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CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER

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CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER

11 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

(Continued from last issue)

THERE was to be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation, when the high priest went in to make the atonement in the holy place; nor was any one permitted to enter till he came out, and had finished the solemn service. So the blessed Jesus trod the wine-press of God’s wrath alone, and of the people there was none with him. His own arm, replete with omnipotence, brought salvation to him and to his people through him; and his zeal for God’s glory, and their happiness, greatly upheld him. No power, but divine power, could have accomplished the arduous task; and therefore in the manhood of Jesus, dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. He entered the lists alone; and, as He alone obtained the conquest, to him must be rendered all the glory. In these particulars, and in some others, the Jewish high-priest could be a striking resemblance of Christ: but he could not personally typify the Mediator throughout; he could not suffer and die for the people. And that none might fancy that a man alone could be the mediatory or atoning object in the sight of God, this part of the service and type was to be exhibited upon clean beasts; both to shew the passiveness of the victim, and the merit and worth of the sacrifice to be other than merely human. It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could expiate for the sins of man: it is equally impossible that one man’s blood could atone for the offences of many. At the most, the blood of one could extend but to one; and, therefore, the great atonement with God must be of an infinite and extensive nature, calculated to reach backward from the fall of man, and to look forward with its satisfaction to the end of time. Now, nothing can have this infinite and extensive merit but what is divine; and consequently, if Israel be saved with an everlasting salvation by the merit of Jesus, Jesus himself must be a divine and an everlasting person. If he were not divine, his atonement could not have merited beyond himself, and of course he would have perished in the undertaking as entirely as the bulls and goats in the sacrifice; and if he were not the everlasting God, he would not only have failed himself, but all that have hoped or do hope in him, must likewise fail with him. How little do the Arians and Socinians dream, while they blasphemously and ignorantly attempt to degrade the Mediator from his essential divinity, that they are both robbing him of the merit of his sacrifice, and robbing his people of the very basis and means of their salvation. They unite the folly of Turks with the blasphemy of Jews; and are far more inconsistent and more inexcusable than both.

Christ was the great propitiatory sacrifice, and the anointed sacrificer too. As the great sacrifice of the covenant, he was cut asunder and severed, his human soul from his human body; like as the covenanting sacrifices typified before his advent, which thereby continually shewed the Lord’s death till he came. Through these sacrifices the covenanters passed, symbolically expressing the agreement and reconciliation made, wiping away all former offences, and sealing their transmission by blood and by death. Thus God admitted Abraham into covenant and preached the manner by which alone he could be admitted, in Gen. xv. The Lord passed as a lamp of fire between the severed sacrifice, in token that his wrath, excited by sin, had received satisfaction, or would receive it under that sign from the great propitiation; and so the Lord received Abraham into his covenant, and purified him by the blood of it to enjoy the promises. And thus all believers, like that great believer, do in spirit pass through the veil, that is (says the apostle) the flesh of Christ, through which the wrath of God hath passed before in satisfaction of his justice, and are thereby admitted into the communion of his grace here, and of his glory hereafter. This is the only way of receiving Christ, and of finding access to the Father through Christ. This is the only way also, which the Holy Spirit uses, according to the established decree of Jehovah, to bring sinners to salvation, by thus baptizing them into Christ, and so enabling them, by his regeneration, to put on Christ. And this was eminently signified by the passage of the Hebrews through the Red Sea, which was divided for them, and in which (according to the apostle) they were baptized: for, by this fact, the church was taught that there is no escape for her from her pursuing and besetting enemies, but through Him, who must be smitten and divided in soul and body, that, by this new and living way, they may pass to the promised land. The same idea is preserved in the New Testament, by the breaking of bread and the pouring out of wine in the Lord’s Supper, which is a confession by believers, that their lives were forfeited by sin, and an eucharistical oblation, or an offering up of prayer and praise to Jehovah, through Christ, who was sacrificed for them and in their stead; commemorating thereby the divine covenant of grace and love, and communing with the parties of it by faith; of which communion the participation of the elements, like the participation of the ancient sacrifices, is the instituted and ostensible symbol. This is the true way of beholding Christ, who bled as the Lamb without spot, and offered himself as the priest without sin: In both views, therefore, he could not but be acceptable to God. He came by water, full of purity and perfection, and by blood, replete with mercy and propitiation. He came not by water only; for then his infinite holiness must have rejected our sinful nature; but by water and blood, that through his atonement, we might be made partakers of that holiness and of life everlasting. And further, when it is considered who the Lamb without spot, and the priest without sin was, even Jehovah, the omnipotent God, united to our nature, there is no circumscription to the merit of either character; and the dignity of both is high and deep, and broad and long, beyond conception or degree. Happy they, who have the divine gift of faith to plead this meritorious sacrifice for their sin-burdened consciences; thrice happy, who are thus enabled, with holy confidence, to call this blessed Highpriest of Jehovah their own!

In Ps. cx, it is solemnly asserted, That Jehovah hath sworn and will not change; Thou (the Adonai) art a priest for ever, after the Order of Melchizedec. Of this Melchizedec we find it written, “that he was king of Salem and priest of the Most High God;” and the apostle, in the seventh chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, proves that the priesthood of Melchizedec was superior to that of Aaron, and that, therefore, Aaron’s priesthood was not perfect in itself, but was intended to be changed, when the unchangeable priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ, after the Order of the kingly priesthood of Melchizedec, should once appear. If the priesthood of Aaron was inferior to that of Melchizedec, how much more does it fall short of the transcendant excellence of the eternal priesthood of Christ! The institution of the Levitical priesthood was but for a time, and, in itself, was only calculated to point out a more perfect and glorious establishment, which should one day succeed it: and therefore, in the fulness of time, when another priesthood was about to commence in Christ, Zacharias, who was a descendant of Aaron, was struck dumb upon the revelation of it, in order to shew, that the typical priesthood was then ending, and that the great Highpriest, in whom all nations should be blessed, was about to come forth to execute his office. The priesthood of Melchizedec, who for that purpose was made like unto the Son of God, abideth continually. It was a kind of priesthood which did not consist in the exhibition of carnal types and sacrifices, like Aaron’s, but in the offering up of spiritual services to God; and therefore it was consecrated by the divine oath or covenant, which clearly implied its eternal designation and perpetuity; whereas the Levitical priesthood, which was to endure but for a time, and during that time was only to shadow forth the other, was ordained, for that reason, without an oath, as being inherently no part of the great covenant of God. Besides, Melchizedec was king as well as priest. The apostle notes his name, (for all the patriarchal names among the Hebrews had a meaning in them, and in that respect were very unlike our modern arbitrary appellations), which signified king of righteousness; and the city over which he presided was called Salem, or Peace; so that he was also king of peace; in both which respects he was an eminent figure of him that was to come. For our blessed Redeemer is the King, Priest and Peace of his people; and, in this order or manner, will continue such for ever.

The prophet Zechariah foretold of the Messiah under this conjoined character. As emblems of Christ’s priestly and princely offices, the prophet was directed to make crowns, and to set them upon the head of Joshua, (or Jesus; for this man typically bore the name as well as the office of Christ;) who was the high-priest at that time, and to say to him, Thus speaketh Jehovah Sabaoth, saying, Behold the man whose name is the branch, and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the Temple of Jehovah, and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both. In perfect harmony with the voice of the prophet is the language of the apostle to the Hebrews: We have such an High-priest (says he) who is set on the right-hand of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. In both these texts, the temple, or true tabernacle, which Christ is said to build, and of which he shall be the Minister and High-priest, is the redeemed of the Lord, by whom they are fitly framed and builded together, and for whom they are appointed as an habitation, through the Spirit.

The apostle also notes, what may well be repeated, since it contains matters of the highest comfort, That Christ was not consecrated as an ordinary High-priest, by human investiture, but with an oath, and that the oath of Jehovah; for which reason, he was a surety, and a surety of a better testament. All, therefore, which this High-priest was appointed to perform, for the salvation of God’s people, shall be fully and acceptably performed. Jehovah hath sworn; and it came to pass according to his oath. As an evidence of it, Jesus cried, It is finished, when he gave up the ghost; and as a proof of his ability in being the surety of his redeemed, he laid down his life, and rose by his own power from the dead, and then entered into the heaven of heavens to prepare a place for them.

Christ, our Redeemer, then, is a Priest, a Highpriest, a Priest upon his throne, an everlasting High-priest, a King as well as Priest, the King of righteousness and the King of peace. From all which the apostle infers, that he is able to save them to the uttermost, (or for evermore) that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them; that he is higher than the heavens, far above all principality, asd power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, and that the oath of Jehovah consecrates the Son, the High-priest of his people for evermore.

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