Preached at Inverness, 20th May, 1958.
BY THE REV. JAS. A. TALLACH, STORNOWAY.
“And Jesus came and spake unto Them saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” (Matt. 28, 18).
Jesus is about to part from his disciples. He to assume his throne in heaven, they to remain on earth carrying into effect the great gospel command “Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” As always Jesus is most concerned for their welfare; and to encourage them in view of their labours in the gospel and the sufferings inseparable at such a time from it, he leaves with them these two important truths concerning himself and the relationship he is still to sustain toward them in their work. First, “Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world,” and in order to make clear what that relationship was to signify he amplifies it with this, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” The promise of Christ’s presence and power is not confined to his immediate followers, but also for the benefit and encouragement of the whole church to the end of the world, that is until the work of the church on earth is finished and all the elect of God are gathered home. All power in heaven and in earth! We may be sure that the Apostles and their helpers as they came to face the persecutions and afflictions to which they were afterwards exposed in the work and witness of the gospel must often have reflected on these precious words and drawn comfort and encouragement from them. Now the same power presides over the persons, affairs, activities and destiny of the Church of Christ to the present day and offers just cause for the greatest confidence to all who may be concerned in the church’s welfare.
In the possession of great power much depends upon the character and intentions of its possessor. As the history of this world shows, power in the hands of a despot can be a very terrifying and destructive agent; on the other hand, when possessed by a good man and used for wise ends, few blessings can be greater. The pity is that in the history of this sinful world the instances of such blessing have been so lamentably few!
Here and now, however, our concern is not with power in the hands of earthly kings, but power, universal and almighty, in the hands of the King of kings, power in the hands of Jesus. In this connection and speaking generally, the Word of God recognises but two seats of power on earth: the throne of Satan, who as the god of this world doubtless possesses great power and as far as he is permitted, exercises that power only and always for evil ends. In opposition to Satan’s throne is the throne of God’s dear Son, “To the Son he saith, Thy throne is for ever and ever.” In the midst of this world’s evil, while the church has to contend against “principalities and powers even in heavenly places,” what greater cause for confidence could it have than to be assured that, “All power in heaven and in earth” is in the hands of Jesus. “Fear not little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” We know of a surety that power in the hands of the Redeemer will never be used except to promote the glory of God in the highest, good of all who put their trust in him, and the utter destruction of all that is evil. The very glory and excellence of Christ’s character puts that beyond doubt.
In dependance on divine guidance let us consider:
I. The character of Jesus. II. The Power given to him.
I. (a) The Scriptures throughout their whole extent testify to the essential goodness of the Redeemer. In the Old Testament, as the promised Messiah the beauty of this character and the consequent blessings of his coming are foretold in language which leaves no room for doubt. The prophet Isaiah is particularly fruitful in references descriptive of the character of the coming Saviour. As for instance, “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” (Is. 40, 11). The office of the shepherd is to care for the sheep. No shepherd ever brought to the work and responsibilities of that office such qualities of character in infinite perfection as did Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who gave his life for the sheep. No shepherd acts with such discriminating wisdom and tenderness towards the lambs of the flock, gathering them to himself and carrying them in the bosom of his love. Again, “Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him. . . . A bruised reed shall he not break, the smoking flax shall he not quench.” (Is. 42, 3). What words could more impressively convey the idea of compassion and gracious encouragement. The bruised reed is not to be thrown away as a thing of nought, nor is the smoking flax to be discarded as useless. The faintest beginnings of repentance in the heart of a poor sinner, and the first movements of a soul after God find in Jesus a response of understanding, sympathy and tenderness, which only an eternity in glory will make known and not even then in fulness. “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.”
And again, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” (Is. 61, 1). In Luke 4 and 21 Christ identifies this wonderful description with himself. “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” He himself then is the Anointed One, anointed beyond measure by the Spirit of grace and power with all endowments necessary to the carrying out of his great work. His coming is the sweetest tidings ever to fall on sinful ears. “Blessed are they that know the joyful sound.” Broken hearts, defying treatment by all other physicians, readily respond to the treatment of this greatest of all physicians, who brings to bear upon each case, infinite understanding, tenderness and skill which never fails to cure. Countless thousands sing the praises of him who gave them gospel liberty in the only way that it could ever be theirs—by his binding himself in self-sacrificing love to his cross of shame. “By his stripes we are healed.” There are many other portions of similar content each one of which proclaims in language quite unmistakable the beauty and goodness of One who is fairer than the children of men, chiefest among ten thousand and altogether lively.
In the gospels the record of Christ’s life is one of continual self-denial spending itself without reserve in the relief of poor sinners; miracle after miracle of healing power contributes its evidence in revealing the otherwise hidden glory of his compassion, sympathy, grace and power. As one has well said, “He made the dumb who attended him sing his praises; and the lame to leap for joy; the deaf to hear his wonders, and the blind to see his glory.” In weariness painfulness, hunger and thirst he sought out the lost to bring them back to God and salvation. The parables by which he taught were often living pictures of his love translated into active operation. The fifteenth chapter of Luke is specially rich in this type of parable; the lost sheep sought and found; the lost coin recovered; the lost son restored as from the dead, all proclaim the self-forgetting devotion and faithfulness of the Redeemer in his love. “What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost, until he finds it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing.” Can we not see here the anxious concern of the shepherd for the lost one, the unconquerable patience of the long, weary, lonely and dangerous journey, the joy of recovery and restoration, “Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame.”
(b) Again when we consider what has been revealed concerning the person of Christ we may safely infer the glory of his character. The Scriptures make known with no uncertain voice that in Christ God is manifest in the flesh. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” This is surely a great mystery, a mystery which it becomes us to treat with humble reverence. But it is not to be neglected on account of its mystery; nay, do we not rather owe it to the Redeemer constantly to keep in grateful remembrance the divine glory of his person, that we may the more clearly admire the depth of his humiliation as far as it is possible for us in thought to follow him in it. “God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.”—That all this divine fulness of perfection and glory dwells in Christ cannot with propriety be denied. In taking unto himself a true body and a reasonable soul, the Eternal Son of God suffered no change, although in certain respects the glory of his divine nature was veiled before the eyes of men and largely hidden from view. But in the Person of Christ we have not only a divine nature infinitely perfect in its goodness but a human nature endowed with all the moral beauty which God intended human nature to possess when at first he created it in his own image in righteousness and holiness in the person of Adam. “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of the Highest.” In the mystery of Christ’s Person we have the glory of every perfection peculiar to God and along with that a human nature prepared by the Holy Spirit and endowed to meet every demand of the Law, the sum of which is “Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all thine heart with all thy soul, with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.”
Under the elevating influences of the gospel, human nature even in this sinful world has shown itself capable of much benevolence and charity. Let all the evidence of such self-sacrifice and kindness this world has ever known be gathered into one and set over against the goodness of the Redeemer, and the comparison would be, but as a drop to the fulness of the ocean, and even that drop itself had its origin in the ocean and is part of its fulness “Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them.”
(c) Jesus is the Mediator of the Covenant of Grace. Upon the mediator depends the ultimate realisation of the whole plan of salvation: requiring the Glory of God as a Just God and a Saviour, the salvation of the whole body of the elect (a number no man can number); such a salvation as shall preserve and display the complete harmony of all the attributes of God (mercy and truth meeting each other; righteousness and peace kissing each other); and the utter destruction of all the powers of evil. In view of these requirements, and until they are realised the Mediator in the exercise of his office carries a weight of responsibility altogether incalculable by human standards. The church is under an eternal debt of gratitude to God that in these circumstances, “He laid help upon One mighty to save.” The glory of Christ’s person as the God-man in whom dwells all the fulness of the godhead bodily, gives to him that peculiar and exclusive excellence of character which fits him as no other person in heaven or on earth is fitted for the great work to which he is called. That the Father in the counsels of eternity should appoint him to the office of Mediator indicates the measure of divine trust reposed in him especially in his faithfulness and devotion: and in this event we know that such trust was not misplaced. Christ accepted the appointment in the spirit of, “Lo I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will I take delight Oh thou my God that art.” The zealous delight in the Word of God which swallowed up all considerations of personal comfort and safety he further expresses in the wonderful words, “It is my meat and my drink to do the will of my Father and to finish his work.” Such glad and willing acceptance is the more remarkable in view of the full knowledge possessed by the Son of all he committed himself to, knowing that ultimately he would be faced with this, “And being in an agony he prayed the more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground”; and this, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” Could love, faithfulness, righteousness, justice mercy and all that constitutes moral perfection be put to a greater test? But on the cross Christ subjected himself to this very test and triumphed completely in it.
As Mediator the Lord Jesus Christ fulfils and executes the offices of Prophet, Priest and King. (1) I am the Truth. Other prophets spoke the truth. “Thus saith the Lord” was their authority. But Jesus, the real substance of all Scriptural prophecy, is himself the Truth. He is the Word made flesh—the Eternal Word realised in his person, work, teaching, death, resurrection and glory. Jesus brings to bear upon the execution of this great office the high Scriptural ideal of all that a prophet ought to be—infinite and infallible knowledge, wisdom, patience to teach and sympathy with those being taught. Throughout his life we see these qualities in operation on many occasions: “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” “Learn of me, who am meek and lowly in heart.” After his resurrection he finds Cleopas and his fellow disciple on the way to Emmaus, turning their backs on Jerusalem, sad at heart, disappointed in all their expectations, and all their religious belief apparently confounded by the Cross. He joins them in their sorrow and goes with them, he gains possession of their hearts and minds, and gains their rapt attention. He reproves them for their ignorance; not of their head knowledge of Scripture but of their spiritual understanding of it; and as the Sun of Righteousness he rises upon the darkness of their souls and pours the healing balm of his light upon them, flooding their understandings with light, “O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken”: (now the Great Prophet himself speaks to them) Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning HIMSELF.” And the effect? “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way and opened to us the Scriptures.” In saying which Cleopas speaks for countless numbers of enlightened souls. And Thomas! poor Thomas, where is he? down in the darkness and desolation of his own un-believing heart, “I will not believe except I see.” Come then, come and see, “Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands: and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless but believing” “My Lord and My God” was ever prophet like unto this Prophet? Before the persuasive eloquence of his wounds, the grace of his spirit, and the convincing light and power of his words, unbelief vanishes, as the darkness flees before the dawn. Here Christ, the Great and Blessed Prophet provides the answer for all time to the darkness and perplexity of every “doubting Thomas.”
(2) The functions of the High Priest as realised in the Redeemer, display as no where else the self-sacrificing nature of his love. It is the duty of the High Priest to offer sacrifice unto God. Here the priest and the sacrifice are one, and on the cross Jesus, through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God. The mystery of godliness manifest in the flesh is nowhere so deeply mysterious as here, and what deepens it beyond the understanding of men is that the God-man Mediator in offering himself a living sacrifice, acceptable unto God, had in view the eternal interest of lost, guilty, rebellious sinners; “God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” How this fact must ever enhance beyond all measure the divine marvel of that love which filled the heart of Christ throughout the unimaginable agony of the cross! Faith alone grasps this mystery, and in brokenness of heart and contrition of spirit acknowledges with holy wonder, “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and by his stripes we are healed.”
But the cross of Jesus is not only an evidence of his love for his people but to every mind enlightened by the Spirit is a clear display of his deep regard for righteousness—righteousness involving the claims of law and the demands of justice in relation to all in whose place he stood and for whom he was in righteousness answerable to God. On the cross the glory of God in the infinitude of its moral perfection shines in the face of Jesus Christ. Jesus himself suffers the utmost rigour of outraged justice that he might thereby preserve inviolate the righteous government of God which makes it an act of purest justice as well as freest mercy for God to justify the most ungodly who believe in Jesus.
Having risen from the dead and entered within the veil, even into heaven itself, there to appear in the presence of God for us, the Great High Priest continues to execute his office by way of intercession. To this most important part of his great work Christ brings not only the personal and official perfection of his glorious character, but in addition a great wealth of personal experience gained in temptation and suffering, “Though he were a Son yet learned he obedience through the things which he suffered, and being made perfect he became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him.” “For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are.”
(3) “He that ruleth over men must be just ruling in the fear of God; and he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.” David great king though he was, confessed, “My house is not so with God.” But in King Jesus we have a greater than David, even David’s son and David’s Lord in one glorious person, in whom is realised the glory and triumph which David in prophetic vision describes, “Thou hast ascended up on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast received gifts for men even for the rebellious; that God the Lord might dwell in their midst.” As King in Zion, Christ is in himself the scriptural ideal in an infinite degree of all a king should be: “Lift up your heads O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors: and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.” This character of infinite majesty and grace King Jesus brings unto the execution of his office in subduing his people unto himself, in ruling and defending them, and in restraining and conquering all his and their enemies. The throne of Jesus is made glorious by reason of the inherent glory of him who fills it: “and I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beast and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands: saying 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; and every creature which is in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them heard I saying, Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said Amen.”
(d) “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” This is the command given to the church—given to us as a branch of Christ’s church on earth—and constituting a duty from which there can be no discharge as long as the world lasts, that is until the last of God’s chosen is gathered home. Christ and him crucified is the true substance of the Gospel, and to it he imparts, by his Spirit that mysterious and profound combination of all divine and all human excellences inseparable from his glorious person. “Lo, I am with you to the end of the world: Go ye therefore . . .” Of these excellences the cross furnishes at once the most certain proof and the grandest display. “The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner, this is the doing of the Lord, and it is marvellous in our eyes.” Under the faithful and living preaching of that Gospel, Christ shall never be left without a witness even in this sin-cursed world of ours.