(1.) This is the name sinners should go to God the Father.
(2.) This is the name through which they obtain forgiveness of sins, and 'anything'—' If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it' (John 14:14).
(3.) This is the name through which our spiritual services and sacrifices are accepted and by which an answer of peace is returned into our bosoms (1 Peter 2). But more of this anon.
(4.) At this name devils tremble, at this name angels bow the head, at this name God's heart opened, at this name, the godly man's heart is comforted; this name, none but devils hate it, and none but those that must be damned despise it. 'No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed,' or accounted him still dead, and his blood ineffectual to save the world.
3. He hath also given him the glory of office.
(1.) He is there a priest for ever, intercepting betwixt the Divine presence and all that hate us, by his blood; sin, Satan, death, hell, the law, the grave, or the like, cannot be heard if his blood is presented to God as the atonement for us. This is called the blood of sprinkling, which speaks better than the blood of Abel (Heb 12:24). By this blood, he entered into heaven, and by this blood, he secured from wrath 'all that come unto God by him.' But should his blood have had a voice in heaven to save withal, had it not merited first, even in the shedding of it, the ransom and redemption of souls? It is true, a man whose blood cannot save, may, with Abel's, cry out for vengeance and wrath on the head of him that shed it. But this blood speaks for better things, this blood speaks for souls, for sinners, for pardon, 'having obtained eternal redemption for us.'
(2.) He is there a forerunner for us—'Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus' (Heb 6:20). This office of harbinger is distinct from, though it comes by virtue of, his priestly office; therefore they are both mentioned in the text—' Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made a high-priest forever, after the order of Melchisedec.' He is therefore our forerunner by virtue of his priesthood, his blood giving worth to all he does.
In this office of harbinger or forerunner, he prepares for believers their dwelling-places in the heavens; their dwelling-places according to their place, state, calling, service, or work, in his body, the church—' In my Father's house,' saith he, 'are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you' (John 14:2).
This is that mentioned in the forty-seventh Psalm—'He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob, whom he loved.' But should he have had power to choose our inheritance for us, to prepare for us our dwelling-places; should he have power to give even heaven itself to a company of poor men, had he not in the first place obtained by his blood the deliverance of our souls from death?
(3.) He is there a prophet for us, by which office of his he hath received to communicate the whole will of the eternal God, so far as is fit for us to know in this world, or in that which is to come. Hence, he is called the prophet of the church—'The Lord shall raise you up a prophet,' 'and this is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.' But this office he hath also now in heaven, by virtue of the blood he shed for us upon earth. Hence, the new testament is called, 'the new testament in his blood'; and his blood is said to be 'the blood of the everlasting covenant' or testament; yea, such virtue doth his blood give to the new testament, or covenant of grace, as that severed from that it is nothing worth; 'for a testament is of force after men are dead; otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth' (Heb 9:17). So that every word of God which he hath by Christ given to us for our everlasting consolation, is dipped in blood, is founded in blood, and stands good to sinners purely—I mean concerning merit—upon the account of blood, or because his blood that was shed for us on the cross prevailed for us for the remission of our sins. Let not man think to receive any benefit by Christ's prophetical office, by any of the good words of grace, and forgiveness of sins that are sprinkled up and down in the new testament; that looks not for that good to come to him for the sake of that blood by which this testament is established; for 'neither was the first testament dedicated without blood; for when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you' (Heb 9:18-20).
The prophetical office of Christ stands in two parts—first, in promises of grace; second, in directions of worship. But neither is this last—to wit, the doctrine of worship, or our subjection to that worship—of any value any further than as also sprinkled with his blood; for as in the first testament, the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry were sprinkled with blood, and it was necessary that so it should be, so the heavenly things themselves must also be purified with sacrifices, but yet 'with better sacrifices than these'; for now, not Moses, but Christ, doth sprinkle, not with the blood of calves, but with his own blood; neither as entered into places made with hands, but from heaven doth Jesus sprinkle all that doctrine of worship, and subjection of his saints thereto, which is of his own instituting and commanding (Heb 9:23-26).
(4.) He hath received the office of a king there, by which he ruled in the church, and over all things for her sake. 'The government shall be upon his shoulder'; the Lord God hath given him the throne of his father David. Hence it is that he saith, 'All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth'; but now this kingly office, he hath it by his blood, because he humbled himself to death. Therefore, God hath highly exalted him and given him the highest name. And hence, again, he is called a Lamb upon the throne—' Amid the throne, and of the four beasts, and amid the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns'; a demonstration of kingly power. But mark, he was a Lamb upon the throne, he had his horns as a lamb. Now by 'Lamb' we are to understand, not only his meek and sweet disposition but his sacrifice; for he was as a lamb to be slain and sacrificed; and so his having a throne and seven horns, as a lamb, giveth us to understand that he obtained this dignity of king by his blood (Rev 5). 'When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high' (Heb 1:3). When 'he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, he sat down on the right hand of God' (Heb 10:12). Now, put all these together—to wit, his resurrection from the dead, his ascension, and exaltation to office; and also remember that the person thus exalted is the same Jesus of Nazareth that sometime was made accursed of God for sin, and also that he obtained this glory by virtue of the blood that was shed for us. It must unavoidably follow that Jesus Christ, by what he hath done, hath paid a total price to God for sinners and obtained eternal redemption for them.
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