568

XI.

CHRIST'S MISSION.

(Preached on the 25th of December, 1848.)

"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."- -I TIMOTHY i. 15.

MUCH of the wisdom of the ancients was wrapt up in a single sentence which could easily be remembered and easily repeated. Each of the wise men of Greece was distinguished by some remarkable expression. That which pierces must be pointed. It is difficult to remember a loose statement. Long paragraphs and consecutives generally fail in regard to the mass of hearers and readers. God, therefore, has not delivered the scriptures to us in the form of a system. What would the poor and common people do with a huge volume or body of divinity like those of the schools? The Gospel was a very plain and familiar thing before philosophy was brought in to aid the Christian learner, and while the people were satisfied with the words which the Holy Ghost used without anything human, and before those vain janglings arose in the Church which have gendered so much bad temper, and wasted so much precious time.

Much of the teaching of our Saviour consisted in particular sayings. Hence we read, "He that hath these sayings of mine:" "He that keepeth these sayings of mine shall never see death." You may have observed that in some such way as this the common people frequently express themselves; "as the saying is," &c. This was the case with the first Christians, and they diffused the principles of the Gospel in a kind of proverbial phraseology. I could easily refer to various instances. Thus they said one to another, "It is a faithful saying, brother, for if we be dead with Him, we should also live with Him." "If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He will also deny us." "If we believe

not, yet He abideth faithful; He cannot deny Himself." "For bodily exercise," as the saying is, "profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come." "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation." No wonder therefore that the words of our text should have become in time one of the common sayings, that in their walks, at their work, and at their meals, at their meetings, and at their partings, through life and in death, they were heard saying, "It is indeed a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.'

Perhaps there are no words so commonly employed at this season as the words I have now read; but you see I have not declined them on this account. Yea, I have rather chosen them on this account. There is nothing I dislike so much as the affectation of novelties. Human sciences are continually receiving fresh accessions of discovery; but Christianity is a Divine testimony, to which nothing is to be added. It was complete long ago, and Jesus was the finisher as well as the author of your faith.

Let us consider three things. First, the subject of this saying; secondly, the truth of this saying; and thirdly, the excellency of it.

I. Let us notice THE SUBJECT OF THIS SAYING.

This includes two things-His advent, and His design. "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."

First, His Advent, "He came into the world." Sometimes He is spoken of as being sent into the world, but here He is said to come, for though in the economy of salvation He was sent and was given of the Father, this did not invalidate His independency and voluntariness. Therefore we read, "He loved us, and gave Himself for us." And here, "He came into the world to save sinners." Therefore we read, "He who was rich for our sakes became poor." But how did He become so? How was this accomplished? By accident or by compulsion? No: "He made Himself of no reputation; He took upon Him the form of a servant, He humbled Himself, and became in fashion a man, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross."

"He came into the world." He had come into the world long before, and He frequently appeared in human form; for He rejoiced in the habitable parts of His earth, and His

delights were with the sons of men. At last, He came in the flesh. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth," walking up and down this earth in all the sinless attributes and infirmities of human

nature.

"He came into the world." Others had come into the world before Him, but they had no existence before; but "His goings forth were from of old, from everlasting! They came according to the course of nature, but here we behold a new thing in the earth, for "Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulders; " and "His name shall be called Immanuel, God with us." They were shapen in iniquity and in sin did their mothers conceive them; but He was the Holy One and the Just. He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. At their birth, even in their highest ranks, all things went on as they were; but when He, the desire of all nations, came into the world, God shakes the heaven and the earth, and the sea and the dry land, and all nations; and a new star guides the Eastern sages to the places where He was; the angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds and said, "Behold, we bring you glad tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. And a multitude of the heavenly host appeared, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will towards men."

Secondly, we have His design. "He came into the world to save sinners." Another Being had come into the world. He entered it very early. He walked about in Paradise in search of his victims there, and he found them, alas! for he came to traduce, and to corrupt, and to destroy, for he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth. "But," says Jesus, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost." "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." "For this purpose the Son of Man came into the world, that He might destroy the works of the devil."

He might have come to smite the world with a curse, but " He came not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

The question is, how this was to be accomplished by the Saviour? We answer immediately, not only or principally by His doctrine and His example. We readily allow He was a teacher. "For this end," says He, "was I born; and for this purpose came I into the world, that I might bear witness unto the truth." And He was an example. "He that saith He abideth in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked."

But, my brethren, this does not reach the main thing. The Son of Man came to give His life a ransom for many, and to bear our sins in His own Body on the tree; to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to be a propitiation for their sins. And, therefore, in Him we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins; and therefore through Him we have received the atonement. Hence, He said, when He expired upon the cross, "It is finished!" And it was then finished. But what was then finished? The purchase of this Salvation only. How then is it applied? We are reconciled unto God by the death of His Son; but, as the Apostle says, "We are saved by His life." What He procured for us on the cross is communicated to us on the throne. He is now at the right hand of God "to give repentance to Israel," as well as the forgiveness of sins. We are now saved "by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." And "if any man”—for there is no exception-"if any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away: behold all things are become new," that is, in measure and degree. His understanding, therefore, which was once darkness, is now light in the Lord; his conscience, which was before defiled, is now purged from dead works to serve the living God; his will now bows to the authority of God in His commands and in His prohibitions; his affections are now set upon things which are above; and his conversation is in heaven. The grace of God, which bringeth salvation, teaches him that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, he should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present evil world.

The work, indeed, is not complete. While here, the believer sees but in part; he is sanctified but in part; he enjoys but in part; he groans under a burden of natural and moral infirmities. And is this all the Saviour came down from heaven to accomplish for him? Oh, no! In due time He will perfect that which concerneth him. Oh, no! At death He receives his soul to heaven; He joins it with the spirits of the just made perfect. At the Resurrection He changes his vile

body that it may be fashioned like unto His own glorious body; and at the Judgment of the last day, He says, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

This, my brethren, was the design of His coming into the world it was to save sinners; and it should remind us of five things.

It should remind us, first, of the value of Salvation. You can read and hear of it without emotion; you can neglect so great Salvation; you can sacrifice it, though it is so great, for worldly interests, for momentary gratification, or for the love of honour. Were we to judge of it by your conduct, we should consider it a thing of nought. It is well He did not estimate Salvation as you do! It is well He deemed it worthy of His incarnation, and to procure which He despised the shame, and endured so much suffering and privation. And was it a trifle, do you imagine, that induced Him to descend from the throne to the cross, and again to ascend from the cross to the throne? It was to save thy soul.

Secondly, It should remind you of the difficulty of salvation. You have low views of the evil of sin, of the excellency of holiness and of righteousness, and are therefore little struck with the difficulties that stood in the way of our salvation. But God does nothing in vain. The vastness of the preparation serves to show us the magnitude of His design, and the expansiveness of the remedy proves the desperateness of the disease. What! in order to save you must He be born of a woman, must He be laid in a manger, must He be for thirtythree years a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief? Must He agonize in the garden and on the cross, and enter the lower parts of the earth? Why could not an inferior personage accomplish this, as well as God's only begotten Son ? and why not He in some other way? Why could He not deliver you from the bondage of corruption, as He did deliver the Jews from Egyptian bondage; that is, by a high hand and by an outstretched arm? When He made the world He spake and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. He made it at the expense of His breath; he redeemed it at the expense of His precious blood!

Thirdly, It should remind you of the success of the undertaking. He came into the world to save sinners, and He will "not fail nor be discouraged before He have set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall wait for His law." He will not