CHRIST, A LAW-MAGNIFYING SAVIOUR - Robert Murray Mcchene
“Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see. Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord’s servant? Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not. The Lord is well-pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable.”—Isa. xlii., 18-21.
I. The name here given to sinners: “Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.”—Verse 18. These words are applied here, first to idolaters, but they are equally applicable to all unconverted men. All of you who are unconverted are naturally deaf. You do not hear the voice of Providence. Mercies and afflictions come knocking at your door, but you hear them not. You do not hear the voice of Christ. It is like the sound of many waters, yet you are deaf, you hear not its warnings and invitations. You do not hear the voice of pastors. They are watchmen to blow the trumpet, and warn the people, they have the tongue of the learned: but you are “like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.”—Ps. lviii.
Blind.—This word is constantly used in the Bible to describe the stupidity of unconverted souls. Unconverted ministers are called “Blind leaders of the blind.”—Matt. xv.> 14. Jesus once said to a Pharisee, “Thou blind Pharisee.”—Matt, xxii., 26. And again, “Ye fools and blind.”—Matt, xxiii., 17. “Thou knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind.” — Rev. iii., 17.
This is the true state of every unconverted soul. You do not see your own soul; its depravity, its guilt, its lost and ruined condition. You do not see the Sun, the glorious Sun of Righteousness, his beauty, his glory, his excellency: “No beauty that we should desire him.” You do not see your way. You know not at what you stumble. Your path leads into hell, but you do not see it, nor believe it.
Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind. Those of you who are deaf and blind are generally the least attentive in the congregation. You say, The minister has nothing for me; and so you think of something else to amuse your mind. But observe, God does here speak to you: “Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind.” Those of you who are careless, stupid, blind, carnal ones, are the ones that should attend, for God calls upon you. When will you listen, if not when God is calling upon you ?
But you say, This is a contradiction; “If I am deaf, how can I hear? If I am blind, how can I look?” Ans. Leave God to settle that difficulty. Only listen and look up. There is truly no difficulty about it. He told Ezekiel to preach to dry bones: “O ye dry bones! hear the word of the Lord;” and John to preach to men like the stones of Jordan. It is while we are speaking, and through the very words we speak, that God gives life, and hearing, and eye-sight. Only turn your deaf ears towards God, and your blind eye-balls towards Jesus. Who can tell but some deaf and blind soul may now, for the first time, be looking up to Jesus ?
II. The object pointed to: “Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord’s servant? Seeing many things, but thou observest not: opening the ears, but he heareth not”— Verses 19, 20. Every expression here evidently points to Christ.
1. My servant.—This name is constantly given to Christ: “Behold my servant.”—Verse 1. “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.”— Isa. lii., 13. “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.”—Isa. liii., 11. “I am among you as he that serveth.” — Luke xxii., 27. He took a towel and girded himself. “He took upon him the form of a servant.”— hil, ii., 7. The reason why is that he came not to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him.
2. My messenger.—This name is also applied to Christ: “If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand.”— ob xxxiii., 23. And again: “The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in.”—Mai. iii., 1. He is so called because God sent him. He came from God, with a message of eternal life to sinners.
3. He that is perfect.— “He is the Rock; his way is perfect.” As for God, his way is perfect. It is only of Christ that these words are fully true. He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. He knew no sin. He was the holy child Jesus, the perfect one, perfect in the eye of the law, perfect in the eyes of his Father, perfect in the eyes of his Church. “Such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled,. separate from sinners.”
4. Blind and deaf: “Who is blind as my servant, and deaf as my messenger?” Also verse 20: “Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not. This describes the way in which he went through his work in this world. Same as verse 2: “He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets.” Same as Ps. xxxviii., 13, 14: “But I as a deaf man heard not, and I was as a dumb man that openeth ‘not his mouth. Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.” Also Isa. liii., 7: “He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” He was blind to the vileness of sinners. He saw. and yet he did not see. Surely, if he had looked at the black hearts of those for whom he died, he could not have died for them. Surely if he had looked only at one sin, he could not have but cast us away, or gone back to his Father’s bosom. “But who is blind as my servant?”
He was blind to his own sufferings. He hasted to Jerusalem, as if he did not see the cross before him. He saw it, but observed not. He lay in the garden of Gethsemane, as if be did not see the lanterns and torches of those that were coming to take him. “Who is blind as my servant?”
He was deaf. He seemed not to hear their plotting against him, nor their accusations, for he answered not a word. “Pilate said to him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? and he answered him to never a word, insomuch that the governor marveled greatly.”—Matt, xxvii., 13, 14. It is to the Lord Jesus patiently enduring all for us that you are bid to listen and to look’. Consider him, study him. We have learned but little of Christ yet, brethren; and you who are Christless know him not at all.
III. The work of Christ: “He will magnify the law, and make it honorable.”—Verse 21. This is in some respects the most wonderful description of the work of Christ given in the whole Bible. He is often said to have fulfilled the law. Thus, Matt, iii., 15: “Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” And again, Matt, v., 17: “Think not that I come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” But here it is said, he will “magnify the law, and make it honorable.” He came to give new lustre and glory to the holy law of God, that all worlds might see and understand that the law is holy, and just and good. When God wrote the law upon the heart of Adam in his creation, that was magnifying the law. He showed it to be a great and holy and happy law, when he wrote it in the bosom of so holy and happy a creature as man then was. When God spoke the law from Mount Sinai, that magnified the law, and made it glorious. When he spoke it with his own voice in so dreadful a manner, when he wrote it twice with his own finger, this was magnifying it—enough, one would think, to make our modern Sabbath-breakers tremble to erase it. But most of all when Christ died, did he give lustre, and greatness, and glory, and majesty, to the law of God in the sight of all worlds.
1. By his sufferings. He magnified the holiness and justice of the law by bearing its curse. When Adam sinned, he denied that the law was holy and just. The devil said to him: “Ye shall not surely die.” He believed the devil. He thought God would not make him die—he thought God would fall back from his strict and holy law. He will not do it. Will he destroy the creatures he has made merely for taking an apple? When any man sins, he denies the holiness of God’s law. When a man swears, or breaks the Sabbath, or dishonors his parents, or lies, or steals, he says in his heart: God will not see, God will not take notice, God will not cast me into hell for this. He does not believe the threatenings of God. He does not believe that the law is holy and just. If those of you who live in sin really believed that every sin you committed was to bring down another stripe for eternity, another wave of fire to roll over your bodies and souls in hell for ever, you could not sin as you do; and therefore you dishonor the law —you make it small and contemptible—you persuade yourselves that God’s law will never be put in force. Thus every sin is done against God— “against thee, thee only.” Now God sent his Son into the world to magnify the law, ‘by dying under its curse. He took upon him the curse due to sinners, and bore it in his body on the tree, and thereby proved that God’s law cannot be mocked.
When God cast the devil and his angels into hell, this showed in a very dreadful manner the truth of his threatenings, the awful strictness of his law. If God had cast all men into hell, it would have shown the same thing. But much more when Christ bowed his head under the stroke of the law’s curse. He was a person of infinite dignity and glory: “God over all, blessed for ever.” He thought it no robbery to be equal with God. He was far exalted above all blessing and praise. God-man; the only being who ever stood on this earth who was God and man. He was one who had no personal sin. He was perfect; knew no sin, did no sin, was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. He was infinitely dear to God. His own Son; his only begotten Son; one who was in the beginning with God, and was God; into whose bosom the love of the uncreated God had flowed from all eternity. It was he who came and bowed his neck to the stroke of the law. He was seen of angels. Angels desired to look into the awful scene. The eyes of millions of worlds were turned towards Calvary. When Jesus died, he redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; and now all worlds saw that God could not be mocked. He added lustre to the holy law. Angels and archangels saw, and trembled as they saw. He that did not spare his Son will spare no other.
Learn the certainty of hell for the Christless. Which of you that are Christless can hope to escape the curse of the law, since God did not spare his Son? If you have made up your mind to refuse Christ, then you must bear hell. You say you are a person of great mind, of great power, of great wealth; but ah! you are not equal to the Son of God, and even he was not spared. You say your sins are not many, not gross, not so bad as those of other men; ah! but Christ knew no sin; he had no personal sin; all was imputed sin. How surely will you suffer! You say God has been kind to you, has given you many mercies; ah! remember, Christ was the Son of his love, and yet the law demanded it, God spared not his own Son. Though you were the signet on his right hand, yet would he pluck you thence; though you were a right eye, yet would he pluck you out.
Learn to fee from sin. Every sin will have its eternal punishment. The sin you are committing has either been suffered for in Christ, or will be suffered for by you in hell. Why will you fill up your cup of torment to the brim? If you will not come to Christ, at least you might spare yourself from greater damnation.
2. By his obedience. He added lustre to the goodness of the law by obeying it. When Adam preferred the service of the devil to the service of God, he said that the law of God was not good. The fruit appeared good for food, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, and so he ate. And so with every sinner now. When you prefer sin to holiness; when you prefer to swear, or to break the Sabbath, or to go with the wicked, to serving God with all humility of mind, then you say, God’s law is bondage. It is not good to be under it. It would not make me happy to keep it . I am happier in breaking it than I would be in keeping it. // t» not good to love God with all my heart, and my neighbor as myself. Now, when Christ came and obeyed the law from the cradle to the grave, when the Son of God came and delighted to do the will of God, and had the law always in his heart, loving God with all his heart, and his neighbor as himself, this gave new lustre to the law. It showed to all worlds that it is the happiness and chief good of the creature to keep God’s holy law.
Christ was the freest being in the universe, most absolutely free, doing all things according to the pleasure of his own will’ He was also most wise, only wise. He knew the nature of things; knew their beginning and end. He had also tasted the joys of heaven. He had drunk from all eternity the river of God’s pleasures; had enjoyed all that the Father enjoyed, the fulness of joy that is in God’s presence, and the pleasures that are at his right hand for evermore; and yet, when he stood in our nature, he delighted in the law of God after the inward man; yea, God’s law was within his heart. The whole Book of Psalms bears witness to the inward holiness of his heart. He loved God with all- his heart, and soul, and mind, and strength; he loved his neighbor as himself, yea, more than himself; for he gave up his own life for ours. He was subject to parents and governors. He loved the holy Sabbath. He magnified the law, and made it honorable. He gave it a new lustre in the sight of all worlds. He showed with a new clearness and brightness before unknown, that it is the chief happiness of the creature to keep the whole law.
Learn the true wisdom of those of you who are new creatures, and who love God’s holy law. All of you who are really brought to Christ are changed into his image, so that you love God’s holy law. “I delight in the law of God after the inward man;” “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.” Ps. xix. The world say, What a slave you are! you cannot take a little amusement on the Sabbath, a Sabbath walk or tea-party; you cannot go to a dance or theatre; you cannot enjoy the pleasures of sensual indulgence; you are a slave. I answer, Christ had none of these pleasures. He did not want them; nor do we. He knew what was truly wise, and good, and happy, and he chose God’s holy law. He was the freest of all beings, and yet he knew no sin. Only make me free as Christ is free; this is all I ask. “Great peace have they who love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.”
IV. The effect: “God is well pleased.”
1. With. Christ. God is well pleased with Christ for many reasons. (1.) Because lie is his image :” The brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person.” (2.) Because he is lovely. (3.) For his dying: “Therefore doth my Father love me.” John x., 17. He loves him with a full love; he pours out the love of his whole heart; an unclouded love; sunshine without a cloud; an everlasting love.
2. With alt that are in Christ. Whoever of you is willing to forsake your own righteousness, and to take Christ as your surety, God not only pardons, but is well pleased with you for his righteousness’ sake. The same love wherewith he loves Christ, he will pour out on you; and, O! who can wonder, when you really think of the law-magnifying righteousness of the Lord Jesus? It is an ocean of divine righteousness, and those who are plunged in it are, as it were, lost in divine righteousness. It is an atmosphere of light, ready to envelope the soul, so that the sinner may be covered entirely, and thus become divinely fair, and infinitely well pleasing to God.
Invitation. He that wrought out this righteousness invites you all to get the benefit of it. To you who have no concern: “Hear. O ye deaf; and look, ye blind.” “Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of man.” You that are weary, he invites still more tenderly: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.” “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” If you come this day to Christ, you do not need to fear that God’s infinite majesty will be against you; for the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake, for he magnified the law. and made it honorable. Amen.
Dundee, March 6, 1842.