by Octavius Winslow
(continued from page 204)
There are many vast blessings resulting to the church of God from the reinstatement of Christ in his pre-existent glory; with a rapid glance at some of the more prominent of which, we will close this part of our subject.
The first that accrues to the believer from this grand truth, is the confirmation it affords to his faith in the supreme Godhead of Christ. Apart from this doctrine, upon what mere sand do men build their hope of heaven: what dreams, what shadows are all their expectations of eternal life! The divinity of Jesus denied and rejected, all that is precious and valuable in his death is reduced to a mere negation. What would be his obedience to the law, if reduced to a mere finite obedience? What his endurance of its penalty upon the cross, if a creature only were suffering? How could either meet the claims of God’s moral government, sustain his holiness, satisfy his justice, and present Him to our view,—just to Himself, and yet the Justifier of him that believeth? Never! If your acceptance as a sinner with this holy Lord God, is based on any other righteousness than the “righteousness of God,” you are lost, and that to all eternity! A created Saviour! O wretched fantasy! A finite Redeemer! O awful and malignant scheme of Satan to drown men’s souls in perdition!
But to the true believer how glorious, invaluable, and precious is this truth! What a rock does he stand upon, whose faith rests upon the Godhead of Christ! He sees in his blood and righteousness the infinite dignity and worth of the God-Man Mediator. All that he needs as a poor, guilty, undone sinner he finds here. A righteousness that fully acquits him from all the charges of the law; a fountain that cleanses him from all the pollution of sin; a Saviour, not mighty only, but Almighty, to carry his sorrows, bear his burdens, and strengthen him for the conflicts and the difficulties of the pilgrimage. Look up, then, O believer! and fasten the eye of your faith upon the eternal glory of your covenant Head. Your salvation is secured by an Almighty Redeemer, who is able to keep that which you have committed unto him against the day when he will make up his peculiar treasure.
Secondly. The eternal love, grace, and fulness of Christ to his church spring from this glorious truth. Is the eternity of Christ’s being a doctrine of revealed truth? equally so is the doctrine of the eternity of his love, with all the streams of blessing of which it is the spring-head. The love of Jesus runs parallel with his being; and as that is from all eternity to all eternity, so is his love towards the church which he hath purchased with his own blood. “I have loved thee,” says the Lord, “with an everlasting love.” “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” Hard though this truth is to be believed be some, yet in the clear light of heaven will every child of God see that electing love brought him there, and but for which he had been lost for ever.
Thirdly. The doctrine of Christ’s pre-existence affords a most exalted and satisfactory view of the nature, glory, and stability of that covenant of grace entered upon by the infinitely glorious persons of the triune God in behalf of the church. This covenant must be rich in its promises of mercy, seeing that it is made by Jehovah himself, the Fountain of all holiness, goodness, mercy, and truth, whose very name is “Love.” It must be glorious, because the second Person in the blessed Trinity became its Surety. It must be stable, because it is eternal. It must meet all the circumstances of a necessitous and tried church, because it is “ordered in all things.” It must be sure, seeing its administration is in the hands of an infinitely glorious Mediator, who died to secure it, rose again to confirm it, and “ever liveth” to dispense its blessings as the circumstances of his saints require. How animating are the words which direct the believer to the fullness of this precious covenant! “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.” Isaiah 55:3. And when the children of the covenant are brought by the converting grace of the Holy Spirit into this visible relation, what says God concerning them? “I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, and they shall not depart from me.” Jer. 32:40. This covenant was the ground of David’s joy in the house of his pilgrimage. “Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire.” 2 Sam. 23:5. And what is the precious blood of Jesus but the “blood of the new testament,” the “blood of the everlasting covenant,” deriving its value, efficacy, and preciousness from the personal dignity and pre-eternal glory of Him who shed it?
With a solemn caution, we close this part of our subject. Let no reader deem this truth a speculative point, a dry abstract doctrine. The practical influence of this subject will depend in a great measure upon the view in which it is held. It cannot be lightly considered, without involving the most serious consequences. It is not a matter of calm indifference whether you receive it or not. It is one of infinite moment! The consequences of its rejection are tremendous. Hear what Christ himself said to the Jews, and what now he says to you. “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I AM, ye shall die in your sins.” John 8:24. These are words of solemn import, coming from the lips of Him who is the self-existent Jehovah-Jesus, in whose girdle are the keys of hell and of death. The sin of denying Christ’s Godhead is second to none; yea, it is the sin of sins. It uncrowns him as King, and consequently divests him of all his regal power and glory; it degrades him to a level with a fallen creature, and it tramples him under foot as the dust of the earth! If this be the sin, what are the consequences? Certainly, a sin so fearful must involve results corresponding to its character. They are thus stated:- “If ye believe not that I AM, ye shall die in your sins!” Eternal condemnation; the unquenchable fire; the undying worm; the wrath of a holy and great God poured out for ever, are the awful results of persisted unbelief in the Godhead of Christ! And why? Clearly because a rejection of the deity displaces the atonement of Christ; and the rejection of the atonement, in its turn, annihilates all hope of final salvation, and abandons the soul to the tremendous horrors of the second death. To die in sin, then, must be truly awful. It is to die in all the pollution of uncancelled guilt; it is to lie down in the grave in sin; it is to rise again in sin; it is to stand before the judgment seat in sin; it is to be examined and judged, sentenced and condemned in sin; and at last to go in sin to meet its wages of eternal death: for “without the shedding of blood there is no remission.” “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” Unquestionably, he who first cavils at, then learns to ridicule, and at last rejects, the most stupendous, glorious, and benevolent expedient for the recovery of lost man that infinite wisdom and love could devise.
Reader, you must die in your sins, if you believe not in the self-existence of Jesus Christ. Marvel not that our subject still holds us in its powerful grasp; that we cannot break away from it. O that the earnestness with which we write, and the solemnity which breathes from these pages, may arouse your conscience, affect your heart, and awaken in your mind an immediate, serious, and prayerful investigation of the subject. To argue the matter with you is not our aim. To meet and repel the infidel objections which have been alleged against this doctrine, is not our purpose. We have established the truth upon the word of God; we have proved it from Scripture to be a doctrine of Divine revelation; and here we rest the argument. It is at the peril of your dearest and most precious interests for time and eternity that you reject its authority. Tell us not that the unity of the Divine Essence necessarily excludes personality. How do you know this? Can you demonstrate it? No, you cannot; simply because you know nothing of the mode of the existence of any spiritual being, and therefore it is impossible for you to disprove the Scripture record of three Persons in the one God. Oh, how are you fighting in the dark! How impotent and absurd are your weapons, and how inconsistent and infatuated is your hostility! You are opposing yourself against Jehovah; are rushing upon the thick bosses of his buckler. You are contending against the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Attempt not to break its point or blunt its edge by your own carnal reasoning. Remember by this very word you shall be judged at the last day!
Do you stumble at the doctrine of a pre-existent, self-existent Lord Jesus, because its deep mystery transcends the powers of human reason? Then reject all the mysteries in nature and in providence, the existence of which you have been wont to believe on the testimony of men, and yet the modes of which you cannot comprehend. Yea, deny your very being, the greatest mystery in nature, since you can neither comprehend nor demonstrate how spirit and matter are so united as to constitute an intelligent immortal. If, then, your own existence is a mystery to you, and that yet you are willing to believe the fact that you actually do exist, cavil not at the infinitely profounder mystery, “God manifest in the flesh.”
Call you this doctrine a dry, speculative, and uninfluential article of faith? Oh no! It is manna and fatness to him that believes it with his heart, while it supplies him with the most powerful and persuasive motive to a holy, godly life. On this truth, experimentally and practically received, he can live: and on it, in the simple exercise of faith, he can die. More precious is it to him than gold; yea, than much fine gold, since it endears to his soul the incarnate God, sustains him in his conflict comforts him in his trials, strengthens his aspirations for Divine conformity, and will, in the final hours, and amid the swellings of Jordan, enable him to exclaim, in a holy transport of triumph and of praise, “Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift!”