5. Illustrations from nature and the Scriptures.
The plan of salvation is likened to a vine which has fallen down from the boughs of an oak. It lies prone upon the ground; it crawls in the dust, and all its tendrils and claspers, which were formed to hold it in the lofty place from which it has fallen, are twined around the weed and the bramble, and having no strength to raise itself, it lies fruitless and corrupting, tied down to the base things of the earth. Now, how shall the vine arise from its fallen condition? But one way is possible for the vine to rise again to the place from whence it had fallen. The bough of the lofty oak must be let down, or some communication must be formed connected with the top of the oak, and at the same time with the earth. Then, when the bough of the oak was let down to the place where the vine lay, its tender claspers might fasten upon it, and, thus supported, it might raise itself up, and bloom and bear fruit again in the lofty place from whence it fell. So with man—his affections had fallen from God, and were fastened to the base things of the earth. Jesus Christ came down, and by his humanity stood upon the earth, and by his Divinity raised his hands and united himself with the Deity of the everlasting Father: thus the fallen affections of man may fasten upon him, and twine around him, until they again ascend to the bosom of the Godhead, from whence they fell.
It was thus that prophets, evangelists, apostles, and the Son of God himself, presented the Divine scheme of human redemption. Christ is the ‘Branch’ by which the vine may recover itself from its prone and base condition: he is the ‘Arm of the Lord’ by which he reaches down and rescues sinful men from the ruins of the fall: ‘through whom,’ says Peter, ‘ye believe in God’ [that is, believe in God manifested through Christ], ‘that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.’ Says Paul, ‘Your life is hid with Christ in God.’ Jesus himself proclaimed that the believer should have within him ‘a well of water, springing up into everlasting life’—that is, he that believeth in Christ crucified, the hard heart within him will be struck by the rod of faith, and in his soul there will be a well of pure and living affection springing up to God for ever. And again: ‘Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me, and he that seeth me seeth him that sent me’—that is, Christ was God acting, developing the Divine attributes through human nature, so that men might apprehend and realise them. God might have been as merciful as he is if Christ had never died; but man could never have known the extent, nor felt the power, of his mercy, but by the exhibition on the cross. His mercy could have been manifested to man’s heart in no other way. And men cannot love God for what he truly is, unless they love him as manifested in the suffering and death of Christ Jesus. ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.’ ‘If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also; and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.’