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THE GOSPEL A STUPENDOUS MYSTERY
THE former part of this passage is generally quoted as relating to the eternal world. But, if the latter part be taken in connexion with it, as it ought to be, the sense is evidently determined to those things which were revealed by the Spirit to the Apostles of Christ. And it is in this sense that the words were originally used in the place from whence they are cited. They are part of a prayer, which the Jews, as soon as they shall begin to embrace the Gospel, will pour out before God in behalf of their afflicted nation; entreating him to interpose in their behalf, as powerfully as he formerly did when he brought them out of the land of Egypt; and to make known to them those great and glorious truths of which hitherto they have never had any just conception [Note: Isa_64:4. The prayer begins at Isa_63:15 and continues to the end of the sixty-fourth chapter.]. To the same purpose the Apostle cites them in our text. He is speaking of the Gospel as “foolishness” indeed to the natural man, but as in reality the most stupendous display of the Divine wisdom; such as had never before been seen, or heard, or thought of, from the foundation of the world [Note: ver. 6–8.]; and such as, if previously known to those who crucified our Lord, would have effectually deterred them from executing in that respect the eternal counsels of the Deity.
Confining then our views of the passage to what is revealed in the Gospel, we will shew,
I. How infinitely superior the Gospel is to any thing that reason ever devised—
Reason has certainly evinced great powers in relation to things natural and temporal—
[It has penetrated far into the regions of science. It has comprehended within its grasp the whole extent of that field which was laid open to the mind of Solomon; and has arranged according to their nature and properties all parts of the animal and vegetable creation, “from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall, together with all the different orders of beasts, and fowl, and fishes of the sea [Note: 1Ki_4:33.].” Nay, it has soared beyond this terraqueous globe, even to the starry heavens; and has found out the magnitude and distances and courses of the heavenly bodies, together with the laws by which they move in their respective orbits. It has in these and many other respects carried its researches far beyond the limits which nature appeared to have assigned to it, and has raised man far higher in the scale of creation than by his contracted powers he seemed destined to stand.]
But it has made little progress in relation to things spiritual and eternal—
[Man with, all his powers was not able to find out God. Not even the unity of the Godhead was discovered by him; much less were his great and glorious perfections. The wisest philosophers spake on these subjects with much uncertainty and inconsistency. As for any way of reconciliation with God, consistently with the Divine perfections, not so much as a thought of it ever entered into the mind of man, till it was revealed to man by the Spirit of God: it was far out of the reach of human reason to declare, how God should be just, and yet the justifier of sinful men. Even a future state of existence was rather guessed at than fully ascertained; and the nature of that state was wholly unknown:—so true is it, in reference to the whole circle of divine knowledge, that “man by wisdom knew not God [Note: 1Co_1:21.].”
Thus, when we compare the knowledge which we enjoy under the Gospel with the discoveries of uninspired men, we are constrained to say, that they are as wide asunder as light is from darkness, and heaven from hell.]
But, to form a correct estimate of the Gospel, we should see,
II. How far superior it is to any thing that men had a conception of under the Jewish dispensation—
God did reveal himself to Moses: but his views of God were very partial and indistinct: he saw only, as we are told, “his back parts [Note: Exo_33:23.].” As far as he, and David, and Isaiah had a cleaver insight into the great mystery of redemption than others, they received it rather by special inspiration, than from the notices given of it in the Mosaic law: the Jews as a people had very indistinct notions on the whole subject of religion.
1. Their views of God himself were very dark—
[To them he appeared rather as a Sovereign than as a Father; and as a Sovereign of their own nation only, and not the Father of the whole human race. They beheld him rather in the terrific aspect of his majesty, than in the endearing attribute of mercy.]
2. They knew but little of the way of acceptance with him—
[They had sacrifices, it is true, but such as could give no peace to a wounded conscience. The very necessity of repeating the same sacrifices from year to year, clearly shewed to them, that their past sins were not fully expiated or blotted out. The sacrifices, in this view, were rather “remembrances of sin,” than real expiations of it. For some sins, as murder and adultery, no sacrifice whatever was appointed: and for these therefore there was no well-grounded hope of pardon. All that they were assured of, in any case, was, rather an exemption from punishment by the civil magistrate, than an everlasting remission of their sins by God himself: so dark, even in this respect, was the dispensation under which they lived.]
3. The real blessedness of his people could not be duly estimated by them—
[They possessed indeed many privileges above the heathen; but yet they were kept at an awful distance from God. The people at large could not enter into the court of the more privileged orders, the priests and Levites: nor could any but the high-priest alone enter into the most holy place; and he only on one day in the year, and in the way that was particularly prescribed. Their services consisted altogether in burthensome rites and ceremonies, which, instead of calling forth a sublime exercise of spiritual devotion, were “a yoke which none of them were able to bear.” They went in and out before God as servants actuated by fear, and not as children under the influence of love.]
4. Not even the future state of rewards and punishments was clearly known to them—
[Some light indeed was thrown upon the eternal world; but it was faint and glimmering. Little was seen throughout the Mosaic writings but a prospect of temporal rewards and punishments, of an enjoyment of Canaan with much earthly felicity, or of an ejection from it with the attendant miseries of captivity and bondage.
Thus the whole of the Jewish state was at best only as an intermediate state between the darkness of heathenism and the light of the Gospel: it was as the early dawn to usher in the brighter day.]
To elucidate the infinite superiority of the Gospel, we must proceed to shew,
III. How full and rich a manifestation of it we enjoy—
“The darkness is now passed, and the true light now shineth [Note: 2 John, ver. 8.];”—
1. God himself is now fully revealed to us—
[We see not only his unity, but his subsistence in Three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; all in glory equal, and in majesty co-eternal. All his perfections also have been made, as it were, to shine both in their separate, and united, splendour before our eyes;—justice harmonizing with mercy, and righteousness combining with truth, in the salvation of fallen man: yea, justice glorified in the way of mercy, and mercy in the way of justice, and truth and righteousness in all. Yes verily, “the whole glory of the Godhead now shines before us in the face of Jesus Christ [Note: 2Co_4:6.].”]
2. The mysterious plan of redemption also is now fully opened—
[We are introduced, if we may so speak, to the eternal counsels of the Deity, wherein the Father gave to his Son a people to be redeemed, and the Son undertook to lay down his life for them. In the fulness of time we behold the eternal Son of God laying aside that glory which he had with the Father before the worlds were made; and taking upon him our nature, on purpose that in the nature which had sinned he might suffer the curse that was due to sin. We behold him fulfilling the perfect law of God for us, that we may have his perfect righteousness imputed to us, and at the same time expiating our guilt by his own sufferings on the cross. We see him further rising from the dead, and ascending up to heaven, to carry on there the work he had begun on earth; to be the continual Intercessor for his people, and, as their living Head, to supply them with all that their necessities require. And, finally, we behold him coming again to judge the world, and to assign to his friends, and to his enemies, the portion prepared for them; and then, having completed the whole work of redemption to the uttermost, “surrendering up the kingdom into the Father’s hands, that God may be all in all.”
How amazing is all this! how infinitely beyond all that human eye ever saw, or ear heard, or heart conceived!]
3. The felicity of God’s people is now also plainly declared—
[“Perfect peace” is now to be enjoyed by all who believe in Christ. No doubt rests upon the mind respecting the fulness and sufficiency of his atonement: it is known to be a sufficient “propitiation for the sins of the whole world.” Now every believer has free access into the holiest of all, to behold God himself upon his mercy-seat, and to present before him his sacrifices of prayer and praise. Every saint now regards God as his Father, and with a filial confidence goes in and out before him, assured that every thing both in heaven and earth shall be ordered with an immediate view to his good, as much as if there were not another creature in the universe. And lastly, he looks up to the more immediate residence of Jehovah, assured that a crown and a kingdom are prepared for him, even a participation of the Redeemer’s glory, and an everlasting fruition of God himself.
Say, Did ever any child of man, even among the Jews, foresee such things as these? Did even the highest archangel ever form any adequate conception of them, before they were revealed to the Christian Church? No: they were hid from angels, as well as men [Note: This is particularly marked in the passage as it stands in Isaiah; “None, O God, besides thee.” Isa_64:4.]; and the angels are made wiser by the revelation of them to the Church [Note: Eph_3:9-10.]. But to us they are now revealed: they are revealed to us in the written word; and they are revealed in us by the mighty power of the Spirit taking the veil from our hearts, and giving to us a spiritual discernment [Note: 1Co_2:12; 1Co_2:14.]: and we are authorized to declare, that the most ignorant of true believers at this day is greater than all the prophets, not excepting the Baptist himself, who personally knew Christ, and pointed him out as “the Lamb of God who should take away the sins of the world [Note: Mat_11:11.].”]
Improvement—
1. How inexcusable are they who inquire not into these things!
[Has God in his infinite mercy revealed such things to us, and shall we pay no attention to them? Shall we treat them as if they were no other than “a cunningly-devised fable?” Shall “the angels in heaven be desiring to look into them [Note: 1Pe_1:12.],” and we be unconcerned about them? O, brethren, what account shall we give of ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, if, when he says to us, “Search the Scriptures, for they testify of me,” we prefer every other book before them, and either neglect the Bible altogether, or read it only as a formal exercise? Surely our “study should be in it day and night,” and it should be “sweeter to us than honey, or the honey-comb.”]
2. How blind must we be, if we see no glory in them!
[What! see nothing wonderful in an incarnate God! Nothing wonderful in God dying in the place of his own rebellious creatures! Nothing wonderful in our being brought by these means into union and communion with God, and an everlasting participation of his glory in the world to come! If these things be not wonderful, tell me any thing that is. You would be filled with utter astonishment, if a fellow-creature were to tell you some of the phenomena of nature; and are you not when God tells you all the wonders of his grace? If these things produce no admiring and adoring thoughts in your hearts, know assuredly that the God of this world hath blinded your eyes, and that “you are in darkness even until now.” Were you of the happy number of the Lord’s people, it would have “been given you to behold the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven:” but “if you see them not, it is because ye are not of God.”]
3. How ungrateful are they who do not endeavour to walk worthy of them!
[These things are revealed, not as matters of speculation, but as means of happiness, and as incentives to holiness of life. Do but think what manner of persons ye ought to be in all holy conversation and godliness; ye, I say, for whom such things have been done, and to whom they have been revealed! But it will be well for you to attend to that expression in our text, that “God hath prepared these things for them that love him.” True, in the first instance it is for his enemies: but they do not remain his enemies; on the contrary, they “love him,” and serve him, and “wait for him [Note: Compare the passage as it stands in Isaiah, with the same as cited by Paul.]:” and verily, if, after you have been enlightened by the Spirit of God, and been enabled to behold all these wonders of love and mercy, you do not devote yourselves wholly to the Lord, you shew that you have no part or lot in this matter. You may have believed, like Simon Magus; but like Simon Magus you shall perish: for know assuredly, that, “if ye be Christ’s, ye will crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts, and will glorify God with your body and your spirit, which are his [Note: If this be the subject of a Mission Sermon, the duty of diffusing over the face of the whole earth these glorious truths may here be pressed to great advantage.].”]