Ralph Erskine
In Christ we may see God as He is clothed with all the relationships that can contribute to the happiness of a sinner. What friend or relation do you want, O sinner? Do you want a father to pity you? Behold, here you have an everlasting Father, for that is His name (Is 9:6), and “in Him the fatherless findeth mercy”. Do you want a mother to be tender to you? Behold, motherless children may have their losses made up here; when father and mother forsake you, here is one to take you up (Ps 27:10). He can be a thousand times better to you than father and mother, and manifests more love than the tenderest mother that ever was; “Can a woman forget her sucking child? Yea, she may forget: yet will I not forget thee” (Is 49:15).
Do you want a husband? What would you think to be married with the heir of all things? Why, if the ear of faith is opened, you may hear Him saying, “Thy maker is thy Husband” (Is 54:5). And again, “I will betroth
1An extract from The Works of Ralph Erskine, vol 3. The six-volume set of Ralph Erskine’s Works is again available from Free Presbyterian Publications.
thee unto Me for ever”. If you say, How will it be consistent with the justice of God for Him to marry such a black bride? Why, He says, “I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness”. If you say, How will it be consistent with the wisdom, mercy, truth and faithfulness of God to betroth the like of me? He says, “I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in judgement, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies; I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord” (Hos 2:19). Thou shalt know God in Christ, who can betroth thee to Himself, and yet be infinitely just and wise and merciful and faithful in doing so; because mercy and truth have met together in Christ, the glorious Bridegroom; they strike up a match together, and embrace each other, that there might be nothing to hinder the match between Christ and you.
Do you want a proper match then, O sinner; or a suitable help, poor bankrupt, who have run up such arrears to the law and justice of God? Is not he that hath unsearchable riches a fit match for you? Poor dying creature, who will be food for worms in a little time, here is a living Head for you, that can make you live for ever. O mortal worm, here is an immortal husband for you. Poor changeable creature, here is an unchangeable match for you, Christ, “the same yesterday, today, and for ever”. Do you want someone to love you? Are you an outcast, that reckons yourself despised by all the world, so that no one cares for you or loves you? Behold an infinitely loving and lovely Jesus tendering His love to you, saying, I will heal your back-slidings, and love you freely (see Hos 14:4). And He is seeking your conjugal love, saying, “My son, give Me thine heart”.
Do you want a leader through the dark and difficult steps of your way, a guide, a director and counsellor, in whatsoever affair you are engaged in, wherein you need to be directed? Here is the Wonderful Counsellor, who says, “I will lead the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight” (Is 42:16). Do you want a shepherd to feed you? Or a captain to fight your battles for you? Do you want a physician to heal you when in sickness? Do you want a refiner and purifier, when you are in the furnace, to purge away your dross? Behold, God in Christ has all the happy relationships you can desire.
As certainly as God is unchangeable, the unjustified sinner must die.
Religion does not at once deliver us out of trouble; on the contrary, it is good for us to be afflicted; but it comforts us in tribulations, through which we enter the kingdom of God, enabling us to bear with patience our many sorrows and to resist with courage our many temptations, by the assurance that God loves us now, and has provided for us an eternal rest hereafter.
George W Bethune