God “the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world” (1 Jn 4:14). The Son of God came into the world to carry out the work that His Father gave Him – to do all that was necessary for the salvation of sinners, so that they would not go down to eternal destruction, but would enjoy perfect blessedness in the presence of God for ever. When we think of Jesus going about doing good during His time in this world, we must think of Him as always conscious of His “Father’s business”, as He said when Mary and Joseph found Him in the temple at the age of 12. They should have realised more than they did that He who had been born of Mary was indeed “called the Son of God” – according to the angel’s message (Lk 1:35) – because He actually was the Son of God and had a divine work to do in this world.
Among the good things Jesus was commissioned to do was to give sight to a man who had been born blind and, more wonderfully still, to give him spiritual eyesight, for, as Jesus said, “the works of God [were to] be manifest in him” (John 9:3). Immediately after Jesus had spoken these words, He went on to say, “I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work”. The works He had to do, He must carry them out while the opportunity lasted; after that time of opportunity had come to an end, it would be impossible to work any longer.
When that “day” was drawing towards its close – when the time of opportunity for His work was coming to an end – the Saviour showed signs of particular earnestness in His attitude to the work that still had to be completed. He had always been conscious of what would complete His work; accordingly He had warned His disciples “that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mk 8:31). His work was to involve suffering – severe suffering, even unto death – for He was bearing the sins of many. So it had been prophesied; so the sacrificial types had indicated; for “thus it behoved [that is, it was necessary for] Christ to suffer” (Lk 24:46) as the sin-bearer. So He reminded His disciples after the resurrection, when they were go out with the gospel.
But “when the time was come that He should be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem”. He showed even greater urgency, because the “night” was approaching, when it would no longer be possible to work; He must work while His “day” lasted, the fixed period of time that had been ordained from eternity during which He would be in this world. He must finish the work for which the Father had sent Him.
The Father had sent Him, we have already seen, “to be the Saviour of the world”. But what did that involve? One answer lies in the words that Christ used in Capernaum: “This is the Father’s will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day” (Jn 6:39). He was thinking of those whom the Father had given Him to save, for He must endure God’s anger instead of them. He must do so in the time appointed; He must suffer the full punishment due to them as their substitute; He must keep God’s law in their place. And He did so; He did so perfectly; and He did it in the appointed time, before “the night” came.
This perfect work provided a suitable basis for sinners to obtain salvation. None of those whom the Father gave Him can possibly perish in hell, through any inadequacy in that basis, and therefore all that the Father gave to Christ in eternity “shall come” to Him. Among them was the man born blind, to whom Christ gave the power to see. But that was not spiritual eyesight. When Jesus found him afterwards and asked, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” the man showed his spiritual blindness by asking, “Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?” Then Jesus revealed Himself to the man as the Son of God, so that the man, having now seen the Saviour by faith, confessed, “Lord, I believe”. What is more, we are told that “he worshipped” the Saviour, showing that he now had spiritual life. In His dealings with this man, Christ was engaged in that part of His work in His “day” on earth which involved bringing sinners into His Father’s kingdom.
Let every sinner recognise that Christ has never rejected anyone who came to Him and will never do so – no matter how serious their sins were, no matter how long continued they have been, no matter what aggravating factors these sins have involved. No one coming, on the basis of Christ’s finished work, will be turned away, for He gives the emphatic assurance: “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (Jn 6:37). How strongly He expresses Himself! He is describing what is totally impossible: to cast out a sinner who is approaching Him. The words of this verse express, Matthew Poole comments, “the freeness and readiness of Christ to receive every one who truly believeth in Him, and to preserve him to eternal life and salvation. Who they are that are given to Christ, and that will . . . believe in Him, is a secret that is known unto God alone; but this may be known to all, that Christ will not cast off any soul that is willing to receive Him as its Saviour, and that no such soul shall perish for ever.”
None of these believing souls will be lost. In this world, from the time of their conversion, they will be “kept by the power of God through faith unto [their final] salvation” (1 Pet 1:5), until they appear before God “without spot or wrinkle”. No one can pluck them out of Christ’s hand; not even the devil can overwhelm them by his temptations so that they will fall out of God’s kingdom. The Father gave them to His Son, who died for them; the Holy Spirit has called them effectually, so that they now follow Christ in the ways of new obedience; besides, Christ is making continual intercession for them.
Nor will Christ lose any of them in the river of death; He will bring them safely through, whatever concerns they may have beforehand about that solemn event. Christ will bring them all safely into the glories of heaven, where they will for ever enjoy Him and the blessings He has purchased for them. But do they not lose their bodies in the river of death? That is so, yet the separation between body and soul is not permanent; Christ is to “raise [the body] up again at the last day”. How clearly it will then be seen that the work of redemption – what Christ did during His “day” on earth – was perfect! It accomplished everything that God intended it to do. What a cause of eternal praise it will be at last, among the people of God, that He has brought many sons to glory, that He has lost none of them, and all because of the perfection of the work He accomplished in this world!
From Christ’s determination to finish His work on earth within the appointed “day”, we should learn: (1.) Our obligation to receive the blessings that Christ wrought out at such cost to Himself and so willingly. When He calls us, with all His divine authority, to “come” to Him – that is, to believe on Him – how dare we reject “so great salvation”? Indeed “how shall we escape” if we do so? (Heb 2:3).
(2.) How God’s children should worship Him, even in this life, for the wonderful works He did, in such a display of mercy, for unworthy sinners!
(3.) We should seek to imitate Christ in His determination to use His “day” to the full. This applies to the urgency and earnestness with which the unconverted should seek the Lord, for He may only be found in the “day” of one’s lifetime, the only opportunity in our unending existence to be saved from our sins and all their consequences. It applies also to those who have found salvation: they have the opportunity to serve God in this evil world. The “night” will soon come when they will no longer be able to work. They have only a short time in which to do what may, even in a small way, advance God’s cause and bring some degree of glory to Him on earth.