The poor leper in Matt. 8, had that faith which discovered Christ. For it is the duty of faith to do this-to make discoveries of the Lord Jesus, veiled as He was under the thick covering of His needed and assumed humiliation.
As he came to Jesus, we are told, " he worshipped Him," and called Him " Lord." And he appealed to Him as the God of Israel, the one who could heal leprosy-all this telling that this poor leper had faith which discovered the glory of the Son of God.
But it is the business of faith to use Jesus as well as to discover Him. But in this second duty of faith, this poor man failed. He did not use the glory which he had discovered-at least, not in all that ease and confidence that was worthy of it. " If thou wilt thou canst," he says.
And this is a very common condition of the soul. The passage from the discovery to the use of Him, is commonly made with some difficulty. The reserve natural to the conscience of a sinner-the wrong conclusions which the heart of man forms respecting God -the influence of mere human religious thoughts-and the advantages which Satan gains over the soul-account for this. This poor soul was doubtful in using the grace of Him whose glory his faith had apprehended. " Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean." The if was attached only to the will or grace of Jesus.
But the Lord sets himself to verify this discovery of Him which faith had already made, and also to encourage that use or enjoyment of Him, which as yet faith was slow to make. He touched the leper. This was not needed. His word would have been all-sufficient. But He touched the leper; because (son of man as he was, very man as very God) he had God's own distance from all defilement. And then He dealt with him as the Jehovah of Israel, saying, " I will, be thou clean"-thus, not only healing the poor man, but encouraging him, letting him learn, in the simple effectual grace that was visiting him, how in a moment He would put from his heart all the spirit of doubt and of fear that was lingering there.
This case, after this manner, has its own instruction and comfort for us. The other case of the ten lepers, in Luke 17, is very differently marked.
The appeal of these poor sufferers was little more than the instinctive cry of misery. As the Lord passed by, they cried, " Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." They had doubtless heard of Him, and of His doings for poor sufferers like themselves. But they did not know Him by any divinely-wrought apprehension. They called Him only, " Master," and appealed merely to His " mercy." They did not acknowledge His person or His power, like the leper we have already looked at in Matt. Their cry for mercy was only that challenge of felt and conscious misery which appeals to any that pass by. But in answer even to such a call as this, Jesus stands and speaks; as, of old, the Lord God would hear the cry of nature in Hagar. " Go, chew yourselves to the priest," says the Lord, in answer to this cry; and then, as we further read, " as they went, they were healed." He took the place, and did the work, of the Lord God of Israel.
The Samaritan that was among them then becomes distinguished. We read of him thus, " And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks; and he was a Samaritan."
This was quickening. This was salvation. This was more than healed leprosy. " Arise," says Jesus, " go thy way, thy faith hath saved thee. ' (σεσωκε σε.)
These are our materials in this little significant narrative. Short and simple as they well could be; but they speak of divine secrets to the soul. For we have in this case two beautiful outshinings-an outshining of the personal glory of Christ, and an outshining of the hidden light and power of the Holy Ghost. This may be seen very clearly and surely.
It was both a doctrine and an accepted fact, in Israel, that none could heal a leper but Jehovah-as indeed I have hinted already, and as is well known. No washings of the temple could serve in such a case, no sacrifices could reach it, no priestly interference was even allowed. The healing of a leper must be accomplished, if at all, while the leper was separated from every one. It was a divine work. The ordinance in Lev. 13; 14, which intimates this, tells us, therefore, as I said, that it was a doctrine in Israel, that none could heal a leper but Jehovah. And the case of Naaman the Syrian, in 2 Kings 5, and the king's surprise and indignation that he had been appealed to, to cleanse a man of his leprosy, shows us that this was likewise an accepted fact in Israel.
But here Jesus enters into the separated place. He meets the leper outside the camp, just as, and where, the Lord God of Israel had ofttimes met many a leper. He puts Himself between the leper and the priest, between the defilement and the cleansing-the very place which belonged to' Jehovah and to Him only-and in that place He does the work which was Jehovah's and His only. He healed the leper. Ere he and his companions reached the place, their leprosy was gone. And this sealed the title of Jesus to fill God's place in the midst of His Israel.
Here, then, the personal glory of Christ shines out. This was the witness of a light in Jesus which, in its fullness, no man can approach unto. He answers the cry of misery as from the throne of God.
Then, the hidden work of the Spirit in the soul of this Samaritan shines out, in its way, just as brightly and fully. He had already been healed. He might have gone on with his companions, to the priest, and done the work, with them, which Moses had commanded. But now be is given faith as well as healing, the faith of God's elect. The hidden power of the Holy Ghost had not, till now, linked his soul with the Christ of God. The word of God, as we have seen, had testified in Israel that healing of a leper was a divine work, that none but God Himself could recover a man of his leprosy. This testimony this poor stranger was now given faith to receive. His soul, by the Spirit, was bound to the truth, and Jesus, having been his healer, shines before his instructed soul in the glory of the God of Israel. He falls before Him. He is on his face at the feet of Jesus. The mercy he had received was more than human compassion or the help of a fellow-creature. "I am God, and beside me there is no Savior," sounded in his ears. Jehovah-rophi, " I am the Lord that healeth thee," was before his awakened soul.
And this, as we said, was salvation. This was more than healing. A revelation of Christ had been made to him by the Spirit through the word and through the mercy he had received, and he was a new creature now, as he had been a healed leper before.
This was a fine outshining of the hidden work and light of the Spirit. And the boldness of his faith only brightens this the more. He had been commanded by the Lord to go forward to the priest, and all his companions continue on that road. But he, alone and without further orders, or further delay, turns backward to Jesus.
This was a fine, bold, vigorous action. The Spirit reveals Jesus and presses Him home upon the undivided acceptance of the soul, though law and ordinances may seem to have their claims and stand in the way. And this action of our Samaritan reflects this way of the Spirit. He knows nothing but Jesus. The priest and the temple are behind him. All is gone, now that Jesus is come. In his thoughts, as in the mind of the Spirit, there was One standing there, " greater than the temple." He glorified Jesus as God, and was thankful.
Jesus Himself magnified the law, and served the old temple and priesthood, and therefore He would say to a leper, "Go show thyself to the priest and offer the gift which Moses commanded for a testimony unto them." But as He magnified the law, the Spirit magnifies Him, and so does the faith of the elect.
And boldness of faith like this of the Samaritan, which reached Him through any or every partition-wall, was ever welcome to Him. If it pressed through a crowd, or broke up the roof of a house, if it waited not for introduction, or refused ceremony, if it acted without ordinances or even, as here, contrary to command, it was only the more welcome. It was His joy to be addressed by a full, unquestioning faith. In the language of the Canticles, we may say, it was then, on such occasions, like the faith of the centurion, or of Bartimaeus, or of the friends of the palsied man, or of the Syrophenician, or of the Samaritan sinner at the well, or of the Samaritan leper here, that His soul was set as in a chariot, the chariots of his willing people. (See Song of Sol. 6:1212Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib. (Song of Solomon 6:12).)
The First-Born Among Many Brethren. Hebrews 1
The way in which the Lord Jesus is spoken of in the opening of this epistle is worthy of special notice; for it is in His human nature that He is here taken up, (for He was human as well as divine,) and this wreath of glory, composed of so many testimonies to the worth and excellency of His person, is bound upon His brows, as a lowly man. It is not the purpose of the Spirit in this chapter to speak of Him in His godhead-other scriptures abundantly do that-but that which is brought out here is, that all these passages speak about Him as a man down here, while, at the same moment, they show us the wonderful person behind the man.
Every Scripture has its appropriate subject; and our advancement in divine wisdom hangs on our discernment, by the Holy Spirit, of its distinct and various import. This portion, then, was not written to tell us about God, or that " the WORD was God," but to tell us that JESUS Is Goy; and that He, who once walked up and down on our earth, and breathed our air, and conversed with men, eating and drinking with them, and sympathizing with them in all their sorrows, and who wept at the grave of Lazarus and over the city of Jerusalem, was the very same glorious One.
Now there is an immense difference between the knowledge of this truth and a mere orthodox reception of the doctrine of the Trinity. Men may have this, and boast in it, and yet have no right apprehension of Jesus as God; and may even be seeking for other means than His precious blood to bring them to God, and for other mediators than Christ between their souls and God. Being at a distance from God, they naturally and necessarily are looking for something that is nearer to God than themselves. Hence it is that a mere doctrinal knowledge of the Trinity never draws out the affections of the soul; for it is that which most adapts itself to us that we most love. The person that my heart will be most knit to is the one to whom I can go in all my sufferings, and all my sorrows, and who can get from God all I want.
But where shall I find this object of my affections -this supplier of my need-but in the Lord Jesus Christ? And it is thus the knowledge of Him sanctifies both in life and spirit. But while I get the one that can and does sympathize with me in every want and in every need, if that one were less than divine, less than God, it would not do.
Still that which is brought out in this chapter is not abstractly that He is God. The first chapter of John's Gospel does that; but this first chapter of Hebrews, though bringing out His divine nature, takes it up at the other end. And here it may be observed that the knowledge of the person of Christ is absolutely essential to the understanding of the Scriptures. For example, the Jews were looking for a king, for an heir of David's throne, and they knew that Messiah was to be David's son: but Christ puzzles them by asking them how it was, if He was David's son, He could also be David's Lord? But this epistle brings out in these two chapters the very person they were expecting. For they take up not merely the divine nature, but also the divine nature in humiliation.
In the first chapter, be speaks of the divine excellency that was in Him,- " the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His person;' and in the second chapter, how He was tempted in His manhood, like as we are, yet without sin. It was not merely the divinity of a person known in humiliation that they had before their eyes and their minds, but the carpenter's son, one "who was in all things made like unto His brethren," and that man was God.
This changes every thought and feeling as to relationship with God. It changes not only my thoughts about God, but about myself. For I learn what God is to me, when I look at Him in these two chapters. I learn that He clothed Himself in human nature, and so came near to me before I was aware of it; and thus it is not merely an abstract truth that my soul receives, but " God manifest in the flesh." Christ was to be the manifestation of God to man, and the manifestation of man to God: and that, mark, with all the responsibility of our sins.
He introduces Christ in this chapter not only as the Son, but he also unfolds who this person is, that is now speaking among men. God was in communication with man in testimony from the beginning, and " at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, but bath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he bath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds." This person, this Christ, is the appointed heir of all things; by whom also He made the worlds; so that He is the Creator as well as the heir, as in Colossians. He brings out what He was in coining out from God, and in returning again to God, "who was the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of His power." (Compare Isa. 6 with John 6 and 12.)
When the Lord spoke from Sinai, His voice shook the earth, but now He speaks by His Son from heaven. Then comes in the blessed character of redemption-for He is the provider of redemption, as well as the upholder of creation. And here it is shown that redemption is a part of the divine glory. " When he had by himself purged our sins." He does not say, when He had by His blood purged our sins, (although it was by blood,) but it is by himself; and when it is himself, it necessarily brings in His glory; for redemption must be the display of divine glory.
Redemption is a divine act by a divine person, and yet by one who was truly a man like ourselves. He was a man who felt what the weight of sin was, when God laid it upon Him, and yet without sin Himself. None but God could have done this, else it would have been surpassing Him in excellence. It must be by Himself that our sins are purged. And then He sat down at the right hand of God; for He had a right to take His seat above. He had left it and come down in divine love, and now He has a right to return to it again, and sit down. But now He takes a definite and distinct place on the right hand of the majesty on high. How blessedly this comes to us; for now we can consider who this Christ is-this wonderful person who came down so low, and though now so high, yet is near enough to us to come home to our hearts continually. All this is not merely an abstract truth, but a man we know who has a divine nature.
In the second Psalm we have His sonship in the world brought out, " Thou art my beloved Son, this day have I begotten thee,"-a thing in connection with time-" this day have I begotten thee." And again in Luke, first chapter, " That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." So also in John, Jesus says, " I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world, and go to the Father." So in Colossians, the Spirit testifying of Jesus says, " who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature." The very same one by whom He made the worlds, in His essential divine nature-" for by him were all things created,"-is the one who by Himself has purged our sins. But we still have this Christ; and it must be very evident how different a thing it is to the soul if I can think of Him and consider Him as one that I can eat and drink with, and talk with, to what it would be if I only knew Him as the heir of God, " seated at the right hand of the majesty on high." He was humbled to the very dust of death for us; for "now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth!"
And " being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance a more excellent name than they." He had a title to the superiority over angels, by virtue of His name,-for here is one exalted who had a title to it by inheritance, being a Son then and heir. Consider the glory of this wonderful, this excellent man, who hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than the angels, and therefore put in a place above the angels, for His having humbled Himself.
And " when God bringeth again the first-begotten into the world, He saith, Let all the angels of God worship Him." The Father is now looking at One who was His daily companion. " I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son." Here God is giving to this Son of David, one born into the world, the condition and title of a son. " He shall be to me a Son." And we are associated in this, " I will be to him a Father," and Jesus says, " my Father and your Father;" thus bringing this relationship with God into the companionship of our daily lives. Jesus could take the place of first-begotten into the world; " this day have I begotten thee," which expresses that He was in the world as one truly born of God. He was the only-begotten, as the Son, but the firstborn of many brethren. It was the recognition of the Son of David as the Son of God, by the Spirit, when he says, " When he bringeth the first-begotten again into the world He saith, Let all the angels of God worship him." But He has a higher glory than this, for we worship Him; and I could not talk of Him in His full blessedness if I did not see Him in a glory beyond all this. Because as the firstborn of many brethren there is that which none other of the brethren can ever have; for behind it all there is the Lord that has saved: the blessedness of His eternal glory behind His humiliation. And this it was that the Jews could not bear; for as soon as Jesus had said, " Before Abraham was, I am," they immediately took up stones to stone Him. This eternal glory which was in the man Christ Jesus, had no glory in man's eye, because it was in man's nature. They had received the law by the disposition of angels. They would receive any display of power which would keep God at a distance from them. When it was merely the creature, they could sustain the natural glory of God, so to speak, because they could not in any way modify the nature of God to their understandings.
Here it is that He that ascended is the very same that first descended; for it was divine love that put Him in the low place, making exaltation possible.
"Unto the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire." " But to the Son he says (still looking at Him as the Son) Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. ' And then mark how He lets us back again into His companionship with us. " Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore God, even thy God, bath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." He calls us His fellows. He takes us up, and associates us with Him; because if He is addressed as God, the man who is up there is associated with His fellows. He was anointed above His fellows, for it will not do to be merely as His fellows. But it is doubly blessed to know that He is anointed above His fellows. On this ground he says, "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory." That is what He was as the object of the Father's delight before the foundation of the world.
Now let us look at our blessed Lord when sitting down weary at the well. When the woman came to draw water, Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink, and the woman replied, How is it that thou askest drink of me? When Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that is dependent for a drink of water on such a wicked woman as you are, you would have asked of Him and He would have given thee living water. If you had understood that God had come so near to you, descended so low as to be dependent on you for a cup of cold water;-had you known God to have been in the lowly One that you met in the place of dependence, you would have asked of Him and He would have given thee living water. And now that He is exalted He calls us His fellows. When He is in the highest point of His exaltation, believers are His fellows, and when He is at the lowest point of His humiliation then Jehovah owns Him as His fellow. "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts."
"And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth." Now He goes; so to express it, into His aboriginal godhead. " Thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail." This is a quotation from the 102nd Psalm. Speaking of His lowest humiliation, " Lord, cut me not off in the midst of my days," the answer to it is this, " Thou in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth." " Thou hast lifted me up and cast me down." For as a man Jesus was lifted up into the glorious place as Messiah, and then cast down into the dust of death. " He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days." "Of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth." " Thou art the same and thy years shall not fail." Thus we find Him in the lowest point of His humiliation, shining forth as the Lord who laid the foundation of the earth. Thus it is we are made to see the eternal God in the dying man.
He who upholds all things by the word of His power, having by Himself purged our sins, returns and sits down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Thus the soul is given a resting-place in the official glory given to Christ. For the apostle says, " See how God has set this man on His own right hand!" " Sit thou on my right hand;" although in another sense He sat Himself down there. He brings Him into the place in which the Church may view Him as sat down there, because He has accomplished the work; has perfected them forever by His one offering, and so sat down. All is finished by one offering. And in another place it is said, He hath " made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ," as the testimony of the efficacy of the work of the Son. In the following chapter he speaks of the blessedness of His being tempted like as we are, yet without sin, so that He can sympathize with us in all the trials of our new nature and the difficulties through which we are passing. It is by thus seeing Him that we know the glory of His person.
If an angel leaves its first estate, it is a fallen angel. Any one leaving its first estate, except God, is a fallen creature. If man leaves his first estate, it is to exalt himself. "Ye shall be as gods." But if God leaves his first estate, it is in humiliation. We are now to know Him thoroughly, and so near to us yet exalted above us, and not ashamed to call us brethren.