Sin Laid on Jesus
A Sermon
(No. 694)
Delivered on Sunday Morning, June 10th, 1866, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his
own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."–Isaiah
53:6.
THE VERSE OPENS with a confession of sin common to all the persons
intended in the verse. The whole of the elect people of God seem to me
to be here represented; they have all fallen, those of them who have
lived to years of responsibility have all actually sinned, and
therefore in common chorus they all say from the first who entered
heaven to the last who shall enter there, "All we like sheep have gone
astray." But the confession while thus hearty and unanimous, is also
special and particular: "We have turned every one to his own way."
There is a peculiar sinfulness about every one of the individuals; all
are sinful, but each one with some special aggravation not found in his
fellow. It is the mark of genuine repentance that while it naturally
associates itself with other penitents, it also feels that it must take
up a position of loneliness. "We have turned every one to his own way"
is a confession importing that each man had sinned against light
peculiar to himself, or sinned with an aggravation which he at least
could not perceive in his fellow. This confession being thus general
and particular has many other traits of excellence about it of which we
cannot just now speak. It is very unreserved. You will observe that
there is not a single syllable by way of excuse; there is not a word to
detract from the force of the confession. It is moreover singularly
thoughtful, for thoughtless persons do not use a metaphor so
appropriate as the text: "All we like sheep have gone astray." Not like
the ox which "knoweth its owner," nor even like the ass which
"remembers its master's crib nor even like the swine which if it
wandereth all day long cometh back to the trough at night, but "like
sheep we have gone astray;" like a creature cared for but not capable
of grateful attachment to the hand that cares for it; like a creature
wise enough to find the gap in the hedge by which to escape, but so
silly as to have no propensity or desire to return to the place from
which it had perversely wandered; like sheep habitually, constantly,
wilfully, foolishly, without power to return, we have gone astray. I
wish that all our confessions of sin showed a like thoughtfulness, for
to say that we are "miserable sinners" may be an increase of our sin
unless we have really felt it, to use words of general confession
without our soul entering into them may be but a "repentance that
needeth to be repented of," an insult and mockery to high Heaven vented
in that very place where there ought to have been the greatest possible
tenderness and holy fear. I like the confession of the text because it
is a giving up of all pleas of self-righteousness. It is the
declaration of a body of men who are guilty, consciously guilty; guilty
with aggravations, guilty without excuse; and here they all stand with
their weapons of rebellion broken in pieces, saying unanimously, "All
we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own
way."
I hear no dolorous wailings attending this confession of sin; for the
next sentence makes it almost a song. "The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all." It is the most grievous sentence of the three; but
it is the most charming and the most full of comfort. Strange is it
that where misery was concentrated mercy reigned, and where sorrow
reached her climax there it is that a weary soul finds sweetest rest.
The Savior bruised is the healing of bruised hearts.
I want now to draw the hearts of all who feel the confession to the
blessed doctrine set forth in the text: the Lord hath laid on Christ
the iniquity of us all.
We shall take the text first by way of exposition; then by way of
application; and we shalt conclude with serious and I hope profitable
contemplation.
I. First, let us consider the text by way of EXPOSITION.
1. It may be well to give the marginal translation of the text,
"Jehovah hath made to meet on him the iniquity of us all." The first
thought that demands notice is the meeting of sin. Sin I may compare to
the rays of some evil sun. Sin was scattered throughout this world as
abundantly as light, and Christ is made to suffer the full effect of
the baleful rays, which stream from the sun of sin. God as it were
holds up a burning glass, and concentrates all the scattered rays in a
focus upon Christ. That seems to be the thought of the text, "The Lord
hath focused upon him the iniquity of us all." That which was scattered
abroad everywhere is here brought into terrible concentration; upon the
devoted head of our blessed Lord all the sin of his people was made to
meet. Before a great storm when the sky is growing black and the wind
is beginning to howl, you have seen the clouds hurrying from almost
every point of the compass as though the great day of battle were come,
and all the dread artillery of God were hurrying to the field. In the
center of the whirlwind and the storm, when the lightnings threaten to
set all heaven on a blaze, and the black clouds fold on fold labor to
conceal the light of day, you have a very graphic metaphor of the
meeting of all sin upon the person of Christ; the sin of the ages past
and the sin of the ages to come, the sins of those of the elect Who
were in heathendom, and of those who were in Jewry; the sin of the
young and of the old, sin original and sin actual, all made to meet,
all the black clouds concentrated and brought together into one great
tempest that it might rush in one tremendous tornado upon the person of
the great Redeemer and substitute. As when a thousand streamlets dash
down the mountain side in the day of rain, and all meet in one deep
swollen lake; that lake the Savior's heart, those gushing torrents the
sins of us all who are here described as making a full confession of
our sins. Or to take a metaphor not from nature but from commerce;
suppose the debts of a great number of persons to be all gathered up,
the scattered bonds and bills that are to be honored or dishonored on
such and such a day, and all these laid upon one person who undertakes
the responsibility of meeting every one of them without a single
assistant; such was the condition of the Savior; the Lord made to meet
on him the debts of all his people so that he became responsible for
all the obligations of every one of those whom his Father had given him
whatsoever their debts might be. Or if these metaphors do not suffice
to set forth the meaning, take the text in our own version, "The Lord
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all;" put upon him as a burden is
laid upon a man's back all the burdens of all his people; put upon his
head as the high priest of old laid upon the scape-goat all the sin of
the beloved ones that he might bear them in his own person. The two
translations you see are perfectly consistent; all sins are made to
meet, and then having met together and been tied up in one crushing
load the whole burden is laid upon him.
2. The second thought is that sin was made to meet upon the suffering
person of the innocent substitute. I have said "the suffering person"
because the connection of the text requires it. "He was wounded for our
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of
our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed." It is in
connection with this, and as an explanation of all his grief, that it
is added, "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." The Lord
Jesus Christ would have been incapable of receiving the sin of all his
people as their substitute had he been himself a sinner: but he was, as
to his divine nature, worthy to be hymned as "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord
God of Sabaoth;" and, as to his human nature, he was by miraculous
conception free from all original sin, and in the holiness of his life
he was such that he was the spotless Lamb of God, without spot, or
wrinkle, or any such thing, and therefore he was on all accounts
capable of standing in the room, place, and stead of sinful men. The
doctrine of the text is, that Jesus Christ, who was man of the
substance of his mother, and who was, nevertheless, very God of very
God, most true and glorious Creator, Preserver, did stand in such a
position as to take upon himself the iniquity of all his people,
remaining still himself innocent; having no personal sin, being
incapable of any, but yet taking the sin of others upon himself–it has
been the custom of theologians to say–by imputation; but I question
whether the use of that word, although correct enough as it is
understood by us, may not have lent some color to the
misrepresentations of those who oppose the doctrine of substitution. I
will not say that the sins of God's people were imputed to Christ,
though I believe they were; but it seems to me that in a way more
mysterious than that which imputation would express, the sins of God's
people were actually laid upon Jesus Christ; that in the view of God,
not only was Christ treated as if he had been guilty, but the very sin
itself was, I know not how, but according to the text it was somehow
laid upon the head of Christ Jesus: "For he hath made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in
him." Is it not written, "He shall bear," not merely the punishment of
their sin, nor the imputation of their sin, but "He shall bear their
iniquities"? Our sin is laid on Jesus in even a deeper and truer sense
than is expressed by the term imputation. I do not think I can express
it, nor convey the idea that I have in my own mind, but while Jesus
never was and never could be a sinner,–God forbid that the blasphemous
thought should ever cross our lips or dwell upon our heart!–yet the
sin of his people was literally and truly laid upon him.
3. It has been asked, Was it just that sin should thus be laid upon
Christ? Our reply is fourfold. We believe it was rightly so, first
because it was the act of him who must do right, for "the Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all." Jehovah, he against whom the
offense was committed, and who has ordained that the sin of the people
spoken of should be laid upon Christ. To impugn this, then, would be to
impugn the justice of Jehovah, and I pray that none of us may have the
hardihood to do that. Shall the potsherd venture to strive with the
potter? shall the thing formed contend with the Creator of all things?
Jehovah did it; and we accept it as being right, caring not what men
may think of Jehovah's own deed. Remember, moreover, that Jesus Christ
voluntarily took this sin upon himself. It was not forced upon him, he
was not punished for the sins of others with whom he had no connection
and against his will; but He his own self bare our sins in his own body
on the tree, and while bearing it said, "No man taketh my life from me,
but I lay it down of myself." It was according to his own eternal
agreement made with the Father on our behalf; it was according to his
own expressed desire, for he had a baptism to be baptized with, and he
was straitened until it was accomplished; and therefore whatever of
injustice might be supposed, it is removed by the fact that he who was
mainly concerned in it was himself voluntarily placed in such a
position. But I would have you remember, beloved, that there was a
relationship between our Lord and his people, which is too often
forgotten, but which rendered it natural that he should bear the sin of
his people. Why does the text speak of our sinning like sheep? I think
it is because it would call to our recollection that Christ is our
Shepherd. It is not, my brethren, that Christ took upon himself the
sins of strangers. Remember that there always was a union of a most
mysterious and intimate kind between those who sinned and the Christ
who suffered. What if I say that it is not unjust but according to law
that when a woman gets into debt her husband should bear it? And the
church of God sinning it was but right that her Husband, who had
espoused her unto himself, should become the debtor on her behalf. The
Lord Jesus stood in the relationship of a married husband unto his
church, and it was not, therefore, a strange thing that he should bear
her burdens. It was natural for the next of kin to redeem the
inheritance, it was most seemly that Immanuel, the next of kin, should
redeem his lost church by his own blood. Recollect that there was a
union closer even than the marriage bond, for we are members of his
body. You shall not punish this hand of mine without making the
sentient nature which dwells in the brain to suffer therewith; and does
it seem strange to you that when the inferior members of the body have
transgressed the Head should be made to suffer? It seems to me, my
brethren, that while substitution is full of grace, it is not
unnatural, but according to the laws of everlasting love. Yet there is
a fourth consideration that may remove the difficulty of sin being laid
upon Christ. It is not only that God laid it there, that Jesus
voluntarily took it, and moreover was in such a union with his church
that it was natural that he should take it, but you must remember that
this plan of salvation is precisely similar to the method of our ruin.
How did we fall, my brethren? Not by any one of us actually ruining
himself. I grant you that our own sin is the ground of ultimate
punishment, but the ground of our original fall lay in another. I had
no more to do with my fall than I have to do with my restoration; that
is to say, the fall which made me a sinner was wholly accomplished long
before I was born by the first Adam, and the salvation by which I am
delivered was finished long before I saw the light by the second Adam
on my behalf. If we grant the fall,–and we must grant the fact,
however we may dislike the principle,–we cannot think it unjust that
God should give us a plan of salvation based upon the same principle of
federal head-ship. Perhaps it is true, as has been conjectured by many,
that because the fallen angels sinned one by one, there was no
possibility of their restoration; but man sinning, not one by one in
the first place, but transgressing under a covenant head, there
remained an opportunity for the restoration of the race by another
covenant head-ship. At any rate we, accepting the principle of the
federal head-ship in the fall, joyfully receive it as to the
restoration in Christ Jesus. It seems right, then, on these four
grounds, that the Lord should make the sins of all his people to meet
upon Christ.
4. I beg you to observe in the fourth place, that lying upon Christ
brought upon him all the consequences connected with it. God cannot
look where there is sin with any pleasure, and though as far as Jesus
is personally concerned, he is the Father's beloved Son in whom he is
well pleased; yet when he saw sin laid upon his Son, he made that Son
cry, "My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" It was not possible
that Jesus should enjoy the light of his Father's presence while he was
made sin for us; consequently he went through a horror of great
darkness, the root and source of which was the withdrawing of the
conscious enjoyment of his Father's presence. More than that, not only
was light withdrawn, but positive sorrow was inflicted. God must punish
sin, and though the sin was not Christ's by his actually doing it, yet
it was laid upon him, and therefore he was made a curse for us. What
were the pangs, which Christ endured? I cannot tell you. You have read
the story of his crucifixion. Dear friends, that is only the shell, but
the inward kernel who shall describe? It is certain that Christ not
only bore all that humanity could bear, but there was a Deity within
which added extraordinary strength to his humanity, and enabled it to
bear far more than it would otherwise have been able to endure. I doubt
not that in addition to this the Godhead within gave a peculiar
sensitiveness to the holiness of Christ's nature, so that sin must have
become even more abhorrent to him than it would have been to a merely
perfect man. His griefs are worthy to be described according to the
Greek Liturgy as "unknown sufferings." The height and depth, the length
and breadth of what Jesus Christ endured nor heart can guess, nor
tongue can tell, nor can imagination frame; God only knows the griefs
to which the Son of God was put when the Lord made to meet upon him the
iniquity of us all. To crown all there came death itself. Death is the
punishment for sin, and whatever it may mean, whatever over and beyond
natural death was intended in the sentence, "In the day thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die," Christ felt. Death went through and
through him, until "he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." "He
became obedient to death, even to the death of the cross."
5. Dear friends, for a moment think of the result of all this. Sin
meets on Christ and Christ is punished for sin, and what then? Why then
sin is put away. If the penalty be endured justice asks no more. The
debt discharged–there is no debt; the claim made and the claim
met–the claim ceases to be. Though we could not meet that claim in our
proper persons, yet we have met it in one who is so united and allied
to us that we are in him even as Levi was in the loins of Abraham.
Jesus himself also is free. Upon him the gathered tempest has spent
itself, and not a single cloud lingers in the serene sky. Though the
waters came his love has dried them up, his suffering has opened the
sluices, and made the floods for ever spend themselves. Though the
bills were brought he has honored them all, and there is not one
outstanding account against a single soul for whom he died as a
substitute.
6. We cannot close the exposition of this verse without just remarking
upon the "us" here intended. "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of
us all." It is usually conceded by us who hold the doctrine of
particular redemption that there was in the death of Christ very much
of generality and universality. We believe that the atonement of Christ
was infinite in value, and that if Christ had decreed to save every man
of woman born, he need not have suffered another pang; there was
sufficient in his atonement if he had so willed it to have redeemed the
entire race. We believe also that by the death of Christ there is a
general and honest invitation given to every creature under heaven in
terms like these:–"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved." We are not prepared, however, to go an inch beyond that. We
hold that from the very nature of the satisfaction of Christ it could
not have been made for any but for his elect; for Christ either did pay
the debts of all men or he did not; if he did pay the debts of all men
they are paid, and no man can be called to account for them. If Christ
was the surety of every man living, then how in the name of common
justice is Christ to be punished, and man punished too? If it be
replied that the man would not accept the atonement, then I ask again,
Was there a satisfaction given, for if so it was given whether the man
accepts it or not, or else satisfaction by itself is powerless until
man puts efficacy in it, which is preposterous to suppose. If you take
away from us the fact that Christ did really satisfy for those for whom
he stood, we cry like Jacob, "If I am bereaved I am bereaved;" you have
taken away all that is worth having, and what have you given us in its
place? You have given us a redemption, which confessedly does not
redeem; you have given us an atonement, which is made equally for the
lost in hell and for the saved in heaven; and what is the intrinsic
value of such an atonement? If you tell us that Christ made a
satisfactory atonement for every one of the human race, we ask you how
it was that he made an atonement for those that must have been in the
flames of hell thousands of years before he came into this world? My
brethren, ours has the advantage of universality in its proclamation
and in its bona fide offer, for there is no man living who shall
believe in Jesus who shall not be saved by Christ; but it has a greater
advantage than this; namely, that those who do believe are saved by it,
and they know that Christ made such an atonement for them that for them
to be punished for sin would be as much a violation of justice as it
would of mercy. O my soul! thou knowest this day that all thy sins were
made to meet on Christ, and that he bore the punishment for them all.
"He bore that we might never bear,
His Father's righteous ire."
Here is a rock to stand on, a safe resting-place for those who trust in
Jesus. As for you who trust him not, your blood be upon your own heads!
If ye trust him not, ye have no part nor lot in this matter, ye shall
go down to your own punishment to bear it yourselves; the wrath of God
abideth on you; you shall find that the blood of Jesus has made no
atonement for your sins. You have rejected the invitation that was
given, and put far from you the cross of Christ, and upon your heads
the pardoning blood shall never drop, and for you it shall never plead,
but you must perish under the law, seeing you refuse to be saved under
the gospel.
II. Let us come briefly to the APPLICATION.
Dear hearer, a friend now puts a question to you. There is a countless
company whose sins the Lord Jesus bore; did he bear yours? Do you wish
to have an answer? Are you unable to give one? Let me read this verse
to you and see if you can join in it. I do not mean join in it saying,
"That is true," but feeling that it is true in your own souls. "All we
like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way,
and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." If there be in
you this morning a penitential confession which leads you to
acknowledge that you have erred and strayed like a lost sheep, if there
be in you a personal sense of sin which makes you feel that you have
turned to your own way, and if now you can trust in Jesus, then a
second question is not wanted; the Lord hath laid on him your iniquity,
and the iniquity of all such as confess their sin and look alone to
Christ. But if you will not trust to Christ, I cannot say to you that
the Lord hath taken the sin from you and laid it upon Christ, for in my
soul I know that living and dying as you now are, that sin of yours
will rise up in judgment against you to condemn you. Dear friend, I
will venture to say to you, are you reconciled to God's way of getting
rid of sin? Do you feel any joy in your heart at the thought of Jesus
bearing sin for you and suffering for you? If you do not, I cannot
offer you the consolation, which the text gives to those who submit to
it. But let me ask you, do you mean to bear your sin yourself? Do you
know what that means? Jesus smarted when he bore the sin of his people,
but what a smart shall yours be when you bear your own! "It is a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." There are some
now-a-days who are mightily angry at the doctrine of everlasting
punishment; I, too, might be angry at it if it were an invention of
man; but when it is most certainly threatened in God's Book, it is vain
for me to kick against the pricks; my question should not be, "How can
I dispute against it?" but "How can I escape from it?" Dear hearer, do
not venture into God's presence with your sins upon yourself; even our
God is a consuming fire, and his fury will break forth against you when
you come to stand there. Have you an imagination that your own merits
may make atonement for sin? I pray you think what Christ had to do
before he could cast sin off from himself, what griefs he bore, through
what an ocean of wrath he passed; and do you think that your poor
merits, if they be merits, can ever avail to do what the Savior
suffered so much to accomplish? Do you hope to escape without a
punishment? If you do, let me pray you to think the matter over; for if
God smote his own Son, do you think he will permit you to go scot-free?
If the King of Glory, when he only takes others' sins upon him, must
needs die, what think you will become of you, poor worm of the dust?
Think you that God will be unjust in order to save you? Do you suppose
that he will be hail fellow, well met! with you, and revoke his own
sentence, because you do not choose to be saved by a plan which is both
just to him and safe to you? Shall God be unjust to pander to your
fancies, or indulge your lusts? Sinner, bow the knee to this plan of
salvation, for be it known to you–and I speak now, knowing what I say,
and coolly too–there is, none other plan of salvation under heaven.
There may be other ways of salvation preached, but other foundation can
no man lay than that which is laid, Jesus Christ the Righteous. If thou
shalt struggle after salvation individually, and hope to get to heaven
apart from the head-ship of Christ, thou mayest struggle, but thou
shalt be like the Jews of old, who had a zeal for God but not according
to knowledge; if thou shalt be going about to establish thine own
righteousness, but not submitting thyself to the righteousness of
Christ, thou shalt perish. But let me ask thee, does not this plan
commend itself to thee? If I trust Jesus, this is to me the evidence
that he took my sins and suffered in my stead. Oh the joy it gives me!
I speak to you honestly of my own experience now; there is no doctrine
that fires my soul with such delight as that of substitution. The
doctrine of atonement, as it is often preached, is a hazy, misty doing
of something by which the law is honored, or perhaps dishonored, for I
scarce know which to call it; this yields me no joy; but when I know
that Christ was literally and positively, not metaphorically and by way
of figure, but literally and positively the substitute for his own
people, and when I know that trusting in him I have the evidence of
being one of his people, why my soul begins to say, Now let me live!
I'm clean, through Jesu's blood I'm clean. Now let me die! for I shall
boldly stand in the day of resurrection, through Jesus my Lord. Why,
soul, it seems to me as if it were enough to make you leap into the
arms of Christ, crucified! covered with blood for you! disinterestedly
suffering for his own enemies that they might live! Oh stay not away!
"Come, guilty souls, and flee away
Like doves to Jesu's wounds;
This is the welcome gospel-day,
Wherein free grace abounds.
God loved the church, and gave his Son
To drink the cup of wrath;
And Jesus says he'll cast out none
That come to him by faith."
III. Now consecrate a few minutes to hallowed CONTEMPLATION.
You do not want talk, you want thought: I will give you four things to
think of. The first is the astounding mass of sin that must have been
laid on Christ. Now do not jump at it, and say, "Yes, the sins of the
millions of his elect." Do not leap at that, get at it by degrees.
Begin with your own sin. Have you ever felt that?–your own sin. No,
you never felt the full weight of it; if you did you would have been in
hell. It is the weight of sin that makes hell. Sin bears its own
punishment in its own weight. Do you remember when you felt that the
pains of hell get hold upon you, and you found trouble and sorrow? That
hour when you called upon the name of the Lord, saying, "O Lord, I
beseech thee, deliver my soul!" Then you only felt as it were the
little end of your sins, but all your sins, what must they weigh! How
old are you? You know not how old you may be before you enter into
rest, but all the sins of all your years he carried. All the sins
against light and knowledge, sins against law and gospel, week-day
sins, Sabbath sins, hand sins, lip sins, heart sins, sins against the
Father, sins against the Son, sins against the Holy Ghost, sins of all
shapes, all laid upon him; can you get the thought now? Now multiply
that. Think of the sins of all the rest of his people; persecutions and
murders at the door of such an one as Saul of Tarsus; adultery at the
door of David–sins of every shape and size, for God's elect have been
among the chief of sinners; those whom he has chosen have not been the
best of men by nature, but some of them the very worst, and yet
sovereign grace delighted to find a home for itself where seven devils
had dwelt before, nay, where a legion of devils held their carnival.
Christ looks abroad among the sons of men, and while a Pharisee is
passed by, Zaccheus the publican is selected–and the sins of all these
with their full weight laid upon him. The weight of sin would have
crushed all these into hell for ever, and yet Christ bore all that
weight; and what if I venture to say the very eternity and infinity of
wrath that was due for all that mass of sin, the Son of God,
marvellously sustained by the infinity of the Godhead within, bore and
sustained the whole. I would like to stop a minute and let you turn it
over, but when you go home perhaps you will spend half an hour very
profitably in thinking that
"The enormous load of human guilt
Was on my Savior laid;
With woes as with a garment he
For sinners was array'd."
2. The next subject I offer you for contemplation is this, the amazing
love of Jesus, which brought him to do all this. Remember Paul's way of
putting it. "Scarcely for a righteous (or strictly just) man will one
die; peradventure for a good (or benevolent) man one might even dare to
die; but God commendeth his love towards us in that, while we were yet
sinners, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly." When Christ has
renewed us by his Spirit, there may be a temptation to imagine that
some excellency in us won the Savior's heart; but, my brethren, you
must understand that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. Not
that infant washed and swaddled, not that fair maiden with the jewel in
her ear, and with the pure golden crown upon her head, not that lovely
princess, presented like a chaste virgin to her husband; no, that was
not what Jesus saw when he died. He saw all that in the glass of his
prescience, but the actual condition of that fair maid was very
different when he died for her; she was cast out, unwashed, unsalted,
unswaddled, in her blood, a foul, filthy thing. Ah! my brethren, there
is no filthy thing under heaven so filthy as a filthy sinner. When
there was not a ray of beauty to be discovered in us, when neither
without nor within a single thing could be found to commend us, but we
were morally altogether abhorrent to the Holy nature of Christ,
then–oh wondrous grace!–he came from the highest heaven that the mass
of our sin might meet on him. I met with this question the other day,
which seemed a novel one to me. The question was asked thus: "Suppose
you had a child that had the leprosy, or some other foul disease.
Suppose this dear child of yours was infected and contaminated to the
most loathsome degree in every part, till the eyes were blinded and the
hands were rotting, and the heart was turning to stone, and the whole
body was covered with wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores. Now,
suppose there were no cure for this child but for your perfectly sane
and healthy soul, suppose it to be such, to be put into that child's
body, and for you to bear that child's diseases instead of that child;
would you consent to it?" I can suppose a mother's love yielding even
to that; but the more disgusted you had been with those putrifying
sores, the more terrible would the task become. Now, that only touches
the fringe of the work, which Jesus did for us when he himself took our
sins and bore our sicknesses. Such a wonderful union is there between
Christ and the sinner that I venture to say there are some expressions
in the New Testament and in the Old with regard to Christ's connection
with the sin of man that I would not dare to use except as direct
quotations from Holy Writ; but being there you shall see how wondrously
the love of Jesus Christ induced him to take upon himself our sad
condition and plight. But, oh the love! oh the love! Nay, I will not
speak of it; ye must muse upon it. Silence is sometimes the best
eloquence; and it will he best for me to say to you, oh the depths of
the love of Jesus! unsearchable, past finding out! God over all,
blessed for ever, should have laid on him the iniquity of us all!
3. Wonder of wonders that I need another minute to set you thinking on
another subject, the matchless security which this plan of salvation
offers. I do not see in what point that man is vulnerable who can feel
and know that Christ has borne his sin. I look at the attributes of
God, and though to me, as a sinner, they all seem bristling as with
sharp points, thrusting themselves upon me; yet when I know that Jesus
died for me, and did literally take my sin, what fear I the attributes
of God? There is justice, sharp and bright, like a lance; but justice
is my friend. If God be just, he cannot punish me for sin for which
Jesus has offered satisfaction. As long as there is justice in the
heart of Deity, it cannot be that a soul justly claiming Christ as his
substitute can himself be punished. As for mercy, love, truth, honor,
everything matchless, Godlike and divine about Deity, I say of all
these, "You are my friends; you are all guarantees that Mince Jesus
died for me I cannot die." How grandly does the apostle put it! It
seems to me as if he never was worked up by the Holy Spirit to such a
pitch of eloquence as when speaking about the death and resurrection of
the Savior, he propounds that splendid question, "Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect?" There, where eternal justice
sits upon a flaming throne, the apostle gazes with eye undimmed into
the ineffable splendor, and though some one seems to say, "The Judge
will condemn," he replies, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect? It is God that justifieth." Can he justify and then
condemn us? He justifies those for whom Christ died, for we are
justified by his resurrection. How then shall he condemn? And then he
lifts up his voice yet again–"Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ
that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who sitteth at the right
hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." On other grounds a
man must feel unsafe, but here he may know himself sure. Go ye that
will, and build upon your sandy foundations; run up your
superstructures till they are as high as Babel's tower, and tumble
about your ears unable to support their own weight; but as for me, my
soul shall rest upon this solid rock of substitution; and clinging to
the rock with confident resolve, I know that I have no cause for fear
since Jesus died for me.
4. Lastly, I desire to give you as a subject for contemplation, and I
pray you do not forget it, this question, What then are the claims of
Jesus Christ upon you and upon me? Brethren and sisters, I have
sometimes wished to be eloquent; never when I had a cause to plead in
which I was myself involved, but when I have had to speak for Jesus.
But indeed, there is no need of eloquence here. Your hearts shall be
the pleaders, his agonies shall be the plea. Did our blessed Lord take
your sin, my brethren, and suffer all its terrific consequences for
you, so that you are delivered. By his blood and wounds, by his death,
and by the love that made him die, I conjure you treat him as he should
be treated! Love him as he should be loved! Serve him as he should be
served! You will tell me that you have obeyed his precepts. I am glad
to hear it. Are you sure that you have? "If ye love me, keep my
commandments." Have you kept the ordinances as he delivered them? Have
you sought to be obedient to him in all respects? In all your Lord's
appointed ways have you scrupulously pursued your journey? If you can
say this I am not content; it does not seem to me that with such a
leader as Christ mere. obedience should be all. Napoleon singularly
enough had power to get the hearts of men twisted and twined about him;
when he was in his wars theme were many of his captains and even of his
private soldiers who not only marched with the quick obedience of a
soldier wherever they were bidden, but who felt an enthusiasm for him.
Have you never heard of him who threw himself in the way of the shot to
receive it in his bosom to save the Emperor? No obedience, no law could
have required that of him, but enthusiastic love moved him to it; and
it is such enthusiasm that my Master deserves in the very highest
degree from us. It is out of and beyond all categories of law, it is
far exceeding all that law ventured to ask, and yet not supererogation
for all that, for ye are not under the law but under grace; and ye will
do more out of love than ye would have done out of the compulsion of
demand. What shall I do for my Master? What shall I do for my Lord? How
shall I set him forth? My brethren and sisters, my highest aim before
God, next to the conversion of the unconverted among you, is this, that
you who do love Christ may really love him and act as if you (lid. 1
hope you will never become a dead cold church. Oh may my ministry never
help to lull you into such a state as that! If Jesus Christ does not
deserve everything of you he does not deserve anything; you do not know
anything of his claims if you do not feel that
"If you could make some reserve,
And duty did not call;
You love the Lord with zeal so great
That you must give him all."
Christ stands for me, oh may I learn to stand for him, and plead for
him, and live for him, and suffer for him, and pray for him, and preach
and labor for him as he may help me! May I remind you each individually
as you all followed your own way, and individually had some sin to
increase that burden, pay him individual service? Contribute of your
substance to the common work of the church, and do that constantly, and
as a matter of delight. Our College, which is doing so much service
greatly needs, and demands the help of all who love our work, and love
the Lord's truth. But in addition to that, do something for yourself,
speak for Christ yourself, have some work in hand on your own account.
Do, I say again, at all times assist the work of the combined body, for
that will be a great work, God being in us as our life and stay, and
let no man withhold of his substance from Christ's cause; but still
that is not all, he does not ask your pocket only but your heart. It is
not the pence, it is the activities of the soul; it is not the
shillings and the guineas and so on, but it is your very inmost soul,
the core of your spirit. O Christian, by the blood of Jesus devote
yourself to him again! In the old Roman battles it sometimes happened
that the strife seemed dubious, and a captain inspired by superstitious
patriotism would stand upon his sword and devote himself to destruction
for the good of his country, and then, according to those old legends,
the battle always turned. Now, men and brethren, sisters, every one of
you who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, devote yourselves this
day to live, to die, to spend, and to be spent for King Jesus. You will
be no fool, for no man ever had an ambition more worthy. You will not
be devoting yourself to one who does not deserve it. You know how much
you owe him; nay, you do not know, to the fullest extent, the depth of
your obligation, but you know you owe him all that you have; your
escape from hell and your hope of heaven. Follow me this morning in
these verses–
"Tis done, the great transaction's done;
I am my Lord's, and he is mine:
He drew me, and I follow'd on,
Charm'd to confess the voice divine.
Now rest, my long-divided heart;
Fix'd on this blissful center rest;
With ashes who would grudge to part,
When call'd on angel's bread to feast?
High heaven, that heard the solemn vow,
That vow renew'd shall daily hear;
Till in life's latest hour I bow,
And bless in death a bond so dear."
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Isaiah 53.