Christ–Perfect Through Sufferings

Christ–Perfect Through Sufferings
A Sermon
(No. 478)
Delivered on Sunday Morning, November 2nd, 1862, by
Rev. C. H. SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all
things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through sufferings." Hebrews 2:10.
BELIEVING THAT GOD foreknoweth all things, we cannot but come to the
conclusion that he foreknow the fall, and that it was but an incident
in the great method by which he would glorify himself. Foreknowing the
fall, and fore-ordaining and predestinating the plan by which he would
rescue his chosen out of the ruins thereof, he was pleased to make that
plan a manifestation of all his attributes, and, to a very great
extent, a declaration of his wisdom. You do not find in the method of
salvation a single tinge of folly. The Greeks may call it folly, but
they are fools themselves. The gospel is the highest refinement of
wisdom, ay, of divine wisdom, and we cannot help perceiving that not
only in its main features, but in its little points, in the details and
the minutiae, the wisdom of God is most clearly to be seen. Just as in
the making of the tabernacle in the wilderness not a single loop or
tache was left to human chance or judgment, so in the great scheme of
salvation, not a single fragment was left to the human will or to the
folly of the flesh. It appears to be a law of the divine action that
everything must be according to the fitness and necessity involved in
perfect wisdom–"It behoved that Christ should suffer;" and in our text
we find, "It became him from whom are all things and by whom are all
things, in bringing many sons unto glory, that he should make the
captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." It seemed to be
but the order of natural fitness and congruity, in accordance with the
nature and character of God, that the plan of salvation should be just
what it is. Oh! how careful should we be who have to preach it never to
alter it in the slightest degree. How should we lift our prayers to
heaven that God would give us a clear understanding, first, of what we
have to teach, and then a clear method of teaching what we have
learned, so that no mistake may be made here, for a mistake here would
mar that express image of God which shines in the gospel, and prevent
our hearers from seeing the beautiful fitness and proportion which are
so adapted to reveal the perfect character of God. We say the plan must
be what it is; it could not be otherwise so as to be in keeping with
the divine character; and, therefore, it is imperative upon us that we
make no alteration in it, no, not of a word, lest we should hear the
Apostle's anathema hissing through the air like a thunderbolt from
God–"If we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel than that
ye have received let him be accursed!"
Our text invites us to the consideration of three particulars: first,
that Christ is a perfect Savior; secondly, that he became so through
suffering; and thirdly, that his being made perfect through suffering
will ennoble and dignify the whole work of grace. "It became him"–it
seemed fitting–that in bringing many sons unto glory he should make
the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."
I. To begin, then, first of all with the joyous thought, so well known
to you all, but so necessary still to be repeated, that THE LORD JESUS
IS A PERFECT SAVIOR.
1. For, first, he is perfectly adapted for the work of saving. The
singular constitution of his nature adapts him to his office. He is
God. It was necessary that he should be so. Who but God could sustain
the enormous weight of human guilt? What but Divinity was equal to bear
the awful load of wrath which was to be carried upon his shoulders?
What knowledge but Omniscience could understand all the evil, and what
power but Omnipotence could undo that evil? That Christ is God must
ever be a theme for grateful admiration to his people. They who reject
the divinity of Christ can have but a poor foundation to rest upon; the
fickle sand, would seem to be more stable than the basis of their hope.
It is enough for one man to work out his own obedience; more than
enough for one man to bear wrath for himself; how, then, could he do it
for others, and for those countless multitudes whose ruin was to be
retrieved? But, beloved, we know that had he only been God yet still he
would not have been fitted for a perfect Savior, unless he had become
man. Man had sinned; man must suffer. It was man in whom God's purposes
had been for a while defeated; it must be in man that God must triumph
over his great enemy. He must take upon himself the seed of Abraham,
that he may stand in their room and stead, and become their federal
head. An angel, we believe, could not have suffered on the tree; it
would not have been possible for an angelic nature to have borne those
agonies which the wrath of God demanded as an expiation for guilt. But
when we see the Lord Jesus before us, being verily the Son of Man, and
as certainly the Son of God, we perceive that now Job's desire is
granted; we have a daysman that can lay his hand on both, and touch
humanity in its weakness, and divinity in its strength; can make a
ladder between earth and heaven; can bridge the distance which
separates fallen manhood from the perfection of the eternal God. No
nature but one so complex as that of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God,
would have been perfectly adapted for the work of salvation.
And as he was adapted in his nature, so, beloved, it is very clear to
us that he was also adapted by his experience. A physician should have
some acquaintance with disease; how shall he know the remedy if he be
ignorant of the malady. Our Savior knew all because "he took our
infirmities and he bare our sicknesses. He was tempted in all points,
like as we are." He looked not at sin from the distance of heaven but
he walked, and lived in the midst of it. He did not pass hurriedly
through the world as one might hastily walk through an hospital without
clearly understanding the disease, but he lived his more than thirty
years in the very center of it, seeing sin in all its shapes; yes,
seeing it in shapes that you and I have not yet seen. He saw it in
demoniac forms, for hell was let loose for a season, that the combat
might be the more terrible and the victory the more glorious. He saw
sin carried to its most aggravated extent, when it crucified God
himself, and nailed Jesus, the heir of heaven, to the accursed tree. He
understood the disease; he was no empiric; he had studied the whole
case through; deceitful as the human heart is, Jesus knew it; fickle as
it is in its various appearances–Protean as it is in its constantly
varying shapes, Christ knew and understood it all. His life-long
walking of the hospital of human nature had taught him the disease. He
knew the subjects, too, upon whom to operate. He knew man, and what was
in man; yes, better than the most skilled surgeon can know by
experiment. He knew by experience. He himself took our infirmities and
bare our sorrows. He was himself the patient, himself the medicine. He
took upon himself the nature of the race he came to save, and so every
feeling made him perfect in his work; every pang instructed him; every
throb of anguish made him wise, and rendered him the more accomplished
to work out the purposes of God in the bringing of the many sons unto
glory. If you will add to his perfect experience his marvellous
character, you will see how completely adapted he was to the work. For
a Savior, we need one who is full of love, whose love will make him
firm to his purpose, whose love will constrain him to yoke every power
and talent that he has to the great work. We want one with zeal so
flaming, that it will eat him up; of courage so indomitable, that he
will face every adversary rather than forego his end; we want one, at
the same time, who will blend with this brass of courage the gold of
meekness and of gentleness; we want one who will be determined to deal
fearlessly with his adversaries, who will put on zeal as a cloak, and
will deal tenderly and compassionately with the disease of sin-sick
men, such an one we have in Christ. No man can read the character of
Christ with any sort of understanding without saying, "That is the man
I want as my friend." The argument which Christ used was a very
powerful one–"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me." Why? "For I am
meek and lowly in heart." The character of Christ qualifies him to be
the world's Savior, and there is something in his character, when
properly understood, which is so attractive, that we may well say–
"His worth if all the nations knew,
Sure the whole world would love him too."
If we had to make a Savior ourselves, and it were left to a parliament
of the wisest senators of the race to form an ideal personage who
should just meet man's case, if the Divine One had lent us his own
wisdom for the occasion, we could only have desired just such a person
as Christ is. In character, we should have needed just such traits of
nature and of spirit as we see in Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. We
think, therefore, we may safely say to every unconverted man, Christ is
adapted to be a Savior to you. We know that the saints, without our
saying it, will respond, "Ay, and he is just fitted to be a Savior to
us." Man, yet God; bone of our bone, and yect counting it no robbery to
be equal with God; sufferer like ourselves, bearer of all the ills of
manhood, and yet, unlike us, free from sin, holy, harmless, undefiled:
qualified in all respects to undertake and accomplish the great work;
Jesus, thou art a perfect Savior to us.
2. Furthermore, as Christ is thus perfectly adapted, so he is perfectly
able to be a Savior. He is a perfect Savior by reason of ability. He is
now able to meet all the needs of sinners. That need is very great. The
sinner needs everything. The beggar at the door of Christ, asks not for
crumbs or groats, but needs all that Christ can give. Nothing short of
all-sufficiency can ever meet the wants of a poor son of Adam fallen by
sin. Christ Jesus hath all fullness dwelling in himself. "More than all
in Christ we find:" pardon in his blood; justification in his
righteousness; wisdom in his teaching; sanctification in his Spirit. He
is the God of all grace to us. Deep as our miseries and boundless as
our sins may be, the mines of his unfathomable love, his grace, and his
power, exceed them still. Send a spirit throughout all nations to hunt
up the most abject of all races; discover, at last, a tribe of men
degenerated as low as the beasts; select out of these the vilest, one
who has been a cannibal; bring before us one lost to all sense of
morality, one who has put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, light
for darkness and darkness for light; let that man be red with murder,
let him be black with lust; let villainies infest his heart as
innumerable and detestable as the frogs of Egypt's plague–yet Christ
is able to meet that man's case. It is impossible for us to produce an
exaggeration of the work of sin and the devil, which Christ shall not
be able to overtop by the plenitude of his power. "He is able to save
unto the uttermost them that come unto God by him." That divine word
which made heaven and earth, is able to make a new creature in Christ
Jesus; and that power which never can be exhausted, which after making
ten thousand times ten thousand worlds could make as many morel is all
in Christ, and is linked with the virtue of his merit and the
prevalence of his blood, and therefore he hath all power in heaven and
in earth to save souls. As he has this power to meet all needs, so he
can meet all need in all cases. There has never been brought to Christ
a man whom he could not heal. If born blind, a touch of his finger has
given sight; if lame he has made him leap like a hart; ay, and though
dead, the voice of Christ has made Lazarus come forth from his tomb.
Some troubled consciences think their case is not in the list of
possible cures, let us assure them it must be. I would like to know who
is the vilest sinner, for if I knew him I should feel delighted to
behold him, since I should see a platform upon which my Lord's grace
might stand to be the more gloriously resplendent in the eyes of men.
Are you the vilest of the vile this morning? Do you feel so? Does Satan
say you are so? Then I pray you do my Master the honor to believe that
he is still able to meet your case, and that he can save even you.
Though you think yourselves the ends of the earth, the very ravellings
of the garment of manhood, yet "look unto him and be ye saved, all ye
ends of the earth, for he is God, and besides him there is none else."
As he can meet all cases, so he can meet all cases at all times. One
villainy of hell is to tell sinners that it is too late. While the lamp
holds out to burn, the vilest sinner that returns shall find mercy in
him. At the eleventh hour he saved the thief; let not this be a reason
for your procrastination–that were ungrateful let it, however, be a
cause for hope–that were reasonable. He is able to save you now. Now,
at this hour, at this very moment, if thou dost trust him thou art
saved. If now, without an hour's delay to retire to thy chamber,
without even five minutes' time elapsing in which to prepare thy soul
for him, if now thou canst believe that Christ can save thee, he will
do it, do it at this moment. His cures are instantaneous; a word, and
it is done. Swift as the lightning's flash is the accomplishment of his
purpose of grace. As the lightning flasheth from the west even to the
east, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be at his last great
advent; and so is it in his marvellous advent into the hearts of
sinners whom he ordains to save. Able to meet all cases, able to meet
them at this very hour is Christ. Sinner, Christ is perfectly able to
save thee, and to save thee perfectly. I know the will and wit of man
want to be doing something to begin salvation. Oh, how wicked is this!
Christ is Alpha, why would you take his place and be an Alpha to
yourselves? I have had this week two cases in which I have had to hold
a solemn argument with troubled souls about this matter. Oh! the "ifs"
and "buts" they put; the "perhaps," and "and," and "peradventures," and
"Oh, I don't feel this," and "I don't feel that!" Oh, that wicked
questioning of Christ! While talking with them, endeavoring to comfort
them, and I hope not unsuccessfully, I was led to feel in my own mind
what an awful crime it is to doubt God, to doubt Him that speaks from
above, to doubt Him when he hangs bleeding on the tree. While it seemed
to me to be such a hard thing to bring a sinner to trust Christ, yet it
did seem, on the other hand, such a sin of sins, such a master-piece of
iniquity that we do not trust Christ at once. Here is the plan of
salvation–trust Christ and he will save you. But they say "I do not
feel enough;" or else "I have been such a sinner;" or else "I cannot
feel the joy I want;" or else "I cannot pray as I would." Then I put it
to them. Do you trust Christ? "Yes," they will say, "I do trust Christ,
and yet am not saved." Now, this makes God a liar, for he says, "He
that believeth in him is not condemned, and he that believeth on him
hath everlasting life." When a soul professes to trust Christ, and yet
says "I am afraid he will not save me," what is this but telling the
Eternal God to his face that he is false? Can you suppose a grosser
infamy than this? Oh! that men were wise, that they would take God at
his word, and believe that Christ is a perfect Savior, not asking them
to help him at the first, but able to begin with them just where they
are, and to lift them up from all the hardness of their hearts and the
blackness of their souls to the very gates of heaven. He is a perfect
Savior, soul, and a perfect Savior for you. You know the old story of
the brazen serpent. There may have been some very wise persons who,
when the brazen serpent was lifted up, would say "I cannot look there
and be healed, for, you see, I do not feel the venom in my veins as my
next door neighbor does." The man is bitten, and his veins are
swelling, but he says he does not feel the pain so acutely as his
neighbor, and he does not feel the joy of those who are healed, or else
he would look. "If some angel would come," he says, "and tell me that
the brazen serpent was set up on purpose for me, and that I am ordained
to be healed by it, then I would look." There is a poor ignorant man
over there who asks no questions but does just as he is told. Moses
cries "Look, look, ye dying; look and live!" and, asking no questions
about what he has felt, or what he was, or what he should feel, yonder
poor soul just looks and the deed is done; the flush of health runs
through him, and he is restored, while the questioner, the wise man in
his oval conceit, too wise indeed, to do as he is told, perishes
through his own folly, a victim to the serpents, but yet more a victim
to his own conceit. Christ is a perfect Savior to begin with you, and
he will also be a perfect Savior to carry on the work. He will never
want your help; he is a perfect Savior to finish the work. He will
bring you at last to his right-hand, and throned with him in light you
shall bless and praise the name of God that He provided a perfect
Savior for men.
3. Once more, let me remind you that Christ is a perfectly successful
Savior. I mean by this that, in one sense, he has already finished the
work of salvation. All that has to be done to save a soul Christ has
done already. There is no more ransom to be paid; to the last drachma
he hath counted down the price. There is no more righteousness to be
wrought out; to the last stitch he has finished the garment. There is
nothing to be done to reconcile God to sinners; he hath reconciled us
unto God by his blood. There is nothing wanted to clear the way to the
mercy-seat; we have a new and living way through the veil that was
rent, even the body of Christ. There is no need of any preparation for
our reception on the part of God. "It is finished," was the voice from
Calvary; it meant what it said, "It is finished." Christ hath finished
transgression, made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting
righteousness. And, as he has been successful in doing all the work for
us, so, in every case where that work has been applied, perfect success
has followed. Produce a single case where an application has been made
to Christ without success. Find a single soul in whom Christ has
commenced his work, and then left it. You do hear of some who fall from
grace: produce them. We are told of some who are children of God
to-day, and children of the devil to-morrow: produce them. We are told
that whom once he loves he may leave; produce those whom he has ever
left. Let them be seen. Hold them up to the gaze of men and devils–the
patients in whom Christ's medicine did work awhile, but failed to
produce a lasting cure. Heaven were clothed in sackcloth if such a
discovery were made, for if he hath failed to keep on earth, why not in
heaven? Hell were echoing with infernal laughter if one such instance
were found, for where were the honor of God's word and promise? We
challenge you, ye princes of darkness, and ye who make the vast
assembly of the damped in hell, we challenge you to produce in all your
ranks a single case of one who trusted in Christ that he would deliver
him and yet Christ cast him away; or one in whom the new spirit was
infused and regeneration wrought, and who yet, after all fell and
perished like the rest. Lift up your eyes to heaven; innumerable as the
stars are the spirits redeemed by blood; so many as they are, they are
all witnesses to the fact that Christ is a perfect Savior; that he is
no professor who does not perform, for he has carried them all there,
and as we gaze upon them are can say, "Thou hast redeemed them unto God
by thy blood;" thou canst save, and perfectly save, O Lord Jesus
Christ.
Now I have thus dwelt upon the perfect adaptation, the perfect ability,
and the perfect success of Christ, our text tells us that it became him
for whom are all things that he should give us such a Savior. "For whom
are all things," says the Apostle; that is, all things are made for his
glory. Now, it could not have been for God's glory to give us an
imperfect Savior; to send us one who would mock us with hopes which
could not be fulfilled. It would have been a tantalizing of human hope,
which I do not hesitate to pronounce an awful cruelty, if any but a
complete and perfect Savior had been presented to us. If it had been
partly works and partly grace, there had been no grace in it. If it had
been needful for us to do something to make Christ's atonement
efficacious, it would have been no atonement for us; we must have gone
down to the pit of hell with this as an aggravation, that a God who
professed to be a God of mercy had offered us a religion of which we
could not avail ourselves; a hope which did but delude us, and make our
darkness the blacker. I want to know what some of my brethren in the
ministry, who preach such very high doctrine, do with their God's
character. They are told to preach the gospel to every creature, but
they very wisely do not do it, because they feel that the gospel they
preach is not a gospel suitable to every creature; so they neglect
their Master's mandate, and single out a few. I bless my Master that I
have an available gospel, one that is available to you this morning,
for "whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting
life," and I hold that it were inconsistent with the character of him
"for whom are all things," and that it were derogatory to his honor if
he should have sent to you a salvation that would not meet your case;
if he should have sent me to preach a gospel to you which could not
completely save. But, glory be to God, the salvation which is here
preached, the salvation taught in this Book, brings all to you, and
asks nothing from you.
Moreover, Paul calls our God–"him by whom are all things." It would be
inconsistent with the character of him by whom are all things if he had
sent a part-Savior; for us to do part ourselves, and for Christ to do
the rest. Look at the sun. God wills for the sun to light the earth;
doth he ask the earth's darkness to contribute to the light? Doth he
question night, and ask it whether it has not in its sombre shades
something which it may contribute to the brightness of noon? No, my
brethren, up rises the sun in the morning, like a giant to run his
race, and the earth is made bright. And shall God turn to the dark
sinner, and ask him whether there is anything in him that may
contribute to eternal light? No; up rises the face of Jesus, like the
Sun of Righteousness, with healing beneath his wings, and darkness is,
at his coming, light. See ye, too, the showers. When the earth is
thirsty and cracking, doth the Lord say unto the clouds, "Wait ye until
the earth can help ye, and can minister unto its own fertility?" Nay,
verily, but the wind bloweth and the clouds cover the sky, and upon the
thirsty earth the refreshing showers come down. So is it with Christ;
waiting not for man, and tarrying not for the Son of Man; asking
nothing from us, he giveth us of his own rich grace, and is a complete
and perfect Savior.
Thus much, then, upon our first head; I would we had more time for our
second; but we will pass to it at once.
II. CHRIST WAS MADE A PERFECT SAVIOR THROUGH SUFFERING.
He was not made perfect in character by his suffering, for he always
was perfect–perfect God, perfect man; but he was made officially
perfect, perfect as the captain of our salvation through his
sufferings, and that in four ways.
By his sufferings he became perfect as a Savior from having offered a
complete expiation for sin. Sin could not have been put away by
holiness. The best performance of an unsuffering being could not have
removed the guilt of man. Suffering was absolutely necessary, for
suffering was the penalty of sin. "In the day thou eatest thereof,"
said God to Adam, "thou shalt surely die." Die then he must. Nothing
short of death could meet the case. Christ must go to the cross; he
must suffer there; ay, and he must bow his head and give up the ghost,
or else no atonement for sin had been possible. The curse came upon us
as the result of sin. "Curseth is every one that continueth not in all
things written in the book of the law to do them." Now had Christ been
never so perfect, yet had he never suffered he never could have taken
our curse. "Cursed is every one that hangeth on the tree," but without
the tree, without the cross, Christ had not been our substitute, and
all he did could have been of no sort of use to us. Being crucified he
became accursed; being crucified he died, and thus he could make
perfect expiation for sin. Sin demanded punishment; punishment must
consist of loss and of pain; Christ lost everything, even to the
stripping of his garment; his glory was taken from him; they made
nothing of him; they spat in his face; they bowed the knee, and mocked
him with bitter irony. There must be pain too, and he endured it; in
his body there were the wounds and the fever which the wounds produced,
and in his soul there was an exceeding heaviness even unto death, and
an agony which no tongue can tell, for we have no words in which to
speak of it. We believe that this agony was commensurate with the
agonies of the lost in hell; not the same agony, but an equivalent for
it; and remember, not the equivalent for the agony of one, but an
equivalent for the hells of all that innumerable host whose sins he
bore, condensed into one black draught to be drained in a few hours;
the miseries of an eternity without an end, miseries caused by a God
infinitely angry because of an awful rebellion, and these miseries
multiplied by the millions for whom the man Christ Jesus stood as
covenant head. What a draught was that, men and brethren! Well might it
stagger even him! And yet he drained that cup, drained it to its utmost
dregs not a drop was left. For thee, my soul, no flames of hell; for
Christ the Paschal-lamb has been roasted in that fire. For thee, my
soul, no torments of the damned, for Christ hath been condemned in thy
stead. For thee, my spirit, no desertion of thy God, for He was
forsaken of God for thee. 'Tis done, 'tis finished, and by thy
sufferings, Jesus, thou hast become perfect as the expiation of thy
people's sins. Do, my brethren, remember that your sins are perfectly
expiated. Do not let them trouble you as to punishment; the punishment
has gone. Sins cannot lie in two places at one time; they were put on
Christ, and they cannot be on you. In fact, your sins are not to be
found; the scapegoat has gone, and your sins will never be found again.
Your sins, if they were searched for, could not be discovered, nor by
the piercing eye of God can a single blemish be found in you. So far as
the punishment of the law is concerned it is finished, and Christ is a
perfect Savior.
Again, if Christ had not suffered he could not have been perfect as a
Savior, because he could not have brought in a perfect righteousness.
It is not enough to expiate sin. God requires of man perfect obedience.
If man would be in heaven he must be perfectly obedient. Christ, as he
took away our guilt, has supplied us with a matchless righteousness.
His works are our works; his doings are, by imputation, our doings. But
a part of obedience is a patient endurance of God's will. Patience is
no mean part of the full obedience of a sincere soul. Christ must
therefore suffer hunger, and cold, and nakedness throughout life, that
he may be capable of the virtue of patience. An obedience even unto
death is now the only perfect form of obedience. The man who would keep
the law of God perfectly must not start back even at martyrdom. "Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and
with all thy strength," would now require death to consummate it. It
was not possible for the Master to have made the robe, woven from the
top throughout without seam, unless the scarlet thread of crucifixion
had run along its edge. But now, my soul, Christ is thy perfect Savior,
for he presents thee with a perfect righteousness. There is nothing
more to do. Neither my living nor my dying can make my righteousness
more complete. No doing, no Iabouring, no denying, no suffering, are
needed to finish that which Christ began. "It is finished." Put on thy
robe, O Christian; walk ever in it; let it be thy wedding-dress. Angels
admire thee; God himself accepts thee; coming into his wedding-feast he
sees thee with this garment on, and he asks thee not how thou comest
hither, but bids thee sit down and feast for ever, for thou art such as
even He can keep company with in his glory.
Yet, thirdly, it was necessary that Christ should suffer to make him a
perfect Savior so far as his sympathy goes. After sin is washed away,
and righteousness imputed, we yet want a friend, for we are in a land
of troubles and of sorrows. Now, if Christ had not suffered he could
not have been a faithful high-priest, made like unto his brethren. We
should never have had that sweet text–"He was tempted in all points,
like as we are, yet without sin," if he had not suffered. But now he
knows all shapes of suffering. It is not possible that even out of the
thousands now in this house there should be one heart whose case Christ
cannot meet.
"In every pang that rends the heart
The man of sorrows had a part."
Disease, sickness of body, poverty, need, friendlessness, hopelessness,
desertion–he knows all these. You cannot cast human suffering into any
shape that is new to Christ. "In all their afflictions he was
afflicted." If you feel a thorn in your foot, remember that it once
pierced his head. If you have a trouble or a difficulty, you may see
there the mark of his hands, for he has climbed that way before. The
whole path of sorrow has his blood-bedabbled footsteps all along, for
the Man of Sorrows has been there, and he can now have sympathy with
you. "Yes," I hear one say, "but my sorrows are the result of sin." So
were his; though not his own, yet the result of sin they were. "Yes,"
you say, "but I am slandered, and I cannot bear it." They called him a
drunken man, and a wine-bibber. Why, when you once think of the
sufferings of Christ, yours are not worth a thought. Like the small
dust of a balance that may be blown away with the breath of an infant,
such are our agonies and our trials when compared with his. Drink thy
little cup; see what a cup he drained. The little vinegar and gall that
fall to thy share thou mayest gladly recede, for these light
afflictions, which are but for a moment, are not worthy to be compared
to the sufferings through which he passed.
Finally, upon this point; he thus became perfect as our exemplar. This,
too, was necessary in bringing many sons unto glory, for we come to
heaven by following the example of Christ, as well as by being washed
in his blood. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord;" that
holiness is best of all promoted by an investigation of Christ's
character, and a studious imitation of all its points. Now had Christ
not suffered he could not have been an example to us. We should have
said, "Yes, yes, he may be an example to unsuffering angels, but not to
men who have to tread the hot coals of the furnace." He could have
afforded no example of patience if he had never suffered; he could
never have taught us to forgive if he had never felt injuries; he could
not have trained us to holy courage if he had never fought a battle; he
could never have shown us the way to make tribulation work experience,
and experience hope, if through tribulation he had not himself waded to
his throne. We want not an example taken from princes to be applied to
peasants. We need a poor man to be an example for the poor; we want a
man who lives in private to teach us how to live in retirement; we want
one who fears not the face of crowds to show us how to walk in our
public ways. We want, if we would meet the case of fallen humanity, a
man just like the Savior, who passed through all the various phases of
life, was in all companies, was shot at from all quarters, was tempted
in all points like as we are, and this could not have been if he had
been led in quiet ways along a path of joy. He must do business on the
tempestuous deeps; his ship must rock, his anchor drag, the thick
darkness and the lightnings must gather round him; they did so, and
thus the captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering,
as an example for our imitation. I would that we might each of us know
him in the efficacy of his blood, in the glory of his righteousness, in
the sweetness of his sympathy, and in the perfection of his example,
for then should we know him to the joy of our hearts for ever.
III. And now, lastly, our point–CHRIST'S HAVING BEEN MADE PERFECT
THROUGH SUFFERING WILL ENNOBLE THE WHOLE WORK OF GRACE.
"It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in
bringing many sons unto glory "–that is the great work–"to make the
captain of their salvation perfect through suffering." The whole thing
will work for his glory. Oh, my brethren, how this will glorify God at
the last, that Christ, the man, should have been perfect through
suffering! How this will glorify him in the eyes of devils! Looking
upwards from their beds of fire where they bite their iron bands in
vain, how will they see the wisdom and power of God as more than a
match for the wisdom and might of their leader! It was in man that they
defeated God; in man God destroys them. They trampled on man's heel;
man has broken their head. They took away from man the transient crown
of his Eden-glory; man wears the unfading crown of immortality. Man,
even man, sits upon the throne of Godhead, and that man crowned with
light and glory everlasting was a man who did encounter Satan; who met
him, too, on fair grounds; not a man shielded from pain; not a man who
had an immunity from internal or external distress; but a man full of
weakness, full of infirmity, like other men, and yet, through God in
alliance with his manhood, more than a conqueror, and now reigning for
ever and ever. Milton, I think it is, supposes that this may have been
the reason for Satan's first rebellion, because he could not bear that
an inferior race should be lifted up to be set above himself on God's
throne. Whether this be so or not, it must certainly be an aggravation
to the misery of that proud arch-traitor, that now the man, the man,
the man in whose image God was defeated, is heir of all things, King of
kings, and Lord of lords.
How greatly will God be exalted that day in the eyes of lost spirits.
Ah! ye that shall perish–God grant there may be none such here!–if
you shall ever perish in hell, you will have to glorify God as you see
Christ, who was made perfect through suffering, reigning there. You
will not be able to say, "My damnation lies at God's door," for you
will see in Christ a suitable Savior. You will have to look up and say,
"Yes, he who was preached to me on Sabbath-days was God; he could save
me. He whom I was bidden to trust in was man, and could sympathise with
me, but I would not come unto him that I might have life." In letters
of fire ye shall see it written, "Ye knew your duty, but ye did it
not;" and even your moans and groans as ye suffer shall be but an
utterance of this awful truth–"Great God, thou art just, nay, thou art
doubly just; just, first, in damning me for sin, just, next, in
trampling me under foot, because I trampled under foot the blood of the
Son of God and counted his covenant an unholy thing." Your weepings and
wailings shall be but the deep bass of the awful praise which the whole
universe, willingly or unwillingly, must give to him who has provided a
perfect Savior, and made him perfect through suffering.
Oh, my brethren, what delight and transport will seize the minds of
those who are redeemed! How will God ho glorified then! Why, every
wound of Christ will cause an everlasting song. As we shall circle his
throne, rejoicing, will not this be the very summit of all our
harmony–"Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood."
We must not say what God could do or could not do, but it does seem to
me that by no process of creation could he have ever made such beings
as we shall be when we are brought to heaven; for if he had made us
perfect yet then we should have stood through our own holiness; or if
he had forgiven us without an atonement then we should never have seen
his justice, nor his amazing love. But in heaven we shall be creatures
who feel that we have everything but deserve nothing; creatures that
have been the objects of the most wonderful love, and therefore so
mightly attached to our Lord that it would be impossible for a thousand
Satans ever to lead us astray. Again. We shall be such servants as even
the angels cannot be, for we shall feel under deeper obligation to God
than even they. They are but created happy; we shall be redeemed by the
blood of God's dear Son, and I am sure, brethren, day without night we
shall circle God's throne rejoicing, having more happiness than the
angels, for they do not know what evil is, but we shall have known it
to the full, and yet shall be perfectly free from it. They do not know
what pain is, but we shall have known pain, and grief, and death, and
yet shall be immortal. They do not know what it is to fall, but we
shall look down to the depths of hell and remember that these were our
portion. Oh! how we will sing, how we will chant his praise, and this,
I say again, shall be the highest note, that we owe all to that bright
one, that Lamb in the midst of the throne. We will tell it over, and
over, and over again, and find it an inexhaustible theme for melodious
joy and song that he became man, that he sweat great drops of blood,
that he died, that he rose again. While the angels are singing
"Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" we will bid them stop
the song a moment, while we say, "He whom ye thus adore was once
covered with bloody sweat." As we cast our crowns at his feet, we will
say, "And he was once despised and rejected of men." Lifting up our
eyes and saluting him as God over all, blessed for ever, we will
remember the reed, the sponge, the vinegar, and the nails; and as we
come to him and have fellowship with him, and he shall lead us beside
the living fountains of water, we will remember the black brook of
Kedron of which he drank, and the awful depths of the grave into which
he descended. Amid all the splendours of heaven, we shall never forget
the agony, and misery, and dishonor of earth; and even when they sing
the loudest sonnets of God's love, and power, and grace, we will sing
this after all, and before all, and above all, that Jesus the Son of
God died for us, and this shall be our everlasting song–"He loved us
and gave himself for us, and we have washed our robes, and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb."