Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; How Christ Manages The Office Of An Advocate.145

 

THE USE AND APPLICATION

How will men stand for that honor that, by superiors, is given to them, expecting and using all things, to wit, actions, and carriages, so as that thereby their grandeur may be maintained? And saith Christ, "Ye call me Master and Lord; and ye say well; for so I am" (John 13:13). Christ Jesus, our Lord, would have us exercise ourselves in the knowledge of his glorious offices and relative titles because of the advantage that we get from the knowledge of them and the reverence of and love for him that they beget in our hearts. "That disciple," saith the text, "whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, is the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him (for he was naked) and cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship": to wit, to shore, to wait upon their Lord (John 21). The very naming of him under the title of Lord, bowed their hearts forthwith to come with joint readiness to wait upon him. Let this also teach us to distinguish Christ's offices and titles, not confound them, for he exercises those offices, and beareth those titles, for great reason, and to our commodity. Every circumstance relating both to Christ's humiliation and exaltation ought to be duly weighed by us, because of that mystery of God, and of man's redemption that is wrapped therein; for as there was not a pin, nor a loop, nor a tack in the tabernacle but had in its use of instruction to the children of Israel, so there is not any part, whether more near or more remote to Christ's suffering and exaltation, but is, could we get into it, full of spiritual advantage to us.

For instance, the water that came out of Christ's side, a thing little taken notice of either by preachers or hearers, and yet John makes it one of the witnesses of the truth of our redemption and a confirmation of the certainty of that record that God, to the world, hath given of the sufficiency that is in his Son to save (John 19:34; I John 3:5–9; 5:5–9; I John 4:9–12).

When I have considered that the very timing of Scripture expressions, and the season of administering ordinances, have been argumentative to the promoting of the faith and way of justification by Christ, it has made me think that both myself and most of the people of God look over the Scriptures too slightly, and take too little notice of that or of those many honors that God, for our good, has conferred upon Christ. Shall he be called a King, a Priest, a Prophet, a Sacrifice, an Altar, a Captain, a Head, a Husband, a Father, a Fountain, a Door, a Rock, a Lion, a Saviour, &c., and shall we not consider these things? And shall God to all these add, moreover, that he is an Advocate, and shall we take no notice thereof, or jumble things so together, that we lose some of his titles and offices, or so be concerned with one as not to think we have need of the benefit of the rest? Let us be ashamed thus to do or think, and let us give to him that which is thus exalted the glory due unto his name.