Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.
Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship. Nothing can be more touching than these three concluding verses, leaving an indelible impression of rare ministerial fidelity and affection on the apostle's part, and of warm admiration and attachment on the part of these Ephesian presbyters. Would to God that such scenes were more frequent in the Church!
Remarks:
(1) We have had occasion before to remark in the great apostle a combination of qualities rarely found in the same person, but where found in any strength constituting a principal element of true greatness. In this address, for example, what a breadth of view, combined with the minutest attention to the ordinary interests of life, is observable; the one so far from begetting indifference to the other, that each seemed the complement and strength of the other. Observe, too, the tenacity with which, in 'all humility of mind, and tears, and trials, through the plots of the Jews, 'he maintained his ministerial fidelity; keeping back from the Ephesian church nothing which was profitable, teaching publicly and from house to house and, in this thorough-going way of indoctrinating them in the truth, making it his great object to establish them in the two cardinal principles of Repentance toward God, and Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
See next, his fearless determination to go to the Jewish capital, as divinely directed, regardless of predicted and expected bonds and imprisonment; and-if he could but finish his course with joy, and his testimony to the grace of the Gospel-ready to yield up even his life in the cause of his adorable Lord Jesus. And what a protestation to be able to make to these presbyters, after so lengthened a sojourn among them and incessant ministrations to them, that he was "pure from the blood of all" among them, inasmuch as he "had not shunned to declare to them the whole counsel of God." No claim, of course, is here advanced to faultless perfection in the discharge of his ministerial duties; but he does claim to be free from conscious and willful unfaithfulness to any soul in the course of this long ministry. Notice further, his holy jealousy for the prosperity of this Ephesian community of believers after his departure, and in particular-anticipating both the entrance of grievous wolves in sheep's clothing from without, and the upspringing from within themselves of schismatic, sectarian, selfish, and sinister persons, who would seek to alienate the disciples from their fellowship, and so break up their beautiful church-anticipating these sore evils, see how he enjoins the presbyters to take heed first to themselves and then to the flock-at once purchased by the blood of God's own Son and placed by the Holy Spirit under their care-to keep watch, and to do as he had done who, for three years, had not ceased to warn everyone night and day with tears.
Finally, how touching, and even sublime, is the appeal which he was able to make to the unselfishness with which he had from first to last gone in and out among them; how, instead of coveting any man's silver, or gold, or apparel, those hands of his had worked-no doubt over night, when his ministerial labours might rather have called for rest-to support not himself only, but his companions; and how he had taught them that, labouring in the same spirit, they also should support the weak, and act ever upon the golden maxim of their common Lord, "It is more blessed to give (not money only, but whatever one has to give to them that need) than to receive." And, as if to crown all, what a picture is presented to us in his kneeling down with them all on the sea shore, and pouring out his heart in prayer with them, in the sore weeping of all of them, the falling of each on his neck and kissing him-showing the tender familiarity of their affection-and that word which completed the pungency of their sorrow at parting with him, "that they should see his face no more"! Where shall we find in all the Church's records such a combination of greatness and tenderness of soul-such a union of ministerial humility, fidelity, purity, and self-sacrifice-such unweaned prosecution, amid tears, of one object, the grandest that man can undertake, relieved only by manual labour for the support of himself and his companions? O ye servants of Christ, study this model; on your knees drink in the spirit of it, and enter into its every detail: so shall its impress be stamped upon you as ye are able to take it on, and then shall it not have been here presented to us in vain.
(2) If there be one characteristic of the theology of Paul which is more Pauline than another, it is his doctrine of GRACE, as the spring of all the divine procedure toward fallen man from everlasting, the principle of the whole scheme of salvation, the secret of every step in the believer's recovery from sin and all its effects, and in his eventual experience of life eternal. In this address that characteristic is strikingly brought out, both when he describes himself as set "to testify the glad tidings of THE GRACE OF GOD" (Acts 20:24), and when he "commends" the Ephesian presbyters "to God and to THE WORD OF HIS GRACE" (Acts 20:32) - as if that "word" had but one burden-the Grace of God. By this the soundness of all preaching should tested. Occasional concessions to this doctrine are no evidence of conformity to the preaching of Paul. That preaching only is Pauline the soul of which is the doctrine of Grace. considered as the prime element in all salvation.
(3) If the received reading of Acts 20:28 be the genuine one, what a view does it give of "the Church of God" as "purchased with His own blood." Nor need such language repel us as altogether incongruous. For analogous expressions are certainly found elsewhere in the New Testament, particularly in the writings of this apostle.
Thus, when he says that God "spared not His own Son, but delivered him up for us all" (Romans 8:32 ) - alluding beyond all doubt to Abraham's sacrifice of paternal feeling in being prepared to surrender to death "his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loved" - he certainly means to ascribe to God in the surrender of His Son to death a sacrifice of Paternal feeling, which, however transcending all that man experiences in such an act, the apostle was unable to express except in language derived from what men experience in such cases. Compare, too, Romans 5:7-8, "Scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Besides, if the humanity of the Lord Jesus was that of God's own Son, "the blood of Jesus," which the beloved, disciple calls "the blood of God's own Son" (1 John 1:7), was the blood of "the Word made flesh," of Him who "was with God" and "was God" (John 1:1; John 1:14).
There is thus strict doctrinal truth in such language; and though expressed in this strong form nowhere else-from which we may well infer that such phraseology should not become too familiar-the sweeping condemnation of it as intolerable, may reasonably be suspected to spring from secret dislike to the truth which it expresses, that the blood shed for the Church had a strictly DIVINE VALUE, arising from the transcendent Dignity of the Victim. If, on the other hand, the true reading of this verse be, "the Church of the Lord, which He hath purchased with His own blood" in what a light does it hold forth the Lord Jesus, by the shedding of whose blood on the cross God is here expressly said to have made the Church His own property! Of a mere man, however highly endowed-of any creature, however exalted-is it conceivable that such a statement should have been made? And thus, whichever reading of this verse is preferred, the supreme Dignity of Him whose blood it speaks of stands out in the strongest light.
(4) The efficacy of Christ's death, as expressed in this verse, should not be overlooked. While in the language of the sacrificial economy it is constantly represented as expiatory; with reference to lawful captivity, as a ransom-price; in the light of an inheritance, as the testator's death, securing all to the legatee; and of alienated property, as a purchase-price: here, without any allusion to the previous condition of the Church-whether as alienated, or lost, or anything else-God is said to have gained rightful possession of the Church, or made it His own, by the blood of Jesus Christ. Explain this as we may-when all the representations of it are put together, and all that is special to each is combined into one general idea-what is that idea but (in the language, of our apostle himself) that God "made peace" with the guilty "through the blood of the cross," and that Christ is "a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare God's righteousness for the remission of sins, that He might be just and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." In times like these-when this the most characteristic element of the death of Christ is refined away, and nothing is held up to the sin-sick soul but the self-abnegation of Christ in enduring so patiently the ill treatment of men, and God's love in sending Him to exhibit such a character-it is of vital importance to show how inadequate such representations are to convey the import of passages like this before us, and to cling to the substitution of Christ, "the Just for the unjust," as that which alone can meet the crushing sense of our own deserts as sinners before God.