Sixth. ‘Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel’ (Zech 3:3).
The standing of Joshua here is as men used to stand that were arraigned before a judge. ‘Joshua stood before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him’ (v 1). The same posture as Judas stood in when he was to be condemned. ‘Set thou,’ said David, ‘a wicked man over him; and let Satan stand at his right hand’ (Psa 109:6). Thus, therefore, Joshua stood. Now Joshua was clothed, not with righteousness, but with filthy rags! Sin upon him, and Satan by him, and this before the angel! What must he do now? Go away? No; there he must stand! Can he speak for himself? Not a word; guilt had made him dumb! (Isa 53:12). Had he no place clean? No; he was clothed with filthy garments! But his lot was to stand before Jesus Christ, that maketh intercession for transgressors. ‘And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee’ (Zech 3:2). Thus Christ saves from present condemnation those that be still in their sin and blood.
But is he now quit? No; he stands yet in filthy garments; neither can he, by aught that is in him, or done by him, clear himself from him. How then? Why, the Lord clothes him with the change of raiment. The iniquities were his own, the raiment was the Lord’s. ‘This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord’ (Isa 54:17). We will not hear the discourse of Joshua’s sin, what it was, or when committed; it is enough to our purpose that he was clothed with filthy garments; and that the Lord made a change with him, by causing his iniquity to pass from him, and by clothing him with change of raiment. But what had Joshua antecedent to this glorious and heavenly clothing? The devil at his right hand to resist him, and himself in filthy garments. ‘Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel. And he answered and spoke unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment’ (Zech 3: 3,4).
Second. But to pass [from] the Old Testament types, and to come to the New.
First, ‘And when he has come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends and tell them how great things God hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee’ (Mark 5:18,19).
The present state of this man is sufficiently declared in these particulars—1. He was possessed with a devil; with devils, with many; with a whole legion, which some say is six thousand, or thereabouts (Matt 8). 2. These devils had so the mastery of him as to drive him from place to place into the wilderness among the mountains, and so to dwell in the tombs among the dead (Luke 8). 3. He was out of his wits; he would cut his flesh, break his chains; nay, ‘no man could tame him’ (Mark 5:4-5). 4. When he saw Jesus, the devil in him, as being lord and governor there, cried out against the Lord Jesus (v 7). In all this, what qualification shows itself as precedent to justification? None but such as devils work, or as rank bedlams have. Yet this poor man was dispossessed, taken into God’s compassion, and was bid to show it to the world. ‘Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee’ (v 19); these last words, because they are added over and above his being dispossessed of the devils, I understand to be the fruit of electing love. ‘I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion,’ which blesses us with the mercy of justifying righteousness; and all this, as by this is manifest, without the least precedent qualification of ours.
Second. ‘And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both’ (Luke 7:42).
The occasion of these words was, for that the Pharisee murmured against the woman that washed Jesus’ feet, because ‘she was a sinner’; for so said the Pharisee, and so saith the Holy Ghost (v 37). But, saith Christ, Simon, I will ask thee a question, ‘A certain man had two debtors: the one owed him five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both’ (v 38).
Hence I gather these conclusions—1. That men that are wedded to their own righteousness understand not the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins. This is manifested by the poor Pharisee; he objected to the woman because she was a sinner. 2. Let Pharisees murmur still, yet Christ hath pity and mercy for sinners. 3. Yet Jesus doth not usually manifest mercy until the sinner hath nothing to pay. ‘And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly,’ or freely, or heartily, ‘forgave them both.’ If they had nothing to pay, then they were sinners; but he forgives no man but with respect to a righteousness; therefore that righteousness must be another’s; for in the very act of mercy they are found sinners. They had nothing but debt, nothing but sin, nothing to pay [with]. Then they were ‘justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.’ So, then, ‘men are justified from the curse, in the sight of God, while sinners in themselves.’
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