When the devil entered the garden of Eden he professed himself to be man’s friend. When the Lord Jesus was on earth He was called in derision the sinner’s friend. The devil told Eve as her friend what she ought to have, and how to get it. The Lord Jesus told sinners what they wanted, and how they could enjoy it. Was the devil’s profession of friendship true? Is not the character of the Lord Jesus as the sinner’s friend, fully manifested? This chapter shows it out, and is enough to settle the doubt, if any could exist, in the mind of a single individual.
Lazarus had died, and the Lord raised him up from the dead. Thereupon the rulers of Israel were stirred up to put Jesus to death. But why did death exist at all? Sin entered into the world, and death by sin. Lazarus who deserved death had been recovered from the grave, the Lord who was holy was to enter into it. At the grave the Lord showed Himself as the sinner’s friend, who could reverse the righteous doom that man deserved. He had the power to kill as well as make alive. The devil had the power of death, but he could not recover a single individual from it. He could kill, and he desired to do it, even to kill Him who had raised up Lazarus; but resurrection was beyond his power, foreign to his designs. Who then was man’s friend?
He who had received the power of death, and delighted to exercise it, or He who could kill, but could also recover man from the just consequence of his guilt?
The death of Lazarus was an event which awakened the sympathies of many; the resurrection of Lazarus was an event which aroused the fears, and stirred up the enmity, of the rulers in Israel. Told by those who witnessed it what had taken place, they summoned a council to consider what should be done. “What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone all men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.” Satan, who had counseled Eve to her ruin, led on these misguided men to carry out, as, far as possible, not their wishes, but his. They wished to save their national existence, he wished its extinction, and led them to take steps to that end. They owned that Jesus did miracles. This fact should have made them ponder their actions. They had forgotten God’s provision to keep Israel from being led astray by false prophets. His miracles should have called attention to this, which would have kept them from the evils of the devil. “If thou shalt say in thine heart how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken! When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the things, follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously.” (Deut. 18:21-2221And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? 22When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18:21‑22).) Such were God’s directions to which, had they given heed, they would have been saved from the sin of compassing the death of His Son. The Lord had declared beforehand that Lazarus would be raised up. He told His disciples of it before they re-entered Judge. He told Martha of it when she met Him, though she misconstrued the meaning of His words. He announced it publicly, when, to her remonstrance at the grave’s side, He answered: “Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God.” He thus intimated beforehand what He would do, and He did it. The glory of God was seen when Lazarus walked out of the tomb.
The resurrection of Lazarus accomplished, the death of the Lord Jesus was decided on—if now left alone all will believe on Him. That could not be suffered by Satan, for his power over the people would be annulled. It could not be suffered by the Jews, for the Romans would be alarmed, and their national existence be jeopardized. Such was their reasoning; plausible to them, fallacious and worse. Little did they think whither they had drifted. Little knew they how entangled they had become in the meshes of the enemy. For who were they who had thus spoke, and what was it they said? They were the descendants of those whom God had redeemed and brought out of Egypt. They formed part of God’s earthly people. What language for them to use, what reasoning for them to adopt! They had forgotten that God was their Redeemer, and they had abandoned the ground of being part of His redeemed people. Truly against the Romans they had no strength: but what strength had their Father against the hosts of Egypt or the iron chariots of the Canaanites? What a victory Satan had gained, when such reasoning could pass current among the descendants of the conquerors of Canaan. Had any asked them who they were, would they not have maintained they were the people of God? Yet they had practically surrendered that ground, when they met in council, shut out God from their thoughts, and devised for themselves a plan of conciliating the Romans to preserve their nationality and land.
Where was Satan’s friendship for man? He was leading on the Jews to their destruction under the specious guise of preserving their place and city; and as he acted then, so we may trace his acts now, as the distinctive truths of Christianity are surrendered or ignored by those who profess to be members of the Church of God. Redemption accomplished, salvation known, the Lord Jesus abiding in glory, the Holy Ghost abiding on earth, are truths distinctive of Christianity. Are not these ignored or practically denied by many? And what is the characteristic of the movement around us but the onward sweep of that wave of error, which is really antagonistic to these cardinal articles of our faith.
To return, the chief priests felt something must be done, but the High Priest it was who told them what they should do. “It is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.” Neither he nor they understood the real meaning of his words. As High Priest he prophesied. The words he uttered were not his own, though he affixed his own meaning to them. Could they have crucified the Lord if they had known the object of His death? They thought only of offering him up as a holocaust to appease the Romans; the words of the High Priest really shadowed out the offering up of Himself to God.
From the counsels of man we are turned to the counsels of God, for, being High Priest that year, Caiaphas was the mouthpiece of the Holy Ghost. Observe the language of Caiaphas, “one man;” and the language of the Evangelist, “Jesus.” Caiaphas spoke of the need of a death, whilst pointing to the Lord as the one to be sacrificed; the Evangelist interprets his words, and tells us that the death of Jesus alone could suffice. The High Priest thought of preservation from a Roman war, John points out that it was deliverance from God’s just wrath. There was the need for his death that God should deal in mercy with the people; there was no need for any sacrificial death that their enemies should be overcome. They looked only to man. God had respect to their sins before Him.
But what an admission this was, that Jesus should die for that nation, an admission which should sink into the heart of every self-righteous soul, for it proclaims in language clear and forcible the impossibility of man obtaining an unchallengeable standing before his God by anything that he can do. Had any been able to make good their standing before God it would have been the nation of Israel. For fifteen hundred years they had been in possession of God’s law, and for centuries had the daily burnt offering ascended up from the brazen altar—yet a man to die for them, even Jesus, was needed; for all their sacrifices, however perseveringly offered up, could never put away sin. What their sacrifices could not accomplish they really needed. Jesus must die for the people. They required a sacrifice, they required a substitute. They required one who was without sin, and in Him alone could the requisites be found. Of their real need, however, they were ignorant, so thought only of the Romans. God knew it, and in His goodness provided for it.
To preserve their national existence they decided Jesus must die. To continue in possession of the land they compassed His death. He died. They carried out their will, and found themselves exiles, wanderers, homeless, country-less; the objects of the world’s scorn; the subjects of Gentile oppression. It was needful that Jesus should die to preserve the nation for a future day. God’s holiness they left out of account, but He could not. God’s protection they renounced, but He did not cast off the people. He would save Israel, not from the Romans, but from His just wrath to preserve them as His people on earth, and a future day will disclose to that nation the absolute necessity of that death, and how impossible it was for their forefathers by that to be shielded from the power of Rome. Their plans will be proved to have failed, God’s counsels will yet take full effect.
But further, He died not for that nation only. There was a positive need of His death for Israel, as made apart from the general character of His atonement. The efficacy, however, of His death extended beyond them. “Not for that nation only,” says John, “but that also He should gather together in one, the children of God that were scattered abroad.” Seeing the multitude attracted to the Lord, they decided on removing the head, in order that the ever-increasing crowd of followers might disperse. Dispersion they aimed at; gathering together God proposed. Never did man more miscalculate the effect by his actions. His counsel came to naught, his devices proved to be of no effect. Nothing that he hoped for was affected by the death of Christ. Nothing that God intended by it could be frustrated. Gathering, not scattering, resulted from it, such a gathering as never before had been witnessed. Satan hoped to destroy the nation, and to stop the spreading. The Jews hoped to conciliate the favor of their rulers. Both were signally confounded. God’s purpose for Israel, however, will be surely made good.
But here the thought comes in, Do souls practically own God’s designs for his saints now? “to gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.” In glory this will be displayed, on earth now this should be owned, for by the death of Christ it was brought about. Shall we wait for the glory ere we own it? At Pentecost and after, believers manifested it; at the Lord’s table believers declare it (1 Cor. 10:1717For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread. (1 Corinthians 10:17)). No failure on man’s part can hinder the reality of it. Christ died for this end; but failure on his part to own it hinders the manifestation of it. God has declared His purpose of gathering together into one the children of God scattered abroad. Shall we own this, and help forward the manifestation of it, or, like the Jews, shut God out of our thoughts, and devise desires for ourselves, and form unities of our own, on ground of our own choosing? As nothing that the Jews hoped to effect by their act did really come to pass, so nothing that man can devise against the Church of God can really remain steadfast. But God has counseled and executed His counsel. Shall we enter into His mind-wish to carry it out? How cheering to witness the unchanging of God about His people about His saints. Nothing diverted Him from His purpose, nothing could mar or annul His counsels. —C. E. S.