back to Eden. The eating of the "forbidden tree" was "the offense of
one," in consequence of which "many are dead." This was the "sin," the
act of "disobedience," which "brought death into the world, and all
our wo." It was the greatest ingratitude to the divine bounty, and the
boldest rebellion against the divine sovereignty. The royalty of God
was contemned; the riches of His goodness slighted; and His most
desperate enemy preferred before Him, as if he were a wiser counsellor
than infinite wisdom. Thus man joined in league with hell against
heaven; with demons of the bottomless pit against the almighty maker
and benefactor; robbing God of the obedience due to His command and
the glory due to His name; worshiping the creature instead of the
creator; and opening the door to pride, unbelief, enmity, and all the
wicked and abominable passions. How is the "noble vine," which was
planted "wholly a right seed," "turned into the degenerate plant of a
strange vine"!
Who can look for pure water from such a fountain? "That which is born
of the flesh is flesh." All the faculties of the soul are corrupted by
sin; the understanding dark; the will perverse; the affections carnal;
the conscience full of shame, remorse, confusion, and mortal fear. Man
is a hard-hearted and stiff-necked sinner; loving darkness rather than
light, because his deeds are evil; eating sin like bread, and drinking
iniquity like water; holding fast deceit, and refusing to let it go.
His heart is desperately wicked; full of pride, vanity, hypocrisy,
covetousness, hatred of truth, and hostility to all that is good.
This depravity is universal. Among the natural children of Adam, there
is no exemption from the original taint. "The whole world lieth
in wickedness." "We are all as an unclean thing, and all our
righteousness is as filthy rags." The corruption may vary in the
degrees of development, in different persons; but the elements are in
all, and their nature is everywhere the same; the same in the blooming
youth, and the withered sire; in the haughty prince, and the humble
peasant; in the strongest giant, and the feeblest invalid. The enemy
has "come in like a flood." The deluge of sin has swept the world.
From the highest to the lowest, there is no health or moral soundness.
From the crown of the head to the soles of the feet, there is nothing
but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores. The laws, and their
violation, and the punishments everywhere invented for the suppression
of vice, prove the universality of the evil. The bloody sacrifices,
and various purifications, of the pagans, show the handwriting of
remorse upon their consciences; proclaim their sense of guilt, and
their dread of punishment. None of them are free from the fear which
hath torment, whatever their efforts to overcome it, and however great
their boldness in the service of sin and Satan. "Menel Tekel!" is
written on every human heart. "Wanting! wanting!" is inscribed on
heathen fanes and altars; on the laws, customs, and institutions of
every nation; and on the universal consciousness of mankind.
This inward corruption manifests itself in outward actions. "The tree
is known by its fruit." As the smoke and sparks of the chimney show
that there is fire within; so all the "filthy conversation" of men,
and all "the unfruitful works of darkness" in which they delight,
evidently indicate the pollution of the source whence they proceed.
"Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." The sinner's
speech betrayeth him. "Evil speaking" proceeds from malice and envy.
"Foolish talking and jesting" are evidence of impure and trifling
thoughts. The mouth full of cursing and bitterness, the throat an open
sepulcher, the poison of asps under the tongue, the feet swift to shed
blood, destruction and misery in their paths, and the way of peace
unknown to them, are the clearest and amplest demonstration that men
"have gone out of the way," "have together become unprofitable." We
see the bitter fruit of the same corruption in robbery, adultery,
gluttony, drunkenness, extortion, intolerance, persecution, apostasy,
and every evil work--in all false religions; the Jew, obstinately
adhering to the carnal ceremonies of an abrogated law; the Mohammedan,
honoring an impostor, and receiving a lie for a revelation from God;
the papist, worshiping images and relics, praying to departed saints,
seeking absolution from sinful men, and trusting in the most absurd
mummeries for salvation; the pagan, attributing divinity to the works
of his own hands, adoring idols of wood and stone, sacrificing to
malignant demons, casting his children into the fire or the flood
as an offering to imaginary deities, and changing the glory of the
incorruptible God into the likeness of the beast and the worm.
"For these things' sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of
disobedience." They are under the sentence of the broken law; the
malediction of eternal justice. "By the offense of one, judgment came
upon all men unto condemnation." "He that believeth not is condemned
already." "The wrath of God abideth on him." "Curst is every one that
continueth not in all things written in the book of the law, to do
them." "Wo unto the wicked; it shall be ill with him, for the reward
of his hands shall be given him." "They that plow iniquity, and sow
wickedness, shall reap the same." "Upon the wicked the Lord shall rain
fire, and snares, and a horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of
their cup." "God is angry with the wicked every day; if he turn not he
will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready."
Who shall describe the misery of fallen man! His days, tho few, are
full of evil. Trouble and sorrow press him forward to the tomb. All
the world, except Noah and his family, are drowning in the deluge.
A storm of fire and brimstone is fallen from heaven upon Sodom and
Gomorrah. The earth is opening her mouth to swallow up alive Korah,
Dathan, and Abiram. Wrath is coming upon "the beloved city," even
"wrath unto the uttermost." The tender and delicate mother is
devouring her darling infant. The sword of men is executing the
vengeance of God. The earth is emptying its inhabitants into the
bottomless pit. On every hand are "confused noises, and garments
rolled in blood." Fire and sword fill the land with consternation and
dismay. Amid the universal devastation wild shrieks and despairing
groans fill the air. God of mercy! is Thy ear heavy, that Thou canst
not hear? or Thy arm shortened, that Thou canst not save? The heavens
above are brass, and the earth beneath is iron; for Jehovah is pouring
His indignation upon His adversaries, and He will not pity or spare.
Verily, "the misery of man is great upon him"! Behold the wretched
fallen creature! The pestilence pursues him. The leprosy cleaves to
him. Consumption is wasting him. Inflammation is devouring his vitals.
Burning fever has seized upon the very springs of life. The destroying
angel has overtaken the sinner in his sins. The hand of God is upon
him. The fires of wrath are kindling about him, drying up every well
of comfort, and scorching all his hopes to ashes. Conscience is
chastizing him with scorpions. See how he writhes! Hear how he shrieks
for help! Mark what agony and terror are in his soul, and on his brow!
Death stares him in the face, and shakes at him his iron spear. He
trembles, he turns pale, as a culprit at the bar, as a convict on
the scaffold. He is condemned already. Conscience has pronounced the
sentence. Anguish has taken hold upon him. Terrors gather in battle
array about him. He looks back, and the storms of Sinai pursue him;
forward, and hell is moved to meet him; above, and the heavens are on
fire; beneath, and the world is burning. He listens, and the judgment
trump is calling; again, and the brazen chariots of vengeance are
thundering from afar; yet again, the sentence penetrates his soul
with anguish unspeakable--"Depart! ye accurst! into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels!"
Thus, "by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and
so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." They are
"dead in trespasses and sins," spiritually dead, and legally dead;
dead by the mortal power of sin, and dead by the condemnatory sentence
of the law; and helpless as sheep to the slaughter, they are driven
fiercely on by the ministers of wrath to the all-devouring grave and
the lake of fire!
But is there no mercy? Is there no means of salvation? Hark! amid all
this prelude of wrath and ruin, comes a still small voice, saying:
"Much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one
man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many."
II. This brings us to our second topic, man's gracious recovery to the
favor of his offended God.
I know not how to present to you this glorious work, better than by
the following figure. Suppose a vast graveyard, surrounded by a lofty
wall, with only one entrance, which is by a massive iron gate, and
that is fast bolted. Within are thousands and millions of human
beings, of all ages and classes, by one epidemic disease bending to
the grave. The graves yawn to swallow them, and they must all perish.
There is no balm to relieve, no physician there. Such is the condition
of man as a sinner. All have sinned; and it is written, "The soul that
sinneth shall die." But while the unhappy race lay in that dismal
prison, Mercy came and stood at the gate, and wept over the melancholy
scene, exclaiming--"Oh, that I might enter! I would bind up their
wounds; I would relieve their sorrows; I would save their souls!" An
embassy of angels, commissioned from the court of heaven to some other
world, paused at the sight, and heaven forgave that pause. Seeing
Mercy standing there, they cried:--"Mercy! canst thou not enter? Canst
thou look upon that scene and not pity? Canst thou pity, and not
relieve?" Mercy replied: "I can see!" and in her tears she added, "I
can pity, but I can not relieve!" "Why canst thou not enter?" inquired
the heavenly host. "Oh!" said Mercy, "Justice has barred the gate
against me, and I must not--can not unbar it!" At this moment, Justice
appeared, as if to watch the gate. The angels asked, "Why wilt thou
not suffer Mercy to enter?" He sternly replied: "The law is broken,
and it must be honored! Die they, or Justice must!" Then appeared
a form among the angelic band like unto the Son of God. Addressing
Himself to Justice, He said: "What are thy demands?" Justice replied:
"My demands are rigid; I must have ignominy for their honor, sickness
for their health, death for their life. Without the shedding of blood
there is no remission!" "Justice," said the Son of God, "I accept thy
terms! On me be this wrong! Let Mercy enter, and stay the carnival
of death!" "What pledge dost thou give for the performance of these
conditions?" "My word; my oath!" "When wilt thou perform them?" "Four
thousand years hence, on the hill of Calvary, without the walls of
Jerusalem." The bond was prepared, and signed and sealed in the
presence of attendant angels. Justice was satisfied, the gate was
opened, and Mercy entered, preaching salvation in the name of Jesus.
The bond was committed to patriarchs and prophets. A long series of
rites and ceremonies, sacrifices and obligations, was instituted to
perpetuate the memory of that solemn deed. At the close of the four
thousandth year, when Daniel's "seventy weeks" were accomplished,
Justice and Mercy appeared on the hill of Calvary. "Where," and
Justice, "is the Son of God?" "Behold him," answered Mercy, "at the
foot of the hill!" And there He came, bearing His own cross, and
followed by His weeping church. Mercy retired, and stood aloof from
the scene. Jesus ascended the hill like a lamb for the sacrifice.
Justice presented the dreadful bond, saying, "This is the day on which
this article must be canceled." The Redeemer took it. What did He do
with it? Tear it to pieces, and scatter it to the winds? No! He nailed
it to His cross, crying, "It is finished!" The victim ascended the
altar. Justice called on Holy Fire to come down and consume the
sacrifice. Holy Fire replied: "I come! I will consume the sacrifice,
and then I will burn up the world!" It fell upon the Son of God, and
rapidly consumed His humanity; but when it touched His deity,
it expired. Then was there darkness over the whole land, and an
earthquake shook the mountain; but the heavenly host broke forth in
rapturous song--"Glory to God in the highest! on earth peace! good
will to man!"
Thus grace has abounded, and the free gift has come upon all, and the
gospel has gone forth proclaiming redemption to every creature. "By
grace ye are saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is
the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast." By grace ye
are loved, redeemed, and justified. By grace ye are called, converted,
reconciled and sanctified. Salvation is wholly of grace. The plan, the
process, the consummation are all of grace.
"Where sin abounded, grace hath much more abounded." "Through the
offense of one, many were dead." And as men multiplied, the offense
abounded. The waters deluged the world, but could not wash away the
dreadful stain. The fire fell from heaven, but could not burn out the
accurst plague. The earth opened her mouth, but could not swallow up
the monster sin. The law thundered forth its threat from the thick
darkness on Sinai, but could not restrain, by all its, terrors, the
children of disobedience. Still the offense abounded, and multiplied
as the sands on the seashore. It waxed bold, and pitched its tents on
Calvary, and nailed the Lawgiver to a tree. But in that conflict sin
received its mortal wound. The victim was the victor. He fell, but in
His fall He crusht the foe. He died unto sin, but sin and death were
crucified upon His cross. Where sin abounded to condemn, grace hath
much more abounded to justify. Where sin abounded to corrupt, grace
hath much more abounded to purify. Where sin abounded to harden, grace
hath much more abounded to soften and subdue. Where sin abounded to
imprison men, grace hath much more abounded to proclaim liberty to
the captives. Where sin abounded to break the law and dishonor the
Lawgiver, grace hath much more abounded to repair the breach and
efface the stain. Where sin abounded to consume the soul as with
unquenchable fire and a gnawing worm, grace hath much more abounded to
extinguish the flame and heal the wound. Grace hath abounded! It hath
established its throne on the merit of the Redeemer's sufferings.
It hath put on the crown, and laid hold of the golden scepter, and
spoiled the dominion of the prince of darkness, and the gates of the
great cemetery are thrown open, and there is the beating of a new
life-pulse throughout its wretched population and immortality is
walking among the tombs!
This abounding grace is manifested in the gift of Jesus Christ, by
whose mediation our reconciliation and salvation are effected. With
Him, believers are dead unto sin, and alive unto God. Our sins were
slain at His cross, and buried in His tomb. His resurrection hath
opened our graves, and given us an assurance of immortality. "God
commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us; much more, then, being now justified by his blood,
we shall be saved from the wrath through him; for if, when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more,
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."
"The carnal mind is enmity against God; it is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be." Glory to God, for the death of His
Son, by which this enmity is slain, and reconciliation is effected
between the rebel and the law! This was the unspeakable gift that
saved us from ruin; that wrestled with the storm, and turned it
away from the devoted head of the sinner. Had all the angels of God
attempted to stand between these two conflicting seas, they would have
been swept to the gulf of destruction. "The blood of bulls and goats,
on Jewish altars slain," could not take away sin, could not pacify the
conscience. But Christ, the gift of divine grace, "Paschal Lamb by God
appointed," a "sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they,"
bore our sins and carried our sorrows, and obtained for us the boon
of eternal redemption. He met the fury of the tempest, and the floods
went over His head; but His offering was an offering of peace, calming
the storms and the waves, magnifying the law, glorifying its Author,
and rescuing its violator from the wrath and ruin. Justice hath laid
down his sword at the foot of the cross, and amity is restored between
heaven and earth.
Hither, O ye guilty! come and cast away your weapons of rebellion!
Come with your bad principles and wicked actions; your unbelief, and
enmity, and pride; and throw them off at the Redeemer's feet! God is
here waiting to be gracious. He will receive you; He will east all
your sins behind His back, into the depths of the sea; and they shall
be remembered against you no more forever. By Heaven's "unspeakable
gift," by Christ's invaluable atonement, by the free, infinite grace
of the Father and Son, we persuade you, we beseech you, we entreat
you, "be ye reconciled to God"!
It is by the work of the Holy Spirit with us that we obtain a personal
interest in the work wrought on Calvary for us. If our sins are
canceled, they are also crucified. If we are reconciled in Christ, we
fight against our God no more. This is the fruit of faith. "With the
heart man believeth unto righteousness." May the Lord inspire in every
one of us that saving principle!
But those who have been restored to the divine favor may sometimes be
cast down and dejected. They have passed through the sea, and sung
praises on the shore of deliverance; but there is yet between them
and Canaan "a waste howling wilderness," a long and weary pilgrimage,
hostile nations, fiery serpents, scarcity of food, and the river of
Jordan. Fears within and fightings without, they may grow discouraged,
and yield to temptation and murmur against God, and desire to return
to Egypt. But fear not, thou worm Jacob! Reconciled by the death of
Christ; much more, being reconciled, thou shalt be saved by His life.
His death was the price of our redemption; His life insures liberty to
the believer. If by His death He brought you through the Red Sea in
the night, by His life He can lead you through the river Jordan in the
day. If by His death He delivered you from the iron furnace in Egypt,
by His life He can save you from all perils of the wilderness. If by
His death He conquered Pharaoh, the chief foe, by His life He can
subdue Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, the king of Bashan. "We
shall be saved by his life." Because He liveth, we shall live also.
"Be of good cheer!" The work is finished; the ransom is effected; the
kingdom of heaven is open to all believers. "Lift up your heads and
rejoice," "ye prisoners of hope!" There is no debt unpaid, no devil
unconquered, no enemy within your hearts that has not received a
mortal wound! "Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory, through
our Lord Jesus Christ!"
SCHLEIERMACHER
CHRIST'S RESURRECTION AN IMAGE OF OUR NEW LIFE
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Friedrich Ernst Daniel Schleiermacher, German theologian and
philosopher, was born at Breslau in 1768. He was brought up in a
religious home and in 1787 went to the University of Halle, and in
1789 became a Privat-Docent. In 1794 he was ordained and preached
successively at Landsberg and Berlin. The literary and philosophical
side of his intellect developed itself in sympathy with the
Romanticists, but he never lost his passion for religion, a subject on
which he published five discurses in 1799. We find in them a trace
of the pantheism of Spinoza. His translation of Plato, accomplished
between 1804 and 1806, gave him high rank as a classical scholar.
In 1817 he joined the movement toward the union of the Lutheran and
Reformed churches. As a preacher he was unprepossessing in appearance,
being sickly and hunchbacked, but his simplicity of manner, and his
clear, earnest style endeared him to many thousands. He died in Berlin
in 1834.
SCHLEIERMACHER
1768--1834
CHRIST'S RESURRECTION AN IMAGE OF OUR NEW LIFE
_As Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we should walk in newness of life._--Romans vi., 4.
It is natural, my friends, that the glorious festival of our Savior's
resurrection should attract the thoughts of believers to a far remote
time, and that it should make them rejoice to think of the time when
they shall be with Him who, after He had risen from the dead, returned
to His and our Father. But the apostle, in the words of our text,
recalls us from what is far off to what is close to us--to the
immediate present of our life here. He takes hold of what is the most
immediate concern, of what we are at once to share in and which is to
form us, even here, into the likeness of Christ's resurrection. We are
buried with Him, He says, unto death, that as He was raised from the
dead through the glory of the Father, we also might walk in newness of
life. And this new life is that which, as the Lord Himself says, all
who believe in Him possess even now as having passed through death to
life. The apostle compares this with those glorious days of our Lord's
resurrection; and how could we more appropriately keep this feast--a
feast in which, above all others, many Christians draw renewed
strength for this new life from the most intimate union with our
heavenly Head--how could we better celebrate it than by endeavoring to
receive this directly for ourselves from the words of the apostle?
Let us then, according to the teaching of these words, consider the
resurrection life of our Lord, as the apostle presents it to us, as a
glorious, tho it may be unattainable, model of the new life in which
we are all to walk through Him.
1. This new life is like that of our risen Savior, first, in the
manner of His resurrection. In order to appear to His disciples in
that glorified form, which already bore in it the indications of the
eternal and immortal glory, it was necessary that the Savior should
pass through the pains of death. It was not an easy transformation;
it was necessary for Him, tho not to see corruption, yet to have the
shadow of death pass over Him; and friends and enemies vied with each
other in trying to retain Him in the power of the grave; the friends
rolling a stone before it, to keep the beloved corpse in safety, the
enemies setting a watch lest it should be taken away. But when the
hour came which the Father had reserved in His own power, the angel
of the Lord appeared and rolled away the stone from the tomb, and the
watch fled, and at the summons of omnipotence life came back into the
dead form.
Thus, my friends, we know what is the new life that is to be like the
resurrection life of the Lord. A previous life must die; the apostle
calls it the body of sin, the law of sin in our members, and this
needs no lengthened discussion. We all know and feel that this life,
which Scripture calls a being dead in sins, pleasant and splendid as
may be the form it often assumes, is yet nothing but what the mortal
body of the Savior also was, an expression and evidence of the power
of death, because even the fairest and strongest presentation of this
kind lacks the element of being imperishable. Thus with the mortal
body of the Savior, and thus also with the natural life of man, which
is as yet not a life from God.
And this our old man must die a violent death in the name of the law,
such as the Savior died, not without severe suffering and painful
wounds. For if the body of sin dies out in a man of itself, through
satiety of earthly things, and because no excitement can any longer
affect his exhausted powers, that is a death from which we see no new
life proceed. The power of sin must be slain in a man by violence; a
man must go through the torture of self-knowledge, showing him the
contrast between his wretched condition and the higher life to which
he is called; he must hear the cry, and accept it as an irrevocable
sentence; that an end is to be put to this life; he must groan and
almost sink under the preparations for the execution of that sentence;
all his accustomed habits of life must cease; he must be conscious of
the wish that he were safely through it all, and it were at an end.