What finishing touches are to a painting, as they bring into prominence the whole scene, so are the little words of Scripture to the subject matter by which they are surrounded. They add a charm to the theme.
The Spirit of God is pleased oftentimes to illumine by little words, and thus to arrest the soul of the reader by the effect Which they produce on their context.
And who can read the well known and much loved eighth chapter of Romans, without being struck by the repetition of the expression of fond endearment, "His own Son?"
It is not merely "His Son," but "His own Son," that flows from the pen of the inspired apostle; and that little but deeply significant word, "own," adds a peculiar luster to the phrase.
"God sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin" (i. e. as a sacrifice for sin) ver. 3, and then, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, flow shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Ver. 32. By the truth in the former passage the question of our utmost sin answered, and in the latter the craving of our utmost want is more than gratified. Oh! what a considerate God is ours, yea how beneficent! Able to meet our guilt, and ready to surprise our expectations! To know the measure of our blessing, dear fellow-believer, we must know the heart of God itself. That heart is the fountain-head of all our blessing, since it was from the bosom of the Father that the Son came forth to make Him known.
To suppose that the Son had to kindle the love of God, and, by His life of obedience and death of shame, elicit grace which would otherwise have lain dormant in the heart of God the Father, is wholly wrong. The truth that shines on every page of the word is that " God is love;' nor did the life and death of the holy and only begotten of the Father affect this blessed truth one way or another. It ever held good.
Hence we find such an expression as this, "God sending His own Son." It was God who sent Him, and He who was sent was God's own Son.
Let this then be our starting point, and let us trace the activities of that heart.
Man had sinned. The law was given, but that law instead of giving righteousness to man, only showed him his guilt and moral impotency. "It was weak through the flesh," What remained for God to do? Either to find an infinite compensation for the outrage that man had committed by sin and transgression, or else consign him to that eternal judgment which His holiness demanded.
Blessed be His name! He had recourse to the former. But who could furnish this infinite compensation?
What angel, what seraph could stand forth, and say, "Here am f, send me!" No creature could meet an infinite demand, nor make an infinite atonement for sin. But the Son the untreated, only begotten of the Father, "the Son of His love," in whom daily He had delight, made answer, in the dignity of His own person, and said, "Lo, I come, I delight to do thy will, oh My God." Accordingly He came, as sent of God, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as a sacrifice for sin. God had measured the need. The Son answered it fully. Oh! dear reader, see the victim become the victor. Never did David run forth to meet. Goliath more certain of victory; never did the sun leap from the womb of the morning more surely to scatter the darkness of night, than did the Son of God enter the regions of Satan and sin. Himself all holy, to come off crowned with the spoils of conquest. The keys of death and hell are tied to His girdle now!
"Once in the end of the world He appeared, And completed the work He began.
Glorious victory! Sin put away! The power of Satan broken! The sting of Death gone! The demands of the law fulfilled, and Jesus invested with power over all flesh, to give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given Him. "Grace now reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."
Sweet and deep is the rest that fills the conscience of him who knows that God, and God's own Son have settled the whole question of his sin; and well many he sing: "What was it, blessed God, Led Thee to give Thy Son, To yield Thy well Beloved, For us by sin undone?
T'was love unbounded led Thee thus,
To give Thy well Beloved for us!"
Do you see, by faith, dear reader, your sin met by the sacrifice of the Son? If so, learn also that He that spared not His own Son "will also with Him freely give us all things."
As another has said, "There is nothing too good for the believer." If God has given His choicest possession what lesser gift will He withhold? "All things" put together cannot equal in value "the Son of God." Hence "all things are yours." Speak not of a place just inside the door of heaven! The highest heaven is small when compared to Christ Himself. The ground of our blessing is not our merit, nor our faith, but "God's own Son."
How touching is the expression, "He that spared not." Perhaps the thought is warranted that the cost was great, and the wrench was sore, yet God spared not. The richest and fairest jewel in the casket of heaven was surrendered, and then the divine argument is drawn, that with Him God will freely give all things.
Oh! beloved reader, may we rise up to the thoughts of the heart of God, and read them with spirits subdued and sanctified, that with David we may exclaim, "how precious also are Thy thoughts unto me," and that thus our walk on earth may be more that of those who partake in Christ's suffering, His rejection, His cross, till the morning of His and our glory shall dawn.
"Lord since we sing as pilgrims,
Oh! give us pilgrim's ways-
Low thoughts of self, befitting,
Proclaimers of thy praise."
J. W. S.