Many people assume that the Son of man came into this world to better the condition of man, instead of coming into this world to save sinners, which is a far higher end. The salvation of a sinner is so wonderful a work that Christ must necessarily appear as the prominent object; but the amelioration of man's condition as the object and end of Christ's coming into the world, displaces Him from His proper place of Savior, and lowers Him to the standard of a human benefactor. Where man's convenience or exaltation is the object proposed, we may reasonably expect that such a system will widely spread.
The object of the Christianity of the nations is not to make known the savor of the name of Christ, but to exalt themselves by the very light which they have borrowed from Christ. It is by this means they hope to promote a comity of nations while the object of God is to take out from the nations a people for His name. (See Acts 15:1414Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. (Acts 15:14).)