1.
There is a vast magnificence of majesty in the manner in which the Lamb of God was introduced into the world to take away its sin. He was preceded by an august train of types, promises, and prophecies, for four thousand years long; and these attended to by expecting multitudes up to the glorious point of his arrival in this world. Patriarchs, such as Abraham and others, looked forward, and stretched out their desires towards it; and backward to it all the saints of the New Testament church have ever been turning their eyes; all giving obedience to that divine command, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”—(Isa. xlv. 22.) And the eyes of the whole intelligent and holy universe will be eternally fixed with adoring rapture on this glorious manifestation of God in the flesh.
2.
An angelic spirit once cried out, “Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker?”—(Job. iv. 17). “Well, angels, ye look upon me with deep contempt and abhorrence, and justly ye do so; but look on my elder Brother, bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh, who is in the midst of the throne. What think ye of him?” The whole multitude replies with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.”—(Rev. v. 12.)
3.
So great is the divine benignity towards the creature which He has formed, that it is an eminent discovery of the evil of sin, that it has power to suspend that benignity from being exercised towards the creature in which sin is found, although it is so nearly connected with him, as to live, move, and exist in him. When sin is taken out of the way by the atonement, then the divine benignity, which was formerly restrained, is loosed from that restraint, and flows forth bountifully.
4.
Let nothing satisfy my conscience, but what satisfies thy justice. Let my conscience, being quickened by thy Spirit, and thy eternal righteousness, as expressed in thy law, judge alike.
5.
God cannot give His countenance to any thing but what is absolutely perfect. If there be the least speck of imperfection in it, the sacred seal of heaven’s approbation cannot be stamped upon it.
6.
Angels know that they have but finite excellence to present before God, therefore they blush, feeling that they are unworthy that He should turn aside from the contemplation of His own infinite excellence to theirs. Until God united a created nature to the person of His Son, God could not take delight in any created nature, as in Himself. Now there was seen what excellence there was in the divine nature, when it could communicate to a created nature power to wipe out stains, equal to those, which, in the case of many sinners, are stamped on them through eternity.
7.
A person who is seeking God, and seeking salvation through His Son, ought to apply the doctrine of the divine sovereignty, not thus, “God is sovereign, and therefore, though now I am seeking salvation yet He may deny it me,” for this is false; but thus, “God is sovereign, and therefore He might have left me, as He has left others, not to seek Him, but to reject and despise Him; but this He has not done.” That is the proper sphere of the divine sovereignty. It is manifested in the wonderful working, whereby, in the course of His providence, one person is made to seek after Him, while another is left not to do so. But it is not manifested in this, that any ever sought His face in vain.—(Isa. lxiv. 19.) “They shall praise the Lord that seek Him.”—(Ps. xxii. 26.) Yea, in every degree of seeking of Him, this reflection should encourage and lead to say, “Blessed be God who has brought me thus far, thus much farther than others!” The doctrine should, as to practice, be always applied to a thing past, not to any thing to come. So it always is in Scripture. Men know the divine determinations concerning events, only by the events themselves.