PREACHING CHRIST
By Charles McIlvaine, (1799-1873)
Brethren, it is a long time since I addressed you in the
form of a Charge. Various have been the causes; the chief of them, as you
well know, having been connected with the state of my health. Addressing you
again in that mode, and with exclusive reference to matters pertaining to
our office as Ministers of Christ, realizing how near my time is to lay it
down, I choose a subject with which a Bishop may well desire to close his
ministry; which indeed all our work should be identified with, and which, I
am thankful to say, has been obtaining, ever since mine began, a deeper and
stronger possession of my mind, my affections, and my ministry -- I mean the
work of preaching Christ, according to the Scriptures, and the example of
the Apostles.
"Go preach the Gospel," were the words of our Lord to his
Apostles, which conveyed to them and to us the whole weight and substance of
the commission of his Ministers and Ambassadors. It was the unquestioning
obedience of a simple and unhesitating faith to that one command, animated
by an unquenchable love to its divine Author and to the souls he died to
save, enlightened by the teaching and made mighty by the power of the Holy
Spirit, that constituted all the vigor and efficacy of the ministry of the
Apostles. It was thus that their weapons of warfare became "mighty through
God," and achieved those stupendous victories of the truth over "the spirit
that rules in the children of disobedience," which the weaker faith and more
timid obedience of the Church in later days have so poorly imitated. And, as
in the beginning, so also in all times of the Christian dispensation, it has
pleased God that sinners shall be brought "into captivity to the obedience
of Christ" and made partakers of his salvation, by the obedience of his
ministers to that one original charge and command -- "preach the Gospel."
Faith by hearing; Gospel faith, by hearing Gospel truth; and such hearing,
by the preaching of the word of God, is His standing rule according to which
He bestows His Spirit for the conviction, conversion, and sanctification of
men.
But it is manifest from the Scriptures that the
Apostles identified the Gospel with Christ; so that, in their view and
practice, to preach the Gospel was neither more nor less than to preach
Christ. The record which, in a few words, describes their ministry is
that, "daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and
preach Jesus Christ." Paul to the Romans defines the whole Gospel by saying
that it is "concerning Jesus Christ." (Rom. 1:3). The employment of his two
years’ imprisonment at Rome was all comprehended in "teaching those things
which concern the Lord Jesus." And his whole ministry was given unto him, he
testifies, that he "might preach the unsearchable riches of Christ." As he
could say, "For me to live is Christ;" so for him to preach was Christ. To
him Christ and the Gospel were one.
But we must here note the chief feature in their
preaching of Christ. They omitted nothing pertaining to him; but there was
one thing on which, more than anything else, they very particularly and
emphatically dwelled. They took great pains to set forth the Lord Jesus in
all that he was and is, in person and office, as once on earth and now in
heaven, his preexistent glory with the Father, his incarnation and
humiliation in our nature, his death, resurrection, and intercession; all
his love, all his promises, all his commandments; so that there was no part
of the whole counsel of God "concerning His Son Jesus Christ," which they
kept back. But manifestly there was one event in his history, one work amid
all his works, which stood in their view as the great event and work, around
which they gathered the force of their testimony, as its central light and
power -- to which they made all that went before it look forward for
consummation, and all that succeeded look back as to its foundation, and on
the faithful declaration of which, with its immediate connections, they very
especially rested the faithfulness of their work as preachers of the Gospel.
No doubt you anticipate me. Such passages of the Apostles arise to your
minds, as, "we preach Christ crucified;" "I determined not to know
anything among you (while declaring unto you the testimony of God) save
Jesus Christ and him crucified;" "God forbid that I should glory save
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ;" "For the preaching of the
cross is to those who perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it
is the power of God." They preached Christ -- but as Christ crucified. They
said continually, like John the Baptist, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world," but it was the "Lamb slain" -- Christ in his
death -- bearing "our sins in his own body on the tree," that they pointed
to. They rejoiced in everything pertaining to their Lord, from his birth at
Bethlehem to his present glory at the Father's right hand; but the one thing
in which they rejoiced so supremely, that everything else was lost in
comparison, was his cross. Of the two sacraments ordained of Christ
for his Church, that which alone goes with the believer to be renewed and
repeated all along the way of his earthly life, has for its great object to
"show the Lords death until he come."
It was a great lesson which the Lord thus taught us as to
how we must preach him. His Apostles therefore became in speech, what that
sacrament is in symbol; constantly showing the Lord's death as the sinner's
life. Thus, when they spoke of the Christian's race for "the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus" - and when they exhorted us while in
that contest to be always "looking unto Jesus" -- the special aspect in
which they presented him, was as enduring the cross. And I need not here say
that their sense of the supreme importance in their ministry of the death of
Christ was because they beheld therein the one only and the one
all-sufficient sacrifice and propitiation, the vicarious atonement, for the
sins of the whole world; that great work of God wherein he laid in Zion, for
a sure foundation, the precious cornerstone, on which the sinner believing
shall not be confounded. It is all contained in one verse -- "Christ has
once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God." (1
Peter 3:18). And again, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us." (Galatians 3:13).
Thus, brethren, we have our lesson and example. In the
way the Apostles preached the Gospel we must try to preach it. As they
preached Christ, so must we. God forbid that we should glory in anything
else as ministers of the word. Preachers of Christ, according to the mind of
Christ -- ah, how all honors, all satisfaction in our work will perish but
that! When our stewardship is to be accounted for, and we are just
departing, and the veil, half drawn aside, discloses what we are to meet and
what to be forever, how then shall we care for praise of learning or praise
of speech or any vapors of men's applause! But then, to have "the testimony
of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity, -- not with
enticing words of men's wisdom," we have made it our life-business and our
heart-pleasure to "teach and preach Jesus Christ," as they did whom he gave
to be our examples, having ourselves first learned his preciousness to our
own souls; oh, what consolation and thankfulness with which to die.
Evidently then, my brethren, it is a most serious
question to be always studying, how we may so proclaim the truth committed
to us in Holy Scripture, that in the sense of the Apostles it may be said of
us in our whole ministry that "we preach Christ crucified." To this we
devote this address. It is a great question indeed. Many are the failures --
many the egregious failures. Sometimes it seems as if the preacher could
preach just as he does if Christ and his work were a mere incidental in
religion, a name, and little more -- answering now and then as a convenience
to a sentence; introduced occasionally, because, under some texts, not
easily avoided, but never as the root and foundation out of which our whole
ministry proceeds. But what dreadful condemnation to be thus essentially
defective at the very heart of the great work committed to us! Nothing can
in the least atone for its absence. You might as well attempt to turn night
into day, by lighting a candle as a substitute for the sun. Our ministry is
all darkness, emptiness, and impotence; all condemnation to us, all delusion
to those who hear us, all dishonor to the grace of God, whatever the breath
of man may say of it, except as it is pervaded, illumined, filled with the
testimony of Christ as once the sacrifice for sin, crucified and slain; now
the glorified and ever-living intercessor for all that come unto God by him.
There are many ways of approaching more or less to that
attainment without ever reaching it. Some of the most common we will
endeavor to state:
It is very possible to preach a great deal of important
religious truth, and so that there shall be no admixture of important
error in doctrine or precept -- yes, truth having an important relation to
Christ and his office, and yet not to preach Christ. The defect will be not
in the presence of what should not be there, but in the absence of what
should be, of that which is necessary to give all the truth delivered, the
character of "truth as in Jesus." Such absence, when nevertheless all is
true, may be more destructive to the Gospel character of the preaching, than
even the introduction of some positive error: The preaching may be very
earnest. It may contain much that is affecting and deeply impressive --
strong emotions may be stirred in the hearers. The earnest enquiry may be
excited -- what must we do? And yet, the preaching may wholly fail in giving
any such distinct answer to that question, as will turn the attention of the
enquirer to Christ as all his refuge.
We may say a great deal about and around the Gospel and
never preach the Gospel. Religious truths are not the Gospel, except in
proportion as, like John the Baptist, they point to the Lamb of God. For
example -- suppose you preach on the vanity of the world; the uncertainty of
life; the awfulness of death unprepared for; the tremendous events of the
judgment-day; the little profit of gaining the whole world and losing the
soul; suppose you enlarge on the necessity and blessedness of a religious
life, and the happiness of the saved. Does it follow that you have preached
the Gospel, or any part of it? If deep impressions are made, and serious
enquiries excited, does it follow that Christ is preached? Such topics
unquestionably belong most legitimately to our ministry; they are important
parts of the truth given us to enforce; but they are entirely subordinate
and preliminary. They are not the distinctive seed of the word from which
God has ordained that newness of life shall spring. They are rather the
plough and the harrow to open and stir the ground, that it may receive the
seed of life. You may spend all your time in such work -- not omitting to
sprinkle your discourses with the often-repeated name of Christ and with
much Gospel language; and just because there is no pervading exhibition of
Christ, in his work of Justification by his righteousness and of
Sanctification by his Spirit, given so pointedly and plainly that whoever
will may understand, you may never attain to the honor, in the sight of God,
of teaching and preaching Jesus Christ, whatever the estimate of those who
have not learned to discriminate between truth that is religious and truth
that is not only religious, but distinctively gospel-truth; who know not the
difference between such preaching as makes the hearer feel some spiritual
need, and that which tells him what he needs and where and how he is to find
it. The hearer who has learned Christ, as his lesson of heart and life, of
hope and peace, and knows nothing as precious to his soul, but as it leads
him to Jesus, on the cross of sacrifice and on the throne of intercession,
Jesus in his invitations and promises, Jesus in his grace to help, his
righteousness to clothe, and his power to sanctify, will feel that in all
that ministry "one thing is needful" -- and that one thing, the very thing
on which all its character hinges, -- CHRIST.
But let us advance a little further. You may preach with
faithfulness and plainness the strictness and holiness of the law,
how it enters with its requirements into all the thoughts and affections of
the heart, pronouncing condemnation on the sinner, and bringing us all in
guilty before God. There may be no shrinking from the fullest exposition of
the Scriptures concerning the end of the impenitent.
Still more: the office of Christ as the only Savior, and
his merits as the only plea, may be introduced not infrequently, and yet may
there be a great lack of such distinct setting forth of Christ -- such
holding up of Christ crucified, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness before the dying Israelites for all to see and live -- such
presentation of God's great remedy for every man's necessities, as belongs
to the consistency, simplicity and fullness of the work committed to the
minister of the Gospel.
While speaking much of duty, the grace to
enable us to do it may not be proportionably presented. While the penalties
of sin may be kept in full view, the fullness and tenderness and earnestness
of the invitations and promises of Christ to the sinner turning unto God,
may be very dimly exhibited. That great lesson, which we have need to be
always studying, may have been but little learned, how to preach the law as
showing our need of the righteousness of Christ, and how to preach the
Gospel as establishing and honoring the law; the one to convince of sin and
condemnation, the other as providing a deliverance so complete that to the
believer there is no condemnation; the one as taking away all pleas derived
from ourselves, the other as furnishing a most perfect and prevailing plea
in the mediation of Christ; the law as giving the rule of life, the Gospel
as giving the power of life, yes, life from death, in Jesus Christ; the law
to humble us under a consciousness of an utter beggary before God; the
Gospel as directing us to him in whom it pleased the Father that all
fullness should dwell.
Again. It may be that doctrine immediately
concerning the Lord Jesus, and bringing his person and office into view, may
be much introduced. We may take opportunity to speak of his infinite dignity
of being; the mystery of his incarnation; the humiliation and love and grace
of his coming in our nature; his tenderness and compassion, and power to
save; the perfectness of his example and the depth of his sufferings.
Indeed, everything revealed concerning him may at times be found in our
teaching, without error, and in each particular, as it stands by itself,
without serious defect. But there may be still an important deficiency. The
proportion of truth may not be kept. There is a proportion of parts in the
whole body of gospel truth just as there is the same in our own bodies. We
must omit none of the parts, but put each in its right relation to all the
rest. To fail in this, so that while we embrace all we deform all, by a
disproportionate exaltation of some, and depression of others, may be just
as destructive of the gospel character of our ministry, just as confusing
and misleading, as if we omitted some truths, and perverted others.
For example, you may preach Christ in various aspects;
but Christ crucified, the great sacrifice of propitiation, though not
omitted, may not have that high-place, that central place, that
all-controlling place, that place of the head-stone of the corner, which is
necessary to its right adjustment to all parts of the system of faith. You
may preach the Incarnation of Christ in all its truth as a separate event,
and yet be in great error as regards its relation to other events; making it
so unduly prominent that his death shall be made to appear comparatively
subordinate and unessential -- the means exalted above the end -- the
preparation of the body of Christ for sacrifice, being made of more
importance and more effective in our salvation than his offering of that
body on the cross. But the great Sacrament which we carry with us all the
way of our journey, as our great confession, and joy and glory, is to show,
as often as we eat that bread and drink that cup, not the Lord's birth, but
"the Lord's death until he come."
You may preach all of Christ's work as well as person,
and all in due proportion of parts, and yet some other vital truth
essentially connected may be so disproportionately presented as to create in
the whole a most important defect. You have exhibited the foundation which
God has laid in Zion. The question remains, how the sinner is to avail
himself of that foundation. He is to build thereon. But How? The Apostle
answers, "He that believes on him shall not be confounded." We build by
faith. We cannot preach Christ without preaching on that by which we become
partakers of Christ. Evidently confusion, indistinctness, feebleness,
deficiency there, must produce the same effect throughout the whole Gospel.
If faith, in its nature, office, efficacy and distinctive operation and
fruits, be kept in a place so obscure, so subordinate, or taught so
confusedly that either it is wholly out of sight or hidden in a crowd of
other things placed in the outer court of the temple instead of immediately
by the altar of sacrifice, as the one instrumental grace by which the sinner
partakes of the "Lamb of God;" if the works which are its fruits be so
confounded with itself that the grace by which we are "rooted and grounded"
in Christ, is made of no more influence in our participation of him than the
several works of righteousness which grow out of its life, and follow upon
the participation of Christ through its agency, then is the relative
adjustment of truth most seriously spoiled and deformed.
Lastly, under this head of our inquiry; it may be that
occasionally in a discourse, now and then, the setting forth of Christ is
satisfactory in point of doctrine and the proportion of truth. But it may be
only occasionally thus, when the text so obliges, according to rhetorical
propriety, that we cannot avoid it. But such texts may not be chosen very
often. Passing from subject to subject, the preacher comes, from time to
time, to one which necessarily leads to the manifestation of Christ, in some
leading feature of his grace and salvation, and then all may be well done
and calculated to enlighten a mind hungering for the truth. But, meanwhile,
you may hear many a discourse which contains scarcely more of anything
distinctive of the Gospel, or pertaining to Christ, except perhaps his name
sometimes introduced, than if it were some other religion than Christ's of
which the preacher is the minister. And in the general course of his work we
may look in vain after that evident fondness of heart for views which most
intimately and directly look unto Jesus; that habitual feeding of the flock
in pastures watered by the river that proceeds out of the throne of God and
the Lamb; that strong tendency, when subjects not directly testifying of
Christ must be handled, to keep them as near to him as possible, and to
return from them as soon as possible to others of a nearer neighborhood to
the cross; that desire to illuminate all subjects with light from "the face
of Jesus Christ," which proves the preacher's determination "to know nothing
among men, but Jesus Christ and him crucified." We miss that habitualness of
the testimony of Christ, that special love for all the region round about
Gethsemane and Calvary, the atonement and the intercession, and the great
gifts of the Spirit purchased thereby; we miss that constant tracing of all
spiritual life and consolation, in its every influence and fruit, to Christ
as the life, and that careful binding of all spiritual affections and duties
upon him for support and strength, as the vine-dresser trains his vine upon
its trellis, which appears so remarkably in the teaching of the Apostles.
We have thus endeavored to indicate some of the paths by
which, without delivering anything untrue, and while delivering much
important truth, we may come short of the duty under consideration. We
proceed to consider HOW we may fulfill it. What is it to preach Christ?
We have a great example in our Lord's own teaching. When,
after his resurrection, he met the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, and
found them in such darkness and doubt concerning himself, it is written
that, "beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded unto them, in
all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself:" the things concerning
Himself. Our office as Christian ministers, expounding the Scriptures, is to
bring forth all their teaching concerning that glorious One, Himself. Paul
therefore said that he was "separated unto the Gospel of God concerning His
Son Jesus Christ." (Romans 1:1-3). To teach sinners to know Christ, and to
"count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Him,"
looking to the power of the Holy Spirit to communicate, through the truth
which we give only in the letter, that spiritual and saving knowledge which
only God gives, is the general expression of our duty.
But in the Gospel "concerning our Lord Jesus Christ,"
that is, in the circle of doctrines and duties and promises and blessings
which constitute the message of great salvation in him, there is, as we have
already hinted, a system of parts mutually related and dependent, all in
perfect harmony, none so obscure or remote as to be of no importance to the
right representation of the whole. That system, like that of our sun, has a
center, by which all the parts are held in place, from which all their light
and life proceed, and around which all revolve. You cannot exhibit the
system of truth and duty until you have made known that central light and
power; nor can you make known that power in all its truth, without
exhibiting those surrounding and dependent parts of doctrine and precept.
That central sun of light and life is Christ. All of gospel truth and duty,
of consolation and strength, abides in Christ -- derives from Christ, and
glorifies Christ -- and must be so presented or it is divorced from its only
life and loses its gospel character. He is the True Vine, and all parts of
gospel truth are branches in him. Let such truth be presented without that
connection, then its character as truth may remain, but its character for
"truth as in Jesus" is lost. Its vitality is gone. Fruit of life in Christ
Jesus, it cannot produce. It is just as true and important concerning truth
as concerning men, that "the branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide
in the vine."
Now what is the best mode of setting forth this system of
grace? Where shall we begin? Shall we first take up the elementals of
religion (the outsides of the circle; reasoning upward from general truths
to the more particular; explaining and enforcing ordinances and institutions
of the Church) as our road of approach to the Head and Life of the Church;
confining attention to means of grace before we have directed our hearers to
the grace itself in the great fountain head; and thus gradually, and after a
long process of preparatory work, arriving at last at the person and mission
and sacrifice of Christ? But we must remember who they are whom we are thus
keeping so long in the cold and in the dark. They are sinners under the
condemnation of the law of God. They are dying sinners. How brief the time
of some of them to learn, you know not. You have no time to spend on
preliminaries before you have introduced them to the great salvation. What
they have most need to know is, He who came to seek and to save the lost --
how they may find him, and what are the terms of his salvation. Begin at
once with Christ -- "Behold the Lamb of God " -- is the voice. There is no
light until that light appears. The icy-bondage of the sinner's heart yields
not until that sun is risen. Astronomers, when they teach the solar system,
begin with the sun. Thence, to the related and independent orbits, is easy.
So the apostles taught. See how, when they had the whole system of the
Gospel, as distinguished from that of the law, to teach the Jews -- the
whole outward and visible of the Christian Church, as well as all the inward
and spiritual of the Christian life, all so new and strange and unpalatable
to a people so unprepared, so entangled with traditionary aversions and
deep-seated perversions, see how they leaped over all preliminaries and
begin at once with Christ and him crucified, the sacrifice of his death,
"and the power of his resurrection." At once they broke ground and set up
the banner of their ministry there. Just at the point where the pride of the
sinner would most revolt, and the wisdom of man was most at fault, and the
ignorance of Jew and Gentile was most complete, where the Jew saw only a
stumbling block and the Greek only foolishness, there they opened their
message. "I delivered unto you, first of all (said Paul), that which I also
received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." (I
Corinthians 15:3) They could not wait to root out prejudice, plant first
principles, approach the entrenched power "that rules in the children of
disobedience," by the strategy of man's wisdom, when they knew that Christ
was the great "power of God unto salvation." At once to open the windows and
let in the sun was their way of giving light to those who sat in darkness.
At once to show the amazing love of God to sinners in not sparing His own
Son, but delivering him up for us all, was their way to draw the sinner's
heart to God. Human device would have said, as it has often said, in
substance, Make philosophy prepare the way. Clothe your teaching in robes of
man's wisdom. Keep back the offence of the cross until you have first
conciliated the respect of your hearers by a show of human learning and
reasoning. And when your master must be preached directly, don't begin at
his death. Speak of his life, its benevolence, its beauty. Compare his moral
precepts with those of heathen sages. Christ as the example and the teacher,
is your great theme. "No (said Paul), lest the cross should be of none
effect," "that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God." They remembered the words of their Lord, "I, if I be lifted
up, will draw all men unto me." Lifted up in the cross he had now been.
Lifted up as Christ crucified for us, in the sight of the whole world, by
the ministry of the Gospel he was next to be. Such was God's argument with
sinful men.
They believed and therefore preached. God gave the
increase, and wonderful was the harvest.
Thus, dear brethren, we have our lesson. We must begin as
well as end with Christ, and always abide in him, for the life and power of
our ministry, just as for the peace and joy of our own souls. But having
thus begun, what remains? It is the revealed office of the Holy Spirit, as
the Sanctifier and the Comforter, to glorify Christ. "He shall glorify me,"
said the Lord. But how? "He shall take of mine, and show it unto you." It is
our office also, under the power of the Holy Spirit, to glorify Christ in
all his person and relations to us, and by the same method, namely, to take
of what pertains to him and show it unto men. Whatever pertains to him, we
are to show. We must "expound in all the Scriptures the things concerning
himself." Of those things we will attempt a brief sketch and outline, but it
must be only the merest outline, and that very imperfect.
We must preach Christ in regard to the glory of the
Godhead which He had with the Father before the world was. We cannot
exhibit the death of the cross to which he became obedient, without
considering the infinite majesty of the throne from which he descended. We
must keep the connection which the apostle has given us between the glory of
our Lord before he came in the flesh, and his humiliation in the flesh. You
remember that "he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,"
is introduced by "being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be
equal with God." (Phil. 2:6-8)
In the same connection is the Incarnation and Birth
of our Lord. Very near are the mysteries of Bethlehem to those of Calvary.
We cannot tell how Jesus bore our sins, without telling how he took our
nature. To show that he could stand in man's place under the law, we must
show that he was made very man. Hence, in the apostle's account, between the
form of God from all eternity, and the obedience unto death, the connecting
event is, "he was made in the likeness of man." We must take care that in a
just zeal for his divinity we do not impair or put in a place of comparative
unimportance his humanity. The one is as essential to the Gospel as the
other -- the perfect man as the perfect God. Our confession glories as much
in the Word "made flesh," as in the truth that the same Word "was God."
In beholding and showing the great salvation, we are to
consider as of equal necessity thereto "the Man, Christ Jesus," and that he
was, and is, "Jehovah our Righteousness." In the earliest ages of Satan's
attack upon the integrity of the gospel, the heresies did not more assail
the essential divinity than the real humanity of Christ; knowing that if he
were not perfect man, the sacrifice for man's sins were as unavailing as if
he had been only man. The assaults of these present times are indicative, we
think, of the same strategy. How carefully and minutely do the Scriptures
exhibit our Lord as man in all that is of man, while at the same time we are
made to behold his glory, "as of the only begotten of the Father, full of
grace and truth." "In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, made of
a woman," that in all time and to all eternity he might be "made unto us of
God," through his death, "wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and
redemption."
In setting forth our Lord's atoning death, we must keep
in full view his perfect life -- that suffering life between the
cradle and the cross, in which his obedience to the law, completed by the
endurance of its curse for us, was all wrought out. He was the Lamb without
spot, that he might be the sacrifice all-sufficient. It was his fitness as
the purchase-price of our redemption, and at the same time the pattern of
the mind which must be in us to make us meet to be partakers of that
redemption. Christ our example of holiness is a most important part of the
setting forth of Christ as our foundation of hope. There was one hour in his
life for which he came into this world; (John 12:23, and 17:1) but every
hour while he was in this world, as leading to that, exhibited the mind that
was in Christ Jesus, and which must be also in us.
In preaching Christ crucified, let us take care that we
avoid the mistake, not infrequently made, of terminating our representation
almost entirely with the crucifixion -- as if the slaying of the sacrifice
completed the oblation of the sacrifice; forgetting the office of the High
Priest to enter within the veil with the blood of sprinkling, carrying the
sacrifice before the mercy-seat, there to appear in the presence of God for
us, and thus to "obtain eternal redemption for us." "Christ crucified" is
not merely Christ on the cross, but Christ also "on the right hand of the
throne of God," as having "endured the cross." That throne is called "the
throne of the Lamb," and the redeemed in heaven are represented as praising
"the Lamb that was slain." The preaching of Christ crucified goes
necessarily into all that Christ did and obtained for us after, and in
consequence of, his crucifixion. The Resurrection, Ascension, and
Exaltation to headship over all things, are great themes, vitally associated
with what immediately preceded them, forming the essential connection
between what was finished "once for all" when Jesus died, and what is yet to
be finished "for all that come unto God by him," now that he "ever lives."
We must preach Christ in his ever living intercession
-- Christ the High Priest above with the incense and the blood, or we leave
incomplete the view of Christ crucified. When he cried "It is finished" and
"gave up the spirit," it was the slaying of the sacrifice; it was the
suffering of the Lamb of God for us; it was the being "made a curse for us,"
that was then finished. "There remains no more sacrifice for sin;" but there
does remain the perpetual oblation of the one finished sacrifice. Our hope
stops not at the cross, but "enters to that within the veil where Jesus our
forerunner is also, for us, entered, made a High Priest after the order of
Melchizedek." There, therefore, our ministry must also enter. Too often does
what otherwise is well as gospel preaching come short of that mark. Our
preaching follows Christ in his resurrection, and perhaps in his ascension;
but do we sufficiently place before the faith of the sinner, for his prayers
and his hopes to rest on, for his consolation and peace to drink of when he
strives to come unto God, Jesus as now the glorious Intercessor -- showing
in his hands the print of the nails of the crucifixion, and bearing in his
heart all the necessities of every believer? When we exhort to the running
the race with patience "looking unto Jesus" do we sufficiently direct the
eye of the hearer to Jesus, the glorified, in his present office and work
for us? Remember, that when the apostle said, "He is able to save to the
uttermost," he added, as the essential evidence, "seeing he ever lives to
make intercession for us."
I must not pass from this immediate neighborhood of the
great sacrifice, without a few words about its NATURE. To speak of it
as a sacrifice for sin in such general terms only as leave room for the most
unreal, figurative and accommodated sense, is to come far short of our duty
and of what the special tendency of error in these days demands. When we
administer the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, we "show the Lord's death."
Let us take care that when we show the same in words, we do not come short
of the teaching of the Sacrament. Our church interprets that teaching with
studied precision, in her communion office, in reference to errors prevalent
when that office was framed. She calls the sacrifice "a full, perfect and
sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole
world." She teaches us to pray for remission of sins through faith in
the blood of Christ. We must imitate that precision in reference to errors
now propagated. Besides the perfectness and sufficiency of the sacrifice, in
opposition to those who would add to it, we must insist strongly and
pointedly on its strictly propitiatory and vicarious nature, in opposition
to those who would destroy it. Under such strong texts as "Christ has
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us;" (Gal.
3:13) "He has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin," (2 Cor. 5:21) we
must teach Christ as standing literally in our stead under the condemnation
of our sins; all our guilt laid upon him; he the condemned one for us, that
we might be accounted the righteous in him. I see not how we can come short
of such a sacrifice and yet preach Christ crucified, according to the
Scriptures.
The strictly substitutionary character of Christ's
sacrifice for our sins I consider of the most vital importance to be clearly
taught, if we would satisfy the language of Scripture, or do our duty to God
and man. "He was made sin for us;" by which I understand that he stood for
us under the law, by imputation of our sins, bearing all our sins, and as
perfectly identified and charged with them as it was possible for one "who
knew no sin" in himself to be.
Closely allied to our Lord's priesthood, offering the
perpetual oblation of his sacrifice, is his office as the great Prophet
and Teacher of his Church. "In him are hidden all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge." He is "made unto us of God, wisdom," as well as
"righteousness." Christ crucified is Christ the Light as well as the Life.
To his invitation, "Come unto me and I will give you rest," is joined the
precept, "learn of me." The great subject of saving learning is Christ
himself, and he is the only effectual teacher of that learning. Those who
have "learned Christ," so as truly to know him, are declared to have "been
taught by him the truth as in Jesus." Whatever our advantages of human
teaching, even of the truest exposition of God's inspired word, all is
powerless spiritually to enlighten us in the knowledge of God and of Christ,
until he who speaks as never man spoke, shall add to it the teaching of his
Spirit, so that we shall learn, not merely by the Scriptures, but in them
from and of Him. Christ as "the truth" as well as "the way," "the wisdom" as
well as "the righteousness of God," the living "Word" as well as the
ever-living Priest and Intercessor, must be showed in our ministry, if we
preach Christ crucified, not merely as once on the cross, but as now in his
glory.
But Christ crucified is not only "the righteousness of
God" and "the wisdom of God," but "the power of God unto salvation." "Him
has God exalted to be a Prince," that he may be a Savior, "mighty to save."
"Unto the Son, He says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, a scepter
of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom." Christ as King, in
a glorious sovereignty over all things in heaven and earth, we must declare.
It is the crowning aspect of Christ, the crucified. It is "the THRONE of the
Lamb that was slain," before which the multitudes without number, of the
saved in heaven are represented as ascribing "power and riches and strength
and glory and honor and blessing. By his death he purchased, as Mediator, a
glorious kingdom of redemption. At his ascension, He went to receive it.
There now he reigns over all his people in earth and heaven, and over all
else, for his people. When he shall come again, it will be in the glory of
that kingdom. It was a grand introduction to that precious invitation, "Come
unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden," and that attending precept,
"take my yoke and learn of me," when he said (in the verse next before),
"All things are delivered unto me by my Father." (Mat. 11:27)
It was when he was in the humiliation and sufferings of
the cross that, as the great King, he stretched forth the scepter of his
power to the malefactor at his side, and gave him repentance and remission
of sins, and opened unto him the kingdom of heaven. And now that, having
endured the cross, he is set down at the right hand of the throne of God, to
reign forever and ever, he has all power to make good all his promises to
those who receive him and to punish with everlasting destruction those who
reject him. There is no part of our Te Deum that more animates the worship
of my heart than these two sentences, "You are the King of Glory, O Christ!"
"When you had overcome the sharpness of death, you opened the kingdom of
heaven to all believers." It is as King of Saints that he freely receives
every sinner who seeks his salvation, writing the law of his kingdom in his
heart, giving him victory over the enemies of his soul, making him
triumphant in death, and finally saying unto him from his throne, "Enter
into the joy of your Lord." It is as Christ crucified and glorified and
"King of Saints" that he utters that promise of royal authority and power,
"To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I
also overcame and am set down with my Father in His throne." (Rev. 3:21)
Here then is another aspect in which we must lift up the
Lord Jesus in our ministry. We must not let it be forgotten that, in all the
tenderness of his invitations and promises, he speaks "as one that has
authority," not only to make them good, but to punish their rejection. The
invitations of his grace are the commandments of his throne, to be answered
for at his bar. Hence, the preaching of Christ crucified ceases not until it
has exhibited "the judgment-seat of Christ. It must be noted that, when the
Apostle says, "Knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men," he is
speaking of the terror of our Lord Jesus in his day of judgment. (2 Cor.
5:10,11) That day is called "the great day of the wrath of the Lamb." (Rev.
6:17) Why the wrath of the Lamb? Why but to keep still in view the great
sacrifice of atonement; to teach that Christ on the throne of judgment is
Christ that was crucified; that the chief question of that day will be,
whether we have accepted or neglected the great salvation purchased by his
blood; and the chief terror of that day will be the vengeance of that blood
upon its rejection?
While we love to speak of the blessedness of "the saints
in light" as "joint heirs with Christ," we can not discharge our whole duty
as preachers of Christ, unless we speak of the heritage of those who
"receive his grace in vain." We have a most impressive example in Paul, who,
knowing nothing in his ministry "but Jesus Christ and him crucified,"
pictured so solemnly that day when, coming "to be glorified in his saints
and to be admired in all those who believe," the Lord Jesus "shall be
revealed from heaven, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who obey
not the gospel, and who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from
the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power." (2 Thess. 1:7-10)
But the preaching of Christ as the crucified extends
through all the inheritance of his people forever and ever. It
deserves your particular remark how carefully, in many places, the
Scriptures, in speaking of the actual condition of the redeemed in heaven,
and its connection with the Lord Jesus as its author, source, and substance,
so speak of it as to keep not only Christ on the throne, but Christ
crucified, Christ the sacrifice, in most conspicuous view. This is
especially seen wherever he is spoken of in his glory as "the Lamb," which
of course means the Lamb of sacrifice -- the antitype of the paschal lamb
and of the daily sacrifice of the law; the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy,
"He is led as a lamb to the slaughter," "wounded for our transgressions.
Thus the multitude which no man can number, who stand in white clothing and
with palms of victory before the throne, are represented as "before the
Lamb," and their adoration is in ascribing "salvation to the Lamb," and
notice is carefully drawn to their having "washed their robes in the blood
of the Lamb," and all that high communion and blessedness is called "the
marriage-supper of the Lamb," and in all that dwelling-place "the Lamb is
the light thereof," and he that "feeds them and leads them to living
fountains of water" is "the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne," and
"the river of the water of life," representing their whole felicity,
proceeds "out of the throne of the Lamb," and the book of citizenship of the
New Jerusalem, in which are written the names of all that are to inhabit
there, is "the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the
world." (Rev. 13:8 and 20:12,14) Most evidently the intent of all this is to
carry adoring thoughts of the sacrifice of the cross into our every thought
of heavenly happiness, and to represent the heir of that felicity as never
forgetting that great price; never seeing the Lord in his glory without
seeing him as once "crucified and slain;" never ascending any height of "the
heavenly places," or drinking at any stream of their blessedness, without
seeing in Christ not only "the Author and the Finisher," but all in him as
"the Lamb slain," as he who "lives and was dead," Christ the propitiation,
Christ crucified. Atonement by sacrifice is written all over the heritage of
the righteous. It is the chorus of every song of the saints in light. All
heaven echoes with "Unto him that washed us from our sins in his own blood."
So must it be in all our preaching concerning the happiness of the saved --
Christ the purchaser and dispenser, but the glory of his cross never
separated from the glory of his throne. When we "shall see him as he is," we
shall not cease to think of him as he was.
Here a word about our representations of what is the
happiness of the redeemed in heaven -- what constitutes it. There is a
chilling effect of many books and sermons on that subject -- so much
generality, so little about what the Scriptures place so above all; so much
made of the subordinate and accessory features, the pastures and the flowers
of the heavenly land, and so little of the Sun that gives them all their
beauty and life; as if you should speak of the garden of Eden, and make more
of what God planned than the presence and Communion of God therein -- not
remembering what Paradise in all its beauty became to man when that
communion was withdrawn. Christ is carefully to be preached, as being,
himself, in his glory and Communion, the heaven of his people; as well as,
in his humiliation and sacrifice, its purchase-price. How striking is the
testimony of the Scriptures to this point. Has Jesus gone away to prepare a
place for us in his Father's house? His promise is, "I will come again, and
receive you unto myself, that where I am there you may be also." Does he
pray his Father in behalf of the happiness of his people, the prayer is,
"that they may be with me where I am and behold my glory." While it does not
appear what we shall be "as sons of God" and "joint heirs with Christ," does
John speak of one thing that we do know. It is that "we shall be like and
see him as he is." Does Jesus promise to those who overcome, that they
"shall eat of the hidden manna"? That manna is himself. "I am that bread of
life." Is heaven described as a glorious city of habitation? "The Lamb is
the temple" and "the light thereof." Has it a river of water of life, and on
either side the tree of life? All that river comes forth from "the throne of
the Lamb." Christ is "the Finisher of our faith" in this, that he is, in
himself, the consummation of our hope; his presence, his communion, his
everlasting love being the prize of our high calling, and the goal of our
race. We come to him now, and he is our peace. We go to be with him forever,
and he is our glory. Ask the way to heaven; we say, Christ. Ask where heaven
is; we say, where Christ is. Ask what heaven is; we answer, what Christ is.
Thus preach we Christ crucified, whenever we speak according to the
Scriptures of what constitutes the life eternal of the sinner "redeemed by
the blood of the Lamb."
But we must take good heed, that we do not so speak of
our Lord in his heavenly power and glory as not to give due place to his
ever present personal ministry, in and to, his Church on earth. The
impression is too prevalent that here in our duties and wants and prayers we
have only a Savior and helper afar off.
The precious assurance of the Scriptures is, that we have
a Savior so near to every one of us, that "a very present help" -- so
present that nothing can separate us from him; that nothing but unbelief
ever intervenes between our needs and his fullness, neither space nor time,
nor unworthiness nor weakness -- so present that he is ever at the door --
waiting to be received, or beneath our weakness ready to be leaned on. No
presence is so "very present" as that of Christ, in the power of his Spirit
to every heart that seeks him -- enlightening, guiding, comforting,
upholding, drawing sinners to himself, making himself known to them, giving
efficacy to means of grace; whatever the instruments, He the only power. "I
am the good shepherd." All is comprehended in that declaration. As the good
shepherd, he is the present shepherd, so present to each of the flock that
he "calls every one by name and leads him out." Oh, what a help and comfort
it is when we get a full comprehension and an abiding impression of that
presence. How it strengthens the Minister of the Gospel! How it lifts up the
heart of the Christian!
In this connection, the faithful preaching of Christ will
keep in great prominence, that aspect of himself which he taught with such
emphasis, when he spoke of himself as "the living bread -- the bread of God"
of whom the manna in the wilderness was the type and the bread of our
Eucharist is the Sacrament; Christ the present daily life of his people --
they abiding in him by faith, he in them by his Spirit; all their life as
children of God now -- all their hopes of life forever, depending on that
habitual communion -- the vine and the branches. The more we ourselves enjoy
of that abiding, the better shall we know how to teach it. Nowhere does mere
book-knowledge of what is given us to preach assist us less.
When we speak of Christ as "the life," fulfilling the
type of the MANNA, let us take care that we set in clear view, not only our
dependence, but His freeness. It was one prominent aspect of that "spiritual
food" of which "all our fathers" of the Church in the wilderness ate, that
all classes and conditions of people partook of it alike, and all with equal
and perfect freeness. It lay all around the camp, as accessible to one as
another. Moses, nor Aaron, nor any priest or ruler had any privilege at that
table which the humblest Israelite had not. The priesthood had no office of
intervention between the hungry and that bread. Whoever will, let him take
and eat, was the proclamation. Let us take good heed that what we cannot
deny in the type be not narrowed or concealed in the antitype. Our text is,
"Him that comes unto me, I will in no wise cast out." (John 6:37) And I do
not know a text that contains more of the essence of the preaching of Christ
in the richness and freeness of his salvation. Oh, let us take care that our
ministry shall keep full in the sight of men that open way, that free
access, that directness of coming, not to some mere symbolical
representation, but to the very present Christ, in all his tenderness of
love and power to save. Ordinances, ministers, are sadly out of place, no
matter how divinely appointed for certain uses, when instead of mere helps
in coming to Christ, they are made, in any sense, conditions or terms of
approach, so that the sinner gets to Christ only or, in any degree, by them.
The light of the sun is not more free to every man that comes into the
world, than is the salvation of Jesus to every believing sinner. It is our
business to be continually showing that precious truth; coming by faith, all
the condition -- Christ, the full and perfect salvation of all who come.
But in the range of gospel truth, there are subjects of
instruction, which though not directly concerning his person and office, are
so connected with all right appreciation of his saving grace that we cannot
keep them out of view, without affecting most injuriously our whole
ministry. Be it remembered that while the cross with its immediate
neighborhood is the metropolis of Christianity -- all the region round about
is Holy Land, more or less holy according to the nearness to that "city of
our God;" "a land of milk and honey," "of brooks and fountains of water,"
intersected in all directions with highways by which pilgrims to Zion
approach the desire of their hearts. It is the office of the gospel preacher
to map out that land; to trace those converging roads -- to set up the
waymarks to the city of Refuge. Christ is not fully preached when any truth
which teaches the sinner's need of such a Savior -- illustrating his
preciousness by showing our ruin and beggary through sin dwelling in us and
bringing condemnation upon us, is kept in obscurity. The wisdom of "the
scribe, instructed into the kingdom of God, to bring out of his treasure
things new and old," is found in his omitting nothing connected with the
Gospel, however remote from the great central truths and duties; and in his
giving to each its portion in due season, as well as its place in due
relation.
For example: Christ is "our righteousness" unto
justification to every one that believes, so that in him there is no
condemnation. (Romans 8:1) But we shall preach him in vain, in that light,
unless we show the sinner's absolute need of such righteousness. We must
seek, under the power of the Holy Spirit, so to convince him of sin that he
shall see himself to be under the condemnation of God's law, without excuse
and without hope, until he flees to that refuge. Blessed is he whose
ministry the Spirit employs to teach that lesson of ruin and beggary.
It is the threshold of the way of life. The text-book in that teaching is
the law -- God's will, however, and wherever expressed. Preached in a
spiritual application to the secrets of the heart, not only as the rule of
obedience but as the condition of peace with God to every one that is not in
Christ Jesus, and on the perfect keeping of which all his hope depends;
preached in view of the salvation of Jesus as only increasing the
condemnation so long as it is salvation neglected; it is the instrument of
the Holy Spirit to strip the sinner of self-reliance and self-justification,
to humble him before God under a sense of guilt and ruin, -- and as a
"schoolmaster, to lead him to Christ that he may be justified by faith." He
that would preach a full justification in Christ, without works, must preach
entire condemnation under the law, by works. By the law is the knowledge of
sin and hence the knowledge in part of Christ. Clear, unequivocal statements
of the divine law; the full exhibition of the text, "Cursed is every one
that continues not in all things written in the book of the law to do them"
(that continues not in all things from first to last of life), thus carrying
the sword of the Spirit into the discerning of the thoughts and intents of
the heart, is the special basis of and preparation for all saving knowledge
of Christ. The way of the Lord is prepared by that forerunner. How many more
consciences would cry out for relief under the load of sin; how much oftener
would the careless be awakened to seek mercy through Christ, were there only
a more searching comparison of all that is in man with all the holiness of
the will of God.
Again: Christ is "made unto us sanctification." (1
Cor. 1:30) But how can we do justice to so cardinal a truth of God's grace,
unless we do ample justice to that other great truth of man's nature out of
which arises all the need of a sanctifier -- the entire "corruption the
nature of every man that is naturally of the offspring of Adam?" The
beginning of sanctification is to be born again of the Holy Spirit.
According to men's views of the extent to which by nature they are corrupt
and alienated from God, will be their views of the spiritual nature,
necessity and extent of that great change. Hence to preach Christ in
sanctification, we must preach man in his natural corruption. The "carnal
mind" is "enmity against God and is not subject to the law of God neither
indeed can be." (Rom. 8:7) Let us faithfully expound those words of Paul. We
need no stronger declaration as the basis of the whole superstructure of the
need of an entire inward regeneration, making the sinner a new creature in
Christ Jesus -- new in heart, new in life and hope. That this preaching of
the necessity of such new creature is eminently the preaching of Christ, we
have a striking testimony in these words of the Epistle of the Ephesians
(chap. iv. 20-24), "You have not so learned Christ; if so be you have heard
him and been taught by him the truth as in Jesus; that you put off the old
man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the
spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which after God is
created in righteousness and true holiness."
But how shall we speak of so great spiritual
transformation without speaking with equal stress of Him who produces it?
What sanctification is to salvation, such is the right teaching of the power
and office of the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, the Spirit of Christ,
and all comprehending gift of God. What is there in the Christian life, from
first to last, that is not the work of the Holy Spirit? Is the sinner
convinced of sin, Jesus sent the Spirit to do that work. Is he quickened
from spiritual death? "It is the Spirit that quickens." Is he born again? He
is "born of the Spirit." Is he spiritually minded? It is because he "minds
the things of the Spirit." Is he a "follower of God," as a dear child? It is
because he is "led by the Spirit of God." Has he an internal evidence of
that sonship? It is because the Spirit bears witness with his spirit. Is the
love of God "shed abroad in our hearts?" It is "by the Holy Spirit given
unto us." Do we learn how to pray as we ought? It is because "the Spirit
helps our infirmities." Are we comforted with the consolation of Christ? The
Spirit is "the Comforter." Are we strengthened in our duty? It is "by the
Spirit in the inner man." Do we grow in the knowledge of Christ? Jesus said
of the Holy Spirit: "He shall take of mine and show it unto you." And beside
the spiritual resurrection and sanctification, will these vile bodies also
rise; will they also be sanctified and made glorious according to the glory
of our risen Lord? It is written that "He shall quicken your mortal bodies
by His Spirit that dwells in you." (Rom. 8:11)
Rightly to honor the Holy Spirit as He is thus revealed
in His own inspired word, how important to the faithfulness, the
fruitfulness of our ministry. We may so come short of it -- we may so
contradict it, that while bearing a very reputable character before men, we
may all the while be "grieving the Holy Spirit," yes, even "resisting the
Holy Spirit." How much barrenness in the work of the ministry, in making,
not church-members, but spiritually enlightened and spiritually-minded
followers of Christ, may be ascribed to deficiency -- negativeness at least,
in this great department of our teaching! In no part of his work does a
minister more need to be taught of God or to sit humbly at the feet of Jesus
to learn of him; nowhere does a decline of spirituality of mind so soon show
itself as here. In no part of our work do we depend more upon a decided,
habitual, personal experience in our own souls of God's gracious operation.
It is here that great departures from the truth which go on to carry away
eventually whole communities of professing Christians into manifold and
essential errors, almost always secretly or overtly begin; as it is the
final construction of a system from which the personal office of the Holy
Spirit is virtually if not professedly excluded, in which they culminate.
The Scriptural description of a spiritual mind is, that it "minds the things
of the Spirit."
It is equally the test of a spiritual and evangelical
ministry. That which specially tries our spiritual discernment and skill by
rightly dividing the word of truth is the right adjustment of means of grace
in their relation to the power of grace, of instruments of blessing to the
hand that employs them and that gives them all their efficacy. The Spirit
has His instruments. His grace has its means. His great instrument in our
sanctification, is His own revealed Truth, by which he testifies of and
glorifies the Lord Jesus in our eyes. Sacraments are that same essential
truth, taught under other signs, and sealed with a special impressiveness.
The preaching of that same truth by an ordained Ministry, is the great
instrumentality of the Spirit. The point of caution is, while giving all due
place to the instrument that we keep it exclusively in the place of a mere
instrument -- of no avail in itself; that we treat it as we treat the glass
by which we seek to see some distant star -- not as an object to be looked
at -- but only as a help to look immeasurably beyond and above it; that as
the glass is nothing without the light, so the means of grace are nothing
without "the Spirit of grace;" that all the power is of the Holy Spirit, and
that power not deposited in the means, as we put bread into the hand of a
distributor, so that whoever receives the latter receives the bread; that
power never divorced from the personal ministry of the Spirit, but applied
directly by Himself to each heart that receives His grace; He "dividing to
every man severally as He will." To speak of an ordinance, a sacrament, any
means of grace, even the Holy Scriptures of truth, as if they were in any
sense the power unto salvation, or as if they contained, whatever its
original source, the grace by which we live unto God, thus leading men to
look to them, instead of only, by their help, to Christ and His Spirit, is
to "do despite to the Spirit of grace."
The whole truth in this connection is found where the
Apostle says: "Who is Paul and who is Apollos, but Ministers by whom you
believed, even as the Lord gave to every man" (1 Cor. 3:5) Instead of Paul
and Apollos, read any ordinance or means of grace. What are they but
ministrations of man by help of which you believe, even as the Lord gives to
every man. There is a text which the full and explicit preaching of Christ
will be always directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously,
illustrating. It is those verses in the second chapter of the Epistle to the
Ephesians, "By grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of
yourselves it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works."
Salvation all of grace only; in its origin in the love of God; in its
purchase by the blood of Christ; in the first quickening of the sinner from
the death of sin; in all the renewal of his nature; in his acceptance
through Christ, to the peace of God; in his whole ability to live as a child
of God; and in his final admission to the glory of God -- all of grace only
-- wonderful grace; -- but through faith alone -- and that faith itself a
gift of grace; our works in every degree and aspect wholly excluded from the
work of saving us, though necessarily included as fruits of the grace that
does save us -- we being created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works and
not in any degree by good works -- first God's workmanship making us new
creatures, then our working as so created "unto good works which God has
ordained that we should walk in them."
We preach such works, first, as absolutely excluded from
having any part in procuring our Justification before God; secondly, as
essential fruits and evidences of our having obtained such Justification. We
preach the office of Faith as so vital that only by it are we united to
Christ, as living stones built upon the living head of the corner; and the
necessity of good works as so absolute, that only in them can we walk as God
has ordained and have evidence that we are true believers in Jesus; and at
the same time both faith and works deriving all being from the Spirit of God
and all value and efficacy to salvation from the Righteousness of Christ.
Here let me add some few miscellaneous observations. We
are bound to instruct the believer in all the privileges and consolations
that are in Christ that his joy may be full. But we must lay equal
stress on all His obligations, that Christ may be glorified. Out of
the same wounds of the cross come privilege and duty, promise and
commandment, the consolation of faith and the duty of obedience; and the
same preaching that leads to the one must alike insist on the other, and on
both as necessary to our having that rest which Jesus promises. It is a
great matter so to preach the precepts of Christ as to lead men to embrace
his promises; and so the promises as to draw the disobedient to the love of
his precepts. In all our work we have two great sources of persuasion,
according to the example of Paul, namely, "We beseech you by the mercies of
God," and again; "Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;" the love
of God in Christ as a Savior, and the wrath of God in Christ as Judge of
quick and dead; a cloud of light and a cloud of darkness, each proceeding
from the cross as accepted or rejected. We must do all in tenderness, but
all in faithfulness. The whole counsel of God embraces the fearful penalty
of unpardoned sin as well as the glorious inheritance of the reconciled in
Christ. The faithful preacher of Christ keeps back none of it. While he
delights in the loving aspect of his grace, he is not ashamed of the
severities of his justice. He does not indeed denounce or judge. It is not
for him to command or condemn. His work is always to entreat and persuade;
tenderly, lovingly, patiently, in the mind of Christ.
But persuasion has the alarming truths to use as well as
the encouraging. That, "God is a consuming fire," out of Christ, is as much
an argument of persuasion and tenderness, as that in Christ, "God is Love."
We read of "the goodness and severity of God." (Rom. 11:22) We must exhibit
both. They interpret and enforce one another. But how to balance aright
judgment and mercy, invitation and warning, precepts of obedience, and
promises of consolation, the tender "Come unto me and I will give you rest,"
with the stern "Depart you cursed into everlasting fire," the darkness and
the light -- the loving voice from the Mercy-seat and the dreadful sentence
from the Judgment-seat -- all under the duty of teaching and preaching Jesus
Christ, is not learned from books only, is not given by specific rule, comes
chiefly out of the state of the heart, under the general light of the
Scriptures, and by a careful endeavor to learn of, and be like, him of whom
it is beautifully written that he has "the tongue of the learned to know how
to speak a word in season to him that is weary." (Isaiah 1:4)
From all that has now been said, it appears how mistaken
is the idea that by confining our preaching to Christ and him crucified we
have a very narrow range of truth to expatiate in. In reality, we have the
whole vast range of natural and revealed religion. A wider field no preacher
can find who does not seek it beyond the confines of religious truth. The
difference between the man who confines himself to the preaching of Christ
and him who does not, need not be that the latter embraces any portion of
divine truth -- of doctrine or duty, of history or prophecy or precept which
enters not into the range of the former. It may be wholly a difference in
the mode of presenting precisely the same truth -- a difference in the
bearings; in the relations assigned to every part; in the cardinal points to
which all is adjusted; in the polarity, so to speak, which governs such
manifestation of truth as deserves the name and praise of the preaching of
Christ. You may take truth from the immediate neighborhood of the cross, or
from the farthest boundaries of the domain of Christianity, and when its
just relation to Christ and his redemption is exhibited Christ is preached.
Thus there is no reason why, in the most faithful ministry, there may not be
abundant variety of topic and of instruction. The sermon may be always
shining in the light of our glorious Lord, while receiving it either by
direct looking unto him, or indirectly from secondary objects which, as
satellites of the sun, revolve around him and shine in his glory. The
sermon, in all its spirit and tendency, may say, "Behold the Lamb of God,"
and yet the view may be as changing as the positions from which it is taken,
the circumstances which influence it, the lights and shadows of the several
conditions and necessities of the minds before which it is placed. In
general we may say that, as no subject is legitimate in the preaching of a
minister of Christ that does not admit of being presented in some important
relation to Christ; so no sermon is evangelical that does not truly exhibit
such relation, giving him the same position to the whole discourse that he
holds in the Scriptures to the whole body of truth therein. As some subjects
have a much nearer and more vital relation to him than others, they will be
much the most frequent and engrossing in the preaching of a faithful
Christian minister. The great truths, the great facts, the great duties and
privileges and interests and consolations which proceed the most directly
from the person and office -- the death and intercession of Christ and the
work of the Holy Spirit -- as well as those which lead the most immediately
thereto, will be so habitually the subjects of his preaching, that the more
remote and indirect will be only occasional, exceptions to the standing rule
and habit. And which of these classes of subjects his mind and heart most
delight in, and which draw forth the deepest earnestness and the strongest
emotions of his soul, will not be doubtful.
We have now exhibited as much of our great and wide
subject as we could with any propriety occupy your time with. You will, of
course, understand that we have not attempted to embrace the whole field.
What has been attempted, we are deeply conscious is most imperfect and
inadequate. Still, we have not withheld our best endeavors, where even Paul
exclaimed, "Who is sufficient for these things!"
We conclude with a brief view of THE STATE OF MIND AND
SPIRIT which qualifies a minister to be a faithful preacher of Christ.
1. A spirit of Faith. I mean Faith not merely in such of
its exercises as make the minister a living Christian, and a growing,
vigorous Christian; but in that special exercise which enables him to go on
patiently, persistently, hopefully, immovably, preaching the Gospel as we
have seen the Apostles preached it, in like simplicity and spirituality --
with as little of the devices and mixtures and dilutions and subterfuges of
man's wisdom, no matter what the obstacles or what the apparent
fruitlessness -- believing it is God's own way, to which alone His blessing
is promised and which He will bless as his own "wisdom and power unto
salvation." It was precisely with such meaning that Paul, just after he had
pronounced, "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord" -- and just
after he had adverted to the fact that such preaching failed to open the
eyes of many that heard saying "If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to those who
are lost, in whom the god of this world had blinded the minds of those who
believe not." (2 Cor. 4:3,4) It was in full view of all whom their preaching
did not succeed in convincing, but only made the more hardened and hopeless,
that he said, "We believe and therefore speak," (v. 13) meaning not only
that they believed what they spoke, but that they believed it was just what
God commanded them to speak. And no rejection of it by man could shake that
confidence or lead them to speak any thing else or in any other way. Well
they knew what a "stumbling-block to the Jew," and what utter "foolishness
to the Greek," was their testimony concerning Christ crucified; but not a
word would they change -- "We believe and therefore speak." It was this
lesson of faith that Paul gave to Timothy. He warned him of a time of
apostasy approaching -- "The time will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine -- and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and be turned
unto fables." (2 Tim. 4:3,4) How then was Timothy to do in such times? What
"sound doctrine," meant in the mind of Paul, we well know -- all that way of
justification by the righteousness of Christ imputed and of sanctification
by the Spirit of God imparted to the believer; that whole way of life of
which the vicarious propitiation by the sacrifice of Christ was the central
power and life. It was all that doctrine which men would not endure.
And what was Timothy to do? Conclude that he, and other
preachers of Christ, had taken the wrong method because thus unsuccessful?
that they must find out some other sort of preaching because that was so
rejected? Since men would not endure sound doctrine, must he try to get them
into the church, or if in the church already, to make them satisfied to stay
there, by giving them unsound doctrine? If the truth caused them to turn
away from it, must he turn away from it also and give them something else to
correct the evil? What said the faith of an Apostle? -- No compromise -- no
accommodation -- only so much more earnestly and continually that same
rejected doctrine. Hear Paul's remedy! "I charge you before God and the Lord
Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his
kingdom -- preach the word (the same offensive word), be instant in season,
out of season -- reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and
doctrine." (2 Tim. 4:1,2) The more the truth is turned away from, so much
the more proclaim it. God will see to the issue. "So we preach, not as
pleasing men, but God, which tries the heart." Such is the faith of which we
are speaking, as of such importance in our ministry.
The times which Paul predicted, and which began before
Timothy had ended his labors, are yet in being. We all know how they have
been exhibited since the beginning of this century; in this country, under
the name of Unitarianism, and on the continent of Europe, under that of
Rationalism. And we have heard with amazement and grief how they have
appeared of late in the venerable Church of England, among some of her
clergy, in her high places of college and pulpit teaching, and how even a
Bishop takes the lead; and how while it is manifest that he cannot endure
the sound doctrine of the Scriptures, and therefore labors to destroy their
authority, he dares, with a dishonesty most astonishing, and an effrontery
unexampled, to persist in holding the office of a Bishop in the Church of
Christ against the remonstrance of all his peers, and to the great disgust
of right-minded people. The case is singular. There were Bishops of the
Romish Church who under the reign of infidelity in France during the
Revolution, renounced the faith; but they renounced also their office in the
Church. We have a more primitive example. Judas Iscariot, when he had
betrayed his Lord, having been "guide to those who took Jesus;" had too much
conscience left to continue in his "apostleship." "His Bishopric" another
took.
But perhaps we have adverted with more point to the case
of this English Bishop than his importance deserved. We were speaking of the
new aspect of affairs among certain of the Church of England. True, the most
prominent manifestation is in attacks on the Inspiration of the Scriptures.
But let not any suppose the ultimate or inspiring object to be there. The
citadel of truth and life can not be reached until that outwork is reduced.
The Atonement is the final object. Atonement for sin by the precious blood
of Christ, with all the precious doctrines of salvation which reside
therein, as branches in the vine, and which are dead and only fit to be cast
away as rubbish the moment such atonement is taken away; That is the
doctrine they cannot endure. That is the truth from which they turn away,
but which they know is safe so long as the Scriptures are the final Rule of
Faith. Meanwhile they would counsel us to give up the old way of preaching
Christ, as no doubt the best way for the old times, but unfit for these
times when through mature growth of man's wisdom such doctrine is counted,
just indeed as it was by similar minds in olden times "foolishness." They
would have us lay aside creeds and confessions, in order that they who
cannot endure the doctrine of Apostles and Prophets may be accounted
Christians no less than those who believe and love it. They would make the
Church so broad that any varieties or oppositions of belief may be embraced
in its communion and even in its ministry, thus strangely sacrificing
gospel-truth to church-comprehensiveness.
Now suppose such evil times should visit us in our church
-- what must we do? I ask it to illustrate what I mean by the faith of which
I am speaking. Must we preach the word, as Paul understood it, any the less?
Shall we suppose that to preach Christ crucified is not as much "the wisdom
and power of God" as when apostles set us the example? Or shall we believe
as they believed, and therefore continue to speak as they spoke, even though
the whole earth should be covered with a flood of apostasy, and men
everywhere should be turned unto fables? What says a true faith in God? No
change, but in more earnestness with the unchanged. "Preach the word" - the
same word - "Instant in season, out of season," "with all long suffering and
doctrine." Let patience have her perfect work. Be not faithless - but
believing - God’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save by that same
word now as in ancient times.
These observations are not applicable only to
circumstances which may hereafter exist among us. Always, everywhere in our
ministry we find those calling themselves Christians, or at least numbered
in Christian congregations, to whom what Paul meant by "sound doctrine" is
an aversion. They do not like to hear, they turn away from hearing so much
about atonement and justification, and a new heart, and faith, and all the
inward work of the holy Spirit. A less spiritual religion would be far more
to their taste - and they think if we would preach much less about the great
distinctive features of the Gospel and more about mere moral duties - that
is, less religion and more of something else, many ears, now turned away,
would hear. Very likely. And under the influence of such views, the
testimony of the pulpit is sometimes grievously deformed. The minister seeks
to commend himself more to the people's preferences than their consciences;
and hence of course, not by manifestation of the truth in its simplicity,
directness, spirituality and completeness. He enlarges the list of
communicants by reducing the spiritual qualifications for the communion. He
makes the narrow gate wider; invites a condition of mind which the Lord
invites not. The middle wall of partition between the church and the world
is broken down, the more to please the world, the more to enlarge the
church. Such compliances we have no right to make. They spring out of
unbelief. They poison the life of the church. If men will not endure sound
doctrine we cannot help it, we have no unsound doctrine to give. If the
ground will not receive the good seed given us to sow, we cannot mend the
matter by sowing bad seed. To the end of the world, come what may, that seed
and only that must we sow. "God (that gives the seed) gives the increase,"
and will give it. Our strength is to believe.
But to preach Christ is not only "a work of faith," it is
a "labor of love." I will not say that no man can do it in a certain sense,
that is, with doctrinal correctness, without the love of Christ in his
heart; for Paul speaks of some in his day who preached Christ, "even of envy
and strife, not sincerely," from selfish and evil motives. I will not
prolong this discourse in enlarging on the elementary truth that without a
personal experience of the preciousness of Christ to our own souls, by each
one's individual participation in the hope that rests on his justifying
righteousness, and is witnessed by the sanctifying power of His Spirit
dwelling in us, we cannot preach Christ, according to his will, in his mind,
in the tenderness and earnestness and patience and godly wisdom which alone
become our office, however correct our teaching in a mere doctrinal aspect.
What I wish, in these concluding words to insist on is, the importance of a
very earnest, tender and overcoming love, to give spirituality to our
theology, and the mind of Christ to our teachings concerning him. Two
preachers, alike in accurate and full statement of all that is revealed
concerning our blessed Lord and his salvation, may be very different in the
spiritual power of their ministry, and the difference will not depend so
much on the superiority of talent or of eloquence, or even in diligence of
one over the other, as on their comparison in point of love. He will preach
best who loves most. His preaching will go most to the heart, and will be
attended with most of "the demonstration of the Spirit," who, in all he says
and does, is most constrained by the love of Christ, dictating, animating,
sanctifying, with the tenderness and patient earnestness of his Master's
mind, his whole discourse. Oh, brethren, that we were more earnest to grow
in this grace! What ought we to value in personal attainment compared with
it? If your ministry fail in spiritual efficacy, inquire into the cause by
searching the state of your hearts in regard to the love of Christ therein,
to what extent the aim, the zeal, the topics, the temper of your work, and
the whole character of your personal example are under the dominion of that
love.
But I have already occupied too much of your time, and
yet I feel that I have come very far short of the height and breadth of what
I sought to exhibit. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the
excellency of the power may be of God and not of us." Blessed be God, that
in our weakness we have His power to lean on. I humbly pray that power of
God to bless you, dear brethren, what in so much weakness and imperfectness
and unworthiness I have now addressed to you. Nothing in this world could I
rejoice in so much as to be instrumental, under God’s grace, in promoting
the spiritual excellency and efficacy of your work and your personal growth
in the faith and love of Christ. The time is at hand when nothing else will
seem of the smallest value. I commend you to God and the word of His grace
which is able to build you up and make you good stewards of the unsearchable
riches of Christ. "The God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you
that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be
glory and dominion forever and ever." Amen.