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THE GREAT OBJECT OF CHRIST’S COMING
THESE words are a part of an introductory prayer, with which St. Paul begins almost all his epistles. The portion of it which I have selected for the subject of our present contemplation, expresses a truth, which, if stated in a didactic form, might have somewhat of a forbidding aspect; but, as incidentally mentioned, in the midst of a prayer which conveyed to the Galatian Church the strongest evidence of his regard for their welfare, it comes recommended to us by all the endearments of Christian love. One thing, in particular, we cannot fail to notice; namely, that the sentiment contained in it was well known amongst them, and universally approved. It needed nothing to confirm it, nothing to enforce it. They were in the habit of looking to the Saviour, as well as to God the Father, for all the blessings of “grace and peace:” and to the one, as well as to the other, of these divine Persons, did they ascribe all “glory for ever and ever.” The nature of their obligations, too, both to the one and to the other, they clearly understood. They knew, that to “deliver them from this present evil world,” was the Father’s object in sending to them his Son, and the Son’s object in dying for them. The introduction therefore of this sentiment would not offend them: on the contrary, it would meet with their most cordial concurrence; and would increasingly occupy their minds, whenever they were engaged in the blessed work of supplication and thanksgiving. Well therefore may the truths which it will of necessity lead me to inculcate be received by you, not as hard sayings, but as expressions of love.
Consider, then, with me,
I. What is the great object aimed at in our redemption by Christ—
Persons at all conversant with the Gospel would, without hesitation, say, that Christ gave himself for us, to deliver us from the guilt of our sins, and from the condemnation due to them. But the complete connexion which that subject has with our deliverance from the world would not so immediately occur to the minds of all. That, therefore, it shall now be my endeavour to point out.
Through the fall of our first parents, the world has usurped, in the heart of man, the place which was originally assigned to God—
[The world, as first constituted, and as subordinated to God, was good: but, as rivalling God in the affections of men, if and every thing in it, is evil. To fallen man it is become his one object of desire, his one source of pleasure, his one ground of confidence. It occupies all his thoughts: it is his pursuit, his portion, and his god. As for his Creator, he flees from him, as Adam did in Paradise. He delights not to contemplate him, to seek him, to serve him, to enjoy him. Nay, if the inspired testimony be true, “God is not in all his thoughts.” The things of time and sense engross him utterly. When he rises in the morning, when he passes through the day, when he lies down to rest at night, the world, with its cares, its pleasures, its vanities, binds him as with adamantine chains, and keeps him from ever soaring to his God. He loves his bonds indeed, and feels them not: but he is bound notwithstanding; and, whilst “walking according to the course of this world, he is walking according to the dictates of the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in all the children of disobedience [Note: Eph_2:2.].”]
To deliver him from this state was the great end for which our Lord and Saviour came into the world—
[He came to cast out every idol from our hearts, and to bring us back to God. Not that he grudges us the enjoyment of earthly things; for “he has given us all things richly to enjoy [Note: 1Ti_6:17.];” but he cannot endure that God should have a rival in our hearts. By contemplating man in Paradise, we may form an idea what that state is to which the Lord Jesus Christ seeks to restore us. Before sin had defiled the soul of Adam, he had as rich an enjoyment of earthly things as a creature could possess. But he enjoyed God in them: and it was this which rendered them so sweet to his taste. God was the first and last in all his thoughts. He “dressed, indeed, and kept” the garden in which he was placed; but it caused him no anxious care; nor excited any idolatrous attachment in his mind; nor alienated his soul from God, even for a moment. It never unfitted him for communion with God, or deadened the ardour of his affections towards God: no; he walked as before God, every day and all the day long: he walked with God, as a man walketh with his friend. Now, to bring us back to this, is the true end of redemption, and the proper scope of all that God has ever done for our souls.]
Let us now proceed to consider,
II. How great an object this is—
It is the one object aimed at both by the Father and the Son—
[For this the Lord Jesus “Christ gave up himself.” For this he left the bosom of his Father: for this he vacated his throne of glory: for this he assumed our nature: for this he lived; for this he died: for this he rose again, and ascended into heaven, and took upon him the government of the world. This is the end he ever keeps in view, in the chastisements he inflicts, and in the blessings he bestows. In all this, the Father also concurred with him. The very proposal, so to speak, originated with the Father; as the Son himself testifies: “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not: but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God [Note: Psa_40:6-8. with Heb_10:5-7.].” The Father, as is here said, “prepared him a body,” and sent him into the world; and “gave him a commandment, what he should say, and what he should do [Note: Joh_6:38; Joh_14:31.].” The Father upheld him also in the whole of his work [Note: Isa_42:1.]; and “raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory [Note: 1Pe_1:21.];” and committed all things into his hands, that he might accomplish in man all the purposes of his love [Note: Eph_4:10.].]
What an object, then, must this be!
[We are accustomed to judge of objects, in general, by the efforts made to obtain them. And, if we take that criterion, what is there that can equal the great object before us? That it should ever occupy for a moment the mind of the Deity, is amazing: but that it should ever be so desirable in Jehovah’s mind, that he should give his only dear Son to effect it; and that his Son, also, should willingly endure all the curses of the broken law to attain it; yea, that the Holy Spirit, too, should undertake, by his own almighty power, to accomplish in us this good work; that the Sacred Trinity, I say, should all combine thus to effect it, exhibits such a view of its importance as nothing can exceed, Yet, how little is it viewed in this light! How little do men, at that season of the year when we commemorate the Saviour’s Advent, recollect for what end he came! If we were to judge by the conduct of the generality amongst us, we should rather suppose that the Saviour gave himself to deliver us to, and not to deliver us from, this present evil world: precisely as the Jews of old committed all manner of iniquity, and then said, “We are delivered to do all these abominations [Note: Jer_7:9-10.].” You well know, that, as by general consent, this is made a season of more than usual conviviality; insomuch that dissipation is, if I may so speak, the order of the day: and the man who has no greater portion than usual of mirth and gaiety seems to himself to have failed in the peculiar exercises of his mind, which the season calls for. If one were to say, that such commemorations were an insult to the Deity; that they obstructed the very ends for which the Saviour came; and were a direct act of rebellion against God the Father, whose avowed will was opposed; one should be thought a gloomy enthusiast, and an enemy to all social happiness. But so it is, whatever ungodly men may think concerning it; and so it will be found at the last day. God says, “Give me thy heart;” and that command must be obeyed. We must withdraw it from all things that stand in competition with him. The most lawful and honourable attachments must be subordinated to him: we must “set our affections altogether on things above, and not on things on the earth [Note: Col_3:2.]:” we must “have our conversation in heaven.” Our blessed Lord has shewn us, in this respect, how to walk; and we “must follow his steps.” In the world we are, and must be: but of the world we must not be, either in our spirit or our conduct. If we will be his followers indeed, we must “not be of the world, even as he was not of the world [Note: Joh_17:14-16.].”]
In this subject we may clearly see,
1. How few experience the full benefits of Christ’s redemption!
[The light of Christianity has certainly raised the tone of morals, where its precepts are heard: but a complete conformity to the Christian code is rarely seen. Where do we find persons living according to the pattern of Christ and his Apostles? Where does the cross of Christ so operate, that they who look to it regard the world as a crucified object, or as a person that was himself crucified would regard it [Note: Gal_6:14.]? This is a feeling utterly unknown, except amongst a few; who, on that very account, are despised and hated by the whole world [Note: Joh_15:19.]. The truth is, that Christians in general differ very little from either Jews or Heathens. Christianity occupies their heads; but heathenism their hearts. They pretend to have faith: but, as for “the faith that overcomes the world,” they know nothing about it [Note: 1Jn_5:4-5.]. Their whole life, instead of being occupied in a progressive transformation of the soul after the Divine image, is one continued state of conformity to the world [Note: Rom_12:2.]: and, instead of regarding “the friendship of the world” as a decisive proof of their “enmity against God,” they affect it, they seek it, they glory in it [Note: Jam_4:4. See the amazing strength of the original â ï õ ë ç è ῇ ê á è ß ó ô á ô á é : the very inclination constitutes a man an enemy to God.]. I appeal to all, whether these observations be not true; and whether those who are “dead to the world” be not “as signs and wonders” in our day? Know, however, that they, and they only, are right; and that all the knowledge, or all the experience, that leaves us short of this, is but learned ignorance, and specious delusion. “The whole world lieth in wickedness:” and “they who are of God” come out of it, even as Lot did out of Sodom [Note: 1Jn_5:19.]. “If we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us [Note: 1Jn_2:15-16.].”]
2. How blessed is the effect of real Christianity upon the soul—
[It emancipates us from the sorest bondage; and brings us into a state of liberty and peace. The votaries of this world, see with what cares they are harassed, with what disappointments they are vexed! See them in the full enjoyment of their portion; What have they? what, but “vanity and vexation of spirit?” But, on the other hand, behold the Christian that is enabled to live above the world: his acquisitions cause no idolatrous feelings, like those which the rich man expressed, when he said “Soul, take thine ease; eat, drink, and be merry [Note: Luk_12:19.]:” nor do his losses cast him down, or cause him to cry out, “Ye have taken away my gods; and what have I more [Note: Jdg_18:24.]?” “He knows how to be full or to be hungry,” as God shall see fit: and “in whatsoever state he be, to be therewith content [Note: Php_4:11-12.].” His happiness is independent of earthly things. “God himself is his portion, and his inheritance [Note: Psa_16:5.]:” and death, which is so formidable to a worldly man, is to him an object of desire [Note: Php_1:23.], because it brings him to the full fruition of all that he holds dear. In a word, in him is fulfilled “the will of God the Father;” and in him is accomplished the purpose of Christ his Saviour [Note: The text.]. Behold this man! I ask not whether he be rich or poor, learned or unlearned, infirm or strong; but this I ask, Is there a person who does not in his heart envy him? I know, full well, that in words the generality will reproach him, as a weak enthusiast: but who would not wish, in a dying hour, to be found in his place? A superiority to the cares and pleasures of life, if accompanied with a suitable deportment in other respects, carries such evidence along with it, as men know not how to reject. They may be ignorant of the principle from whence such conduct flows; but the conduct itself commends itself to their consciences, with a force which they cannot resist. All in their hearts congratulate the consistent saint; and though they will not say, “Let me live his life,” they will say, “Let me die his death, and let my latter end be like his.”]