"Come unto Me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest"
(Matthew 11:28 ).
Having examined at
some length the context of these words, that we might the
better perceive their connection and the particular characters in which Christ
is there portrayed, we turn now to consider the people here addressed, the ones who were
invited to come to the Rest-Giver. On this point, there has been some
difference among the commentators, some giving a narrower scope to this call of
Christ—and some a wider. It is to be noted however, that all of the leading men
among the earlier expositors united inrestricting this particular call to a
special class. Let us quote several of the principal ones:
"He now kindly
invites to Himself those whom He acknowledges to be fit for becoming His
disciples. Though He is ready to reveal the Father to all—yet the great part
are careless about coming to Him, because they are not affected by a conviction
of their necessities. Hypocrites give themselves no concern about Christ
because they are intoxicated with their own righteousness, and neither hunger
nor thirst after His grace. Those who are devoted to the world set no value on
a heavenly life. It would be vain therefore for Christ to invite either of
these classes, and therefore He turns to the wretched and afflicted. He speaks
of them as 'laboring' or being under a 'burden,' and does not mean generally
those who are oppressed with griefs and vexations—but those who are overwhelmed
by their sins, who are filled with alarm at the wrath of God and are ready to
sink under so weighty a burden" (John Calvin)
"The character
of the people invited: all that labor and are heavy laden. This is a word in
season to him that is weary (Isaiah 50:4). Those who complain of the burden of
the ceremonial law, which was an intolerable yoke, and was made much more so by
the tradition of the elders (Luke 11:46 ); let them come to
Christ and they shall be made easy . . . this is to be understood of the burden
of sin, both the guilt and the power of it. All those, and those only, are
invited to rest in Christ—who are sensible of sin as a burden and groan under
it, who are not only convicted of the evil of sin—their own sin—but are
contrite in soul for it; who are really sick of sin, weary of the service of
the world and the flesh, who see their state sad and dangerous by reason of
sin, and are in pain and fear about it: as Ephraim (Jer. 31:18-20), the
prodigal (Luke 15:17), the publican (Luke 18:13), Peter's hearers (Acts 2:37),
Paul (Acts 9), the jailer (Acts 16:29, 30). This is a necessary preparative for
pardon and peace" (Matthew Henry).
"Who are the
people here invited? They are those who 'labor' (the Greek expresses toil with
weariness) and are 'heavy laden.' This must here be limited to spiritual
concerns, otherwise it will take in all mankind, even the most hardened and
obstinate opposers of Christ and the Gospel." Referring to the
self-righteous religionists, this writer went on to say, "You avoid gross
sins, you have perhaps a form of godliness. The worst you think that can be
said of you is, that you employ all your thoughts and every means that will not
bring you under the lash of the law—to heap up money, to join house to house
and field to field; or you spend your days in a complete indolence, walking in
the way of your own hearts and looking no further: and here you will say you
find pleasure, and insist on it, that you are neither weary nor heavy laden . .
. then it is plain that you are not the people whom Christ here invites to
partake of His rest" (John Newton).
"The people
invited are not 'all' the inhabitants of mankind—but with a restriction: 'all
you who labor and are heavy laden,' meaning not those who labor in the service
of sin and Satan, are laden with iniquity and insensible of it: those are not
weary of sin nor burdened with it, nor do they want or desire any rest for
their souls; but only such who groan, being burdened with the guilt of sin on
their consciences and are pressed down with the unsupportable yoke of the Law
and the load of their trespasses, and have been laboring until they are weary,
in order to obtain peace of conscience and rest for their soul by the
observance of these things—but in vain. These are encouraged to come to Him,
lay down their burdens at His feet and look to Him, and lay hold by faith on
His person, blood and righteousness" (John Gill).
In more recent times
the majority of preachers have dealt with our text as though the Lord Jesus was
issuing an indefinite invitation,
regarding His terms as being sufficiently general and wide in their scope as to
include sinners of every grade and type. They supposed that the words,
"you who labor and are heavy laden" refer to the misery and bondage
which the Fall has brought upon the whole human race, as its unhappy subjects
vainly seek satisfaction in the things of time and sense, endeavoring to find
happiness in the pleasures of sin. They are laboring for contentment by
gratifying their lusts, only to add to their miseries by becoming more and more
the burdened slaves of sin.
It is quite true
that the unregenerate "labor in the very fire" and that they
"weary themselves for the very vanity" (Hab. 2:13 ). It is quite true that they "labor in vain"
(Jer. 51:58), and "what profit has he who has labored for the wind?"
(Eccl. 5:16). It is quite true that they "spend money for that which is
not bread" and "labor for that which satisfies not" (Isaiah
55:2), for "the eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear with
hearing" (Eccl. 1:8). It is equally true that the unregenerate are heavy
laden, "a people laden with iniquity" (Isaiah 1:4)—yet are they
totally insensible of their dreadful state: "the labor of the foolish
wearies them" (Eccl. 10:15). Moreover, "The wicked are like the
troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is
no peace, says my God, to the wicked" (Isaiah 57:20, 21). That is, they
have neither peace of conscience nor rest of heart.
But it is quite
another matter to affirm that these are the characters which Christ invited to
come unto Him for rest. Personally we much prefer the view taken by the older
writers, for with rare exceptions their expositions are much sounder than those
furnished in more recent days. As far back as a century ago a latitudinarian
spirit had begun to creep in, and even the most orthodox were often,
unconsciously, to some degree affected thereby. The pew was more and more
inclined to chafe against what they regarded as the "rigidity" and
"narrowness" of their fathers, and those in the pulpit had to tone
down those aspects of the Truth which were most repellent to the carnal mind if
they were to retain their popularity. Side by side with modern discoveries and
inventions, the increased means for travel and the dissemination of news, came
in what was termed "a broader outlook" and "a more charitable
spirit," and posing as an angel
of light Satan succeeded in
Arminianising many places of Truth, and even where this was not accomplished,
high Calvinism was whittled down to moderate Calvinism.
That to which we
have just alluded, is no distorted conception of ours, issuing from an extreme
theology—but a solemn fact which no honest student of church history can deny.
Christendom, my reader, has not got into the unspeakably dreadful condition it is
now in, all of a sudden: rather is its present state the outcome of a steady
and long deterioration. The deadly
poison of error was
introduced here a little and there a little, the quantity being increased as
less opposition was made against it. As "missionary" activities
absorbed more and more the attention and strength of the Church, the standard
of doctrine was lowered, sentiment displaced
biblical convictions, fleshly methods were introduced, until in a comparatively
short time nine tenths of those sent out to "the foreign field" were
rank Arminians, preaching "another Gospel." This reacted upon the
homelands and soon the interpretations of Scripture given out by its pulpits
were brought into line with the "new spirit" which had captivated
Christendom.
No comments:
Post a Comment