I have, through this Gospel, been noticing our Lord as the Teacher, dealing with the thoughts and consciences and affections of men, as the one only anointed and sanctioned Son of man in the midst of them. But another thing connected with this can scarcely have failed to strike us, I mean (though Jesus was thus the great, the divine Teacher) the great ignorance of scripture or the mind of God, which even the Apostles themselves betray continually. It does not appear that it was acquaintance with the prophets which had beforehand prepared them for the claims of Jesus of Nazareth, nor afterward in their intercourse with him, do they seem to grow into knowledge. They wonder at one thing after another that he was constantly either doing or saying, though all was "according to the scriptures," or "that the scriptures might be fulfilled."
Their hearts, as Lydia's afterward, had been opened. The attractions that were in Jesus had entered their hearts, and separated them from their fishing nets and kinsfolk or publicans' tables. So their consciences more or less, like Peter's, may have been entered by a convicting ray of his glory. But their understandings had generally remained unopened.
That grace and blessing, however, comes in due season. After he rose from the dead, when all the comfort of his own personal intercourses with them were about to cease, then "opened he their understandings, that they might understand the scriptures" (Luke 24:4545Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, (Luke 24:45)). And the first chapter of the Acts, before the Holy Ghost was given, affords a sample of the fruit of this new endowment, this opened understanding to understand the scripture. And great comfort all this was in the increasing sorrow and darkness of their condition. Their Lord had gone, and the enemy was still alive and in power, therefore the light of God now began to shed its beams on opened eyes, that thus by nothing less than God's light, they might walk through the world's darkness. Their gracious Teacher was personally withdrawn, and their understandings are, accordingly, opened to know the treasures, the comforts and strengthenings of his word.
And there is another thing in this that has struck me. When the Lord gave them the opened understanding, it was that they might understand the scriptures. He did not open their minds to let in the lights of this world's wisdom, nor even to endow them with faculty, like Solomon, to discourse with the hyssop and the cedar. That was good and excellent in its place. Solomon had a heart as large as the sand upon the sea-shore (1 Kings 4:2929And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore. (1 Kings 4:29)), and nature was disclosed to him. But the risen Lord gives his disciples a higher faculty, and a more blessed volume to exercise it. He gives them understanding hearts to learn the revelation of' God. The opened understanding of God's elect converses with the revealed treasures of God's mind. The sympathies are there. Just as with Jesus in his childhood. He grew in wisdom, but it was a wisdom that found its exercise only in the temple of God. There too, were the sympathies then (see page 10).
We should indeed bless our God for these suited provisions. It is ever our necessity that his grace meets. It is for us to use it in faith—obediently, wisely, and thankfully, and we shall find it abundantly, when and where we little counted upon. The disciples going to Emmaus little thought, when they set out on their walk, that " the things which had happened at Jerusalem," were all for them instead of against them; but the Stranger who joined them on the road, proved this to them out of the scriptures, and thus what was shaking their faith was made to confirm it.
And yet, beloved, let me add, this Stranger, this divine Teacher, went for an unlettered man in this world. That reproach was part of what he bore for us, for there was nothing of degradation in the presence of a misjudging world, that he would not consent to for our sakes. "He had never learned," they said. Not only a carpenter's son, in their best esteem, but an unlettered man also. And indeed it was so. His doctrine was not his, but his who sent him (John 7:15, 1615And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? 16Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. (John 7:15‑16)). This reproach of being an unlettered man, he endured for us, but in other scenes of still deeper sorrow and shame we shall now see him, beloved, as we pass through the closing chapters of our Gospel.
18. 31-43.-In this portion of our Gospel, which I separate to itself, there is nothing, perhaps, characteristic. The Lord here, as in the corresponding places in both Matthew and Mark, addresses himself to his journey, in the full anticipation of the sorrows and death in which it was shortly to end.
But there is in the Lord, all through this journey, the expression of a greatness of soul, that is perfectly blessed and wonderful. He has Jerusalem, and his cup of sorrow there, full before him; he finds no sympathy from those who were his own-he gathers no admiration from the world; it is the cross and the shame of it too that he is called to sustain, all human countenance and support being denied him; and yet he goes on without the least possible abatement of his energy in thoughts and services for others. We deem ourselves entitled to think of ourselves, when trouble comes upon us, and to expect that others will think of us also. But this perfect sufferer was thoughtful of others, as he was going down every step of his way, though it was ever conducting him to still deeper sorrows; and he had reason to judge that not one step of it all, would in return be cheered by man. Thus his own little band here understand not his sorrows about which he was speaking to them, and yet the blind man by the way side fixes his thoughts and sympathies, as afterward in their turn, the publican of Jericho, the servant with the wounded ear, the daughters of Jerusalem, and the dying malefactor.
19-20.-The stages of the Lord's journey are here very distinctly marked. He is seen, as in the preceding chapter, approaching Jericho, and now passing through it. Then on his road from Jericho to Jerusalem, just outside of which he pauses for a moment, and then formally enters it. And here, as also in Matthew and Mark, the closing scenes in the trial and conviction of the city, are also very exactly noticed, this being the subject of these two chapters, like Matt. 21-23 and Mark 11,12. But they have their peculiarities. Thus, the conversion of Zacchaeus, a little narrative that strikingly exhibits the work of God in the soul of man, is peculiar to St. Luke. And the parable of the talents, or of the nobleman who went into the far country, here follows that little narrative, though given by St. Matthew in another connection; for here these two scenes are made to illustrate the several purposes of the first and second coming of the Lord, it being the way of the Spirit in our Evangelist, as I have noticed, so to combine circumstances and matters of instruction together, that moral ends may be answered to the heart and conscience, and principles and truths of the kingdom, stand illustrated before us. But the parable of the marriage of the king's son is omitted here, being introduced more suitably with the design of the Gospel, in the 14th chapter. For there it takes a more general character; whereas had it been introduced here, it would have had a stricter application to the Jews. So the curse on the barren fig-tree is not here, nor is the sentence on Jerusalem so largely and fully pronounced.
But the tears of the Lord over "the city of peace," which are noticed only by our Evangelist, lead to thoughts which I desire for a little to follow.
It is very blessed to see that the place which the Lord chose for his dwelling on earth, was Salem, the city of peace. There, in very early time, his holy witness and minister showed himself (Gen. 14) And so when he himself really descended to the earth, he came as " the prince of peace," seeking Jerusalem; his heralds proclaiming " peace on earth" (Luke 2) But man was not ready for this. Man had previously built "a city of confusion" (Gen. 11), and builders of Babel could scarcely be prepared for a king of Salem. " The son of peace" was not on earth to answer the salutation of " the prince of peace" from heaven. Jerusalem in her day knew not the things that belonged to her peace. He had therefore only to weep over her. Her citizens had refused him,-had said he should not reign over them, and he has to return to the "far country" (the seat and source of all power and dignities) to get his title to the kingdom sealed afresh.
But all this tells us, that when he returns, it must be in a new character,-that his return will be in "a day of vengeance," seeing that this visitation in peace was refused. And as promising him this day of vengeance on the citizens, the Lord says to him on reaching that "far country," "Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool." The visitation in peace has been changed into "a day of vengeance," because no son of peace was in Israel, when the prince of peace appeared. The Stone that was first offered as a foundation stone, sure and precious, was disallowed by the builders, and therefore now, ere it can reach its destined place and honor, that is, fill, like a great mountain, the whole earth, it must first smite the image. The kingdom that is to be taken by the returned nobleman, is, first to have all things that offend taken out of it. The unbelief and rebellion of man have thus shaped the course of the Lord of heaven and earth, and he has now to travel up to his glory and kingdom through " a day of vengeance."
But he will (let the earth be for awhile never so angry) still take the city of peace for his dwelling, and Salem shall still be true to her name. As he says by his prophet. Haggai, "and in this place will I give peace." For that alone is his "strong city" (Isa. 26), and its walls will be salvation, and its gates praise. Man " strong city" will then have been made a ruin (Psa. 108 Isa. 26) The day of vengeance will have accomplished that, for the city of confusion, and the city of peace cannot stand together. And when he has thus on the overthrow of man's confusion, established his own peace, the earth will learn to answer the salutation of heaven, and to say "peace in heaven," of which the acclamations here give us the pledge and sample (see chap. 2:14; 19:38).
It is easy to apprehend this, and the course of these two chapters presents it all to us very simply. Jerusalem being unprepared for Jesus of Nazareth, accounts for the need of two advents, and for the nobleman returning in a day of vengeance, as we learn here. But we may remark that in the midst of, all this, denied as he was everything for the present by the sons of men, still does he act in the consciousness of his Lordship of everything. He claims the ass from the very owner of it, because he could say speaking of himself "the Lord hath need of him." And it is very striking, that in the course of his life and ministry, though he was the rejected Galilean all the time, there was no form of the ancient glory that he did not assume. I have before observed (page 25), how faith at times drew aside the vail and disclosed his glory. But now I ask what glory? all glories of Jehovah known and recorded of old, all glories which had taught Israel that their God was the one only Lord of heaven and earth. Thus, he healed leprosy, the well-known peculiar honor of God (2 Kings 5:77And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. (2 Kings 5:7)), he put away all sicknesses, the ancient Jehovah-rophi of Israel (Ex. 15:2626And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee. (Exodus 15:26)); he fed the multitudes in wildernesses again-he stilled the waves, as though he could again divide Jordan and the Red sea-and he made the fish to bring him tribute, as here he claims the ass, treating the earth and its fullness as all his own. The judicial glory of Jehovah he would also fill, when the occasion demanded it, pronouncing woe on the people or leaving the city for desolation, as of old he had again and again judged and chastened his people both in the wilderness and in Canaan. All the ancient forms of praise and honor known in Jehovah to Israel, he would thus put on; the Redeemer, the leader, the healer, the feeder, and the judge too of his people. And as led forth by the faith of a Gentile, he could show himself one with him who at the beginning by his word had made the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them (chap. 7)
21.-Thus have we seen it, the Lord of Israel, the Lord of the earth and its fullness, rejected by his citizens; and he who once visited them with a day of peace, taking his seat at the right hand of power, waiting to visit them with a day of judgment (20:42). This was the bearing of the preceding chapter, and this present chapter shows us more fully all the results to Israel and Jerusalem of this rejection of their King, that is the times of the Gentiles, the season of Jerusalem's depression, with the close of those times in the return of the Son of man.
It has often been observed among us, beloved, with what propriety the Lord, when quoting Isa. 61, breaks off with the words " to preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (61:19, 20); because the words which immediately follow in the prophet being, " and the day of vengeance of our God," the Lord could not, of them as of the preceding words, say, " this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears," his ministry being one of grace and not of judgment to Israel. But now in this chapter, the Lord, as it were, continues his quotation from the prophet, and goes on to reveal " the day of vengeance" in order, as he tells us in verse 22, " that all things (not some merely as before) which are written may be fulfilled." But this day of vengeance upon Israel as a nation, extends, in some sense, all through this present "times of the Gentiles." The crisis in the latter day, is of the character of the whole period. They are all " days of vengeance!" as the Lord here calls them, though there is to be a special season and visitation at the close,-" the day of vengeance," as the prophet calls it (Isa. 34, 61) And it is the whole period which our Lord here, I judge (rather than in the corresponding chapters in Matthew or Mark), gives us to look at,-that dreary and evil season, the portion of Jerusalem during " the days of vengeance" or " the times of the Gentiles." And accordingly instead of pointing at "the abomination of desolation" (as is done in Matthew and Mark, and by which is described the last enemy of Jerusalem), our Evangelist has the more general expression, " when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies"-and he introduces " all the trees," in the parable, in connection with " the fig-tree"-these being still marks of the more general character of his Gospel, and of the more extended view of Jerusalem's sorrows which the Lord is here taking. Indeed it is only St. Luke who has the expression, " the times of the Gentiles."
And this being so, the Lord here looking through the long vista of all Jerusalem's griefs, the strong impression left on the mind, after reading this chapter, is this-that the Lord's great purpose was, to guard his Jewish saints against the thought, that the kingdom of Israel was to be entered at once or in quietness. He tells them that they were to count on no such things at all, for that before the kingdom could arise, there were to be judgments and sorrows. " The time draweth near," some would say; " I am Christ," others would say; or the same seducer might utter both (v. 8); but the Lord here warns them against such seductions. The citizens had already hated their offered King; and as enemies they must be slain, ere the kingdom could fully appear. And to leave on the hearts of the disciples the clear and full impression of all this, that they might stated in an evil day, and not be seduced by any prophet of peace, was the great, purpose of the Lord in this discourse with them.
I believe that Daniel, in like manner, looks through the whole time, " the times of the Gentiles," as one in character, and calls it " the war" (9:26). The end it is true, will be special, and will be manifested "with a flood," as he speaks; but the whole is a war, and desolations are determined, till that which is also determined be poured upon the desolators.
But it is very significant that while Matthew or Mark give us more particularly the last great Jewish sorrow, or " Jacob's trouble," and St. Luke more widely the whole age of "the times of the Gentiles," John does not notice this remarkable prophecy at all. The Lord's solemn entry as the King into Jerusalem, goes off quite in another direction from what it does in either of the previous Gospels. The Greeks as representing the attendant and obedient nations in the latter day, come desiring to see him, and this leads him out at once to prospects of the distant kingdom. His soul then passes through a trouble; and shortly afterward he forebodes not the judgment of Israel, according to this prophecy, but the judgment of the world and of the prince of the world. And at length, in the riches of his grace as Savior of the world, the Son of the Father (which he is in that Gospel), he tells of himself being lifted up on the cross, and of his being the light of the world, and the one who spoke according to that commandment which the Father had given him, and which is life everlasting (see John 12)
This is all strikingly characteristic of the four Gospels, and aids the conclusion that this prophecy, thus not found in John, is all about Jewish matters, and does not give us events in which the Church are immediately and personally interested. It is all connected with the return of "the Son of man" to the earth; and that is not the Church's prospect, but the descent of " the Son of God" from heaven to the air (1 Thess. 1:44Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. (1 Thessalonians 1:4)) It is the Jewish election, who by and bye will have to wait here for the days of the Son of man.
The lamentations of Jeremiah are the proper utterances of the heart in sympathy with Jerusalem and her children all through these times of the Gentiles. The city still sits solitary. The mountain of Zion is still desolate. The crown is fallen, and the joy of the heart is gone. The punishment of iniquity is not yet accomplished in that land and among that people. Rachel still weeps. But the Lord will not cast off forever (Lam. 3:3131For the Lord will not cast off for ever: (Lamentations 3:31)), and Rachel has been told this,-" refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be rewarded, and they shall come again from the land of the enemy" (Jer. 31:1616Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. (Jeremiah 31:16)).
But there is another expression, also peculiar to our Gospel, which happily leads to other prospects. Speaking of the consummation of these Jewish sorrows, the Lord says, " when these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh."
To say " the time draweth nigh," as we have seen, before any trouble could come, would be deceit; but now when the day of vengeance is at its height, to say " your redemption draweth nigh," would be holy and seasonable comfort to the faithful. And in like manner, the prophets connect "the day of vengeance" with " the year of my redeemed," as the Lord here does (Isa. 63:44For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. (Isaiah 63:4)). Judgment on the apostate nation, deliverance and joy to the remnant, are both to be looked for. For though the Lord make a full end of all nations, yet will he not make a full end of Israel. The promised " times of the restitution of all things," are surely to follow the ' threatened " times of the Gentiles." And those promised times of restitution, called here by the Lord "your redemption," will be the true Jewish or earthly jubilee, which pre-eminently was the time of restitution or redemption (see Lev. 25)
In Israel, the land and the people both belonged to the Lord, and in the year of jubilee, he dealt with them as his own. For forty-nine years he allowed confusion to prevail. Lands might be sold, and the people themselves go to the creditor; but this was to be only for a season, for God's claim was paramount, and every fiftieth year he would assert it. Israelite might traffic with Israelite, and so corrupt the primitive order, or God's world, making the whole system man's world; but all this corruption and disturbance was to have an end, and this end came in the returning year of jubilee. Then the Lord arose, as it were, to act on his own principles, and assert his own rights; to undo all the mischief which man's trafficking had introduced, and to replant the land and the people according to their beginnings under his own hand. His hand was then uppermost, and his order and purpose would show themselves openly. And what joy it is to see this, that the moment we get things again under God's hand-the moment we find ourselves in his world, it is a jubilee we are keeping, a season of joy, a time for the restorations of grace, a time for making a happy return,-everyone to his family, and every one to his possession.
How blessed (to speak according to the figure or symbol of this ordinance) thus to have the Lord, the Landlord of the earth again. "Happy are the people that are in such a case." And this jubilee was introduced by the day of atonement (ver. 9). That was the day that was to open the millennial age. For it is nothing but the work of the Lamb of God that can lead to any joy or deliverance among us. The precious blood is all our title. And thus it is that the jubilee and redemption are connected; so that where the Lord here says " your redemption draweth nigh," it was as looking out to this jubilee of Israel and the earth. The jubilee was God's redemption of his land and people. Supposing that no kinsman could be found able or willing to do this previously, God himself, in the fiftieth year, would be found both. He would then exercise both his rights and his resources in behalf of his poor ones-his oppressed land and bondaged people. And thus this jubilee was " the year of my redeemed," as spake the Lord by the prophet, or the season of " redemption," towards which the eyes of the expectant suffering remnant are here directed by their blessed Master.
Thus, then, we here learn that " these things will come to pass;" these days of vengeance, these times of the Gentiles, will run their course, but " redemption" is to be behind them all. The smoking furnace will pass first, because the Lord's rights and claims have been denied by the rebellious citizens of this world, because there was " no son of peace" in man's " city of confusion," but then as surely the burning lamp will follow. A cry from the citizens that they would not have him, followed the Lord, and thus on his return he must visit them in his sore displeasure, ere he will proclaim the jubilee. But the jubilee as surely waits, to crown and close all the work.
21-23.-These chapters find their likeness, to a general intent, in Matt. 26, 27, and in Mark 14, 15. But still, as ever, there are distinctive marks and notices.
In the opening of these solemn scenes, the Spirit, in St. Luke, accounts for the act of Judas, as he does afterward for the denial of Peter, by disclosing Satan as the source of both. Neither Matthew nor Mark do this, but John does it even with more exactness, noting the progress of the power of Satan over the traitor. And these distinctions are quite according to the mind of the Spirit in the different Gospels. Matthew and Mark do not touch the secret spring of wickedness, for it had not been much noticed in Israel; Luke does, for he was looking out to larger and deeper principles of truth; and John still more fully, because he reaches still further into God and spiritual power than any of them. And this might give us some recollections of Job, for in his history the source of the trials of the saints is strikingly opened also, the accuser there appearing before God against that righteous man, as here he is shown desiring to sift the disciples like wheat. But here, too, the sources of security are also opened, the Lord saying, "I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not."
Again: I observe that the words with which the Lord seats himself at the paschal table; the inquiry among the disciples at such a moment as this, which of them should be the greatest, and the marvelous grace of the Lord's reply; the notice about buying a sword, or of the militant state into which the disciples were now to count on entering; the healing of the wounded ear; the look at Peter; and the reconciliation between Pilate and Herod; all these are peculiar to St. Luke, and quite of the character of his Gospel, giving us the exercises of his grace, and also the workings and affections of nature in others.
So, as we advance still further, it is here only that we see the affections of "the daughters of Jerusalem,"-a sight quite within the Spirit's proper vision in St. Luke. And this company of women hold a very peculiar place. They do not take part with the crucifiers, but at the same time they are not of one rank with " the women of Galilee," who, as disciples, left their distant homes and kindred to follow Jesus. They melt, as with human affections, at the sight of his sorrows, and return from it smiting their breasts. But they do not appear to receive him as the hope of their own souls, or of the nation. And yet, in all grace, he appears to receive them as the sample of the righteous remnant in the latter day. But
indeed, dear brethren, one feels too sadly in their own hearts, that it is one thing to render Jesus the tribute of admiration and even of tears, and another to join one's self with him for better or for worse,-• through good and through evil, in the face of this present world;; one thing to speak well of him, another to give up all for him. And these sympathies of the daughters of Jerusalem may lead to such thoughts; and may the Lord, through such thoughts, lead us into deeper truth of heart, and more fixed fidelity of soul to him who has loved us and given himself for us!
In like manner it is only our Evangelist who gives us our Lord's desire for Israel on the cross.-" Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And so (as is well known among us) it is only here that the repentance and faith of one of the malefactors is recorded. And suited characteristic expressions of grace these are, for while the exercises of the human heart are especially called forth in this Gospel, so are the ways of that divine goodness which had all their utterance and current in the midst of us through the Son of God's love. For as our Gospel abounds in discoveries of man, so does it in the grace and priestly actings of the Lord, that the evil and the darkness of the one may find its blessed remedy in God himself through the other.
So, though they are but slight additions, St. Luke is the only one who calls Golgotha by its Greek, or Gentile name, Calvary; and while in Matthew or Mark, the Centurion's testimony is given to Jesus as " the Son of God," here it is to Jesus as " a righteous man."
But beyond all that strikes me as characteristic in these chapters, is that other utterance of the Lord on the cross,-" Father, into thy hand I commend my spirit." This is peculiar, and shows us that the Lord's mind, while passing through his last hours, is not given to us in the same path in the different Gospels. In Matthew and Mark, we have the cry of conscious desertion,-"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me,"-the cry of the Lamb of God, the bruised and smitten lamb. In John, he passes on without reference to God or the Father at all, but simply with his own hand sealing the accomplished work in the words, " it is finished." But here it is between these paths that his soul is kept. It is not the sense of desertion, and its due attendant, appeal to God; nor is it the sense of divine personal authority, but it is communion with the Father, the utterance of a soul that depended on him, and was sure of his support and acceptance. And this is quite according to our Gospel. It is that central path, so to speak, which the mind of the Lord has been taking all through it. It is God as absent from him, that he feels in Matthew or Mark; the Father as with him, that he knows here; Himself that he is divinely conscious of in John. All these thoughts had their wondrous and holy course through the soul of the Lord in these hours. Perfect in every exercise of heart, though various; and none could trace them thus, by the pen of one Evangelist after another, but the Spirit that awakened them. -" When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path."
And here it is that the independent life of the Spirit is fully and formally owned. The Lord, in dying, commends " his spirit" to the Father, as Stephen afterward, in dying, commends his to Jesus. A happy witness to us, beloved, that both the Lord and his servant looked for something prior to, and independent of, the body. They looked to a condition of the spirit. This was not what the dying thief looked for, but what, through surpassing grace, he got. As a Jew, he looked for a future kingdom, but his dying Lord promises him present life with himself in paradise. For " life" as well as "immortality" (incorruption for the body) are brought to light through the Gospel (2 Tim. 1)
Death bounds the empire of sin and Satan.-" He that is dead is freed from sin." The judgment that follows death belongs to God. The enemy may follow up to that point, but he goes no further. Pharaoh might pursue to the Red Sea, or the king of Jericho's messengers might search through the mountains which lay on his side of the Jordan, but beyond the two rivers, the two kings had no title to go a step. Let the river be passed, and Joshua's men were at least within the influence of the camp of the saints. And let death be passed, it may not be the glory, but it is the precincts of the kingdom that we reach.
"This day shalt thou be with me in paradise," was the word here to one who was then just passing the gate of death. The kingdom that he looked for, and of which he spoke, was not yet; but the gracious hand of Christ was alone entitled to lead him, and though it will not lead directly and at once into the promised land, where the tribes of the Lord are to share their desired and abiding inheritances, yet it will lead in paths worthy of itself, and such must be paths of light and life, for he is the God of the living only, and in him is no darkness at all. God is the "Father of spirits," and the ghost given up, or death past, we are alone with the living God. The spirit returns to him who gave it, and it is said to us " fear not them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do."
Have we not the fullest testimony that it was so with the Lord? Did not the rent rocks, the opened grave, and the riven vail, tell that he was Conqueror on the other side of death, and that he was in the power of the hand of God; death had no more dominion over him.-" In that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God." And we may trust the single hand that meets us there alto. It may lead to paradise first, and not to the kingdom till the resurrection, but every path will be according to the hand that opens it. It was to lead the dying thief that day-but where but to paradise, the place where Paul had such visions and revelations as he could not utter when he returned to earth? And into that paradise, a dying malefactor, and the dying Lord of life and glory (wondrous company) were to go that day.
Paul counted it better to depart and be with Christ. And this he did, it may be especially, because he had thus already experienced paradise. And so we can trust the hand that opens paradise. It may have been by a surprise that Paul was taken there. He had no time, it is likely, no warning to prepare himself for such a journey, and an untried journey too. But there was a hand that could conduct the spirit safely without amazement. And so with us, beloved. We hear of the sudden, unexpected death of saints. But he who is principal in the scene, and who holds the keys of hell and death, cannot be surprised. And therefore though we learn from the
Apostle that the visions and audiences which he got there filled him with his only occasion for glorying, they were so exalted, yet never does he intimate that they were too big, or too high for him. His spirit was attempered to them, for the one who had prepared the scenes in the third heavens for him, had in the same moment got him ready for them.
And still of further comfort to our souls, the Lord himself was there that day with his dying believer. For every stage of the journey has he sanctified to us by his presence. He went across this world in the life and service of faith; he walked through the valley of the shadow of death, as from Gethsemane to Calvary; he passed the gate of death itself; and then, while his body lay in the tomb, as ours may, his Spirit went into paradise. Thus has he gone the whole way of even his dying and departed saints. And then he showed himself in resurrection to his chosen witnesses, the first-fruits of them that sleep, and, lastly, in ascension, to Stephen and to Paul, the firstborn among glorified brethren.
And I judge that dreams, or the visions of the head upon the bed, as scripture speaks, are the pledges and symbols of these joys of the Spirit. For human life and its history, and the ways of the world around us, do so largely, as we know, illustrate the better life and the world in which we believe. And so in this instance. The body is asleep or dead, but the wakeful living spirit has its visions and revelations in other regions. And thus every lying down at night, and every rising in the morning, with its intervening rest and visions of the head, is testimony. The clothing is taken off and the body laid in sleep, nor will they be resumed till the morning breaks. But thoughts and delights in other scenes are opened, as real to the spirit, as the scenes of the day around us are to the senses. The clothing has been taken off, " whether in the body or out of the body," it matters not; but the visions of the head upon the bed, the visions and revelations of the living Spirit, are known and enjoyed. And the scene is paradise. So that the Apostle could say, that to depart and to be with Christ was far better.
Thus the Lord committing his Spirit to the Father, tells us of the separate life of the Spirit; his promise to the dying thief then tells us that that life has its place in paradise; and then the history of " the man in Christ," further tells the character of that life in that place. The consolation is thus both sealed and made known to us. It is the spirit, that which is born of the spirit, the life of " the man in Christ," that we speak of. As one has asked, can such a principle as that sleep? The body sleeps it is true, whether by night or in death, but can the spirit sleep? He that hath wrought us for the resurrection in glorious bodies, is none less than God himself, and he has given to us the earnest of the Spirit; "therefore we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord,-we are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5)
And our meeting death (entrance to this paradise as it is to us, beloved) is altogether different from Christ's meeting with it. We have to find God for us and not against us, in it,-on our side, against the enemy. We are to meet it as any pain or trouble in the flesh, the enemy using them all for our mischief, if he may, but God bringing blessing and praise. No three hours of darkness is there before us, but the sense of a love that is stronger than death. But he had to know that time as the hour of the power of darkness, as he speaks in this Gospel. And he had to know the full righteous exaction of that penalty (of old incurred by us), " in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die." That was the cup he drank,-the bitter, bitter cup tasted at Gethsemane, and exhausted at Calvary. Blessed for us who love him to know, as he speaks in the book of Psalms, that the cup of salvation" is also his. And he will take it by and bye in the kingdom, leading the praises of the congregation in the sanctuary of glory. And a thought full of joy arises here, beloved, that everything is heightened and honored by the hand of the Son of God. Everything that has been spoiled and broken by us is taken up by him, and in his hand raised to a character which we could never have given it. The law broken by us has been magnified and made honorable by him; all human grace, all fruit of human soil (as we see especially in this Gospel), has been presented to God by him, and in him more fresh and lovely than we could ever have offered it; all service has been rendered to perfection, and all victory gained gloriously, by him to God's well-satisfied praise forever. And so, worship. What prayers and supplications were those which Jesus once made in the day of his grief and bruising; and what praise will that be which Jesus will hereafter lead, when he thus takes the cup of salvation! Where could have been the temples that would have been filled with such incense of prayer and praise as the Son thus brings! What sacrifices has our God thus accepted in his sanctuary! Surely it is our comfort to know this, for it is in the midst of our ruins these temples are raised. Man has rendered to God that offering in which. he takes. his fullest and most perfect complacency. And what an economy was that which could thus magnify' and make honorable, and raise to highest excellence, all fruit of human growth, from out of that bed of thorns and thistles (the accursed earth, Gen. 3) which we had produced and witnessed!
These thoughts arise here, while thinking on that cup which Jesus drank here, and on that other cup which he refused for the present, waiting to take it in the kingdom. These cups express his sorrow and his joy,-his worship as with prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears," when he was here; and his worship as with songs " in the midst of the Church" by and bye. But I will now pass on, just again observing that wherever we have noticed anything peculiar to our Evangelist in this portion of his Gospel, it is still, as we have now seen, according to the design and the manner of the Spirit in him. The great materials are, of course, the same in all, for all is fact and truth; but the Lord's mind through it all is thus variously given out to us.
24.-We have now reached the closing chapter of our Gospel, and there, as in the corresponding place of each Gospel, we find the Lord in resurrection.
In resurrection the Lord breaks forth, laden with the full fruit of complete victory over all the power of the enemy. It is, in his per-son, the burning lamp after the passage of the smoking furnace. The previous season had been the hour and the power of darkness (22:53), Satan's time for the putting forth of all his strength.
But wherein they dealt proudly; the Lord was above them, and this is our comfort, that the enemy has been met in the height of his strength and pride. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus, was the second morning in the history of creation. When the foundations of old were laid, "the morning stars sang together." But that workmanship was spoiled. Adam betrayed the kingdom he had received from God into the hand of Satan, and death entered. The Son of God, however, entered also; and as it was appointed unto men once to die, so Christ was once offered (Heb. 9) He took on himself the penalty, the death deserved by us, and thus the grave of Jesus is seen by faith, as the end of the old creation. But his resurrection is the morning of a new and more glorious one, and the saints, the sons of God, sing in spirit over it. It is the day in the hand of the potter a second time, to bring forth a vessel that can never be marred. It is the foundation of an enduring kingdom; and that kingdom, thus to be received by the risen Jesus, the second man, he will not, like Adam, betray into the hand of the enemy; but in due season deliver up without taint to God, even the Father, that all may end, not in the usurper being the prince of this world, but in " God" being "all in all" (1 Cor. 15.)
And how blessed this is-how satisfying and encouraging, thus to see the Lord undoing all the mighty mischief of the rebellion of the first man, and in the way of righteousness repairing the breach. And who can tell the glory of that economy, where mercy and truth so meet together? Who can understand the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God in such a mystery! And it is that by which he shows himself. His glory is seen "in the face of Jesus Christ." In the work of grace and in its fruits in glory, God is revealing himself; so that to know him and be happy in the assurance of his love through Jesus, is the same thing. "He that loveth not knoweth not God."
It was on this very ground, that of old, God sought to be known as God by the Jews. He claimed to be worshipped by them as the one only God, because he had shown himself their Redeemer. "I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." "Thou shalt have none other Gods but me." In this action he had made himself known as God, for God is that blessed one who is full of grace and power for poor bondaged sinners; and if we know him not as such, we know him not rightly. Any thought about God at variance with this, is but the act of the mind of a darkened creature busying itself about its own idolatry. The true God is he who reveals himself in redeeming grace and power; and, blessed truth, to know God is thus to know myself a sinner saved by grace.
By the primitive order of creation, glory was secured as God's portion-blessing as the creature's. The serpent beguiled the man, so as to lead him to seek the glory for himself.-" Ye shall be as Gods." And by this the whole divine order was disturbed, for man righteously lost his place of blessing, in this attempt to take God's place of glory. The work of redemption restores this order. It puts things in their due position again. Faith or redemption through grace; does this, for it excludes boasting and secures blessing. It reserves the place of glory for God, and that of blessing for man; and that is the way of God, all according to the order of creation, as it came forth in Eden from his hand. He cannot own man in his pride, his old attempt to be as God; but having humbled him, and asserted that glory is his alone, he will then show that blessing is man's. For indeed, through his own goodness, blessing is as much the creature's due place, as glory is God's. His love, which is himself, has made it so. He has as surely consulted for man's joy as for his own praise. He will show himself just, thus providing for his own glory; but he will also then show himself a justifier, thus providing for the sinner's blessing. And the resurrection of the Lord tells us all this. It tells us both of God's glory, in his destroying the very head of all the offense, and of man's blessing in imparting all grace to the offenders. This is the lesson it reads to us. Of course hard to be learned by those who have sought to exalt themselves, and affected to be as God. But a lesson which if redeemed, we must learn; for redemption must restore God's own primitive and unchangeable principles, and put him into the place of unrivaled, unquestioned, glory, while it gives the creature equally the place of sure unquestioned blessing.
The subject of this chapter suggests these things, as general truths, to the mind. But in our Evangelist's account of it, wherever there is anything peculiar, it will, I believe, be found to be characteristic also.-Thus the journey to Emmaus, which in detail we get only here, presents our Lord in the grace of the Teacher still, dealing with the thoughts and affections of men.
When the Lord was in the world before, he showed himself equally to all, for he was beseeching men to be reconciled, attracting their confidence by services of unwearied grace. But now, in resurrection, he is known only to his own. The world had refused his goodness, had seen and hated him and his Father, and were not entitled to see him now in his exaltation, on his way to the highest heavens. But they who loved him in the world shall see him now. Five hundred such, unnamed and unknown though they be, shall look on him as well as Peter or John, and look on him, too, with as full appropriating a faith as they. And all his visits to them now that he is risen, are still in love and peace. But love will express itself differently according to the condition and need of its object. If its object be in sorrow, love will soothe; if walking in light, love will gladden and approve it; if gone astray, love will lead again into paths of righteousness. And so it is with the risen Lord who loves forever. Thus he visits Mary to refresh her desirous heart with his presence; he visits Thomas to restore his unbelieving soul; and here the two disciples, to lead them back by the way in which they came, as they had taken their journey under the power of unbelief. All was, thus, the same love, though suiting itself differently to its different objects. These two needed restoration, and their Lord restores them. At first he makes himself strange to them, rebukes them for their slowness of heart, and then leads them as the great prophet of God, and the teacher of men, through all the scriptures, till the light and power of his words warm their hearts.
This was full of divine grace. And in his way of communicating it, there is also so much of human loveliness as is still according to his path under the tracing hand of our Evangelist. "He made as though he would have gone further." How perfect that little movement was. What title had he, a stranger as he seemed to be, to obtrude himself on them? He had only joined them by the way, in the courtesy of one who was traveling the same road. What right had such an one to cross their threshold? If Jesus be but a stranger in our eyes, beloved, he will still walk outside. Till we know him as the Son of God the Savior, the lover of our souls, surely he asks for nothing. We may dwell in our own houses, and furnish our own tables, till then. But when indeed he is known by us as Jesus, as the Son of God who has loved us and given himself for us, then he claims a place in our hearts and our homes; and then will he dwell with us and sup with us, as it were, unbidden; entering, in the person of some of his little ones, either to get a cup of cold water, or to have the feet washed, at moments that, perhaps, we looked not for him.
And may we be ready, dear brethren. Indeed it is a blessed state, though hard to our hearts at times. Ever ready, and at the disposal of the need of each other, thus entertaining not angels merely, but the Lord of angels, the brother of his saints, and the friend of sinners. But as yet, on this occasion, to these two, he was but a stranger, and therefore he would leave them to their rest and repast alone, though it was now growing dark, and he had spent himself much in talking with them. But O the adorning that was upon him! The ornament of a perfect spirit indeed graced every little passage of his life. What dignity, when dignity was the thing; what tenderness, when that in its turn was called for. If man had had but the eye for them, what forms of moral beauty would ever have passed before him in the doings and goings of this perfect Son of man. Never for a single moment the least disturbance in the moral bearing of all that was about him But man had no eye or ear for him. When we saw him there was no beauty that we should desire him. It was not that there was no beauty in him. All was moral perfection, the true beauty. But there was no beauty for man's eye in him. None of this perfection was according to man But at times, through grace, there was the burning of the heart. And so it is here. These two happy ones own the power of his presence, and find their souls restored, and their feet led back to the city, the way by which they had come, and which to them was the path of righteousness again.
This is the way of the grace of their risen Lord to those two disciples, and quite his way in this Gospel. So in what follows in the larger company at Jerusalem, we have the marks of our Gospel still as fresh as ever before us. For there the Lord is especially careful to verify his manhood, to show that he was none other than the Son of man risen from the dead. He establishes that first, by showing them his hands and his feet, and then by taking of a broiled fish and of an honeycomb and eating before them. And thus we see him the man before us still, once the anointed man, and now the risen man. And having thus approved himself, he deals with them as men, acting as their teacher, according to his accustomed place in this Gospel, both opening the scriptures to them, and their understandings to the scriptures.-And having thus sealed to them this fruit of the resurrection, the opened understanding, he promises them " power from on high," in order that they might be competent witnesses of the things which they had now learned.
This " power from on high" is, of course, a description of the Holy Ghost, called also " the promise of the Father." But it intimates the Holy Ghost under a special manifestation, and such an one, too, as is still according to the character of our Gospel. In neither Matthew or Mark is this divine gift of the ascended Lord, here at the close, spoken of. But in Luke he is spoken of thus, as "power from on high," that is, power in the Apostles and others, to minister and testify. In John, in a still more blessed sense, he is promised as "the Comforter" or " the Spirit of truth," that is, the witness in the saints of grace and glory, the things of the Father and the Son. These distinctions are quite characteristic. The day of Pentecost brought this divine gift from the glorified Son of man, and that gift at once manifests his presence according to the promise here made; St. Luke's Gospel which is our Evangelist's first letter to Theophilus, thus ending with the promise of the Holy Ghost, the book of the Acts which is his second letter to the same friend, opening with the gift according to the promise.
And that book has been properly called "the Acts of the Holy Ghost." It comes after the four Gospels; and as they, or the ministry of Jesus which they record, had given the full formal manifestation of the Father and the Son, so this book, which records the ministry of the Apostles and others, in order gives the same manifestation of the Holy Ghost. The persons in the Godhead are thus in due season declared, for the full light and comfort of the Church. Notices of this divine mystery no doubt there had been from the beginning, but the name of God-" Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," was now fully manifested and published. Thus at the very opening of that book of the Acts, we read that it was "through the Holy Ghost" the risen Lord commanded his Apostles. So strikingly is he thus acknowledged at once, and that, too, in connection with the ministry of the risen Lord himself. Then the Savior twice speaks of him in his short discourse with his disciples; then Peter owns him in David; he is then himself given, and he imparts his powers, and Peter promises him (ministerially of course) to all who would repent; then he fills the Apostles for testimony; then he is owned as God, against whom sin was committed; resistance of him is publicly declared to have been, and still to be the way and the transgression of Israel; and his guidance of his minister in his labors, as well as his wonted presence in the saints, is likewise fully acknowledged. All this we get in the earlier chapters, but at length in the 13th we have the Holy Ghost sending forth the Apostles to the Gentiles, revealing his purpose and himself personally by a voice in the midst of the Church; and afterward, in the 20th and 21st chapters, owned as setting overseers in the Church, and announcing beforehand the sufferings of the ministers of Christ.
Thus is he prominently and continually brought out in personal action. By sending out the Apostles to the Gentiles, we may say that he rules the whole ministry without; and by setting forth the overseers of the flock, that he is personally engaged in the whole ministry within: thus filling the place of the great director and spring of the whole subsequent movement, according to which he acts, hindering ministry in certain places (see chap. 21) And thus it is indeed the book of the "Acts of the Holy Ghost,"-the manifestation of his person and ways in that divine plan of everlasting love, which is to issue in the salvation of the Church of God which he has purchased with his own blood. And let me add, that according to this, at the close of the book, we get that distinguished prophecy of Isaiah, contained in his 6th chapter, and so much used in the New Testament, again referred to; but referred to for the first time as being the language of the Holy Ghost.
All this, as everything of our God, is perfect in its season. The incarnation and ministry of the Lord was the manifestation of the Father and the Son; the present age is the manifestation of the Holy Ghost; the age to come, when the golden city is to descend, or the Bride to take her place with the Lamb in power, will be the manifestation of the Church. All is perfection in the ways of his wisdom as in the works of his grace. The Lord tells out one secret after another, bringing forth each in due season, and leading the soul to say, "0! the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!"
But this only as we pass on. I have already observed that the notice which we get here of the Holy Ghost, is still according to this Gospel, keeping it, as it were, between Matthew or Mark on the one hand, and John on the other,-the former giving us no such notice of the Spirit at all, the latter giving us still larger and richer notice of him, under the titles of "the Comforter," and " Spirit of truth." But so after this, down, as it were, to the last syllable, the Gospel is still according to itself. I mean in what now happens at the closing moments in Bethany.
To that well-known spot, a retreat for the poor of the flock at "the back side of the desert," the fold of those whom he loved in Judea (John 11:33Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. (John 11:3)), the Lord now leads forth his disciples. And there while blessing them, he is parted from them and carried up into heaven. But this is quite himself in this Gospel. This is still " the man Christ Jesus," for this is the action and attitude of the Priest, the Mediator, and there is but one Mediator between God and man, and that is, " the man Christ Jesus." Every high priest is taken from among men, and this action was just that of the true Aaron, the priest with the uplifted hand to bless (Lev. 9:2222And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people, and blessed them, and came down from offering of the sin offering, and the burnt offering, and peace offerings. (Leviticus 9:22)). Like Aaron he had now been anointed, and was giving proof of his ministry. He was presenting, as it were, the first-fruits of his priestly services. The resurrection had declared him to be the Son of God, and called him to the priesthood (Heb. 5), and he was be-ginning to fulfill its duties of holy love.
But here let me say that a priesthood thus linked with resurrection, entirely meets the mind of God, and is suited to his own sanctuary in the 'heavens. The priesthood of Aaron had not such a quality in it, for it was according to "the law of a carnal commandment," being successional or transferrable, because no one could continue in it by reason of death. And such could not please God, for he is not the God of the dead, but of the living. The actings of such priests could not reach God, not having the savor of life in them. But the priesthood of the risen Jesus is established in " the power of an endless life." In his person, that office is connected with victory over all the power of death, and thus the living God finds all his satisfaction in the living Priest. Death, it is most true, must be gone through. Death was the wages of sin; and when man became a sinner, he became a debtor to death, and God could not treat with man thus a sinner, but on death being suffered somewhere. " Where a covenant is, there death must be brought in" (Heb. 9:1616For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. (Hebrews 9:16)). So that Jesus, the sinner's surety, died. But not being personally debtor to death, he rose with all the virtue of life in him. His blood had this virtue in it, for it was offered without spot, no savor of death, because no taint of sin was there; it was indeed living blood which carried no seed of death in it. His priesthood had this virtue in it, as dealing with this living blood, and being entered on through resurrection the sure witness of all victory over death. And thus all in Jesus, the believing sinner's victim and priest, is suited to the living God and so to our necessities.
And this was the honor of Melchizedek. He was a living priest. I speak of him, of course, typically. But it is this which sets his order above that of Aaron's. There is no record of either the beginning of his days, nor of the end of his life; and in this he has been made like unto the Son of God, in whom there is neither actual beginning nor end, as in his type Melchizedek there is neither re-corded beginning nor end. The silence of scripture as to the person of the latter, sets forth the truth or mystery as to the person of the former. But it is not only as " over all God blessed forever," that Jesus has now "no end of days," but it is as having in our nature by death destroyed the power of death, and by resurrection been made known as the living Son of man. And that is Christ's " own eternity," in which we are equally interested. As our hymn says, " Jesus will our treasure be, through his own eternity." He fixes his own eternity on all that he has gained for us. Sin sought to fasten death on him, but could not. The Lord, ill his life here, came into contact with all that might have tainted him, and laid the seed of death in him. But nothing of it entered. And he has now fixed the sure and indestructible virtue of his resurrection on all that he communicates to his saints. He is able to subdue all things to himself. Wonderful and blessed words-to himself! His risen mercies, are sure mercies; his risen life, is eternal life; his risen glory, an unfading glory; and his inheritance, an incorruptible inheritance; his risen body, too, a glorious body. And these things in us and for us, as in and for himself.
This subject of the priesthood of the risen Son of man is indeed blessed. It is quite true that he had not at the time of this chapter formally entered upon it, because his temple was 'n the heavens. But ere he leaves his people he gives them a sample of his actings as the ascended heavenly Priest. He lifted up his hands and blest them. And as soon as he had done so, and sealed to them this further fruit of his resurrection, he was parted from them, and carried into the temple itself, where he sits as " the man Christ Jesus," till all have come to the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ; till all who are of his risen flesh and bones have been brought in to form the new man, the fullness of him who filleth all in all. Our Gospel had opened with the priest of the family of Levi, in the temple at Jerusalem, and now closes with the Priest, the risen Lord, as in the temple in heaven. It was the man Jesus, in his infancy, his human relationship and place here, that we got at the beginning, and it is the man Jesus still, risen and glorified, and about to be seated in his honors and place in the heavens, that we get now at the end.
In this character of the priest, and of the risen man, thus so according to the mind of the Spirit in our Evangelist, we now lose sight of our Lord. And the closing view which we thus get of him in each Gospel, does indeed strike me as very distinguishing and characteristic. In Matthew (just to look at it again for a moment), the Lord does not change his place. He is still here, still on the earth, as it were, simply saying, "all power is given to me in heaven and in earth, go ye therefore and teach all nations: lo, I am with you." As though he were simply the Lord of the harvest, ordering and strengthening his Jewish husbandry. In Mark, he is received up into heaven, but still on the Apostles going forth to preach, he is spoken of as present and working with them. In John, neither he ' nor they remain on earth. But here he is carried up alone, and there abides as their High Priest within the vail, sending down the. Holy Ghost to be with them here as power from on high.
This is all quite in character. In our Gospel, the Lord ascends as the Priest to be alone in the sanctuary in heaven. It is his ascent, true Solomon or royal Priest as he was, by which he went up into the house of the Lord (2 Chron. 9:44And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel; his cupbearers also, and their apparel; and his ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord; there was no more spirit in her. (2 Chronicles 9:4)). In Mark, it is the ascension of the Lord to the right hand of power, in order to preside over and share in the ministry of his servants. In John, it is the Son of the Father ascending, in order to introduce the children to the Father's house.
When, therefore, we are thus preserved, we should seek to go out in testimony to the world, the Lord helping us, by leading us in the truth by his Spirit, and giving us utterance and an open door. But if, as in John, we are sinking in the flesh, still we may know that we are following Jesus where lie has gone."
He was " carried up" (ανεφερετο). The expression implies that some conveyance waited him. And indeed he had been thus waited on from very old time. When exhibited and spoken of as " the Glory," " the Angel of God," " the Angel of his presence," or " the Lord" (Ex. 14, 23, 32 Isa. 63), the cloud conveys him hither and thither. It first took him at the head of his redeemed people to lead them in the way (Ex. 13) It then carried him between the camps of Israel and Egypt, that he might be light to the one and darkness to the other, and out of it so look as to trouble the Egyptians, and take off their chariot-wheels (Ex. 14) At times it brought him to take his seat in judgment upon his trespassing and murmuring congregation (Ex. 16 Num. 14, 16, 20) And after all this, it took him to fill his place in the temple (2 Chron. 5), as indeed it had before, in like manner, borne him to fill the same place in the tabernacle (Ex. 40)
Thus did the cloudy chariot wait on him of old (Psa. 104:33Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind: (Psalm 104:3)). But when the sin of his people had disturbed his rest in the midst of them, it is the cherubim that he uses to bear him away (Ezek. 1); and the cherubim was called "the chariot of the cherubim" (1 Chron. 28:1818And for the altar of incense refined gold by weight; and gold for the pattern of the chariot of the cherubims, that spread out their wings, and covered the ark of the covenant of the Lord. (1 Chronicles 28:18)). There may or may not be a distinction between this cloud and the cherubim. But it matters not. He was attended on all these occasions, by his appointed chariot. And so is he now. He is "carried up." But on all these former occasions he is spoken of variously, as I have noticed, or indefinitely, as "the Glory," " the Angel of God," " the Angel of his presence," and " the Lord." And in the last place that I have mentioned in Ezekiel, his likeness is "as the appearance of a man." From henceforth however, this Glory, this Angel-Jehovah, becomes stamped with the form and characters of man. It is the risen Son of man who is now carried up to his place on high. It is not merely " the appearance of a man," but one whose manhood had been assured and verified. As such he now ascends. The Glory has taken his abiding form. Blessed truth for us. And as the glorified man it is, that we from henceforth in the book of God see him. In the vision of the prophet, he is after this, as the glorified man brought with the clouds of heaven to the Ancient of Days to receive his
kingdom (Dan. 7); as such after this he stands, in the eye of another prophet, in the midst of the golden candlesticks (Rev. 1); as such he tells us himself that he shall hereafter be seen sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven (Matt. 26); and as such, when all the judgment is passed, his name will be made excellent in all the earth, " the world to come" not being subject to angels, but to man (Psa. 8 Heb. 2)
This is indeed a wondrous theme which the word of truth offers to our thoughts, brethren. It is man that has been thus anointed, and ran that is to be thus exalted. The ranks of angels which have as yet surrounded the throne, must open, as it were, to let the Church of redeemed sinners in, that man may be displayed as the appointed vessel of the glory in the ages before us. " What is man," surely may be said, " that thou art mindful of him, and the Son of man that thou visitest him."
When the priest Zacharias went into the temple, the whole multitude owned the power of his entrance there, and were without praying at the time of incense, as we read in this Gospel (see 1:10). And when Moses went within the cloud, being thus as by the vail shut within the sanctuary of God, the people rose up, every one standing at his tent door and worshipping (Ex. 33) So here on this entrance of the risen Son of man within the cloud (Acts 1:99And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. (Acts 1:9)), the vail between the holy and the most holy, of this true priest within the true temple, the people without own the power of his ascension there, and again look after him and worship. But then it is here, and only here, that they are his own people worshipping himself. For all these were but the human shadows, but this is the divine substance. "They worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God."-In Mark (or Matthew) they go forth to the world to preach; in John they ascend after the Son to the Father's house; but here in Luke, as the priest was entering the heavens to bless them, they enter the temple to worship. All strictly still in character. And their worship was praise. For such only was now the seasonable worship. There had been the solemn meeting (John 14:11Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. (John 14:1)), and the priests had wept as between the porch and the altar, and there had been the mourning for the pierced one (Joel 2:1717Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? (Joel 2:17), Zech. 12:1010And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. (Zechariah 12:10)). But he had now seen them again and their hearts had rejoiced. They could not eat the bread of mourners while surrounding such an altar as this. It was, shall I not call it, the feast of the resurrection that they were now keeping, and it must be kept with rejoicing. The first-fruits of the harvest had been accepted for them, and they must offer their meat-offerings and their drink-offerings with joy in his temple (Lev. 23:1010Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: (Leviticus 23:10)). They were waiting for the Pentecost, the feast of weeks, but " Jesus and the resurrection" was their present feast, and it was only with gladness that they could look on that accepted sheaf of first-fruits- waved before the Lord.
"Amen," as in all the Gospels, then seals this witness of our Evangelist. But we have not the same rapturous note of admiration as at the close of St. John. For all the writings may not be equally elevated, though equally perfect in their order, and divine in their original, as one star differeth from another in glory, though all (as another has said) are equally in the heavens which God alone created and made. St. Luke, like the others, is in his own character to the very end, as we have now seen. It is the Son of man whom the Spirit traces by him, as it had been Messiah or Jesus in Jewish connection by Matthew; Jesus the Servant or Minister by Mark; and Jesus the Son of God, Son of the Father by John. And this perfect man was first the anointed man, walking though the varied paths of this life, and in all of them presenting to God offerings of untainted human fruit in such a vessel as had never before furnished or adorned his sanctuary; then the risen man, showing himself to his own in his victory over death and all the power of the enemy, and in samples of some of the blessing which that victory had gained for them; and finally as the ascended or glorified man, about to perfect in their behalf before the throne of God, and in the heavenly temple all the fruit of this his life and conflict and victory, and to fill them with joy and praise forever and ever.
Here we leave our blessed happy occupation in tracing the varied ways of our divine Lord and Savior, through the four Gospels. O that this occupation could leave the same power in the soul behind it, as it imparted joy to the soul while engaged in it. But the heart knows its own secret causes of full and constant humiliation, and has well learned that word " when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room,"-learned it, I mean in its truth and fitness, though not in its power. May our God, beloved, train our hearts to his own joys which ever find their springs in the person and work of the Son of his love! And may he also free us of ourselves more and more, that Jesus may be only seen in us and by us! Surely then we shall be happy and obedient disciples.
In closing these meditations on the four Gospels, I would again. say, that the skill which is thus with a little care discernible in the executions of them is perfectly divine. It is indeed of God's own hand. Had each of the evangelists introduced his writing by a formal declaration of the design of it, and how it was to distinguish itself from the others, the wisdom and perfections of him who indited them would have not been so glorified, nor would the same exercise of heart have been so called out, as now it is by reaching this distinct purpose through the " characteristic exhibition" in which each of the Gospels abounds. But as they now stand it is the very harmony of creation that we listen to. "There is no speech or language, without these their voice is heard." They do not in terms declare themselves, but without these, they express themselves. And thus we see that the very same hand which fashioned the heavens and gave them their voice in the ear of men, has traced the glories that shine in the different Gospels, and given them a voice likewise in the ear of saints.
But after all this, beloved, the Gospel itself must be our object. May the Lord keep that fresh and immediate upon our hearts continually! It is the Gospel itself, the tale of God's unmeasured love, and which heaven calls the earth to listen to, that bears with it the real and abiding blessing to our souls. It is the entrance of the living God, God of all grace as he is, through the testimony of the Son of his love, into our hearts, that indeed sheds abroad the light, the liberty, the victory there, and is the seed in us of eternal life. As one has said, " a man may be captivated by this intellectual and moral harmony, and take much pleasure in tracing it through all its detail, and yet derive no more profit from it than from the examination of any curious piece of material workmanship.-It is proper that this beautiful relation in Christianity (and I might add, in the scriptures that reveal Christianity) should be seen and admired; but if it come to be the prominent object of belief, the great truth of Christianity is not believed.-There is much in Christianity that may take a strong hold of the imaginative faculties, and give a high species of enjoyment to the mind, but the most important part of religion in relation to sinners is its necessity. The Gospel has not been revealed that we may have the pleasure of feeling or expressing fine sentiments, but that we may be saved: the taste may receive the impression of the beauty and sublimity of the Bible, and the nervous system may have received the impression of the tenderness of its tone, and yet its meaning, its deliverance, its mystery of holy love, may remain unknown."
This is valuable to us, beloved. With all our knowledge of other glories and secrets, may our knowledge of that message of surpassing love that has reached us be, still the dearest and simplest, and most intimate possession of our souls. The Gospel of his grace tells us that our necessities have drawn forth the sympathies and resources of the blessed God. On such a truth may our hearts still dwell with lingering desires, sitting down " at that one well-spring of delight." It is in the faith of that, the life, the joy, the liberty, and strength of our souls will be found. There is one who has loved us and given himself for us, and that one none less than the Son of God. Such was the spring of Paul's life, and to such may we turn continually for light and refreshing, our hearts taking counsel there still the oftenest. And when the last of us is gathered in, and all have come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, it is that we may be taken there where with enlarged powers, both of understanding and joy, we shall praise this Lamb that was slain for the love that he had for us for evermore.
May his grace keep us with uncorrupted minds and undefiled garments, dear brethren, that we may know him only in this evil world, for his name sake!
(Continued from p. 127, vol. 12.))
The Kingdom of the Lord Jesus, &c.
Redemption, in its every step, silences the boastings of corrupted nature. Redemption, in its full accomplishment, utterly abolishes that nature. The earth will visibly declare the former, and the heavens the latter, in the millennial kingdom of the Son of God.
But my subject has not been this kingdom in its glorious display of the various triumphs of redemption. I have desired to direct attention to a period preparatory to that. A period in which the redeemed and delivered earthly people are led through a course of moral and external preparation for their earthly glory.
I have written very generally, hoping that others may be led to bring scripture testimony more definitely to bear on this period. For its study would, I believe, cast light on much scripture (especially the Psalms), and would necessarily unfold the deep counsels, and unfailing workbags of our God, in redemption. And to learn redemption, is to have intelligent fellowship with God, in a work which he purposed before this world's creation, and which he will fully perfect only when this world has ceased to be.
For however, by means of redemption, God may yet bless and gladden this old creation, still this old creation is not redeemed. To display his Son's title and glory, God will, by him, pour out redemption-blessing on this creation-its sabbath of repose and thanksgiving and joy; but in the new heavens and the new earth alone will the consummated results of redemption be seen. The Lord grant unto his saints more communion with his own heart and mind in all this!