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CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER

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CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER

12 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

(Continued from last issue)

BESIDES the reason of the Redeemer’s name, abundant proof of his Deity might also be drawn from all that he did and and said, and from all that has been deof him, and done through faith in his power. A short specimen may serve.

His Divinity appears from what he did. The winds and the seas obeyed him. Diseases vanished at his word. At one command he converted souls: at another, he created food to feast a multitude. In a moment he raised the dead. He overcame death in himself; rose from the grave by his own power; and, by the same power finally ascended to heaven.

Himself asserted the glory of his person. He commanded all men to honor the son, even as they honored the Father. The incommunicable name, and the uncreated perfections of the Godhead, he claimed as his own. Men adored him, and in adoring him, received his approbation; and those who did not acknowledge him, as the everlasting I am, he himself declared should die in their sins. He expressed his inseparable union with the Father, and thought it no robbery to be equal with Him.

He was foretold and expected as one truly divine by the prophets. The sum of their testimony concerning him may be comprised in the seraphic description of Isaiah: Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us; this is Jehovah, we have waited for him; we will be glad, and rejoice in his salvation.

His deity was declared by apostles and others, who saw his wonderful works, who beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, and were eye-witnesses of his majesty. They worshipped him therefore as God manifest in the flesh; not his mere human nature only, for that would have been idolatry, but his divine Majesty residing therein. Thomas, with an obstinacy which affords a conviction of his own sincerity and a further attestation of his Saviour’s glory, fervently exclaimed, not only for himself but for all, My Lord and my God, when he received an infallible proof of his divinity by his resurrection from the dead. Thus, his very doubt may serve to strengthen our faith. Paul testified of his Saviour as of him who is over all God blessed for ever. He also says of him, that he is before all things: he is, i.e. he eternally exists, did eternally exist, and for ever shall, because all things are present with God. He adds, in another place, that by him all things consist; i.e. are maintained in their existence by his power: and he directly calls him, God our Saviour, and (with yet a farther addition) the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. John, who well knew and loved his Master, says, That all things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. He further declares in another place, That this is the record of God, that God hath given to us (believers) eternal life; and this life is in his Son; and that there are three witnesses to this record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one. He again speaks of him in union with the Godhead, calling him the true God, and adding, Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us. Lastly, the apostle Jude adds his testimony in a form of praise: Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever, Amen.

What others performed, through faith in his name, declare him to be the object of faith, and in consequence essentially divine. The Acts of the Apostles exhibiting many incontrovertible testimonies of an Almighty Power attending them, yield an insurmountable proof of the divinity of their Master. This Master they professed was Jesus; and this Jesus was their God. They worshipped him as such, and desired only to live to his glory.

But, great as the evidences from the blessed apostles undoubtedly are, and multiplied as they might be abundantly, the witness of God is greater than these: For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And in another place, the Father says to him, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. No words in the world, nor any idea of words, can more magnificently express or conceive the essential primaeval divinity of the everlasting Son, than these.

Thus we have the testimony of men, of angels, and of God, all corroborating the evidence of his own facts and words, that Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners, is Jehovah in human flesh, and the ever blessed Lord from heaven. They who refuse to receive this multitude of proof, may be compared to men who reject the light of the meridian sun, and choose to dwell in the darkness and gloom of some ever-benighted cell. It is a rejection that cannot possibly afford a moment’s true peace or pleasure; but it will undoubtedly ensure, if it remain, sooner or later, some sad considerations of horror. To un-deify Christ, is to deny him: and whosoever shall deny him before men, him will he also deny before his Father, which is in heaven.

In this denial of Christ, as God and Lord, is virtually included a denial of the whole of Christianity; for he who gives up the divinity of Jesus, gives up the whole hope of salvation by him. He leaves the way of safety, which God’s word has marked out, and betakes himself to the wilds of Deism, and all the intricate mazes of infidelity, for a peace which he will never find there, and for a support which they cannot yield him. “They who reject the divine person of Christ (said an eminent divine) who believe it not, who discern not the wisdom, grace, love, and power of God therein, do constantly reject or corrupt all other spiritual truths of divine revelation. Nor can it otherwise be, for they have a consistency only in their relation to the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh, and from thence derive their sense and meaning. This being removed, the truth, in all other articles of religion, immediately falls to the ground.” If Jesus be not an Almighty Saviour, he is not the Saviour whom the scriptures describe, nor the Saviour whom his people’s necessities require; but, if he be an Almighty Saviour, he must necessarily be God supreme, uncreated, and eternal. In the former case, to pay adoration to him as Christians do, would be the grossest idolatry, and equal to that of the heathens. In the latter case; the believers in Jesus act consistently with common sense, and (what is of more consequence) with divine revelation, when they attribute their whole salvation to his love and power, and confide in him for every grace and blessing of time and eternity.

So much really depends upon this important truth, even all our hopes and comforts here and hereafter, that we may be forgiven, if, as men and as christians, we again and again insist upon it. And it is the more necessary at this time, since one awful prophecy seems to be fulfilling, that there shall be false teachers among God’s professing people, who privily (or deceitfully) shall bring in damnable heresies. Such are described as intruding into those things which they have not seen, or as understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm: and the reason follows, because they are vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind, and hold not the head, which is Christ. They meddle with divine things in a spirit, which, because it is not of God, can only lead them astray. Their souls are unmortified with any real convictions of their own sin and misery; their hearts are untouched with any love of Christ; their minds are not illuminated by his spirit; and they have, therefore, no true perception of the things, about which they talk and write. If they felt their own misery and saw their own sin, they would hide their unholy heads in the dust of self-abhorrence, and seek for an uncreated arm alone to deliver them. If they loved Jesus, they would honor him (according to his own command) even as the Father. If they were taught by the spirit of truth, they would receive the things of Jesus, which that spirit himself receiveth from Jesus, and must rejoice in his eternal power and godhead. It is from the want of this that they grope in the noon day of the most resplendent evangelical truths, as in the dark night of spiritual ignorance and superstition. Indeed, it may be laid down for a rule in the divine life, applicable to this and every other case among men, that the knowledge and illustration of God’s word by the illumination of the Spirit, and the Spirit’s application of that word to the state and wants of the soul, can alone make the perusal of the Bible a profitable, intelligent, and delightful study. Without these gracious operations, the sacred scriptures are not only a sealed book, utterly incomprehensible in its most essential parts, but a dry, uninteresting speculation to any mind, however ingenious and inquisitive. Thus it is often seen, that when men, unenlightened by this heavenly grace attempt to unravel the mysteries of the kingdom, or to break the seals of this book; they only propagate the illusions of their own minds, and darken (if not disgrace) the truths they venture to explain.

Far otherwise is it with the faithful and truly awakened soul. He sees, that he can know nothing, and do nothing, with respect to spiritual things, but by Jesus Christ. Such a person hath been made savingly acquainted with the natural blindness of his own mind, the utter apostacy of his own heart, and the furious rebellion of his own will, respecting all that God is, and all that God requires. And, when he is convinced of this, he is convinced too, that nothing can rescue him from the depravity of his own nature, the allurements of the world, and the seductions of Satan, but what is fully and truly divine. He is brought to see, that the very means which the Bible describes concerning his deliverance from the wrath to come, could not have been thought of but by uncreated wisdom, nor have been proposed but by infinite love, nor provided but by omnipotent power. He is persuaded, that the conquest of such and so many enemies, with whom Jesus had to do, could not have been even the undertaking of an earthly being; and that the very nature and perpetuity of salvation itself, together with the effectual and constant application of it to myriads of believing souls, proclaim its accomplisher infinite and eternal. This internal evidence of the divine spirit, concurring with the external proof from his word, and with the similar experience of Christians in all ages, gives the heart a demonstration of the godhead of Jesus, which the malevolence of devils, or the sophistry of men, is unable to confute or withstand. They might sooner destroy the most undeniable evidences of sense, than impugn this heartfelt conviction, and this incinvible deduction, given to the believer, from the work, word, and spirit, of the everliving God.

How full of comfort then, must this precious name be to every sincere and humble soul! Jehovah became Jesus that he might, consistently with all his glorious attributes and perfections, save his people from their sins. As Jesus, bearing our nature, he could be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. He could offer up himself without spot to God in our stead, and purge away our sins by the willing sacrifice of himself. Tenderness accompanied all he did: and all he said was love. As Jehovah; he was able to effectuate every purpose of his grace, to support the human frame which he assumed, to crown it with perpetual conquest, and to bring in, by a merit which could fill and gladden heaven, an everlasting salvation for his chosen. How then should the delightful theme of God, manifest in the flesh, be the believer’s present study; since it is, and must be, the constant spring and basis of his eternal hopes! What grateful sense should he entertain if that Saviour, who could condescend to love, to bleed, and to die, for a rebel, an outcast, a worm! How should such an one discover his love to Jesus (as Jesus discovered his love to him,) by the humility of his heart, and by the actions of his life! Lively love and lively faith, according to measure and time, are ever productive of gracious words and holy deeds. These are the true and genuine proofs, that Christ’s love is shed abroad in the heart, and that the Holy Ghost, in his gracious operations, is really given to the soul. He that lives by Jesus, will not only be like him, but must live for him and to him.

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