The Ever-Living Christ
(No. 2689)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, AUGUST 26, 1900.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
24, 1881.
"I am He that lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevemore,
Amen." Revelation 1:18.
WE long, sometimes, to behold Christ in His Glory. Certainly, it is one
of our brightest hopes that we shall see Him as He is. Every true
Believer can say, with Job, "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that He
shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin,
worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall
see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another." But,
Brothers and Sisters, as we are now constituted, we are quite unfit for
the vision of our Master's Glory. It was well that, when He was on
earth, He veiled himself in the form of man, for when He did lift up
the veil a little, as He did on the Mountain of Transfiguration, the
sight, though it was but a glimpse, was too much for Peter, James and
John. They were overpowered by it! They fell asleep on the holy mount
and even when they were awake, they knew not what to say. And as we now
are, if we could be favored with a sight of Christ in His Glory, it
would be too much for us, also.
It was too much, even, for John, and we are far inferior to him–our
eyes are not as clear and strong as his were– yet he could not endure
that wondrous vision! The gray old saint in Patmos had been familiar
with his Master more years than most of us have known Him. He had laid
his head upon the Savior's bosom–a privilege accorded to none beside
himself. He had stood at the Cross and seen the blood and water flow
from that dear heart that loved him so well and yet, though he was
"that disciple whom Jesus loved," when he had a sight of his glorified
Master, he fell at His feet as dead! The full Glory of Christ is too
much for us to behold while we are here on the earth, so ask not to
have it yet, dear Friends. By-and-by, when you are fitted for it and
Christ has prepared a place for you, His prayer shall be fulfilled in
your happy experience! "Father, I will that they, also, whom You have
given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My Glory, which
You have given Me." He might say to each one of you, "Not yet, My
child, not yet may you see Me as I Am. Your eyes are not yet fit for
such a sight as that."
Observe, Beloved, how the Savior comforted John when, through the
excessive Glory of the vision of his Lord, he swooned away and was as
one dead. First, He laid His right hand upon him–and that is where
yourcomfort and mine must always come from–from the hand that was
crucified for us. There streams from that pierced hand a wondrous power
that makes the weakest strong. A touch of it proves how near Christ is
to us. We know, when He touches us, that He is Man as well as God, and
the familiar touch which brings Him so consciously near our spirit
makes us glad and joyous, and we become strong again. And if the fact
of His Incarnation–the Truth of God that Christ is flesh of our flesh,
and bone of our bone–should not suffice to cheer us, then He adds, as
He did to John, "Fear not." The Master is saying that to each one of
you who believe in Him, but especially to such of you as are very faint
and weak and who feel that you are soon to die. He is drawing near to
you, Brothers and Sisters, who are shortly to lay aside the frail
tabernacle of this mortal body. The glinting and gleams of the Glory
yet to be revealed overcome you, but He whispers in your ear, "Fear
not; I am the First and the Last: I am He that lives, and was dead."
All these words are full of good cheer to spirits that faint away with
expectation of the coming of the King and to hearts that are ravished
with desire for the company of the Best-Beloved.
"Fear not," He says, and that we may not fear, let us now look into the
things here made known which ought to be a cause of strength and
comfort to us. They seem to me to be three–though there are many
more–there are three that strike me most. The first is, the identity
of Christ However glorious He may be, and His very face is as the sun
when He shines in His strength, yet He is the same Christ as when He
was here on earth. "I am He that lives, and was dead." Those words
prove to us the identity of Christ. The next ground of sweet comfort,
whenever we think of Christ in His Glory, is the perfection of His
work, which is implied in the expression, "and was dead." He has
nothing to do with death now– as far as He is personally concerned,
that is all over. You see that the words are in the past tense–"I am
He that lives, and was dead." And then, thirdly, the great source of
heart-cheer to every Believer, as he trembles in the Presence of his
glorified Master, is the fact ofChrist's eternal existence. ' 'I am
alive forevermore." He will never again be the dead Christ of
Calvary–"I am alive forevermore, Amen."
I. Let us begin, then, with the first great Truth that I mentioned–and
I must necessarily speak somewhat hurriedly on each one–THE IDENTITY
OF OUR BLESSED MASTER should greatly comfort us when we think of His
Glory.
Christ in Heaven is the same as He was here. A great change has passed
over Him, but not a change as to His identity or His Nature–and
especially not a change as to His heart of love to us, for He is "Jesus
Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever"–absolutely the
same! He who now makes all Heaven bright with His Presence is the same
Christ who was born at Bethlehem, trod the waves of Galilee's
storm-tossed lake, hung upon the Cross, was wrapped in the cerements of
death and laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea. That same Jesus has
risen from the dead and is now sitting at the right hand of God,
reigning over all worlds! I want specially to bring before you this one
thought–that while Christ was here, during the 40 days after His
Resurrection–He was manifestly the same Jesus that He had been during
His earthly life. We will not suppose–we cannot imaginethat any change
has taken place in Him since then. The 40 days of His Glory on earth
were a fair specimen of what He now is and He was, then, the same Jesus
that the disciples had known before He was crucified.
There were certain points about Him in which He made it quite clear
that He was the same. The first was, His tenderness. He was always meek
and lowly, gentle and kind, and He was just the same after He rose from
the dead. Mark tells us that, "when Jesus was risen early the first day
of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had
cast seven devils." There is a fine touch of tenderness in that mention
of the seven devils in connection with Christ's appearance to Mary
Magdalene. She was one who loved Him much. She had been one of the last
to watch by the sepulcher and now she was to be the first to meet her
Lord after He had risen from the dead. It was just like Christ to
manifest Himself first to her–to find one of the weakest of His
followers, one of those who loved Him most–and one for whom He had
already done the most.
Then, it was just like He to send His angel with this message to the
women, "Go your way, tell His disciples"–the very men who had all
forsaken Him and fled! The cowards who had deserted Him in His hour of
greatest need–"tell His disciples"–and then follows that tender,
Christ-like touch–"tell His disciples and Peter"–poor, willful Peter
who said that he would die rather than deny his Lord, yet he did deny
Him with oaths and curses! Yet Christ sent him a special personal
message, "tell His disciples and Peter that He goes before you into
Galilee: there shall you see Him, as He said unto you." I am quite sure
that this is the same Christ who said to Peter, "Simon, Simon, behold,
Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I
have prayed for you, that your faith fail not."
Then, further on, dear Brothers and Sisters, notice Christ's tenderness
to Thomas. Even after Christ had risen from the grave a whole week,
Thomas was still unbelieving. He had said that he would not believe
that his Lord had risen unless he could see in His hands the print of
the nails and put his finger into the print of the nails, and thrust
his hand into the wound in Christ's side. On the second Sabbath, the
Master came again to His disciples and, after saying to them, "Peace be
unto you," He spoke to Thomas no word of anger, but simply said, "Reach
here your finger and behold my hands; and reach here your hand, and
thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing." There
were, necessarily, some rebukes during that memorable period, for love
must rebuke that which is not right, but those rebukes were like the
reproof of which David said, "It shall be an excellent oil which shall
not break my head." They were just such rebukes as always come from
Jesus–and only from Jesus–so we are sure it was the same Man who had
both died and risen again.
And if another instance is needed to complete and crown the evidence,
look at our Lord when He invited the disciples to eat fish with Him by
the lake and then, afterwards, said to Peter, "Simon, son of Jonas, do
you love Me more than
these?" Thrice He repeated the question, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you
love Me?" And then He commissioned him to feed His lambs and act as
under-shepherd to His sheep. That was exactly like Christ–there was no
counterfeit about such an action as that! He might then and there have
said, "I am He that lives, and was dead"–the disciples would have
recognized the tones of His voice, the manner of His speech and the
spirit of His rebuke. Everything about it was so tender that it could
not have been imitated and we say at once, as John said to Peter, "It
is the Lord!" We cry, like Thomas, "My Lord and my God!"
A second characteristic which, in connection with other things, proves
the identity of Christ, is His energy. If Christ, after the
Resurrection, had been very slow, dull, heavy, lethargic, we would have
said, "This is not He who was eaten up with the zeal of God's house.
This is not the Christ who was clad with zeal as with a cloak." But on
that day of our Lord's Resurrection, He appeared first to Mary
Magdalene, then to Simon Peter. Then, toward evening, He joined the two
disciples going to Emmaus and, after He had revealed Himself to them,
they could scarcely reach Jerusalem before He was there in the midst of
the eleven saying, "Peace be unto you." We have not a complete record
of all that transpired during those 40 days, but we have sufficient
record to show us that our Lord was busy, here and there, showing
Himself, sometimes, to little groups of two or three, and at one time
to as many as 500 brethren at once. And we can see that His
never-tiring energy was steadily maintained through those days of His
glory-life while yet He tabernacled here below.
Another point, too, is especially noticeable in the records of those 40
days. That is, the constantScripturalness of the blessed Master's talk
You know that, in His day, even the religious people did not quote
Scripture as He did. The Rabbis said, "Rabbi Yohannin has said," or,
"Rabbi Simeon has said," or, "Rabbi Levi has said so-and-so and
so-and-so." But Christ quoted nothing from the Rabbis. On the way to
Emmaus, "beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded unto
them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." It was
always His custom to do so and often He seemed to go out of His way to
do or say something "that the Scripture might be fulfilled." He was
always careful that by some act or word of His, He might fulfill a
prophecy which, perhaps, we never would have understood if He had not
fulfilled it. So, after He had risen from the dead, if He had not been
a Bible-loving Christ, we might have questioned whether He was the same
Christ.
I have reminded you what He said to the two disciples going to Emmaus.
And when He was back at Jerusalem among the eleven, He said to them,
"These are the words which I spoke unto you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of
Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning Me. Then
opened He their understanding that they might understand the
Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it
behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day."
His constant reference to the Word. His manifest delight in quoting
it–the Scripturalness of His whole conversation–all this is clear and
convincing evidence that He was the same Christ who, all His life, from
the temptation in the wilderness to His death on the Cross, constantly
quoted the Scriptures! There was no other such teacher, in His day, who
continually drew his instruction from the written Word. He was the one
lone Man who was mighty in the Scriptures and who perpetually quoted
them and, as He continued to do so after His Resurrection, this was
another proof of His identity! He was the same Christ, depend upon it.
There was another trait in His Character which must not be forgotten.
That is, His love for the souls of men. Does that come out after His
Resurrection? Yes, it does, not only in the incidents to which I have
referred, but also in His declaration "that repentance and remission of
sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at
Jerusalem." I can see a great deal in those three words, "beginning at
Jerusalem." Depend upon it, they were spoken by the Man who wept over
Jerusalem and who cried, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the
Prophets and stone them which are sent unto you, how often would I have
gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens
under her wings, and you would not!" "Give them one more opportunity of
coming to Me," He says, "preach repentance and remission of sins, in My
name, among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." That is the Man, I am
sure, of whom it is written, "Then drew near unto Him all the publicans
and sinners to hear Him."
The Pharisees and scribes said of Him, "This Man receives sinners, and
eats with them." That is why He said to His Apostles, "Begin with the
greatest sinners first–'beginning at Jerusalem.'" I know it is He, it
must be the Christ, Himself, for, before He died, He prayed for His
murderers, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." And
having risen from the dead, it was for those very murderers that He
gave His commission of Grace and mercy! His care for men, and for the
very worst of them, and His love for souls, and for those that were
most of all in need of His pity and
forgiveness prove that He was the same Christ who "was moved with
compassion on the multitudes, because they fainted, and were scattered
abroad, as sheep having no shepherd."
One other thing I may note, for it helps to prove the identity of
Christ. That is, His mention of the Spirit, for, in those times, there
were none but Christ who preached about the Spirit of God. I greatly
fear that there are not very many who do so now. Oh, how the Spirit of
God is neglected in many sermons! I heard of one preacher, of whom it
was said that people who listened to him did not know whether there was
a Holy Spirit–they had not heard of Him for so long that they thought
surely He must have ceased to operate! But our Lord continually
mentioned the Spirit. In that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and
cried, "If any man thirsts, let Him come unto Me, and drink. He that
believes on Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water. (By this spoke He of the Spirit, which they
that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet
given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified)." In that blessed
Chapter where He tells us about the Comforter whom the Father would
send to us in His name, He showed that He was, Himself, clothed with
the Spirit and He spoke much of the Spirit. Now see how He spoke after
He had risen from the dead–could anything be more plain than
this–"Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry you
in the city of Jerusalem, until you be endued with power from on high"?
In His last words to His disciples, there is always this reference and
deference to the Spirit, this Witness to the necessity of His
operations, this warning to His followers that they can do nothing
without Him, that they cannot preach the Gospel successfully unless the
Spirit of God is with them. That is the same Christ upon whom the
Spirit rested without measure! I am sure it is He and when He says, "I
am He that lives–and was dead," all the tokens of the 40 days go to
prove the identity of the risen Christ with the Christ who died upon
the Cross!
Let us dwell on that thought for just a minute before we pass on.
Christ in Glory is none other than He who was here. No man ever loses
anything by going to Heaven–an ordinary man gains much by going there,
so I am sure my Lord is none the worse for entering into His Glory–He
is none the less tender, none the less zealous, none the less mighty to
save! And just as we might have been glad to run to Him when He was
here, so may we gladly go to Him now, for He is just the same.
II. Now I must speak very briefly upon the second head, although I
might enlarge upon it to almost any extent, for it relates to THE
FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST.
When our Lord used to John the words, "was dead," and applied them to
Himself, He meant that He had performed the crucial part of the
Atonement The very central point of the Atonement was death–there was
no way of making atonement for sin except by the shedding of the
precious blood of Jesus, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
There must be life to atone for sin–and that life
sacrificed–therefore, Christ "was dead." It was no dream, no delusion,
no sleep, no swoon, no coma. He "was dead." Though it was not possible
for our blessed and glorious Savior to be held by the bands of death,
yet He "was dead."
This meant, further, that Christ's work was ended and done with There
are some people who talk about presenting the perpetual sacrifice of
the "mass." There is perhaps, no grosser blasphemy under Heaven than
the idea that we can offer up the body and blood of Christ again. "Once
and for all" Jesus died, but He is not a dead Christ now! Pictures of
Christ dead, crucifixes and all things of that sort may, to some
extent, represent what He was, but they do not represent what He is. I
should not care to have hanging up in my house, the picture of a dead
friend, representing him as he looked when he was dead–especially if
he had been raised to life again. I would rather wait for his portrait
till I could get one of him alive, for the picture of a dead man is not
the man's likeness at all! I saw in a friend's house, the other day,
the likeness of a minister and I said, "Oh, dear, how ghastly he
looks!" The gentleman replied, "I am told that the photograph was taken
after he was dead." "Well, then," I said, "put it away at once, pray
put it away! That is not the likeness of the man at all, for the man
was gone before it was taken." So, dear Friends, do not feel any kind
of reverence for representations of the dead Christ–He is not dead and
we ought not to think of Him as dead.
I have seen, and some of you must also have seen, in Roman Catholic
countries, figures of the Savior on the Cross till you have grown sick
of the sight and you have said, "If there is anything that could drive
me away from being a Christian, it is these perfectly hideous
caricatures of Christ that some people stick up at every corner of the
road." Christ is not dead! He " was dead." It is in the past tense,
never forget that–but He is not dead now. "He is not here: for He is
risen,
as He said." And our trust is not in a dead Christ, but in the
ever-living Christ who is still able "to save them to the uttermost
that come unto God by Him, seeing He always lives to make intercession
for them."
Remember, also, dear Friends, that in the enterprise upon which our
Lord's heart was set–the enterprise of saving men–the love which led
Him to die is living love. He has proved, once and for all, and beyond
all doubt, how much He loves His people! "Greater love has no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." He has done that
and, therefore, He has proved His love to guilty men in a way that is
perfectly indisputable and–
"Now though He reigns exalted high, His love is still as great."
And remember, next, that the purpose of Christ in dying will certainly
be accomplished, now that He has laid down His life for His people and
taken it up again. I am not one of those who think that the result of
Christ's death ever hung in jeopardy for a single moment. I believe
that all He intended to do by His death will be done and that there is
not one soul, for whom He stood as Substitute, that shall ever be lost.
He has paid the debt for all His elect and they shall never be charged
with their debts again–they are gone, and gone forever. If the Son of
God has actually laid down His life to achieve a certain purpose, I
cannot suppose that He will be prevented from achieving it. I can
imagine myself living and dying for a certain end and yet being foiled,
for I am but a man. I am not capable of such blasphemy as would be
involved in believing that the Son of God could ever be born and live
for a certain set purpose–and die to carry out that purpose and yet
not accomplish it! "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall
be satisfied." He "was dead" and He has, therefore, put forth all His
strength for the accomplishment of the end He had in view–and that end
will certainly be achieved!
And remember, too, that the merit of His death lives. He "was dead,"
but all the merit of that death is just as efficacious, today, as
though He had only died today. Imagine for a moment that this was the
morning of Christ's Resurrec-tion–that I stood here to tell you that I
had gone with Mary Magdalene and seen His empty tomb–and that He had
spoken to me as He did to her. With what freshness and power would I
talk to you about those dear wounds of His and about the meaning of His
death and the Sacrifice which He had offered! Well, now, although more
than 1800 years have passed since His Resurrection, it is just as fresh
to God and just as acceptable to God as ever it was! Still does He
approve of the atoning Sacrifice of the Well-Beloved and the merit of
it comes up perpetually before Him like the odor of sweet incense.
This is a glad, a joyous theme over which I would gladly linger–to
think that Christ's work is all done, all finished, all complete–there
is nothing more to be done for His people's redemption! As He Himself
said, before He gave up the ghost, "It is finished." That expression,
"was dead," comes to me like the sound of a peal of bells tolling the
death of death and ringing in the jubilee of all who believe in Jesus!
He "was dead," but He is dead no longer! He lives now and He is "alive
forevermore!"
III. With that third word of comfort I am going to conclude. THE
ETERNAL EXISTENCE OF CHRIST should always comfort us whenever we think
of His Glory. He that was dead is "alive forevermore."
Here, then, you warriors of the Cross, is unique leadership. Never did
men before have such a leader as this One, who has proved His ardor for
the accomplishment of His purpose by dying to achieve it, and who now
lives to see that purpose fully accomplished! When Mohammed was
alive–false prophet though he was–he inspired his followers with
extraordinary enthusiasm when he snatched up a handful of dust from the
road and flung it in the faces of his adversaries, crying, as he did
so, "Let them be blinded." His followers believed that a miracle would
really be worked and they, therefore, rushed upon their enemies and
swept them away like chaff before the whirlwind. Yet now that Mohammed
is dead and gone, his religion wanes and must, in time, expire. But our
Master is not dead, our Leader is alive! He still rides at the head of
the army of the Cross and calls us to battle for truth and right. The
ungodly hear Him not, but as many as believe in Him still hear His
clear voice ringing out the command, "Onward, hosts of God! Forward to
the fight! 'Go you into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every
creature' until I come."
We take comfort from the fact that we are led by the living Christ.
When the Cid, Rodrigo Diaz, had been slain in battle, these who had
been accustomed to dread his mighty sword did not, for a time, know
that he was dead. His followers mounted the dead Cid on horseback and
the very sight of him, though it was only his corpse that they saw,
made his adversaries flee before him. We set no dead Christ in the
forefront of our army–it is the livingChrist who marches be-
fore us and, therefore, we are confident of victory, for never was a
host so led as by Him who can say, "I am He that lives, and was dead,
and behold, I am alive forevermore."
Next, here is a singular guarantee. He, who was dead, is now alive.
Then, Brothers and Sisters, He will carry on His work! If, when He
died, He had never risen again, but had left His cause in our puny
hands, it would soon have failed. But He has risen and, "He shall not
fail nor be discouraged, till He has set judgment in the earth: and the
isles shall wait for His Law." His Kingdom shall extend to the utmost
bounds of the earth–"they that dwell in the wilderness shall bow
before Him and His enemies shall lick the dust." Be you sure of this,
Beloved, that there is a guarantee of victory in the fact that Christ
is still alive! In these dreary times in which we live, men tell us
that Christianity is a failure, that the Gospel is a delusion and I do
not know what is notgoing to happen. Yes, yes, but there is one very
important thing which they omit to mention. He lives, He lives, HE
LIVES who can never be crucified again! The Lord has set Him as King
upon His holy hill of Zion and though "the kings of the earth set
themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and
against His Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and
cast away their cords from us. He that sits in the heavens shall laugh:
the Lord shall have them in derision," for the Lord reigns and He shall
reign forever and ever, Hallelujah!
In addition to this unique leadership and this singular guarantee of
success, we also have, here, special encouragement to sinners. I verily
believe that if my Master were here tonight in bodily Presence, there
are some of you who have been seeking Him who would come and fall at
His feet. Yes, you would be only too glad if you might wash His feet
with your tears and wipe them with the hairs of your head. Well, He is
living and He is here, though you cannot see Him or touch Him–but you
may come to Him! You have not to travel any distance with weary feet in
order to get to Him. Your minds can get to Him at once! Forget your
eyes, awhile–they are poor dim things that hinder true sight. That may
seem to be a strange description of our eyes, but it is true. And when
we have got rid of them we shall see much better than we do now. But,
oh, for once, believe without seeing! Believe that Jesus Christ is near
you and ask Him to save you! Come to Him and, by faith, touch the hem
of His garment just as if He were here corporeally. Cry to Him, "Jesus,
Son of David, have mercy on me," for He will hear you and grant your
request! Say, "Lord, that I might receive my sight" and He will
spiritually open your eyes, now, even as, in the days of His flesh, He
literally opened the eyes of blind men! You may well come to Him, for
He is just the same Jesus as He used to be when He said, "Come unto Me,
all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." He
lives, He lives, HE LIVES! Therefore go to your homes and find Him
there! Go to your bedrooms and tell Him that you need Him! Cast
yourselves down before Him in humble penitence and true faith, and He
will save you! He will bless you because He still lives to make
intercession for all that come unto God by Him.
Now I close by noticing that there is something in this text which has
a solemn warning in it. Christ lives and as He lives, woe be to those
who persecute His people! Woe be to those who make a jest of Him, or
trifle with His Truth, neglect His Gospel and put off seeking their own
salvation until tomorrow! O my dear Hearers, if Christ were dead, we
ought to respect His memory. But since He lives, remember that He takes
cognizance of every insult to His cause and though He is always ready
to forgive, yet, if your ears refuse the invitations of His Grace–if
you hold out against His warnings and entreaties, He will surely come
again–and when He comes, there will be upon that face of love
something which you will dread more than all the lightning and thunders
of the Last Tremendous Day!
What, do you think, will be the most dreadful thing in the Day of
Judgment? The fairest sight that ever was seen by mortal men–the face
that causes the holy angels to sing and that makes Heaven for the
saints–the face of Christ–love and justice, gentleness and truth,
Godhead and Manhood blended in that matchless face. While His saints
clap their hands with jubilant exultation at the sight of Him, the most
awful thing in all the world to the ungodly will be that face, for, as
they look into it and see the lines of suffering, and of suffering
despised–and see the marks of love, and of love rejected–of majesty,
and of majesty that has been insulted–as they look there, they will
cry to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face
of Him that sits on the Throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the
great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"
O Sirs, that must be a dreadful thing which turns the best thing in
Heaven into an object of the utmost terror! So, give up that sin of
yours, I pray you. Give up that unbelief! Give up that
self-righteousness! Give up everything that will, as it were, curdle
the very love of Christ till even His great love shall turn to
jealousy–for fiercer than the lion with his
prey is love when once it is transformed into wrath! "Kiss the Son,
lest He be angry, and you perish from the way, when His wrath is
kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in
Him," for their confidence is in Him who still says, "I am He that
lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore." God bless
you, for His dear name's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HEBREWS5.
Verse 1. For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men
in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and
sacrifices for sins. Notice that the high priests were taken from among
men, not from among angels. Hence, our Lord Jesus Christ took not on
Him the nature of angels, but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. The
Jewish high priests were ordained for men. They acted on behalf of men
and they stood in the place of men. So the Lord Jesus Christ stood in
the place of His people that He might offer to God for them two
things–gifts–that is, such offerings as the Jew made when he
presented the fine flour, and oil and other bloodless oblations which
were only intended for thanksgiving. Christ offered thanksgiving unto
His Father and that offering was a sweet savor unto God. But beside
those gifts, the priests offered sacrifices, and our Lord Jesus Christ
did the same, for He was made a Sin-Offering for us, though He, Himself
knew no sin!
2. Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of
the way. The marginal reading is, "Who can reasonably bear with the
ignorant"–that is, one who does not lose his temper even when they are
very slow to learn what he teaches them. Having taught them 19 times
and finding that they do not understand or remember the lesson, he is
ready to teach them the 20th time! He is one who will give them line
upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little,
because he has compassion on the ignorant. Then there were others who
tried the high priest far more, even, than the ignorant did–they were
those who erred from the right path, those who went out of the way and
who continued to do so even after many warnings and much earnest
exhortation. The true priest must have patience with people of this
sort.
2. For that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. So all the
high priests under the Law of God were. They had to confess their own
ignorance, they had to admit their own errors and wanderings and,
therefore, they could the more readily have patience with others. Our
Lord Jesus Christ had neither ignorance nor sin of His own, but He has
become so completely one with His people, bone of our bone, and flesh
of our flesh, that He can have compassion upon us, ignorant and out of
the way as we may be. Are you distressed, my Brothers and Sisters,
because you feel your own ignorance? Do you mourn because you have gone
astray? You have to come to no angry Christ–you have to approach One
who will be very gentle toward you! Come boldly to Him, then, and
confess your folly and expect the pardon that He is waiting to bestow.
3. And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for
himself, to offer for sins. We know that, being compassed with
infirmity and imperfection, the high priests first offered sacrifices
on their own account and then, afterwards, offered them on behalf of
the people. Christ, being pure and holy, needed no sacrifice for
Himself, but He did offer a complete, acceptable and sufficient
Sacrifice for us.
4. And no man takes this honor unto himself but he that is called of
God, as was Aaron. Men could not constitute themselves high priests,
for the appointment was made by God alone.
5. 6. So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an High Priest;
but He that said unto Him, You are My Son, todayhave I begotten You. As
He says also in another place, You are a Priest forever after the order
of Melchisedec. Beloved, there is rich comfort for all Believers in the
fact that Christ is God's appointed and accepted High Priest! God
ordained Him to do what He has done and is doing, and will do–and
therefore it is impossible but that God should accept Him and all His
work.
7, 8. Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and
supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to
save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared; though He were a
Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered. Just as
the earthly high priests offered sacrifices for themselves, so Christ,
though He needed not to offer sacrifice for Himself, did need to
prayfor Himself. You know, Beloved, how He gave Him-
self unto prayer upon the cold mountains at midnight, and how
Gethsemane's Garden witnessed the bloody sweat falling in clots to the
ground. "Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things
which He suffered." God had one Son without sin, but He never had a son
without suffering. We may escape the rod if we are not of the family of
God, but the true-born child must not–and would not if he might–avoid
that chastisement of which all such are partakers.
9. And being made perfect That is, perfect in His obedience, perfect as
a Sacrifice, perfect as the Mediator and Substitute for His people.
9. He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey
Him. Brethren, what a grand expression that is, "eternal salvation!"
You know that there are some who preach a temporary salvation. They say
that you may be in Christ today and out of Christ tomorrow, that you
may be saved by Grace at one hour, but damned by sin the next. Ah, but
the Bible says no such thing! This may be the Gospel according to
Arminius, but it is not the Gospel according to John, nor according to
Paul, nor according to our Lord Jesus Christ. That Gospel is–
"Once in Christ, in Christ forever;
Nothing from His love can sever." Christ became the Author of "eternal
salvation" and the word, "eternal," must mean without end, so that, if
we once receive the salvation which Christ has worked out, we are saved
in time and shall be saved throughout all eternity! Christ is the
Author of this eternal salvation–not our good works–though our faith
and our works become the evidencesof our having received this eternal
salvation.
10. Called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchisedec. Then
the Apostle appeared to be going on to enlarge upon the Melchisedec
priesthood, but he stopped. Perhaps he remembered what his Master said
to His disciples on one occasion, "I have yet many things to say unto
you, but you cannot hear them now." In a similar fashion Paul writes.
11-14. Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered,
seeing you are dull of hearing. For when for the time you ought to be
teachers, you have need that one teach you again which are the first
principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of
milk, and not of strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskillful
in the word of righteousness for he is a babe. But strong meat belongs
to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have
their senses exercised to discern both good and evil