IN this chapter the prophet evidently speaks of Christ, of whom Moses, the prophets, and psalmists wrote. The revelation given them of Christ served two important purposes, namely, to foretell His advent and to preach Him, as the only name whereby sinners can be saved, to the Old Testament Church. And in no portion of the Old Testament Scriptures is Christ more clearly revealed, as the way of salvation, than in this chapter. In the verse now read as a text we have, in the form of confession made by the Church or by a believer, two fundamental truths of the Bible laid down, to which I would, for the present, endeavour to direct your attention, namely, man’s fall and the divine means for his recovery; and then I shall observe the belief expressed by the Church concerning both these doctrines; and lastly conclude.
I.—Man’s fall is taught here
in figurative language that may be understood by men in all ages and countries, for what it is for sheep to go astray is either known from experience or may be easily understood by individuals having no practical knowledge of the habits of these well-known creatures. When sheep go astray they wander away from their accustomed walks, and have not the sagacity to return. Man fell by sin from his state of innocence, holiness, and communion or favour with God; and as he fell, so all his posterity, descending by ordinary generation from him, fell with him, and therefore they all come into the world without God’s image, which consisted in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures. This was a great fall, or going astray far away. The change was a very great one, something like the fall of Lucifer, the son of the morning; like the fall of a star from heaven—the star that became worm-wood; for man’s peace and love and happiness were lost, and his state turned into misery. But, instead of seeking to return, man of himself continues to depart. He has no understanding to seek after God; he has no sense to see and understand his misery and wretchedness, nor to appreciate the good of which he is called by God to make choice.
All are here said to have gone astray, each one his own way. Men’s characters differ in various points, and to one man another may seem very different from a third. One may be discreet, sober, amiable, and temperate; the other may be in all respects the very opposite. But, according to this passage, each is astray, though on different ways. It was the first man’s own choice to go astray, and in committing sin, everyone, as long as he is in his natural state, does this of his own will. He willingly shuts out the knowledge and fear of God; he willingly occupies his time and talents in the service of sin, that is, in disobeying God, in refusing to turn unto Him, and in setting his heart on the lust of the eye, of the flesh, and on the pride of life. In heart, all, whatever be their character outwardly, have forsaken God, love Him not, hate Him, and are opposed to His glory.
In the lands of the Bible, sheep astray were exposed to various dangers. On the one hand there were wild beasts, on the other thickets of thorn and quagmires, and also thieves and robbers ready to take them and slay them. The lion and the wolf were ready to tear and devour them; the thicket to entangle them and retain them to starve, or fall a prey to ravenous birds, or to the robber who would carry them into his den. In the same way men are exposed to death eternal, to the wrath of an offended God, and to the fury and malice of Satan, the destroyer. This then is the condition of all mankind—astray, foolish, having no understanding, and exposed to the greatest dangers, justly condemned under the wrath of God, and deceived and blinded by the god of this world.
II.—Let us consider the divine remedy
provided for saving men as set before us in this text, and which is described in these words: “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Here there are two persons presented to our view—one called the Lord or Jehovah, and the other is the person principally spoken of in this and the foregoing chapters, and it is evident that this person is the second in the adorable Trinity, the person early spoken of to man in the Garden of Eden, of whom it was then said that the serpent should bruise his heel, and that He should bruise the serpent’s head; of whom also it was said to Abraham that all the families of the earth should be blessed in Him; and of whom the Spirit spoke through David in the twenty-second Psalm, as suffering the just for the unjust that He might have a seed in all ages. There is also a third party—some of those who had gone astray like sheep, who were sinners, who had iniquity in their hands, and who, according to strict justice, were appointed to die the death threatened in the covenant of works, but who were loved of God with an everlasting love. And, having thus loved them, He contrived a way in which to shew and exercise this love towards them consistently with His truth and justice. For, since He assigned them death as the wages of sin, this punishment must have been what could satisfy justice, and having said, “In the day thou eatest of the forbidden fruit thou shalt surely die,” His veracity, as well as His justice, demanded the execution of the sentence. As they could never render complete satisfaction for sins, and so would have to be subject to death for ever, God, in order that they might be saved, elected His Son to be the head of another covenant—an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. God’s glory had to be vindicated; the law magnified and made honourable; the loved ones saved from death, and kept while left in the world; made the salt of the earth; the light of the world; witnesses for God; good soldiers in the fight of faith; and all brought to glory, perfected in holiness, without a spot or wrinkle. Being sinners and transgressors, there was no way in which they could be made free from condemnation but by getting a substitute for them; and as no mere creature was sufficient for this work, which a surety would have to do, it was arranged that the Son should take or assume their nature, unite it to His Person, and in this nature so united to Him take their law room, or, in the language of the Scripture, be made under the law. Though He knew no sin, yet was He made sin; He was made a curse. The transaction spoken of here refers to His taking their room in their nature, the Father laying on him all their iniquity, and He submitting to this being done. “I have laid help on a mighty one,” saith the Father. “I give myself for my sheep,” saith the Son. These the Father gave Him and He accepted them as given, and so submitted to bear their iniquities. The Father laid their iniquities on Him first by imputation, which imputation had no effect on Him, as Adam’s first sin imputed to his posterity has on them, because He was God-man, and also because they were not His surety, but He theirs. He stood in their room all His life-time on earth, even from His conception. We know not when, as a man, He became conscious of this, but He must have come to know it sometime during His days in the flesh, in which He grew up in knowledge and wisdom; and this knowledge, together with other circumstances, must be taken as the explanation of His being a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
But, again, He laid their iniquities on Him by inflicting on Him the punishment due to sin. Punishment is inflicted not to benefit the guilty, but to vindicate the law and satisfy the claims of justice. This may be seen in the case of one condemned to die: his crime is so aggravated that nothing less than his death is judged an adequate satisfaction to the laws of his country and of God. Here the improvement and benefit of the guilty is not taken into consideration at all; on the contrary, the maintenance of justice is looked upon as a far more paramount consideration than the life of a criminal. Christ’s sufferings, then, must be looked upon as punishment. In the case of a criminal of the character stated above, all means are taken to prevent his escape from the sentence passed: strongly built prisons are built, prisons whose cells are secured by massive doors, having bolts of iron to keep them shut; and mounted guards to watch over all. There is no heed given to prayers or petitions for reprieve or change of sentence. The time passes: the day arrives: the officers are in attendance: resistance on the part of the criminal is of no avail: he must submit to be bound and led away to the place of execution, and there suffer death in some violent way or other. This is punishment in the highest degree, and is inflicted, not under the impulse of passion nor from a spirit of revenge and malice, but from a sense of justice that is exercised in a calm, but resolute, dignified, and authoritative manner. Of this nature was the death of Christ. Sins deserving death eternal were laid to His charge, or laid on Him, and therefore He had to die. He gave Himself willingly. There was no need of prisons, or of doors, or of guards to secure and keep Him in hand till the day appointed. He was kept, however, by different forces, even by the Father’s commandment, by the obligation of the most solemn covenant engagements, by unquenchable zeal for His Father’s glory, and by a love for His people that passes all knowledge, and which the deep floods that came into His soul could not drown. Therefore, when the hour drew nigh, though He was in Galilee, yet knowing that it was at hand, and knowing the place appointed and the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God regarding all He had to do and suffer, and the outward form these were to assume, He set His face to go up to Jerusalem. He kept the Passover with His disciples, though He knew that, at that sacred feast, Satan would enter Judas Iscariot and prompt him to betray Him. From thence He went into the garden of Gethsemane, though He knew what agony awaited Him there, what cup of sorrow He had there to drink; sorrow which He Himself describes in these words: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.” And the remarkable indications of its overwhelming nature were sweat in great drops of blood, and an angel sent from Heaven to strengthen Him. He went to meet those who came to apprehend Him, and permitted Himself to be led by them, first, to the hall of the high priest, and then to Pilate and Herod; in all which removals He behaved as a lamb brought unto the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers; He was dumb. And then came the hour that He should be led forth to Calvary. A cross, the instrument of an accursed death, is prepared, and He made to bear it until it was seen He could not carry it, when one, Simon of Cyrene, was compelled to bear it after Him. He travailed under another burden—the imputed iniquities of all His people—in bearing which He had none to help, none to become His surety. And when they came to Calvary, there they crucified Him between two thieves. There He surrendered Himself, not only to men, but to the sword that was awakened against Him, which sword could be nothing else than the curse of the law or the wrath of God producing effects on His holy soul analogous to wounds inflicted by a sword on the body. The wrath of man or of Satan could not affect Him, could not overwhelm him; but the wrath of His Father, like a flood of waters in which there is no standing, came into His soul, which was the immediate cause of His death, or, at least, the bitterest ingredient in His sufferings unto death. But in this flood He did not sink so as to rise no more. When sinking in its depths and its billows He trusted in the Father and did not despair. And O, who can comprehend that exercise of perfect trust in God when smiting and bruising Him until He poured out His soul as waters, and in the exercise of which He gave up the Ghost, saying: “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit”—and doing it when the deepest darkness intervened between Him and His gracious countenance! There was an exercise of trust and love that reflected the greatest glory on the Godhead, as an object of trust to His intelligent creatures, and which sinful man refused to repose in Him.
In bearing their iniquities in the manner stated above, then He gave Himself for them. He loved God and never staggered in His trust; never despaired, nor felt inclined to such a state of mind; never murmured; never entertained a hard thought of His Father. He willingly and readily obeyed unto death, the death of the cross. He endured the penalty of their forsaking God and transgressing His law, of their disobedience, their enmity and hostility, their unbelief and rebellion. And this penalty was death. His holiness, His love, faith, trust, obedience, faithfulness, and zeal were not, without His death, sufficient to take away their sins, to purge their guilt and save them from death. Here, then, is the great High Priest, who is made perfect for ever, presented to us offering the one complete sacrifice by which all who are sanctified are for ever made perfect. Perfect freedom from condemnation, perfect title to eternal life, and an infallible certainty of its possession by everyone that believeth, to the praise of the glorious grace of Him who is the living and true God.
III.—Let us consider the confession
made here by the Church, which has respect to the two doctrines treated of, namely, man’s fall and Christ’s substitution for His people. Though it is true that all have gone astray, yet it is not true that all are convinced of sin, that all can honestly say, “All we have gone astray.” It is the believer who is really convinced of sin; for to convince of sin so as to have a true sense thereof is the work of God’s Spirit, and forms an element in effectual calling. He convinces of sinning and coming short of God’s glory in all things, of there being no good dwelling in them, of being defiled and corrupt, and exposed to the righteous judgment of God. And when this process is gone through, there is no hesitation on their part to make this confession their own. We read of the Psalmist doing it, and also of Peter in one of his epistles. In this part of the confession there is no comfort, and, so far as they are concerned, no hope, and could they not take up the other part thereof there would never be hope.
In coming to know Christ as spoken of, the Spirit’s work and teaching are as necessary as in convincing of sin. For we read that when He comes He convinces of righteousness; that He leads into the truth and shows the things that are Christ’s; that they believe by the faith which is of the mighty operation of the Spirit of God. He leads one to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God; that He came to save sinners; that He does this first by laying down His life as a ransom, and then by applying the redemption thus purchased; that in His blood or death there is infinite value, for the sake of which God can justly pardon sinners and bestow on them everlasting life, and when He, as dead and risen, is thus believed in and rested on for salvation, he who thus believes may say, “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all,” himself being one of the “all.” Thus he looks on Him whom he had pierced, and mourns for Him, seeing at the same time the infinite evil of sin and the love of Christ that passeth knowledge. Then he must feel the evil of his own sins, be filled with shame and confusion, and ready to say, “Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?” “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and gave His Son for us.” And in one convinced of sin thus beholding Christ, not only is salvation from sin possible, but it is also realised, and this mingles the contrition of heart and sorrow for sin with some degree of that feeling described in the Word as joy unspeakable and full of glory.
IV.—Conclusion.
Here, then, we have the way of salvation set before us. Christ, the Lamb of God, set before us as the one atoning sacrifice. Has your conscience been awakened, and you, as a sinner, led to transact with God? How has that transaction come to a termination? Has it been by saying to Him, “Have patience with me and I will pay thee all”? And have you been since trying, as you think, to discharge your debt by your own good works? Well, you must yet come to judgment, and rest assured that you cannot stand therein, but be as chaff driven by the wind. Or was it by throwing away all your filthy rags of self-righteousness and submitting to the righteousness of Christ, submitting to be saved of free and sovereign grace? If so, yours is a safe state. It may not be felt so by you, or you, notwithstanding your safe state, may feel often without peace or comfort. To look again is the way to recover these, and to live a life of faith in Christ is the only way to sustain you in the peace and hope you need. “I try to trust in Christ, but still I have little peace, little comfort and joy, which makes me think that I never believed and do not now believe.” Do you think that these should be perfectly enjoyed here? If not, how can you conclude from the imperfection of peace and hope and joy that you have no interest in Christ? Instead of casting away your confidence, endeavour to exercise trust. Now, be more anxious to attain anew to the exercise of faith, than to ascertain the genuineness of a past exercise. This is the way taught in the Word to get above doubts and fears as to one’s interest in Christ. Are you in darkness? The way, according to Scripture, is to trust in God and to listen to the voice of His servant Job, who affords an example of what it is to trust in darkness, when he says, “Though he kill me yet will I trust in him.” Is there anyone here whose conscience is ill at ease and who is ready to despair? Look unto Him on whom iniquity was laid. Any here who make light of sin? Look at the solemn transaction on Mount Calvary, and in the garden where the beloved Son was not spared, but made for the time a vessel of consuming wrath. Are you indifferent to all these things? You cannot be long in this state of mind. In a short time all, on which your heart now is, will appear as loss and dung to you. The world and all its cares, callings, pursuits, and pleasures shall pass away from you, never more to return; but you shall live and have to do with God, who is a consuming fire. Remember, however careless you are, that you have a soul that is immortal, and that that soul is endowed with the imperishable faculties—memory and conscience—which, however dormant they may be now, will yet as sealed books be opened, and all done by you in the body be brought to the light. The truths now read in the Bible, or heard in the pulpit, and that seem to be forgotten as soon as heard; the vain thoughts entertained and the words spoken, and forgotten too—all shall appear on the tablets of memory and conscience; and your conscience then will accuse you, gnaw you, and sting you, when no balm shall be applied to heal, no blood sprinkled to pacify. By the fact of your lost state as sinners, by the value of your soul, by the truth of a great and free salvation being prepared, brought near, and offered you, and by the realities of the great and terrible day of the Lord, and by the eternity that stretches beyond, I would persuade you this day to consider and lay to heart your best interests, and ask yourself what are you meaning to do with the renewed offer of a crucified Redeemer, till now despised and rejected.