THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST - Christmas Evans
SERMON VIII.
THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST.
“Who, his own self, bore our sins, in his own body, on the tree; that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.”—I Peter ii. 24.
What great encouragement to patience and fortitude is afforded the followers of Jesus, by the apostle’s contrast of the light and transient afflictions of the present time, with the eternal weight of glory reserved for them in heaven! How forcible the argument which he draws from the approaching scenes of another world, to urge Christians in this to a life of holiness and self-denial! How vivid and terrible his picture of the dissolution of nature by the great conflagration! Imagine the heavens wrapped in dissolving flames, and the elements melting to the centre of the globe. The victorious and inextinguishable fire towers to the empyrean; the magnificent palace of creation is lost in the smoke of its own burning; and the ear is stunned, and the soul is horrified, by the crash of its final fall. “Seeing then, that all these things must be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness; looking for, and hasting unto the coming of the day of God;” “using all diligence to make your calling and election sure;” “that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless;” that “so an abundant entrance may be ministered unto you, into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!”
Such, substantially, is the argument. But the apostle employs another; the Christian’s obligation to imitate Christ, suffering for him as he suffered for us, with the same fortitude and resignation, though not to the same extent, nor for the same purpose. It is in p. 154this connection he uses the language of the text:—“Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” We are to suffer for Christ as his disciples and confessors; he suffered for us as our substitute, our atoning sacrifice and Saviour. Let us attend, first, to this description of his sufferings; and then to the end for which he endured them.
I. The text describes Christ in his vicarious sufferings, as bearing our sins; bearing our sins, his own self; bearing our sins, his own self, in his own body; and bearing our sins, his own self, in his own body, on the tree,
1. He bore our sins. To get a correct understanding of this expression, we must turn to the record of the ordinance to which it alludes, which is as follows:—“And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat, and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, in all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat; and shall send him away, by the hand of a fit man, into the wilderness; and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited; and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.” But this part of the ceremony was preceded by another, of very solemn import. A goat was selected for a sin-offering. He was brought before the Lord, and Aaron put his hands upon him, and devoted him to death. He was slain, and his blood was sprinkled upon the altar and the mercy-seat. Then the sins of the children of Israel were laid upon the head of the other goat, and he was led forth, and p. 155sent away into the wilderness, to return no more. Both these goats represented Christ; who, as our Savior, answers to both; at once, suffering for our sins, and bearing them away into the land of forgetfulness.
Three things were found continually in the temple; fire, and blood, and sweet incense. The fire denoted the wrath of God against sin; the blood prefigured the sacrificial sufferings of Christ; and the sweet incense typified his intercession at the right hand of the Father, on the ground of his vicarious death upon the cross. The goat of the sin-offering was bound and slain; and then burnt up, with the fat thereof, upon the altar. So Christ was crucified for us without the gates of Jerusalem; and his humanity was consumed by the fire of God’s holy indignation against sin, on the altar of his Divinity; while from that altar ascended a column of the sweetest incense to the heaven of heavens—“Father, forgive them!” In hell also there is fire, where sinners suffer upon the altars of eternal justice. Every sacrifice is salted with fire, and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever. But the black and sulphurous smoke of the bottomless pit is not a sweet smelling savor unto God, like the fumes of the sacrifice once offered on Calvary—a sacrifice which satisfied the claim of Heaven, and expiated the offence of earth.
The form of expression used in our text is one which frequently occurs in the Old Testament, and signifies the enduring of punishment. Of the impenitent sinner it is said, “He shall bear his iniquity”—that is, he shall endure the just punishment of his sins. He shall carry the burden alone, and for ever sink beneath the load, and mercy shall never come to his relief. Christ’s bearing our sins, then, signifies his enduring, the punishment in our stead. Glory to God, that every poor trembling sinner may cast his burden upon one who is able to sustain it, who has already sustained it in his stead! The law passed the guilty, and arrested the guiltless. Jesus willingly gave himself up as the victim, saying—“I am he; if ye seek me, let these go their way.” His sufferings constitute the sea, in which are buried for ever the sins of his people; sins of the greatest magnitude; sins of the deepest dye. The Father, who turned his back upon the sufferings of his Son, hath said—“I will cast all thy sins behind my back, into the depth of the sea.” This is the abyss, in which they are swallowed up, and seen no more.
p. 1562. He bore our sins, his own self. God and man were parties at variance. There was but one who could stand between them as mediator, and he gave himself a substitute and sacrifice for the sinner. Uniting in his person the two natures, human and Divine, he was fully qualified for his work; and by once offering himself, he satisfied the demands of the insulted law, and “became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him.” He offered up himself, without the aid of another; and it was his own blessed person that he threw between you and the destroying angel, between you and the mortal plague of sin, between you and the unquenchable fires of hell.
None but Moses, the mediator, could penetrate the thick darkness in which, as in a pavilion, God dwelt, upon the mount of terror; and none but Aaron, the high-priest, dared enter the holy of holies, and he only once a year, on the great day of atonement, with trembling steps, and sacrificial blood. So Jesus, the mediator of a better covenant, and high-priest of the true sanctuary, the sum and substance of all the types and shadows of the old dispensation, when, in the garden of Gethsemane, he approached the black and terrible cloud, where God revealed the terrors of his justice, and the fierceness of his wrath, said to his disciples:—“Tarry ye here, while I go yonder. Ye cannot go; the place is too dreadful. I will go alone.” Alone he went; and as he drew near the furnace, his countenance was marvellously altered, his heart melted in the midst of his bowels, and the very substance of his life pressed through the pores of his skin. All the visible fire which flamed on the summit of Sinai, now breaks forth anew on Calvary; and though unseen by man, envelopes in its burning the soul and the body of our glorious Substitute. Behold him rushing between you and the flames, shielding you, and quenching the flames in his blood!
3. He bore our sins, his own self, in his own body. Atonement was made for the sins of Israel by the blood of slaughtered beasts. But “the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctified only to the purifying of the flesh.” The blood of Christ alone has power to “purge the conscience from dead works, to serve the living God.” It was his own body, that our blessed Redeemer offered as a sacrifice for our sins, a sacrifice of a sweet savor unto God. The Divine person bore the p. 157punishment of sins in human nature. “It was not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.” We hear the Son saying to the Father:—“Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared for me. I see that the services of the altar are of no avail, and are passing away. In burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast no pleasure. At this moment, the great cause of difference between heaven and earth remains untaken away. The bills are all uncancelled. The handwriting in the book of the law, and in the book of conscience, continues in full force unto this day. But lo, I come to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. I delight to honor its claims, while I save its violaters. I will obey, even unto the death of the cross, and expiate human transgression by my meritorious sufferings. Then, as first begotten from the dead, will I declare the decree which thou didst read to me before the foundation of the world—‘Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Because I have bruised thee, and put thee to grief, thou shalt see thy seed, and prolong thy days; and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in thy hand. Because thou hast borne the sins of many, thou shall justify many. Because thou hast been numbered with the transgressors, and made intercession for them, thou shalt see of the travail of thy soul, and be satisfied. Because thou hast made thy soul an offering for sin, pouring it out unto death, I will divide thee a portion with the great, and thou shalt divide the spoil with the strong. I will make thee king in Zion, and thou shalt reign for ever and ever!’”
The sufferings of the Son are accomplished, and the promise of the Father is receiving its fulfilment. The law of the Spirit of Life hath gone forth; and sinners, with songs of salvation, are crowding to the cross!
4. He bore our sins, his own self, in his own body, on the tree. In Deut. xxi. 22, 23, we find that death by hanging on a tree was deemed an accursed death. Paul refers to this passage in the third chapter of his epistle to the Galatians:—“As it is written; cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” By consenting to crucifixion, Christ was “made a curse for us.” What shame and ignominy did he endure in our behalf! See him arrayed in royal purple, the reed of scorn in his hand, the crown of thorns upon his head, and the cross of infamy upon his back. He grows faint beneath his p. 158burden. His murderers, fearing lest his woes should pass endurance before their cruel thirst for his blood could be satiated, compel Simon of Cyrene to carry one end of the cross. Thus they move on to the summit of Calvary. They lay the tree upon the ground, and stretch the Son of God upon it, and nail his hands and his feet to the wood. It is reared on high, with its bleeding victim; and there he hangs, before the gazing world, and the wondering heavens; suffering the most excruciating death ever invented, the most shameful in the sight of man, the most accursed in the sight of God. All the springs of consolation are sealed to the glorious sufferer; and he finds not a single drop of comfort in his great extremity. True, the fountains of the deep are broken up, and the windows of heaven are opened; but not to supply him with drink who saith—“I thirst!” From below burst forth upon him the streams of hellish rage, a fiery deluge from the mouth of the dragon; while from above Divine Justice pours down a cataract of wrath, overwhelming his soul with agony, and baptizing his body with blood. This is the baptism which he anticipated in talking with his disciples:—“I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” Let us pause a moment to contemplate this baptism. It was the anguish of his soul, wringing the blood from his person, till the crimson dew stood thick upon his brow, and rolled down in great drops to the ground. The sufferings of his soul constituted the soul of his sufferings. “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” It was not the taunt of the rabble, the derision of the governors, nor the cruelly lacerating scourge, that Jesus dreaded in the garden, and deprecated in that mysterious agony. Nor was it the thorns, the nails, the tree, or the spear. It was the burden, O man! of thy guilt; the flaming curse of the law; the felt displeasure of the Father against sin. When the martyrs suffered death for Jesus’ sake, they rejoiced in the midst of the fire, for the Son of man was there to sustain them; but when Christ suffered, the Just for the unjust, he felt the hidings of his Father’s face, and cried after him through the blackening heavens—“My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me!”
In the Bible we read of two very remarkable trees; “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden,” and the tree of redemption high planted on “the place of skulls.” Milton p. 159has made the former the theme of his majestic song, which he opens with the following strain:—
“Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our wo,
With loss of Eden, * * * * *
* * * * * sing, Heavenly Muse!”
But let me extol that mysterious tree of life on Golgotha, by which,—
—“One Greater Man
Restores us, and regains the blissful seat!”
“Sing, Heavenly Muse,” of Jesus and his cross! Sing of the wormwood and the gall, of the strife and the triumph of Calvary! Let us compare these two trees. By the former, “the first Adam” transgressed, and entailed ruin upon his posterity; by the latter, “the second Adam” “became obedient unto death,” and “brought life and immortality to light.” By a forbidden approach to the one, the chain of the covenant was broken, Paradise forfeited, God’s image and favor lost, the league with hell signed, and sealed, and ratified, and the whole earth converted into a province of the Prince of Darkness, and delivered up to the despotism of Sin and Death; but four thousand years afterward, the Son of God took his stand on the other, wrestled gloriously with the tyrant usurpers, dethroned Satan, condemned and abolished Sin, swallowed up Death in victory, disannulled the league of earth with hell, restored to believers the favor and image of God, reopened the gates of the forfeited Eden to the exiles, and established a new and everlasting covenant of grace. The blood of Jesus cancelled the debt of man, and quenched the wrath of God; and from all them that obey him, it will ultimately wash away all the stains of sin, and all the dust of death. This is the newly consecrated way into the holy of holies; this is eternal life! “Sing, Heavenly Muse,” once more!
“We too with him are dead,
And shall with him arise:
The cross on which he bows his head
Shall lift us to the skies!”
Thus, the Son of God, “his own self, bore our sins, in his own body, on the tree.” The burden beneath which he fainted was our burden, and would have sunk us to perdition. It was for us p. 160he suffered and died. Though our iniquities were laid on him, they were yet our iniquities. He endured the punishment in our stead. He stood between us and the uplifted arm of Justice; and the sword which would have cleft our souls asunder, was sheathed in Emmanuel’s heart. His righteousness, imputed to us, and appropriated by faith, is “the righteousness of God, which is unto all and upon all them that believe,” covering their sins, and rendering them “accepted in the Beloved.”
Can we pass by mount Calvary, and gaze upon that wondrous sight, and still remain unmoved? Have we no tears of gratitude and love? Pause we not to wonder and adore? O the depth of the riches! the riches of his wisdom! the riches of his grace!
II. Having thus spoken of Christ’s vicarious sufferings, let us notice a little more particularly the end for which he endured them. “That we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.”
This death unto sin, and this new life unto righteousness, denote the sanctification of the soul “by the renewing of the Holy Spirit.” The “spiritually minded” man is made, through the grace of God, a “partaker of the Divine nature.” He has received a new principle, whereby his lusts and corruptions are mortified, crucified, and slain. The right hand that offended is cut off; the right eye that offended is plucked out. He delights in the law of God; he feels a strong desire, and makes strenuous efforts, to conform himself, in heart and life, to its holy requirements. Made free from the dominion and condemning power of sin, he still needs, however, the aid of the Holy Spirit, to crucify the old man; to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present evil world; to die to sins, and live unto righteousness. In the court of heaven, he is justified by the righteousness of Christ; but before men, he is justified by his own righteousness. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Be as a candle, not under a bushel, but on a candlestick, enlightening all around you. Paul to the Ephesians says that Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without p. 161blemish. God hath not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness. Let us, therefore cleanse ourselves from all filthiness—from all manner of pollution—of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. For it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy; holy in all manner of conversation; holy in all stations, relations, and conditions of life—as husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants; and this always, and in all places—at home and abroad, in private and in public, in prosperity and adversity. Our conversation should be such as becometh the nature and requirements of the gospel of Christ. Forgetting the things that are behind, we should be ever pressing forward towards those things that are before—not as though we had already attained, either were already perfect; but making perfection our mark; for we know not yet what we shall be, but one thing we do know—that when he shall appear, we shall be like him! Then, and not till then, shall we be satisfied, when we awake in his likeness. We must be conformed to the image of God’s Son in this world, otherwise we cannot have the enjoyment of him in the world to come. We must have the spirit of Christ, to love righteousness, and to hate iniquity. We must imitate his example in zeal and activity, doing our Father’s work while the day lasts. Die to sin, we must. “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die, but if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. Put off the old man with all his deceitful lusts, and put on the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness. Abstain from those fleshy lusts that war against the soul; always keeping in mind, that they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts. To die to sin, implies a perfect hatred of it, deep sorrow and contrition on account of it, and a constant desire and effort to forsake it. We should conscientiously use all the means of grace, and depend entirely upon the grace of God, as that by which alone we can obtain a victory—final and complete,—over all our enemies, the flesh, the world, and the devil. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion goeth about, seeking whom he may devour. Good reason have you to pray without ceasing, that you may be made strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. You must put on the whole armor p. 162of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Your loins must be girt about with truth. The breast-plate of righteousness you must wear. Your heart must be protected by the shield of faith, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Forget not the helmet of salvation, nor the sword of the Spirit, nor to write often to the King—directing to the care of Jesus, that your petitions may not fail—“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.” As ye formerly yielded your members servants to uncleanness, even so now yield your members servants of righteousness unto holiness. Live unto righteousness. Yield yourselves up unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Conform to his revealed will, and keep an eye single to his glory in the performance of every duty.
To produce in his people this happy change, was the end of Messiah’s sufferings. But this was not all, for the apostle adds,—“By whose stripes ye were healed.” Divine philosophy! supernatural science! transcending all original conception of men and angels! Who could ever have dreamed of healing by his stripes, soundness by his wounds, pleasure by his pains, and life eternal by his death! We are afflicted by the old inveterate plague of sin, but there is balm in Gilead, and a Physician there. His blood alone can cure the malady, and that is infallible. All the way from Bethlehem to Calvary, he was employed in preparing his materia medica. The Gospel is the great store-house of this precious preparation. It is always full; it is always free; and the sign over its entrance is—“Able to save to the uttermost.” The Holy Spirit is continually making the application, and all who come are cured.
It is a matter of all others the most momentous, that we know our personal interest in these things. If we be not dead to sins, and alive unto righteousness—if we be not healed by the stripes of Jesus—his sufferings upon the cross, and our theoretical faith in their vicarious character and saving power, will profit us nothing. “If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” There is a vast difference between sanctification and morality. A man may perform many excellent deeds, while the principle that p. 163actuates him is averse to true godliness. Happy are they, whose sins are pardoned, whose persons are justified, and whose bodies are become temples of the Holy Ghost. The Lord is their God and Father. They have passed from death unto life, and shall not come into condemnation. “There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit; for the law of the Spirit of life, in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
Christmas Evans