But however dear to each other, the union must be dissolved; the bands and ligaments, by which soul and body are united, must be separated; this earthly house must be dissolved;—this tabernacle must be removed—its cords unpinned—its stakes pulled up—and the whole must be taken down. “Knowing,” saith the apostle, “I must put off the earthly house of this my tabernacle.” Death is represented as a departure—it is going from one house to another—it is a loosing from port, and launching into the ocean.—Death is the ship or boat which wafts us over to the shores of eternity. It is going the way of all the earth—going a journey to man’s long home—to an invisible world—through a dark valley, where we need a guide; and a Covenant God has promised to guide us through.—It is going to sleep in hope of waking again, sweetly refreshed in the morning of the resurrection; fresh, lively, active, and divinely fitted for heavenly exercises. The shipwrecked mariner has gained the shore;—the weary traveller—the fatigued labourer—the afflicted child, is at rest. Death, through covenant mercy, is the full, the final deliverance. And John is commanded, by God the Holy Spirit, to write it down, and send it to the churches: “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, even so saith the spirit, for they rest from their labours, and their works of faith and love do follow them.” Like Abraham leaving his native country at the command of God;—like Jacob leaving Padan Aram, with all his substance, to return to his kindred. Such the believer’s death. Perhaps, indeed, a thousand alarms may seize his spirit, hearing that Esau, with his armed men, is coming out against him; but by prayer and faith he obtains the blessings, and meets Esau with comfort. For when a man’s ways, through grace, by prayer and faith, thus please the Lord, he makes even death to be at peace with him. Death is the enemy to our natures, although it is a covenant blessing. The last enemy that shall be destroyed, is death: but its enmity is slain in the death of Christ. Here that serpent that crawled up the hill of Calvary, and entwined round the cross, left his sting in the sacred body of a dying Saviour: nor can all the powers of darkness, all the sins, backslidings, and infirmities of God’s people, ever unite the sting to death again. Sin is abolished; the guilt is gone.—It has been said, that when a bee has fastened its sting in a man’s flesh, it is lost for ever after, and becomes a drone. Death, like such a bee, can only hum and affright, but never sting or hurt: it may, it must destroy the body, but it cannot hurt; like a fierce dog, whose teeth are broken out, it can bark and tear a mere tattered coat, but it cannot bite to the bone. What a feeble weak enemy is death, since it took a walk to Mount Calvary! Unatoned guilt is the sting of death. But the Lord’s dear people are led, in some degree, to see for themselves, that Christ has borne away their guilt, has removed the iniquity of that land in one day; and when we are cheered, quickened, strengthened, and well-established in this pleasing fact, this hope-supporting, spirit-giving, soul-animating assurance, we feel ready to go, to depart, and be for ever with the Lord, in this sweet well-founded confidence:—
“Lord, let me rest my head, close last these eyes,
Yield thee my breath; and, with exulting soul,
Smile a peace-uttered, dying, sweet Amen.”
But amidst the dissolutions made by death, what an unspeakable mercy it is for the Lord’s dear people, the union betwixt Christ and their souls can never be dissolved: they are his property, his children, his bride; he is precious to them in life and death, as the blessed effect of his love to them, and their value in his sight. Hence, it is said, “Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee;” and precious shall their blood be in his sight; and as they are precious to him living, it is written, “Precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of his saints;” nor should their death be grievous to us, especially dying in lively hope, cheerful confidence, sweet assurance, clear views, and fervent desires. This is the blessed effect of the glorious union between Christ and the soul, as the eternal spring of life, and the glorious head of his body, the church, who has graciously declared in most positive terms, “Because I live ye shall live also.” These most blessed words were very precious to our dear departed friend; upon one occasion, after a season of peculiar trial, while at the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, and just receiving the cup, these words were sweetly dropped into her mind—they were ever precious to her afterwards: she chose them for her funeral text; and blessed be God, she most divinely understands them, now in perfect enjoyment; they have been much blest to thousands, and I trust the Lord will bless them to us in noticing the gracious declaration and the precious promise as connected with it.
Let us notice the life of our most adorable Saviour. First, as God—He liveth from eternity; he is the living God, he is emphatically called life, the true God, and our eternal life; and this is the eternal life which John says was manifested: the very knowledge of whom is eternal life begun in the soul. In his divine essence, his eternal nature, he is the self-existent, independent Jehovah; underived, unoriginated, and incommunicably God, without beginning, succession, or end; without the shadow of a change; he is eternal, immortal, who only hath immortality from everlasting to everlasting; and of his years there is no end; one in the divine Trinity, co-equal, co-essential, and co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit; one in the sacred society of the adorable Trinity, enjoying the most inconceivable delight and complacency in his own divine perfections; and in the holy ones, the Father and the Spirit; the divine nature, essence, and perfections were not communicated to him as God, but were originally, independently, and eternally his own, in conjunction with the Father, and the Holy Spirit—and as the self-existent God, he has solemnly declared to all the enemies of his Godhead—“If ye believe not that “I AM”—ye shall die in your sin.”—This awful truth, one would think, is enough to put to silence all the cavil in the world against the divinity of the Son of God, as God. Some indeed admit all that can be said about his divinity, but they vainly suppose that his Godhead was communicated to him from the Father; but this thought is an awful insult upon him, no better than high treason and daring blasphemy. Let such read again and tremble,—“If ye believe not that I AM—ye shall die in your sins.” “I AM,” is the self-existent, independent God—and as the living God, he is author of all the life which has been, or shall be given to creatures; in him was life, for by him were all things made, and by him do all things subsist, created by him, and upheld by him; and, while I exist as God, ye shall live also.
2.—As the Son of God in his divine person, which implies his eternal relationship to the Father, he lived in eternity as a person existing with the Father; He is in the bosom of the father, the only begotten of the Father, the express image of the Father, the son of God, without the consideration of the human nature, either body or soul. He was a divine person: the human nature did not make him a person; but the Son of God did take the human nature into union with himself, and though possessing two natures he is but one person. As the adorable son of God, he lived before all the world, a life with the Father—a life of inconceivable delight. Hence the Father has said of his dear son, “in whom my soul delighteth;” and the dear Son of God has said of the Father, “I was daily his delight—constantly and invariably rejoicing—always before him—delighting in the Father before the world was rejoicing,” that he possessed the same nature, being, and perfections, and that he stood in such a relation to him as the Son of the Father—and “because I live as the Son of God, ye shall live also.”
3.—As the Head of the Church.—In this most blessed relation he ever lived, does now, and ever will; he is their head as a general is head to his army; as a king is head to his subjects; as a husband is head to his wife; as a father is head to his children; as a master is to his servants; but besides these, our most blessed Lord is that to his people as the natural head is to the natural body; and the members of it, of the same nature with it; superior to it; communicates life, sense, and motion to it; overlooks and protects it; he is the representative head of his body, the church; being united to him, we are in him, and have a representative existence in him; he was chosen to be the head of the elect family, out of the boundless love of God the Father; and they were chosen in him. Eternal election gives us a subsistence, a representative being, in Christ; he lives in God’s eternal mind and love, as the head of the church, and his people live in him, and shall live for ever in him; nor sin, nor time, nor death, can part them. Christ as head, and his people were chosen together; He first, in order of nature, as the head, and they as members; as in the womb, head and members are not conceived apart, but together, so was the church and Christ in the womb of eternal election. God views us in him, and never did, nor never will, consider his dear people separate from him as the chosen head of the chosen body. All other blessings flow to us from, and by virtue of, this union. We live in Christ, we have a covenant subsistence and representative being in him; and as the root, the trunk, the branches, and leaves, are folded up in the acorn, so all God’s family are in Christ, and shall be brought forth in their appointed time; their adoption, justification, redemption, preservation, pardon, calling, perseverance, resurrection, and glorification, all depend upon their election union,—and this union depends upon the everlasting love of God; it is not faith that unites to the Lamb, that is only a spiritual faculty given to us by the holy spirit, to discern this blessing, which leads forth the mind, in affection and gratitude, to a covenant God for it. This union is dated from eternity, revealed in the word, preached in the gospel, manifested in our effectual calling, enjoyed by faith, and will be celebrated in the most open and glorious manner, in the thousand years personal reign of our Lord Jesus Christ upon earth, and blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Nothing done by he church of God, before or after calling, can destroy this union. In the very existence of Christ, as head, they must live—“For because I live, ye shall live also.”
4.—As Mediator—he ever did, now does, and ever will, live for his people; and in his glorious title as the son of God, as God-man, he has received all blessings for his church; and these are comprehended under the term LIFE. The Lord hath commanded his blessing, even life for evermore; and as the Father hath life in himself, even so hath he given to the son to have life in himself. Christ, as God-man lived in the purpose of God from eternity; and though he is compared to many things which have not life—to water, to bread, to a stone, a way, a tree—yet they have these additions, living water, living bread, living stone, living way, tree of life. In this most blessed character the ancient saints saw him by faith, received him, and lived and died upon him. Job’s faith was fixed here, and rose to sweet confidence, to full assurance—“I know that my redeemer liveth”—yes, now—in this character before God for me, and I see my interest in him. Every believer is now more or less thus favoured. God gives, 1st. Faith to believe in him as such—2ndly. To rely upon him—and, 3rdly. To enjoy interest in him. He lives, the ever-living Mediator; considered as God-man, he is the Mediator of union between God and his creatures—as elect—both angels and men; and he is the Mediator of reconciliation for his church, as fallen; as the Head of the Church, and the Son of God, he was called to act for her as fallen; and when declared Son of God by the Father, he was sworn into his office as High Priest; to which, in the boundless love of his heart, he gave his consent to make reconciliation for the sins of his people, to give perfect satisfaction, and to harmonize all the sacred perfections of Jehovah. In this most sacred character he appeared in heaven as the Lamb slain, from the foundation of the world; to him the old testament church looked, and in the fullness of time, he came and began his work in the wonderful and mysterious act of his incarnation:—made of a woman—made under the law, he was circumcised, and became a debtor to fulfil the whole law for his people. The nature that he assumed, although it was perfectly flesh and blood, yet it was perfectly holy. Hence his appeal to God the Judge of all: “Search me, O, God, and try me, and see if there be any wicked way in me.” His human nature was a holy thing; and possessed in it more holiness than all the angels of light; and in it, he did all the churches’ duty in obedience to the law; he obeyed the ceremonial law as the seed of Abraham, and kept the law of God in thought, mind, will, and deed perfectly. He worshipped one God, never bowed to creatures, or profaned the holy name: honored the sabbath and his parents; nor felt a base desire; nor tinged with sinful anger, much less murder; nor with heart or hand did he ever rob God or man; nor ever bore false witness against any; nor could a covetous thought enter his sacred breast; but with his whole nature loved God and his neighbour, and did unto all men what men in their doings ought to do to each other. This he performed for us; and, in consequence of the essential dignity of his person, as God as well as man, He is styled Jehovah, our righteousness. This is imputed and placed to the account of his people by the Father. God the Holy Spirit opens the grand subject to us, we receive it in the mind and affections. Conscience testifying this, we have peace with God. In this righteousness the church is perfected; in it they stand justified before God, and shall never come in to condemnation. But in his glorious character as Mediator, his having become surety for his people, he had to pay the dreadful debt of suffering the awful penalty. As the consequence of the sins of his church, he engaged to endure the hell we had merited. The curse of a broken law, and all which that awful idea contains. He took the bitter draught, the dreadful cup, and drank eternal health to his dear people.
“He sunk beneath our heavy woes.”
All our guilt met on him—the chastisement due to us he bore—the pangs of the damned seized his holy soul; and with convulsive struggles on the ground, with heart-rending sighs, and prayers, and tears; with thorns, scourges, contempt, griefs, and unknown agonies, awful storms, and inconceivable torments, he sweat out, cried out, and bled out the sins of his people. He by himself purged our sins—the physician’s heart was opened by a spear to heal all the diseases of his patients—was ever love like this?
“Our ransom paid in blood for deadliest guilt—
Oh! hide thy shame-spread face, and turn thy eyes
In mournful prospect back to Calvary, now
Back to the garden, to the dolorous ground,
Grief-moistened with his blood-sweat agony.
Ah, what agony! ah! felt for whom?
Say, angel, near him then that heard: ‘Behold
Thy humbled Maker’—agonized thyself—
Asked, but thou canst not say.—No thought can pierce
Of man or angel, that profound of pains:—
’Twas the soul’s travail, sorrow’s sharpest throe.”