Rev Roderick MacLeod
Last month’ section of this Conference paper dealt with “The Grace of the Covenant”.
The visible Church is made up of those who profess the true religion and their children. Baptism, one of the sacraments of the visible Church, is a seal of the covenant of grace. The gracious provisions of the Covenant are represented in the water used in the sacrament and in its application. The preaching of the gospel is an exposition, in the visible Church, of the Covenant that is sealed by Baptism. The provision of this covenant is spoken of as a feast; in Luke 14 we read: “A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready” (vv 16,17).
1. The doctrine of the gospel is a spiritual feast for perishing sinners.
It is assumed first that man is perishing with a particular kind of hunger. Bodily hunger is a sensation of need which is only removed by eating suitable food. But the Saviour is here speaking about spiritual hunger. A sense of sin and guilt, for example, is a pang felt in the soul which no ordinary food can remove. Bread and water are great mercies in a cursed world, but they cannot reach the painful sensations of an awakened conscience. No ordinary drink can quench the painful feeling of thirst in the soul of a man who knows that divine justice has passed a sentence against his sins.
The doctrine of the forgiveness of sins, as taught in the Holy Scriptures, is spiritual bread and wine that can reach the pangs felt in the depths of the soul of an immortal creature who is perishing because his sins have not been pardoned. A sinner who stands in constant danger of having to render an account for his sins to avenging Justice must, if aware of his situation, say, I have bread and water enough to satisfy the needs of my body, but as a spiritual being, in possession of a guilty immortal soul, “I perish with hunger”. But here is good tidings of great joy for guilty sinners perishing for want of salvation.
The God of the covenant supplies “waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen” (Is 43:20). In the Song of Solomon, the Bridegroom uses the same figure to speak of salvation: “Eat, O friends; yea, drink abundantly”. Jesus preached, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink”. Isaiah spoke in the same way: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? And your labour for that which satisfieth not? Harken diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness” (Is 55:1,2).
2. The preaching of the gospel includes an invitation to this spiritual feast.
The parable of the feast speaks of the gracious way in which the feast is proposed to the perishing: God sends His servant at supper time to say, “Come; for all things are now ready”. The servant represents Christ’s servants, the preachers of the gospel. Supper time is the time of gospel ordinances. The call to come to the feast implies that, in the Church, there is a universal and indiscriminate call to sinners; it is an invitation to them to feast their perishing souls on this spiritual food. And no further preparation is required, “for all things are now ready”. Neither conscience or reason can propose any legitimate objection; all objections are answered by the great invitation, “Come; for all things are now ready”.
3. It is a great feast.
It is great because of how it relieves sinners. And it achieves great things for sinners because of how it is prepared. Solomon illustrates the preparation made for the gospel feast: “Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars: she hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table”. When preparations were complete, “she hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding” (Prov 9:1-6). There can be no doubt that this refers to the gospel offer of salvation to sinners on the basis of the prepared feast.
This gospel invitation rests on the preparation referred to in these texts. There would be no feast for the perishing soul if God had not prepared a feast. He has prepared the feast of forgiveness for the guilty sinner. This involved a sacrifice, a most dreadful substitutionary work, in which Christ satisfied divine justice. He bore the sins of those for whom the feast was prepared. In Solomon’s words: “Wisdom hath killed her beasts, she hath furnished her table”.
Nothing can satisfy offended justice for the offence of sin – which is an infinite evil – but a sacrifice of infinite merit. Nothing short of a sacrifice possessing the entire excellence of the divine nature will satisfy offended justice. The sacrifice (which provides the feast for the guilty sinner) must possess this infinite, eternal and unchangeable glory in an absolute and undiminished way. The Son of God must become the Lamb of God. He must be roasted with the fire of the holy, avenging justice of God, so that His flesh will be meat indeed and His blood drink indeed for sinners who are perishing with the pangs of this spiritual hunger. The human soul of the fairest of men – the mysterious Immanuel, the Son of God – must be poured out unto death, in a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice.
This is the great feast to which we are invited. O what a Lamb was killed! O what a feast is this! “Come with me to the sacrifice”, Samuel said to the household of Jesse, and they went and feasted together. This is what the invitation in this text is: an invitation to feast, not on the paschal lamb in Egypt, but on the Lamb of God at Calvary. Christ says, “My flesh is meat indeed and My blood is drink indeed”. That is: the doctrine of My death, as a sacrifice made to satisfy divine justice, is perfectly adapted by infinite wisdom to reach the pangs of spiritual hunger caused by your sins.
Come, for all things are now ready.