Son, as being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power. And so when the apostle Philip asked him, saying, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us; we shall desire no more: his answer was, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father." 6 He has seen the Father, as far as it is lawful for mortal eye to behold him. He has seen him by whom the worlds were made, and who by the word of his power, by the exercise of his will, maintains the seasons in their order, the sun in his course, and so upholds all things which at first he made. For although his mercy and pity did cause him to descend from that glory which he had with the Father before the world was, he "was with God from the beginning, and was God." To that glory he returned, when his purpose was fulfilled, and resumed his place on the right-hand of the Majesty on high: no created being, but the Creator of all things, whether in the heavens above or in the earth below: no angel, but the Lord of angels, inasmuch as, being appointed heir of all things, he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they being "far above all principalities, and powers, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." 8 Such, as we believe, is he, who by himself purged our sins. St. Paul states this as the object for which he came down from heaven. To the offended justice and 7 John i. 1, 2. 8 Eph. i. 21. καθαρισμον ποιησαμενος : having effected a purification. 6 John xiv. 8, 9. 9 holiness of the Father he offered a "full, perfect, and sufficient satisfaction;" so that it might become consistent with the divine attributes, consistent with the counsels of infinite wisdom, to pardon man's past disobedience and transgression. For the state of the world, when God thus interposed, with the exception of one small nation, was a state of alienation from God: the thing made was ignorant of him who made it; the creature was estranged from his Creator. He, therefore, who had at first formed the earth for the use of man, and man to inhabit it, interposes once more. He who had said at first, "Let us make man after our own image, in our likeness; now says again, Let us restore man to that image which he has lost, to that likeness which sin has defaced and deformed. "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord, the mighty God, hath spoken:" hath spoken unto us by his Son, to whom "all power is given in heaven and in earth." And if we hearken to his call, and obey his word, the revelation here made of his divine power is the strong foundation of our hope and comfort. He to whom we are taught to flee, he in whom we seek refuge from the wrath to come, is "God over all, blessed for ever; " and his greatness is our security. He who offers salvation is not, as some might pretend, and as the Jews especially might have supposed, a prophet endowed with authority to reveal God's will, but still a mere man of nature like our own: but is HE who," was in the beginning with God, and was God." And there is solid comfort in the thought. True, he is man, with our nature to pity; but then he 1 Matt. xxviii. 18. is also GOD, with infinite power to save. Such is the ground of the confidence expressed by St. Paul; a confidence of which he desires to make all who trust in Christ partakers: "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us, and is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by him." The purpose to be accomplished, the work of man's salvation, was so great, that it could be committed to none other and he to whom it was committed is so omnipotent, that nothing which he undertakes can fail. II. THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST. JOHN i. 14. 14. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. ST. JOHN, in the verses which precede this text, had declared the DIVINITY of the Redeemer, saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." 1 He now testifies, with the 1 The plainest reason why this essential Son of God is styled the Word, seems to be this: that as our words are the interpretation of our mind to others, so was the Son of God sent to reveal his Father's mind to the world.-Whitby. his same clearness, a truth which equally concerns us, HUMANITY. The Word was made flesh. He who was God, took upon him the nature of man: the nature of frail mortal flesh. He did not cease to be what he was: he could not cease to be what he had been from eternity; but he became, what he was not before, man as well as God.2 Nothing is here asserted, which is not intelligible. There seems no reason why the nature which is clothed with flesh should only be such a nature as our own. God, we know, "breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul." That soul might have partaken of a nature different from that with which it was then endued. The mode in which God and man became one, we cannot explain; but we need not go beyond ourselves, and the union of soul and body in our own natures, to meet with that which we shall never comprehend and there is nothing contradictory in believing that as the living soul and body constitute one man, so God and man are one Christ. "For with God nothing shall be impossible." Further, what the Evangelist affirms agrees with what had been foretold, and with what the Jewish nation, possessing the oracles of God, had reason to expect. God had declared to Adam that "the seed" or offspring "of the woman should bruise the serpent's head." Jesus was the offspring of the woman, Mary; and was now manifested to bruise the serpent's head, and to destroy the works of the devil. 2 As defined by the fourth General Council.-" He was so made flesh, that he ceased not to be the Word, never changing that he was, but assuming that he was not." 3 Gen. iii. 15. Moses had assured the Israelites, that in due time "the Lord their God should raise up unto them of their brethren a prophet like unto himself." 4 And now the Word was made flesh, and "born of a woman," among this people. Isaiah had prophesied concerning a Saviour, in words which could only apply to one who came in fashion as a man, and yet who was in his nature more than man: whose generation was incomprehensible: whose appearance was frail and humble, yet whose power was divine. The appearance, therefore, of Christ in the flesh did agree with the expectation raised by prophecy. And then we ask, thirdly, Was there a reason for it? Scripture explains the reason. Jesus " came into the world to save sinners," by dying the death of sinners. In the nature of God he could not die. He could not suffer except in that nature which had sinned. He could only bear the curse of the law in the nature which had incurred the curse by transgression of the law. Forasmuch, then, as those whom he came to redeem are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.” 5 66 Therefore, according to God's determinate counsel, and for a reason which can be explained to us, a body was prepared" for the Word: the Son of God "was 5 Heb. ii. 14-16. 4 Deut. xviii. 15. See Acts iii. 22. |