a substitute.
II. The love of Christ which caused Him thus to suffer. There was no other reason why our Lord should suffer but that He loved us. It was not necessary to the perfection of the Divine government; we could claim no such atonement. The sufferings furnish the measure of that love. Among our fellow-beings we measure the greatness of an affection by that which it consents to sacrifice.
III. The believer’s duty and privilege to consider himself individually as the object of that Divine sacrifice, and of that Divine love--“He loved me.” (B. W. Noel, M. A.)
Christ’s love intense
Its intensity is beyond all knowledge. He feels for His people an affection--however difficult it is for our carnal hearts to value it--an affection which infinitely surpasses all that is ever seen among the sons of men. His love, for its condescension, for its patience, for its self-denial, for its faithfulness stands perfect and alone--unrivalled by any affection ever witnessed among men, or which ever can be in heaven. It passes all power of thought, in time or in eternity, to estimate it; it passes the knowledge of men, and the knowledge of angels too; it is a fathomless ocean, and a boundless; and is so clear that we may look down with wonder into its depths; and so bright that we may gaze with ever-increasing admiration on its splendour and glory. With what feelings of gratitude to that Saviour, then, ought we to say that “He loved us, and gave Himself for us!” (B. W. Noel, M. A.)
The secret of a true life
I. Here is a glorious lover. The Son of God loved me, and gave Himself for me. I believe that my life is controlled and consecrated by a consciousness that somebody loves it. The greater the person, sometimes, the more highly prized the love; at least, the more worthy the person, the greater our appreciation of the love. Whose love is like the Deity, an omnipotent love, all the gates of hell cannot prevail against it: an omnipresent love, never is there a condition of life in which it does not prove itself; an omniscient love, reaching down to the unknown wants of the soul. This love fills heaven with wonder.
II. The glorious act of love. It has its reason in itself, not for the perception of that which was lovable in the soul. Every perfection is mingled with His love; it is connected with every office that Jesus has assumed; He is our Prophet, Priest, King, Shepherd, Surety, Physician.
III. Who is the loved one? “He loved me.” “Paul, who art thou?… A persecutor.” He loved angels, inanimate nature; this we might expect. Only the mouth of faith can syllable these words. Pride, unbelief, keep back the acknow-lodgment.
IV. The Love Gift--“Himself.” No constraint. (S. H. Tyng.)