ADDRESS BY JOHN PARKER, M.A., ABERDEEN.
“And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”—ISAIAH liii. 9-10.
THE entrance of sin, so fully described in the third chapter of Genesis, was a great crisis in the history of the world. We have an excellent definition of sin in the answer to question 14 of our time-honoured Shorter Catechism, by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, which may here be given:—”Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.” It may also be stated that “Sin is a creation of the creature, not of the Creator.” The effects of it have been felt by terrible results unto this day. Most truly the wisest of men has said, “God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions” (Eccles. vii. 29). Men have contrived many devices to mitigate the sufferings of humanity, but these sufferings largely continue.
The Prophet Isaiah, whose name means “Salvation of Jehovah,” lived in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, Kings of Judah, and this prophecy was written more than 700 years before the coming of the Saviour. He describes the character, sufferings, death, resurrection, and reign of the Messiah. Among the various kinds of slavery which sin brought, the slavery of strong delusion may be considered among the greatest. Deliverance from sin and its consequences was accomplished by the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, whom death could not retain in captivity over three days. “Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and delivered them who, through fear of death, were all their life-time subject to bondage” (Hebrews ii. 14-15). In the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah we have a vivid description of the ordeal through which our Saviour passed during His sojourn on earth. “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me” (John xiv. 30).
Verse 9.—The truth contained in this verse was literally fulfilled when He was crucified between two thieves. I was told a very good story of a man, who was a Roman Catholic, going to a priest for confession. He called at the priest’s house, and was put into the priest’s study, where there were three portraits on one of the walls. In course of conversation the priest asked him whose portrait was the first? He did not know, so the priest told him it was that of “the Pope” of the day. Then the priest asked whose likeness is the second? He did not know, so the priest said it was that of the “Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ, on the Cross.” The priest then asks whose likeness is the third? The penitent looks at the priest, and then at the portrait, and says, “I think it is a picture of yourself,” to which the priest assents. The visitor says, “I begin to see light, there is Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world crucified between two thieves, the Pope and yourself,” after which he bade good-bye to the priest. The place was Calvary where the crucifixion took place. One of the thieves is known as the “penitent thief,” whom Christ owned and acknowledged on the cross in answer to his prayer, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom,” and Jesus said unto him, “Verily, I say unto thee, to day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke xxiii. 42-43). Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man and a councillor, who dissented from the rest of the Sanhedrin in their judgment, undertook the burial of the body of our Lord in his tomb, for the short period, till His resurrection on the third day, after which death had no longer dominion over Him. The resurrection affords proof that Christ is an infinite person and not a mere man. He was made a priest, forever, after the order of Melchisedec. See the blasphemy of the claims of the Popes of Rome to be Vicars of Christ on earth. In Hebrews vii. 24, we read, “But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.” No other mediator is necessary (see Hebrews iv. 15-16). “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Verse 10.—Sin is an offence against infinite justice, so satisfaction must be made by an infinite mediator. In the twenty-second chapter of Genesis we have set before us a foresight of Christ’s crucifixion when God commanded Abraham to offer up his only son Isaac as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. He obeyed, but the Lord at the last point interposed and directed Abraham’s attention to a ram caught in a thicket, which Abraham offered as a sacrifice instead of his son. Here Isaac and the ram are both types of Christ from different points of view. Now we may notice the question, “Are there few that be saved?” (Luke xiii. 23), to which Christ in the next verse gives the following remarkable answer—”Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” This ought to be our chief business, as if He had said, “Strive now and persevere till you get a refusal, which has never happened to any who strive rightly.”
In the present time we are seeing the effects of making light of sin. Since 1870 the Bible has been deprived of its time-honoured place in our schools. For this we are inclined to think that the infidel religion of Germany is responsible. The following is a sample of it quoted from the Free Presbyterian Magazine of November, 1914, page 282, headed “The New Religion and the War Spirit.” This is the extract:
“You have heard how in olden times it was said: ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’ But I say unto you, Blessed are the valiant, for they shall make the earth their throne. And ye have heard men say: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit;’ but I say unto you, Blessed are the great in soul and the free in spirit, for they shall enter into Valhalla. And ye have heard men say: ‘Blessed are the peace-makers’; but I say unto you, Blessed are the warmakers, for they shall be called, if not the children of Jahve (Jehovah), the children of Odin, who is greater than Jahve. It is such a religion as this which explains the ruthless and barbaric methods of German warfare. The uncivilised savages of Alaric and the heathen devotees of Odin are set up as examples by these teachers to be the beau ideal of culture for the German military caste.”
The present Great War has led to one good thing. In God’s providence an opening has been given for circulating the Bible among Sailors and Soldiers. Not a few may read it who were hitherto careless about the things pertaining to their everlasting peace, forsaking their own mercy. The temptations to sin are increasing, and the rising generation have not the sound moral foundation of their predecessors, enabling them to stand firmly for truth and honesty, and to resist temptations to sin in its various forms and aspects. May the Lord send forth His light and truth, and lead us in the way everlasting!