Thus the gospel commends itself to my conscience and my heart, as “the gospel of the blessed God.” But there is other, and if possible still stronger, proof of its divinity; namely, its power to renew the human soul, and reform the human character. The Earl of Rochester was a great skeptic, and one of the most witty and sarcastic men of his age. In his last sickness, he was reading the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah; where the prophet, in so graphic and touching a manner, describes the vicarious sufferings of Christ. It scattered all his deistical doubts, as the sun scatters the mist of the morning; led him with a broken and believing heart to the atoning Lamb of God; and converted his death-bed into a vestibule of heaven. This is not a solitary case. Thousands and millions have been, in like manner, awakened and converted through the gospel, and brought to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. It is “mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong-holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God; and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”—turning men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins, and an inheritance among all them that are sanctified through faith in Jesus. Matthew at the custom-house, the woman of Samaria at Jacob’s well, the dying malefactor upon the cross, the penitent jailor at Philippi, the blasphemous persecutor on the road to Damascus, and three thousand souls under Peter’s preaching at the Pentecost, all found it “the power of God unto salvation.” And still it retains its convincing and quickening virtue. Wherever it is proclaimed in its purity, and accompanied with the power of the Holy Ghost, proud and hardened sinners are pricked in their hearts, and forced to cry out—“Men and brethren, what must we do?” It answers the question. It points to the crucified and saith—“Believe and be saved!” It reconciles the enemy unto God. It makes the blasphemer a man of prayer, the sensualist a man of purity, the inebriate a man of sobriety; and where sin abounded, grace much more abounds. The dead whom Jesus quickened had no time to inquire into the mysterious process by which the work was wrought. They sprang instantly into life by the power of God. Yet the evidence of the change was clear and incontestible. So it is with the transforming effects of the gospel. We cannot rationally doubt its power to raise the soul from death in trespasses and sins. Suppose I have been long afflicted with a cancer, or have been bitten by a mad-dog, or a rattlesnake; and I find a sovereign and instantaneous remedy; but after I am cured, a skeptic calls upon me, and tries to convince me that the remedy is good for nothing, insists that it is a cheat lately invented by a villain, demands of me to prove that such things were used before the deluge, and asks me a thousand questions about the cure which Solomon could not answer; how can I look upon such a man as better than a maniac? I have tried the experiment, and found it successful; and all his pretended philosophical reasoning rings in my ears like a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. The wisdom of men has invented many remedies for the guilt and the love of sin; but the vain philosophy of the world has never, like the gospel, restored a single soul to peace, purity, and happiness. I can truly say, after the most careful self-examination, and millions more can testify the same thing, that the gospel, in the hand of the Spirit of God, has subdued the love of sin, and quenched the fire of guilt within me; and has taken away the sting of death, and the terrors of the grave. If the infidel will allow that I am a sane man, and a man of truth, what farther proof does he want that this is “the gospel of the blessed God?”
Once more: The character of God, as exhibited in the gospel, is perfect, every way worthy of himself, infinitely above any original conception of the human mind. The gods of Homer and Virgil are cruel and revengeful. The god of Mohammed delights in pollution and crime. The god of Voltaire is a buffoon, and the god of Paine a tyrant. But the gospel represents the Deity in his true character, as the concentration and the fountain of all moral excellence.
All this evidence of the Divine authority of the gospel is corroborated by an overwhelming array of external proof. It was certainly written by the men whose names it bears. They were men of irreproachable character. Their declarations were confirmed by the testimony of miracles, and the fulfilment of prophecy. Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on Calvary, rose from the dead the third day, and ascended to heaven, according to the Scriptures. These were facts believed by the primitive Christians, and admitted by their enemies. They were received with the most perfect confidence by the immediate successors of the original witnesses; and farther corroborated by the testimony of neutrals, apostates, and the most inveterate opponents. The question therefore is settled; all is admitted that is necessary to prove that the Christian’s gospel is “the gospel of the blessed God.”
II. It is “the glorious gospel”—emphatically and pre-eminently glorious; and this is our second topic of discourse.
It is a wonderful exhibition of the glory of God—the most perfect revelation of the Divine attributes ever granted to man—displaying the sovereign mercy of the Father, in the gift of his beloved Son; the infinite compassion of Christ, in offering himself upon the cross for our sins; and the gracious power of the Holy Spirit, in turning us from darkness to light, and renewing us in righteousness and true holiness after the image of God.
But it is chiefly from a comparison of the gospel with the law, both in its dispensation and its character, that we see its transcendent glory. On this point let us fix our attention.
“The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” The ministration of the law brought the angels from heaven to earth, but the ministration of the gospel required the incarnation of the God of angels. The Mediator of the new covenant is Jehovah enshrined in humanity—“Emmanuel”—“God with us”—“God manifest in the flesh”—“the fulness of the Godhead,” that “filleth all in all,” imbodied and made visible in the lowly Son of David.
This is the foundation of the apostle’s argument, by which he convicts the despisers of the gospel of greater guilt than the transgressors of the law. “If the word spoken by angels”—that is, the law given upon Sinai—“was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape”—we who have heard the glad tidings of the gospel—“if we neglect so great salvation; which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, with signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost?” If God is greater than man, then the gospel is greater than the law; and its superior excellence constitutes for it a superior claim upon our faith and our affections; and the strength of that claim graduates the guilt of its rejection. There is a fire more intense than that which flamed on Sinai, and a judgment more terrible than that of Korah and his confederates. “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy, under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace!”
The ceremonial law contained many a type and shadow of Messiah; but the gospel is the history of his advent and mediatorial work. The ceremonial law pointed to the coming Prince of Peace; but the gospel brings him to his throne, and puts the crown upon his head. Christ is “the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of his person;” and Moses and Aaron are lost in his light, as the moon and the stars in the blaze of the rising sun. The excellence of his person, the merit of his sacrifice, and the utility of his offices, give him an immense superiority. The many prophets, priests, and kings, of the former dispensation, were but the shadows cast by the one great Prophet, Priest, and King, which indicated his coming. A light arose from the cross of Calvary which turned the black cloud on Sinai into a pillar of glory.
Typical blood shielded the children of Israel from the arm of the destroying angel, healed the leper, anointed to holy offices, atoned for ceremonial sins, and sealed the covenant of God with his people; but never cancelled the sinner’s debt, nor satisfied his conscience, nor sanctified his affections, nor calmed his trembling spirit in the hour of death. All these blessings, however, flow from the blood of Christ—these, and infinitely more—more than tongue can tell, or heart conceive.