But still higher privileges, still higher prospects, open to the Apostle's view. "Things present, and things to come, are yours."—Whatever the present moment brings to light, as well as what is concealed in the womb of futurity, is equally in the Christian's power. He is prepared to receive the former with thankfulness and gratitude, because he knows, that it must operate for his good, be it painful or pleasant: and from the same conviction of the kind and loving Administration of his Redeemer, he, can wait with patience and resignation for the future dispensations of his Providence.
I cannot, however, but think, that these words have a much deeper and more comfortable sense than this. "Things present, and things to come," generally denote, in Scripture, the visible and the invisible world; and though they are equally present, yet, with respect to our common apprehensions, the latter must be called future, because it cannot be unveiled to our senses, till we have laid aside these garments of sin. The believer, however, by virtue of his Heavenly Nature, united by Faith to his Redeemer, stands in the heavenly world at the same time that he is in this. Its light, and life, and air, its powers, and virtues, and glories, are opening themselves, though invisibly, in his heart. Hence it is, that the Apostle speaks of "tasting the powers of the world to come," even in this present state and that not metaphorically, but as really and physically as our outward bodies may be said to taste the powers of this present world. O, what an high and glorious privilege does this appear, when considered in this point of light! An Heavenly Man within us, standing upon heavenly ground, breathing the heavenly air, and rising, by its animating influences, far above that sink of evil and corruption, in which the earthly nature still remains a prisoner; and with heavenly fortitude and resignation, supporting the painful union, till his true parent and deliverer rescues him from his captivity, and admits him into the liberty of kindred spirits in glory.
Well, therefore, might the Apostle, at the close of this enumeration, again repeat his general assertion, "All things are yours."—But he repeats it, not only with a view of impressing the truth more powerfully upon the hearts of Christians, but also to let them know, that their privileges are in the most effectual manner secured to them; that their title is indisputable, their inheritance unfading and eternal—"And ye are Christ's," says he.
Think not, that your title to this inheritance is founded upon any thing in yourselves, considered separately and distinctly in your own natures; no, "Ye are by nature dead in trespasses and sins—The wages of sin is death." No other inheritance, but destruction and misery, can you derive from your fallen nature. This inheritance, therefore, which is "Eternal Life," is solely the gift of God, through Jesus Christ. "Ye are Christ's," therefore, not only as being originally created by him in his own image, which image ye lost by sin; but ye are now his by Redemption, which is in truth a second creation; for he hath planted his own seed in your fallen nature. By this, he is become your Father, your Spiritual Regenerator, your Creator anew in Righteousness and true Holiness.—Thus, by turning your will to this Saviour, the heavenly seed springs forth, under his mild and genial influence, into a beautiful plant, partaking of all the virtues, powers, odours, and colours of its Eternal Parent, uniting, rejoicing, and living for ever in the same Heavenly Glory.
Nay, that your faith, and hope, and love, may rest upon an eternal ground, and that your title may appear to you still more firm, and your inheritance still more certain and glorious; I must tell you, that as "Ye are Christ's, so Christ is God's."—Here rests the glorious climax, rising by a fair and beautiful gradation, till its last step is fixed to the throne of the Highest!
The essential powers virtues and excellencies of the Invisible and Supernatural God, manifest themselves in his eternal and only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, God of God, God-Man, uniting himself to human nature, redeeming, glorifying, and exalting it, with himself, to the throne of the Eternal Father; from thence they are communicated, in copious streams of light and love, to the whole race whom he has condescended to redeem; awakening, illuminating, sanctifying, restoring, and investing them with the same kind of powers and excellencies, which he possesses himself in an infinite degree, and thus accomplishing what he before had prayed to his Heavenly Father might be accomplished—"That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us—that they may be ONE, even as we are ONE—I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in ONE."
Thus you have seen, my brethren, the nature, extent, and excellency of the great Christian privileges here enumerated, together with the eternal and immoveable foundation on which they are built. Need I, therefore, now call upon you to put in your claim to this vast inheritance? Alas! I fear there is too much occasion for the most solemn calls.—So various are the pursuits of the sons of men, and so foreign to their real happiness; so mistaken are they in their conceptions of good, so blind to real evil, so easily deluded by specious appearances, and led astray by so many false lights; so prone to obey the dictates of a corrupt nature, and so averse to every thing that is spiritual and heavenly; that the weightiest Truths of the Gospel, the most animating promises, the most glorious privileges there recounted, seem to have but very little influence upon their hearts. O why, my brethren, why will ye "spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not?" why, with deluded Esau, "will you sell your birth-right for a mess of pottage," an heavenly for an earthly inheritance? When "all things are yours," why will you take up with the scanty provisions which a poor perishing nature can give? An immortal soul, redeemed by the blood of the Son of God, spending its strength, exerting its faculties in the pursuit of such fleeting momentary enjoyments as this world can afford, is a spectacle at which Angels might weep.—O that every thoughtless sinner might be induced to weep for himself, to mourn his wretched, forlorn condition; and, from a deep conviction of the insufficiency of all earthly possessions to make him happy, that he might be led to seek that "peace of God which passeth all understanding! that inheritance immortal, incorruptible, and undefiled, which fadeth not away!"
DISCOURSE XIV.
Christ, known or unknown, the Universal Saviour.
St. John, Chap. xiv. Part of Ver. 9.