The Glory of Christ, Volume 2

So far as it respects its influence upon men, the great object of Christ’s coming into the world was to elevate them to moral rectitude. There is a higher good than mere enjoyment; something more valuable than the yardon of sin, and deliverance from the wrath and curse; else would there have been no such revealed conditions of salvation, and no such sacrifice as the humiliation of the Son of God. Infinite goodness would make men but not at the expense of holiness; it is a holy happiness which it seeks to bestow. In the final issues of his government, God cannot tolerate an unholy happiness.

When we speak of holiness, we speak of that which God most loves. His own character is “glorious in holiness.” Sei’aphim and cherubim cover their faces with their wings when they pros-VOL. IX. 1

trate themselves at his throne, and say, one to another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!” Such a being, from his nature, must be the support and guardian of holiness on the earth. This world can give riches, pleasures, honors, dignities, crowns; but it cannot give holiness. The sons and daughters of men are pilgrims to the Holy Land; but they cannot enter it unless they themselves are holy. There is no such thing as a happy hereafter, unless it be a holy hei-eafter; nor is there any crown of immortality unless it be “the crown of righteousness.” They themselves must be consecrated temples, sanctified by precious graces, and adorned with the beauties of holiness. Though formed for blessedness, they must forever be banished from God’s presence if they remain defiled with the pollution of sin. Their title to eternal life was not only extinguished with their innocence, but the gates of heaven remain forever barred against them unless there be superadded to the expiation of the Son of God, that divine arrangement by which they are l)orn anew to a spiritual life, not of corrujjtible, but of incorruptible seed, which liveth and abideth forever. Every principle of the gospel illustrates its su|)reme and immutable regard to holiness. The wondrous and eternal purpose which originated it; the docti-ines it reveals, its promises and its threatenings, its institutions and means of grace, are all designed to purify and elevate the moral character of men. It would render them not merely the objects of the divine compassion, but of the divine complacency. It would fit them for that holy world where they shall be purified from all that is debasing, and the glorious Redeemer shall present his church uni-eprovable, without blemish and without spot.

Hence the Scriptures speak of the Dispensation of the Spirit, of the Ministration of the Spirit, and of the Spirit of Christ as dwelling with men; and of the work of the Spirit as glorifying Christ.

We propose in the present chapter, in the first place, to speak of the worh itself which the Spirit of God performs.

The tvorh of the Spirit itself in carrying into effect the gracious purposes of the Redeemer is not limited to any one effect, or series of effects in the human mind. Besides giving to the world the divine Oracles, and recalling to the remembrance of the inspired penmen the facts and truths which these Oracles contain, it is his province, in the first place, to atvaken the attention of this tbouglitless and slumbering world to the truth of God. There is no fact more discouraging in the history of a preached gospel, than the utter listlessness with which it is heard. Men’s thoushts are absorled in other things; “their heart goeth after their covetonsness; the sower soweth the word;” but the seed falls on the barren rock, and is choked by the cares and pleasures of the world. Men will listen to a popular preacher, and be in admiration of his eloquence; while the truth he utters has no charms for their unthinking minds. We are told that,” The Lord opened the heart of Lydia, that she attended to tlic things which were spoken of Paul.’. No sooner is this listlessness dismissed, and men begin in earnest to attend to GocVs truth, than there is reason to hope that some salutary impression is made upon their minds. This is the work of God’s Spirit. It is he who unstops the deaf ear, and makes a passage for the first ray of heavenly truth to penetrate the dungeon mind.

It is his work, in the next place, to convince of sin. There is nothing of which men know less than their own wickedness. The Saviour says of the Holy Spirit, “He shall convince the world of sin.” The power of the Holy Spirit is always superadded to the truth, when the truth shows the sinner his true character and condition. When the mind is merely awakened to attend to the truths of God’s word, the effect of this awakening is ordinarily no more than to excite alarm, and give rise to some few self-righteous efforts to escape the coming wrath. Under this excitement, men become reformed in their outward conduct; return to the neglected duties of religion, and indulge the expectation of pleasing God by going aljout to establish their own righteousness. They have very

superficial views of their own sinfulness, and therefore do not feel their need of an interest in the atonement of the Son of God. But when the Spirit of God sets home the truth, shows them “the plague of their own hearts;” makes them see that they are dead in sin, and that their own righteousnesses are as filthy rags; their apprehensions of the wrath to come are painful realities, and often too heavy to be borne. Their state of mind is not unlike that of Paul, of which he says, “I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived and I diedy The law condemns them; and they feel that they are without hope.” The arrows of the Almighty stick fast within them, the poison whereof drinketh up their spirits.” They are self-condemned, and all their false refuges are swept away. Most of all do they feel condemned for not repenting and believing the gospel.” When he the Spii’it of truth is come, he shall convince the world of sin, because they believe not in meT

It is the work of the Spirit, in the next place, to regenerate the said. That great and governing principle of human conduct, the love of God, which was lost at the fall, is restored to its rightful throne in the heart only by the Spirit of God. Give the sinner this, and it changes his whole character. Old things are done away, and all things become new. He is brought out of darkness into God’s marvellous light. His understanding is illuminated, and he sees the things of the Spirit of God in their reality, their nearness and beauty. This is emphatically true of the method of salvation by Jesus Christ. The time was the Saviour of men was to them as “a root out of a dry ground, having no form, or comeliness that they should desire him.” But it is not so now. He who “commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into their hearts, to give them the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ.” In their view, he is now “the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely.” They fall in with the method of redemption by his cross; are clothed upon with the “righteousness which is of God by faith;” give him all the glory, and only desire to know more of him, and to be more like him. They are “born of the Spirit;” they are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.”

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