I have put these passages together because of their similarity. In discussing the doctrine which they contain—the doctrine of salvation through the mediatorial work of Christ, I purpose to consider—First, His relation to believers, as the author, captain, or prince of their salvation; Secondly, His perfect qualification, through meritorious sufferings, to sustain that relation; and Thirdly, The character of those who are interested in him as a Saviour.
I. Christ is the prince of our salvation. He is the great ante-type of Moses, Joshua, Samson, and David. Their deeds of pious valor faintly foreshadowed the glorious achievements of the Captain of our salvation.
He is a prince in our nature. The Lord from heaven became the second Adam, the seed of the woman, the offspring of David. Divinity and humanity were mysteriously united in his person. The Word that was in the beginning was made flesh, and tabernacled among us. God is now nearer to his people than ever. The Lamb’s bride is bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. As the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he himself took part of the same. By taking human nature into union with himself, he has imparted to believers a new and divine life.
Our Prince has conquered our adversaries. His name is Michael, the power of God. He is the mighty prince that stood up on behalf of his people, and bruised Satan under their feet. He has cast out the strong man, and his goods. He has demolished the kingdom of darkness, spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly. He has proved to earth and heaven that the devil is a usurper, and has no claim whatever to the title, “God of this world,” and “Prince of this world.” When Christ was crucified, hell quaked to its centre. Then he obtained liberty for the captives, and the opening of the prisons to them that are bound. His victory is our manumission from the slavery of sin and death; and if the Son make us free, we are free indeed.
Three offices meet in the Author of our salvation; the prophetic, the priestly, and the regal. He wears three crowns upon his head; a crown of gold, a crown of silver, and a crown of precious stones. He “shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and shall be a priest upon his throne, and the covenant of peace shall be between them both.” This prophecy is fulfilled in Messiah’s mediatorial relations. The house was purified, the altar was consecrated, on the morning of his resurrection. This is the Prince of life, who was dead, and is alive for evermore, and hath the keys of hell and of death. That he might sanctify the people with his own blood, he suffered without the gate; and by suffering, he opened a way for believers into the holiest of all; and lo! his people are standing before the mercy-seat within the vail, and worshipping in open sight of the glory of God that dwelleth between the cherubim. If God smelled “a savor of rest” in the sacrifice of Noah, much more in the sacrifice of his beloved Son, in whom he is ever well pleased. His sinless soul and body were offered once for all upon the cross. “He bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” The Father proclaims the demands of his law fully answered, and invites sinners to come and rest in the Beloved. This is he of whom it was said—“A man shall be as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place; as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” This is the Author and Captain of our salvation.
II. Let us consider how he is qualified for that relation—made perfect through sufferings.
His sufferings were necessary to constitute him a complete Saviour. “Without the shedding of blood is no remission;” the blood of Jesus is “a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness.” It was threatened—“In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die;” but Christ, by dying in our stead, delivered us from the sentence.
In order that he might bear our sins, it was necessary for him to assume our nature. The Priest must have somewhat to offer as a sacrifice. Divinity could not suffer and die. “A body hast thou prepared for me.” The Son of God took that body as his own, and offered it to the Father upon the cross. The blood which he shed was his own blood; the life which he laid down was his own life; the soul which he poured out unto death was his own soul. Moses saw an emblem of this mystery in Mount Horeb—a bush burning with fire, yet unconsumed. “Our God is a consuming fire,” dwelling in a tabernacle of clay. The human nature, though slain, is not consumed. On the third day the bush is found still flourishing and fruitful.
It was necessary that the precept of the law should be obeyed, and the penalty of the law endured, in the very nature of its violater. Christ answered the demands of both tables on behalf of his people, in the purity of his life, and the merit of his obedience unto death. He displayed all the fruits of holiness. He loved righteousness and hated iniquity. He paid our debt, a debt which he never contracted; he endured our curse, a curse which he never deserved. He took the cup of the wine of wrath out of our hand, and drained its very dregs upon the cross. In hell, every one drinks his own cup, and can never exhaust its contents; but behold, on Calvary, one man drains the cup of millions, and cries—“It is finished!” Not a drop is left, not a particle of any of its ingredients, for his people. God hath condemned and punished sin in the human nature of Christ, and all who believe are justified freely by his blood.
But the author of our salvation is God as well as man. The Divinity often shone out through the humanity, controlling the elements, quickening the tenants of the tomb, and compelling the very devils to obey him. Had he been less than “God manifest in the flesh,” he must have been incompetent to the work of redemption. The Divine nature was necessary to sustain the human nature under its immense burden of sufferings, and render those sufferings sufficiently meritorious to atone for the transgressions of mankind. Christ endured more of the Divine displeasure “from the sixth to the ninth hour,” than all the vessels of wrath could endure to all eternity; [185] and but for the union of the two natures in his person, he could not have borne his unparalleled woes. But while the man suffered, the God sustained. While the God-man offered up his humanity, his Divinity was the altar that sanctified the gift, and rendered it a sacrifice of sweet smelling savor to the Father. It was man that died upon the cross, but it was man in mysterious union with God, so that the two natures constituted but one person, and the dignity of the Godhead gave infinite value to the tears and sweat and blood of the manhood. No wonder that the cross of Christ is the admiration of men and angels; and—“worthy is the Lamb that was slain!” the ultimate theme of earth and heaven!