(Continued from Vol. xxix., p. 476).
I. Sin.
Beloved, if we would conceive aright of sin, let us see it in the angels tumbled out of heaven, and reserved in chains of darkness for offending God, Jude 6; see it in the casting of Adam out of Paradise, Gen. III. 23-24, and all us in him; see it in the destruction of the old world, and the Jews carried to captivity, in the general destruction of Jerusalem. But if you would indeed see the most ugly colours of sin, then see it in Christ upon the cross, see how many sighs and groans it cost Him, how bitter a thing it was to His righteous soul, forcing Him to weep tears of blood, and send forth strong cries to His Father, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” If sin but imputed to Christ our Surety, so affected Him that was God-man, and lay so heavy upon His soul, what will it do to those that are not in Christ? Certainly, the wrath of God must needs burn to hell; He will be a consuming fire to all such. See sin, therefore, chiefly in the death of Christ. How odious it is to God that it could no otherwise be purged away than by the death of His beloved Son.
II.—Difficulty of Obeying the Gospel.
It is objected that we cannot obey the Gospel of ourselves. It is true we cannot, no more than we can obey the law; nay, it is harder to obey the Gospel than to obey the law in a man’s own strength; for there are the seeds of the law in our nature, but there is none of the Gospel. That is wholly supernatural. The promises are above nature to apprehend them; therefore, a supernatural strength is required to plant the excellence of faith in our hearts. But though we be as unable to believe and obey the Gospel as the law, yet there is the difference, together with the unfolding of our miseries by the Gospel, the Spirit of God goes along to sustain us. The law finds us dead, and gives us no strength, but leaves a man cursed still; the Gospel likewise finds us dead, but it leaves us not so, and therefore it is called “the ministry of the Spirit” (Gal. iii. 5). Received you the Spirit by the Law or by the Gospel (Gal. iii. 2)? God’s blessed Spirit goes together with the sweet message of salvation and eternal life, and this Spirit doth not only open our understandings, but incline and bend our wills and affections to embrace the truth that is offered. Seeing, therefore, the Spirit which accompanyeth the Gospel is mighty and powerful in operation, let none pretend impossibility.
III.—Christ All in All.
What is the scope of the whole Scriptures but Christ from the first promise of the blessed seed, “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head” (Gen. iii. 15), to the end of the book. What are all the Scriptures without Christ? The law is a dead letter; yea, and so is the Gospel too without Christ. He is “that Spirit” which gives life unto all the Scriptures. Moses without Christ is but a shadow without a body, or a body without a soul. Take away Christ, what was the brazen serpent? What was the ark? What were the sacrifices? What is all? Is not Christ “all in all” there? The kings, the priests, and the prophets, they were types of Christ; all the promises they made were fulfilled in Christ. The law ceremonial aims at Christ; the law moral is to drive us to Christ. Christ is the spirit of all. And the Scripture without Christ is but a mere dead thing; it is a shell without a kernel, as it is to the Jews at this day.
IV.—Wondrous Love.
There were these two affections pregnant in Christ upon the Cross, wondrous love to die for us, and wondrous hatred of sin to purge it, for which He died; and wondrous holiness, from whence hatred of sin came. Whence doth hatred of sin come but from wonderful purity and holiness, that cannot endure sin? Thus, when the soul considers it is one with Christ, it hath the same affections that Christ had. Christ in love to us died. Can I apprehend that love of Christ when He died and was crucified and tormented for my sin, but out of love I must hate sin again? And when I consider how Christ stood affected to sin upon the cross, when He died to purge it, and to satisfy for it, can I have other affections, being with Him, than He had upon the cross? I cannot. So whether I consider His love to me or the hatred He bore to sin, considering myself one with Him by a mystical union, I shall have the same affection of love to Him, and be like Him every way, to love what He loves, and to hate what He hates.
The fair morning is at hand, the Day-star is near the rising, and we are not many miles from Home; what matters the ill entertainment in the smoky inns of this miserable life? We are not to stay here, and we will be dearly welcome to Him to Whom we go.—
Rutherford.