October 22
“I am come that they might have life.” John 10: 10. Though men have differed in their definitions of life, they have all agreed in their estimation of it. Even the father of lies spoke truth when he said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. Yet what is this life which we so highly prize, nourish with so much care, and to preserve which are ready to make every kind of sacrifice? What is it in duration? “A vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then Yanisheth away.” What is it in dignity? “We spend our years as a tale that is told.” What is it in enjoyment? Hear Jacob: “Few and full of evil have been the days of the years of my pilgrimage.” “But this was, perhaps, a peculiar case.” What says Job? “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.” “But he expressed himself under depression and gloom.” What then says Solomon, who withheld his heart from no joy? “All is vanity, and vexation of spirit.” But here is a life that deserves the name: a life spiritual in its nature, endless in its continuance; consisting, not of an immortality of being only, but of blessedness; commencing in grace, completed in glory, and emphatically called the life of God. Of this life the Lord Jesus here speaks. “I am come that they might have life.”
He came to procure it for us. The blessing comes every way free to us, but it cost him dear. If we live, he must die. “The bread,” said he “which I give, is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Princes have often sacrificed the lives of their subjects to their own; yea, and where their own have not been in danger, they have offered thousands of victims on the altar of their vanity or revenge. But the Prince of peace gave his life a ransom for many. He was poor: he was a man of sorrows. You see him agonizing in the garden, and hear him exclaiming on the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Why is all this? Is he guilty? “In him was no sin.” Yet he was esteemed stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But “he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.” “One died for all.”
He came to announce it to us. We can derive no benefit from him without a dependence upon him, an application to him, a connection with him. But all this requires the knowledge of him, and therefore says God, “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” It is true we are justified by faith, but “how can we believe in him of whom we have not heard? and how can we hear without a preacher?” He therefore “came and preached peace.” “I am come,” said he, “a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” He proclaimed the nature of this life, the source of it, the medium of it, the certainty of it, the present enjoyment of it. His disciples, therefore, well said, “To whom should we go, but unto thee? thou hast the words of eternal life.” And these words he dispensed, not only by his personal ministry, but by the instrumentality of others. What the apostles did, he did; because he sent them, and qualified them; he inspired them, and commanded them to preach the gospel to every creature, and also to record it, for the use of all future ages; so that we can read what they delivered.
He came to produce it in us. “The Son quickeneth whom he will.” He received, in consequence of his death, the whole dispensation of the Holy Ghost; and hence it is called “the Spirit of Christ.” And this Spirit is, as the apostle calls it, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which makes us free from the law of sin and death. Nothing less than this can insure the result. It is above the efficiency of education, of example, of moral suasion, and of all the means of grace, without the grace of the means. The gospel cannot accomplish it, if it comes in word only. It is the Spirit that giveth life. The servant of the Lord is like Gehazi. He went and laid the staff upon the child, but no life appeared till his master himself came. Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? And they who were once dead in trespasses and sins, but are now walking in newness of life, will acknowledge that he quickened them; and will readily give him the glory that is due to his holy name.
In this blessed business, therefore, he is all in all. He came that we might have life; came to procure it for us as our priest, to announce it as our prophet, to produce it as our king; to obtain it by his blood, to publish it by his gospel, to bestow it by his Spirit. He is therefore called this life itself in the abstract: When he who is our life shall appear, we shall also appear with him in glory.
But how many neglect him, and compel him to complain, Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life. Hence the heinousness of their guilt, and the dreadfulness of their condemnation. Whatever difficulties attend this truth, in connection with any other, they attach only to the explanation, not to the fact itself. Nothing can be clearer. from the Scripture, than that they who thus perish will destroy themselves, and be treated as spiritual suicides.
But if we desire this life, can we suppose the Saviour will refuse us, when we go to him for the very purpose for which he came? Did he ever refuse any? Can he refuse any? He cannot, he has bound himself: “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.7’