Download - 1992 Issue 3 - Sermons of Benjamin Palmer: Christ's Love for His People - Counsel of Chalcedon
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8/12/2019 1992 Issue 3 - Sermons of Benjamin Palmer: Christ's Love for His People - Counsel of Chalcedon
1/8
W e are pleased to announce a
newconttibutingwriter for
The
Counsel
oj Chalcedon. He is Rev. Benjamin
Morgan Pahner, (1818-1902), one of
the threemostimportantPresbyterian
ministers of the Nineteenth Century,
along with Dr. JameS
H.
Thomwell
and
Dr
.
Robert
L
Dabney. He was
one
of
the greatest preachers
of
the
first
twenty centuries of the Christian
era. For a third of
his
life he was the
devoted and dearlybeloved pastor of
First Presbyterian
hurch of New
Orleans, Louisiana.
Studying
his
lifeand
his sermons has
been one of the two
or
three most
important times in
my
life. As
one
has
written: His out
standing work was
that of apreacher-
speaking with an
eloquence that has
been rarely
q u a l e d the
glorious gospel of
theblessedGoci It
will
be n
honor
to
rneethimsome-day
in heaven.
Rev. Paliner's sermons
will
appear
frequently
in
the pages of our
magazine, with oIlly minor
editing.
Thousands, from all over the nation,
flocked to hear this man preach. The
common man, from all walks of
life
,
lovedhim. The entire nation mourned
at his death.
Because
we
are
not as
literate
shis
generation, it
will
take
time and effort
to
read
his
sermons;
but
it
will
be well worth it. I earnestly
pray the .Rev. Palmer's life and
preaching
will
affect you as it
has
me.
He being de d yet
spe keth
(JCM ill
h r i s t ~ Lave For His People
As
the Father hath
loved me, so
have I loved you.John 15:9
There
is
an amazing depth in the
GospelofJohn, whichrendersitalmost
hopeless of exposition.
The
other
Evangelists, indeed, present aperfect
portraiture
of
our Lord-throwing,
with artistic skill, feature
after feature
upon the canvas. They record His
miracleswithhistorica1 pre
cision,
and
recite
His
parables and
fragmentary
discourses with touching simplicity
and beauty. Yet their representation,
as compar
ed
with that of John, is
largely external. They present the
figure of Christ before
th
e eye with
such singular
attractiveness,
that we
instantly admire andadore. ButJohn
nestles in the Lord's
very
bosom, and
creeps
into
the Saviour's heart; whence
his
gentle voice breathes as
from
an
oracle the words
of
love
which are
8 t THE COUNSEL of OtaIcedon March, 1992
ever found in that
Saviour's heart.
So
that,
reading
the New Testament, we
pass
through the Gospels of
Matthew,
Mark and Luke, very much as the
priest
of
old passed through the
holy
place;
until inJohnwe find the holy of
holies of
the
Bible,itsinnermostshrine.
The transparent clearnessofJohn's
style, to acertain extent, also deceives
us. Asuperficial reading takes in the
import
of the
words so that we seem
to
understand, until
we begin to
reflect;
and the longer we
read, the
more
the
deeps open before
us-:-until, at length,
thought and reason
are swallowed up in
the vastness of the
revelation of this
rpystic andseer.
It
is
as though oneshould
stand and look up
into the clearbluesky
above;
which parts
before the eye, and
the sight
is
nowhere
hindered, hutpierces
onwardand upward,
until visionandfancy
are lost in the
immensity of space.
Just
so,
you and I kneel at the edge of
one
of
those sublime utterances of
Christ, which are reported by John;
and as we look, we seem
to
ga
te into
the very depths of eternity.
To
take
up, then,
these
thoughts, to pass them
throughtheprismofouranalysis,and
then to throwtheminto ogical forms ,
would
seem
almost profane in
its
coldness. Yet it is the hard condition
o f a n e a n h l y k n o w l e d g e t h U s t o ~ l y z e
and to
exp
l
ore;
and our only hope
is
afterwards
to
re-cornbine the
elements
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which
we have
separated, and
to
glow
with a warmer devotion than
before.
The text is a beautiful illusu'ation of
this: As
the
Father hath loved me, so
have
I loved you. How simple the
statement. and yet how deep the
sentiment One can never exhaust
its
fullness.
Evidently. there are two senses
in
which the
Father may
mediator; opening the way for us to
see how upon precisely the same
grounds Christ loves His people. :As
the Father hath love me, so have
I
loved
you.
1. The
Father has infinite delight
in the
LordJeslIs
Christ,
as
He
is
the
representative
and
type of what
hllman nature in its peifection is.
Lord
Christ intervenes, taking upon
Him our nature;
and beingfound
in
fas/lion as
a
man, He
presents Himself
beforetheeyeofHisFather. the perfect
man. His
understanding. how
clear
His
affections.
how pure His will.
howconstantandfree Hisconsdence.
how
clean
What exactsymmetty in
all His powers How endUring in
suffering How patient in toil How
gentle. withoutweakness
be said to
love
the
Son:
either.
as
He
is
the only
begotten in
the mystery
of the adorable T inity;
or
else, as the
incarnate
Word,
achieving
here
upon earth the work of
our redemption. The
first
entirely surpasses
our conception. Who
can 'JlndouttheAlmighty
unto peifection? It is as
highasheaven;whatcanst
thoudo?
Deeperthanhell;
what canst
thou
know?
The
measure
thereof
is
longer
than
the
earth,
and
broader
than
the
sea.
Gob
11:7-9)
Itisjustas
Jifi,
my brethren/ taK ? the thought home
to
your own comfort,
that
Jesus has a
true sympathy with
you
in
your
struggfes
How forgiving. without
meanness
And so. as
the
typical man. as the true
ideal of the race
to
which
youandlbelong. Hestood
before His Father and
represented humanity in
its original
glory;
and the
Father renewed the joy
which He felt at the
creation. whenHe looked
upon this representative
of Himself and "behold it
was
very
good."
to
be
good.
'Everywhere
efSe
man
irufs
himselfrejecteri
despiseri
when
he comes
with confessions ofunworthiness andof
shame. tJ3ut when we Q1ee[at
the
mercy
seat,
this typica[representative
of
our
race
yieUs asympathy as rea{ with us
In like manner
Christians are dear to
Christ. because they
also
represent human nature
.
n
our SInS as
n
our
sorrows.
impossible for the finite to
comprehend the
holy commerce
of
the three, as it is to penettate the
undivided essence of the
one.
It
would seem rather to be the other,
which our Lord intends in the text.
For, in the verse immediately
following. He refers
to the obedience
which
He Himself
rendered
to
the
Father. in the discharge of His
mediatorial
functions: If
ye
keep
my
commandments, ye shall abide in my
love; even as
I
have
kept
my Father's
commandments, and
abide
in His
love.
Under thisview, then, my hearers, let
us attempt to consider upon what
grounds
the
Father loves
Christ,
the
At
the Creation. God sawall His
works that
they were
good; and He
pronounced this benediction with a
peculiar emphasis after the work of
the sixthday. whenHe hadmade man
in His own image and after His own
likeness.
He
had
created
the earth as
an
august
temple.
and placed man
within itas
the high
priest
to
conduct
its worship; that. looking
all
around
upon nature, He might gather her
beauties upon the mirror of his own
soul. and then cast the reflection back
upon
God
in solemn and holy chants
of
praise.
Butsin
reversed all
this. and
man
was himself the gloomiest
wreck
of the whole. In
this
emergency the
in its restoration. The life which has
been implanted witllin them by the
power
of
the Holy Ghost. is
developed-ffi that.frombeingbabes
in Christ.
theybecomeatlength perfect
men in Christ Jesus. In
all
the
stages
of theirgrowthingrace. theyapproach
nearer to their type; continuing.
through
all
the
ages.
thatwhichJesus
Christ began
upon
the
earth-
representing to angels above what
human nature shall be made to be
when that Spirit has completed his
work upon
all
its powers.
Ah.
my
brethren;
take
the thought home to
your own comfort, that Jesus has a
true sympathy with you in your
March, 1992
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struggles to
be
good.
Everywhere else
rule.
As
soon
however
as
you
,enter
m n inds
himself
rejected,
despised, within the
law itself, you discover
that
when
he
comes with confessions of in
its
interior aspect , t
is
]
ehovah s
unworthinessandofshame. Butwhen solemn assertion of Himself,
we kneel at the mercy
seat,
this
typical
construing His own perfections
to
representative of our
race yields
a human thought
Hence
, obedience
sympathy
as
real with us in our
sins,
must be estimated-not
only
as
the
as
in our sorrows.
No
other being in doing
of
a right
external thing
in
all
this vast universe
is able to
put a
obedience to an express
command-
lovingandahelpfularrnaroundus,in but
as
being the hearty response of
continually presented
in
Scripture
as
the object of the '
Father s
delight.
~ T h e r e f o r e doth my Father
love,
mt
becau.s
ellay
down
my life that
l
might
takeit again-
-- this
commilndment have
I
received of my Father:
,
(John
10
:17,18) Throughout
His
earthly
ministry, he refers the
glory
of
His
rnirac1es,andthegloryofHisdoctrines,
to the Father that sent Him;
the moments when we
sin; and still more, in
the moments of our
penitence when we
confess the shame with
which
we are
overwhelmed. The
blessed Redeemer,
because He is the true
typical man, has a
sympathywithyou and
with me in our battle
withsin,inourstruggles
with temptation, in our
resistance
of
the world
and of
Satan;
and
all
the
more, because
He
sees
what He
has Himself
restored, and what
is
the continuation upon
earth of thatwhich
He,
inHislleshcommenced.
AstheFalher
hath loved me, so
have
lloved you
.
n TheFatherdelightsintheLord
Jesus Christ, becauseo}Hisobedience.
I am persuaded that we look at
thelawtoomuchinitsexternalaspect,
as merely mapping out therelationsin
which we stand to
society
and
to
God,
and prescribing various
classes
of
duties.
All
perfectly true, in
so
far
as
this law becomes the
chart
of human
conduct: but then
we are
in
this,
standing outsideof thelaw, viewingit
only in its power of direction and
of
recognizirtg that
subordination ,of
office
which, in
the
economy
of
redemption,
he
sustains to Him.
]ustso,
~
the Lord
Jesus delight
in
the
obedienceofHispeopl.
True, it
is
short and
imperfect;
and God
and
we
alone know how
honestand
how
deep are
theconfessionswhich.we
pour into his ear at the
mercy seat, .over the
imperfe,ction of
that
obedience yrhich we
render.
Therefore
it
is,
: , that weare
not
scorched
and withered by the
our own nature
to
the perfections of
revilings
of
the
world;
fo
rwhen, with
God.
Thereis an
external
aspect to the
its
serpent tongue, it
hisses
in our ear
obedience,aswellasan
externalaspect its
rebuke and scorn,
w we
have
to
the law which commands the
gone
down, far deeper than
they
have
obedience.
Theobediencewhichrises
ever
been
able to object against
us,
into the majesty of worship, is the into the meanness of our sin. '
Long
obedience which
God
recognizes
as
before they
brought
the
indictment,
the
echo
orHis
own voice
in the
we
have spread it'in
tears
before
the
exposition of Himself. As he stamps,
ey
e of our Father in
Heaven; untU
he
one by one, and
aU
together, the has
sweedy
said, thy sins
which
are
perfections
ofHis nature upon statute
many be forgiven thee
,
go
in
peace.
and upon sanction,
we
, in our sphere Thus
we
stand
erect,
'
even When
the
ofobedience, respond in our thought world stones us with
itsbitter
and in our
affection
to
all
that
we
accusations and innuendoes. Short
discover : Upon this ground, the and imperfect as we confe it to be, it
obedience of the Lord Jesus
is is
nevertheless obedience; ' and
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obedience generous and free, an
obedience which springs from the
principle
of love
implanted in the
soul, an obedience which is
the
true
response of our rectified nat].lre to all
that the lawreveals to
us
of
God.
Our
divine Lord and Master
loves
us for
our obedience, precisely on the same
ground thauhe
Father loved
Him, for
His obedience. And then, Ollr
obedience is a continuation
of
that
which ChriStbegan, and bywhich
He
magnified the law and made it
honorable. Have
you
forgotten how
the
Lord identifies
Himself
with
His
people, making them the
representatives
of
Himself in His
person, in
His
work, and in His cause
here upon
the
earth? The feeblest of
believers inthe feebleness ofhis walk
does
yet in
so far
as
he renders an
obediencewhichis theresponse
of
his
own soul to the nat].lre
of
God as
revealed
in the law-continue in its
manifestation before the world that
glorious righteousness by which the
law of
God
was perfectly honored
through Christ
Himself.
m.
TheFatherlovestheMediator,
for
His
m zing
sacrifice
in the
redemption
of
lost world.
There is a generosity in self
sacrifice,
which
always
appeals to the
sensibilities of the
good;
and in none
ofits
forms,
however
low, as
you view
them upon the earth
are
you able to
withhold your eulogy. It may be the
self-sacrifice
of the mother, who,
through anxiety and toil, by day and
by night,
sacrifices
her comfort and
her
ease for
her
child.
It may be the
self-sacrifice
of the
father,
shown in
the labors which are perpetually
exactinguponhisfeebleframethrough
a long life, just that he
may leave
an
inheritance
for
his offspring and
emancipate them from the toil by
whichhis own body
has
been racked.
Itmaybetheself-sacrificeofthepatriot,
who willingly surrenders life and
fortune for the redemption and
independence of
his
country.
Or t
may be the self-sacrifice of the
missionary, who, leaving home and
its endearments, and
even
the sound
of his native tongue, goes
to
the ends
of the earth, ifhaply hemay cause the
desert to bloom as the
garden
of the
Lord. But
wherever you
find
the spirit
of self-abnegation, you
find
that upon
which human praise is continually
poured.
But,
my brethren,where
was
there
ever self-sacrifice
like thatof our
Lord; so free, there being no
compulsory necessity upon Him
to
offer
Hirnselfasubstitute forthe
guilty;
so
extreme in its condescension,
for
"He took not upon Him the nature of
angels,
but the seed ofAbraham," "made
Himselfof
no
reputation,
and took upon
Him thefonn
ofaservant, andwasmade
in
the likeness ofmen; andbeingfound
in
fashion as man,
He
hwnbled Himself,
and
became
obedient
unto
death,
even
the death of the
Cross.
(Phil.
2:7,8)
How agonizing too, the sufferings he
endured; sufferings which can never
be measured by human thought, not
expressed
in human language, until
you have penetrated the mystery of
that word uttered upon the Cross,
"My God,
my
God
whyhastthouforsaken
me "
And a
sacrifice
rendered
for
sinners, who had completelyforfeited
every
claim upon
His
forbearance or
Hismercy. Lookattheself-abnegation
of our blessed
Lord,
when
He
laid
aside the
glory
whichHe had with the
Father before the world
was,
and not
only
came
into the world which
His
power had built and assumed the
condition of a creature, but actually
went under the law and endured the
curse and shame of sin
for
us, that we
might be made tile righteousness of
God
in
Him.
And now, shall not the
generosity
of this
sacrifice
of our Lord
for
a wretched and doomed world,
appeal with all its force to the
magnanimity of the etemal Father?
How shall the great God fail to regard
hisSon with anything ess than infinite
delight, when He contemplates tile
nobleness of that sacrifice which he
offered
llP once
for all,
in the enq. of
the world,
to
take away sin.
Brethren, shall we not be allowed
to
say
in the presence of the world
that,just in so
far as
we are Christians
atall,areweanimated by hisprinciple
ofself-abnegation andsacrifice? Why,
your Christian
life
began with the
solemn consecration
of
yourself to
Him who bought you with His
precious blood. The language which
burst
from
you heart in the moment
when you embraced your Lord, was
the language of Paul, "Lord, what wilt
thouhaveme todo." Itwas tllelanguage
of
hitn
of old declaring, "other
Lords
besides Thee
have h d dominion over
us;
but
by
Thee onl will
we make
mention
of
Thy name." (Is. 26:13)
"As
forme and
my house,wewillserve the Lord. (Joshua
24: 15) Step by step, as you track your
experience from the beginning
to
the
close, is
it marked by
this
principle of
self-renunciation in giving
to God
tile
praise ofyoursalvation. The spiritual
life which
is
breathed into you,
is
the
life
of Christ which the Holy Spirit
imparts. The strength by which you
perform duty and resist temptation
and secure triumph, is the strength
which the Saviour
gives
through the
power of the Holy Ghost. And the
glory
upon which we enter at the last,
as we rise into the presence of our
March, 1992 TIlE COUNSEL of Chalcedon
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Lord,
is
the glory which the Saviour
has gone before and prepared for
them that
love
Him. The language of
all Christian experience in
all
the
ages,
whether onearth orinheavllIl, illbe,
"not unto us, not unto us,
but
unto Thy
name
be the
glory.
The
Lord,
with
is
eye of omniscietlce looking into the
depths of he Christianheart,discovers
there this principle of sacrifice. It
imparts a glory even to
this ragged, ravelled
work of ours, over
which we weep tears
of penitence and
shame; and causes the
great Redeemer to hold
it
up
before
is
eye,
and give us His
blessing. Imperfect as
the work may be, it is a
work of sacrifice like
His own; perpetuating
upon the earth the
principle
of
self
abnegation which the
Lord Himself so
c
onsp
icu
ous ly
illustrated. Hence,
Paul says in the first
chapter ofhis epistle to
the Colossians;
who
now rejoice nmy
sufferings
for
you, and
fill
up thdtwhich is
behindoftheafflictions
of
Christ in my flesh for His
body's
sake,
which is the Church.
Colossians
1:24)
Nevetdidyougive a cup of coldwater
to a disciple in the name of a disciple,
never
did you practice economy in
your home, or upon your person, that
you might
have
something to give to
the cause of Jesus,-never did you
sacrifice a
feeling
ofresentment under
the wrongs which you suffer in
life,
but
the Lord upon
is
throne looks
upon it as the manifestation of the
sameSpiritwhichmovedhim,"though
He
was rich, for
our
sakes to become
poor,
that
we
through His poverty might
be rich.' (nCor.8:9)
Brethren,
take
your shame, if God appoints it asyour
lot, and bind it upon you for a
crown.
Take your sufferings, if God appoints
these
to
you, and,
like
Paul
of
old,
glory in your tribulation. f your
home bemadea chamelhouse, where
you are surrounded more by the
memories of your dead than by living
forms
beautiful to the eye, r ~ o i e in
that you are sharers of your Lord's
work in
sacrifice;
holding it up
in
memorial before the
eyes
of
men,
and
causingthemtorecognizetheprinciple
for
which the
Saviour was
most
loved
by the Father.
N
he
Father has
inexpressible delight
in the Lord
Jesus,
as the Head in
who ,
is
restored the unity of the Creation.
Sin, just like a cruel blade, which
cuts between bone and sinew, flesh
12
f
m
COUNSEL of Chalcedon f March 1992
andmarrow, how
divisive it-is
What
a fearful
sch:i.Sm.
has
it
wrought upon
this
earthof ours It has not only
separated man
from
God,
but it has
put barriers between man and
all
God's
creatures. The open sch:i.Sm.
between
rilan
arid
the
angels
; some
have thought to be symbolized in the
Cherubimandflamingsword tUrning
every way, which guarded the tree of
life; lest man should
put the climax to his
apostaSy,anddare the
powerofGodineating
of the sacramentaltree
after .his fall. It
was
most certainly
. ntimated, when man
vias driven from
paradise; each footfall
of the
guilty
pair, s
they wandered from
the beautiful Eden,
waking up the
echoes
of avacant world. It
is
this schism between
man and the very
,beasts of the earth,
which compels the
fonner tb retain his
jurisdiction over
the
latter,onlythroughan
everlasting
contest of mental power
with physical
force. But
in that
exigency, when sin had dislocated
this
earth and set
all
parts of it awry,
the LordJesus came . Behold Him in
HiSswift condescerision.
as
He passes
through
all
the
grades
of intellectual
being, until he finds man down there
at
the very bottom oftbescale; plainly
shOwing that in his entire descent
through these intervening gradeS,
He
took
them all up and folded them
within
Himself,
and thUs,byvittue of
His very incarnation, becomes the
head of the whole Creation of God. I
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cannotgo
largely
into itas a doctrine,
touching it only by a side
reference
here; but every intelligent reader of
the Scriptures knows how constantly
this headship of thewrd]esus, which
He has acquired as the Redeemer, is
emphasized.
He raised
Himfrom
the
dead,
says Paul in is
Epistle
to the
Ephesians,
and
set
Him
at
His
own
right hand in the heaYen/y places,
far
above all
prindpalilJ
and
power,
and
might
and dominion, and every
name
that is named, not only in t is world, but
also
in that which is to come: and hath
pul all things under His feet, and gave
Him to be
the
head over
all
things to the Church,
which
is His body, the
fullnessofHimthatfilleth
all in
all.
(Ephesians
1:20-23) Again he
writesto theColossians,
Ye are complete in Him,
which
is the head of
all
prindpali/J
and
power.
(Colossians 2:10) Or,
as Peter puts
it: ''who
is
gone into
Heaven,
and is
on
the
right
hand of
God;
angelsandauthoritiesand
powers
being made
subject unto Him. n
I
Peter
3:22)
And is not
Christ a beauty in His
Father's eye, when He
recovers
the
universe from the divisive influences
of
sin,
and binds aU in a holy unity
again; presenting Himself before the
Father as the representative of the
whole creation,
made
one by
redeeming
grace, as
before it
was
one
by creative power?
What does fue Church
symbolize
in her spiritual unity, but this great
idea which the Lord ] esus has
accomplishedandwhichHemeansto
perpetuate through
us?
Even the
visible Church with all her
imperfections, with all tile discords
which springup in herbosom, strives
to
realize the same in her visible
unity-mind clashing with mind and
thought separating from thought, yet
all fused together into spiritual and
blessed onenesswhenever you gather
around the wrd's table and touch
tllosesacramentalernblems--tlleonly
spot
upon
the earth where all
controversies
are
composed, and all
varieties
of
opinion are reconciled.
For this our Lord prays in the
memorable words: that they all may
be one,
as
Thou, Father,
art in Me, and I
in Thee,
that they also may be one in
Us:-al1d the glory
which
Thou gaYest
Me, Ihave
given
them; that they may be
one, even
as We
are
one."
(John
17:21,22)
Thus, mybrefuren, does
fue
wrd]esus
delight in us, even as
the Fafuer delights in Hin1; because
weare exhibiting
His
glory as the head
overall things to the Churm,wielding
universal aufuority to fue praiseof
His
Fafuer's name.
V. he
Father delights
irifinitely
in
Christ as working
out
the
revelation
ofHis
merry
grace and
law.
Perhaps it is true iliat wherever
there is thought, there is speech. The
two
seem inall history, as
far
as we can
trace it, to be
strangely coordinated.
Thought is always tending to its
expression. Thought leaps out and
putsona form,thatitmaygohere and
thereand everywherethrough nature,
andtouch theobjectwhichhasexcited
it. Thought must have its eyes wifu
whim
it can look upon
other minds, and a
tongue with whicll it
can break the silence
and hold communion
wifuofuersouls. There
is
an infinite fitness that
the great God who
thinks who is the
fountain and origin of
all thought, should
speak. But oh wifu
what a dialect does He
utter the immortal
thoughts
passing
through His mind He
creates worlds upon
worlds, filling all space
wifu these orbs which
are the objects of
our
scientific
investigation; and He creates the little
violet which blooms and
gives
forfu
its
perfume beneafu your
feet,
as you
are
about to tread upon it unseen.
These are the silent types, through
which the great] ehovahspeaks
to
tile
universeHisimmortalthoughts.
like
fuose pages that are prepared for fue
blind, stars, worlds, mountains,
oceans, seas,
animals,plants, minerals,
are
the raised type over which the
blind pass the little finger with its
March, 1992 TIlE COUNSEL
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Chalcedon
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delicate touch, and putting letter to
letter, read out the thought. Shall you,
shall I,
allow
a
skeptical
science to
separate the works of God from im
who is their author? Or are these
sciences, which constitute
the
glory of
our day,
but
the open
paths
by which
we ascend beyond nature
up
to
nature's God? We will re-write the
line of England's
pantheistic poet,
when
he says the
proper study of
mankind is man;" and
withourversionof he
truth, say, rather with
the first answer of our
own
catechism,
man's chief end
is
to
glOrify
God and
to
enjoy Him
forever."
e will wage war
against the divorce,
which men attempt,
between the works of
GodandtheGodwho
made the works.
These are God's
thoughts, expressedin
type which the
eye
shall trace and which
the
finger
shall feel.
Like the immortal
Newton, who, when he had placed
his scaling ladder against the skies in
his astronomical
investigations,
rose
above them in the heights
of
scientific
induction, and closed his immortal
demonstration with the scholium
(comment), there is a
God
:
But,
my
brethren, GodmayexpressHispower
in the works of creation; or His
thoughts ofgoodness and purposes of
will, in the
acts of
Providence;
or
He
may utter
His
truth and
His
justice in
the law; but thatlarger opening of the
infinite heart, through which
He
shall
pour out forever upon the universe
the
, reasures
of
His
love,
calls for a
personal
manifestation.
TheSon, who
alone understood the nature of the
Father and could reveal it, Comes
from
the
bosom of that Father
to
declare Him; and because
of
this
revelation, the Father
loves Him.
I should like,
if
had time, to dwell
upon another shade
of
the
thought:
that Christ Jesus is far more
than
a
prophet, simplyutteringwith thelips
to us that God is .merciful and that
God is gracious; but that Hewent into
the working-house and
forge
of His
own passion, and there amidst the
fires
of sacrifice, wrought out the
principle of grace and forever
incorporated it with law as
an element
of
God's moral
government forever
andforever-potentiallyworkingout
themercysothatitshallbeanhistorical
1-4
' THE COUNSEL of OtaIcedon '" March, 1992
verity, and therefore mote easily
comprehended by us and more
perfectly
wrought
into our individual
experience.
Just
as the
Father
lo :res
Christ
for that, Christ, in His turn,
looks upon
His
Church and
loves
her
for
the
same
. That Church stands
before the
Redeemer,
not only
as
the
fruit
of
His sacrifice,
but the
preciOUS
. memorial of the mercy,
grace and love which
lay at the foundation of
that
sacrifice.
Willyou allow me to
hurry
to
a conclusion
by ' dwelling ,for a
moment upon the
peculiar
lmport of the
word As" in the text? It
is the particle of
comparison: ' . "As
'
th
Father
hath love me so
have
I loved
you
Oh
how it teaches us the
reality of Christ'slove to
His people
For, as the
Father'skivetoHimwas
areal love, of whichHe
the
S()n
;had an
inWard,
conscioUsness,
so; t is
our privilege
to
have an
abiding persuasion of
the Redeemer's love
to
us. Christ's
love to
His
Church is
as
real,
as the
love which the
Father
has to Him.
See
again,
howitdepicts theIiature
ofthislove.
The
Father's
love
to Christ
was
apersonal
love;
and Christ's
love
to
His
sheep is equally individual.
This is
the
sweetness
of t: 'that when
we were bleating in the cold, alone off
yonder upon the distant mountain;
the Good Shepherd
knew
His own,
and He
called
us by name and we
were
made to follow.
I am the Good
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Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am
known o mine, and
they shall hear my
voice.
(John
10:14,16)
It
is
a
free love,
founded upon no
foresight of
goodness
in us, for when
we were
in our blood He passed by
and said unto us "live." See how the
Apostle puts it: For
if,
when we
were
enemies,
we
were recolldled,
we shall
be
saved
by His life. (Romans
5:10)
The
Father's
love to the Son is an
infinite
love, and
unchangeable in
its
duration.
So
is the love
which Christ
has for
His
people, a
love
that is
boundless and
without change. It is
sweetly
said
of Him, that having loved
His own,
He
loved
them
to
the
end.
Brethren, where
is
the end?
Look
Let
the clouds
part
before your eye beyond
the
horizon of time,
and gaze
down
the
vistas of what we
call
eternity, piercing
with your
view
through
the ages as
they
heap
upon the ages-:..say,
when
will
you come to the end? As longas eternity
lasts, or
the throne
abides upon which
He sits, shall this
Redeemer,
having
begun
to
love, love
to the
end.
And
so
love andheaven
are alikesecure
to -
conquerors while her, and
rejoicing
in
the
triumph of conquerors there.
.
And
then the
love of
the Father
to
Christ was the impulsive spring
of all
the obedience which He rendered to
His Father's
will:
And so
Christ's
love
to
us is the fountain and source ofall
the obedience which we seek to offer.
Oh Thismechanicalmorality-taking
the
dry
shell of a thing, and shutting
up thought and
feeling
and
desire
and
will and purpose in that external
mould, and taking the
brick after
it
h s
been bumtinthekiln,and
holding
it up before the great
God
and saying
tl13 t this is obedience Why,nothing
is
obedience
thatdoes notspring from
the heart,-justas these waters, which
theAlmighty h s
brewed
in thewomb
ofthe earth, spring
[rom tlle
fountains
which He has
placed
on a thousand
hillsides. Obedience is voluntary;
obedience is the homage of the
will
spontaneously rendered to God;
the
free
echo
which man's nature gives
to
thevoice
of
God
as
interpreted
to
Him
in
the
law.
As
the
Father's love to the
Son
was
the spring of
all tllat
Son's
obedience, so does Christ's loveforus
command our
obedience
in its tum.
We love Him,
because
He h s
loved
us;
and all duty
is
sweet, and
toil is
pleasure, when it
is
sanctified by the
love
from
which it splings.
Myunconverted friend, it
is
agreat
pleasure, even though
the
thing be
badly done, to preach God's precious
Gospel
to you.
I
take
you to record
tllat
my
llabit is rather to
woo
you, i
InlaY, with its attractive
voices,
rather
tllan to hold up the glittering sword
and hurl againstyou theanathelllaS of
the judgment. Would to heaven, I
had persuasion enough in my voice,
today, to
bring you
to
an acceptance
with us of these immense privileges
Oh, tllat
you with us could be made
willing in this, the day
of
His power,
to hold communion with tlle Father
and witll
the
Son and with the eternal
Spirit
and to know,
as
no other can
teach it to
you,
except the
Divine
Spirit Himself, what is that love of
Christ to the believer, which
He
compares the
Father's
love to Himself .Q
by Joe Morecraft
//I
usbands Wives
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March, 1992 TIlE COUNSEL ofChalcedon 5