174 SERMON X. THE BELIEVER IN CHRIST A SON OF GOD. JOHN i. 12. To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. IN my discourse on the last Sabbath, I was drawing your attention to the paternal character of God. Such a revelation of the Lord Jehovah naturally leads to this this question, To whom is he such a Father? May all the children of Adam thus consider him?' To this inquiry my text gives the answer: "To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." These words are spoken in contrast with the former sentence: "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not." Here the Evangelist sets forth the wilful ignorance of some, the neglect or opposition of others. Some knew him not, although his works plainly declared him; others, though they knew him, rejected him. But, "to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." Here the Evangelist declares who are the children of God, those who receive Jesus. In considering the subject, therefore, I would first endeavour to explain wHAT WE ARE TO UNDERSTAND BY RECEIVING JESUS; next, THE PRIVILEGES connected with this reception. I. Properly to understand this expression, it will be necessary to revert to the circumstances of man previous to this reception: for this reception of Christ, is the remedy Divine mercy has provided to meet these circumstances. Without detaining you, then, on this subject, I will only refer you to what was explained more at large on the last Sabbath;—That man by his disobedience cut the cords of filial love; so that the state in which he was originally, a son of God, was lost: he had no longer the privileges of a child: he was banished from the Divine presence: his "carnal mind became enmity against God; for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be*." But * Romans viii. 7. God, still having the feelings of a Father, and determining to exercise those feelings to that innumerable multitude whom, to the glory of his grace, he had chosen in his Son, gave him as the medium of their return.-Various, my friends, are the characters in which the Lord Jesus is presented to us in the holy Scriptures. This is among the most engaging, -that he has in him that which will restore a sinner to the relation of a child; and, also, that which produces in the sinner both a desire and a meetness for such a relation. We may illustrate it in this manner. When Adam was first created, God let down a cord of love to earth, by the simple action of the Holy Spirit on the souls of our first parents: so that, by a mere exertion of his power, directed by his goodness, he formed a creature who loved him as a Father. But now he executes a far more complicated work. He unites himself, in the person of his Son, to the Seed of the woman. In him he fulfils the Law, in him he bears the punishment due to sin, and in him he is pleased that all fulness should dwell. He thus presents him to lost sinners, as the bearer of the curse, the fulfiller of the Law, the fountain of spiritual life; having in him those supplies of the Holy Spirit which will impart a new nature, spiritual light, spiritual understanding, spiritual affections-or, to speak in one word, restore again the Divine image. Thus is he a link, if I may be allowed the expression, far different from the cord first dropped down: he is a link in which the Divine and human nature are entwined; a link composed both of his sufferings and his active obedience; a link by which both pardoning mercy and sanctifying grace are sent, and sent with this generous invitation,- Come and receive this gift of God; come and receive into your soul this Saviour, who has at once ability to pardon your sin by the merit of his blood, to render you acceptable to God by covering you with his perfect righteousness, and to lead you to a childlike reverence to your great Creator by imparting to you his Holy Spirit. The receiving of Christ is, then, simply taking God at his word, or believing the record he has given of his Son. In doing this, my friends, there is implied a sense of destitution, or of the state in which we are by nature, separated from God, and incapable by any power of our own to restore this lost relation for were it not for this conscious inability, the soul would at once apply to God, instead of coming by a Mediator. There is also implied a confidence in the Lord Jesus without this there would be no application to him, more than to another: but the soul N beholds him, as he is revealed in the Scriptures, as made of "God unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." There is more than these internal acts: the inner man puts forth itself by an act of faith, and actually takes hold of Christ, or opens itself, as it were, to his reception; and, taking him as the free gift of God, says of him, 'Thou art all my salvation. To thee I look to remove the separating wall sin has made between me and my heavenly Father. To thee I look for righteousness to stand accepted in his presence. To thee also I look for those Divine influences of the Spirit which will make me meet to enjoy these blessed privileges; to regard my heavenly Father with the affection of a child, and to do his will with the filial delight of a son.' This, my beloved friends, is receiving Christ; and I mention it the more particularly, because it is as we see this part of the Divine economy with clearness, that our souls will obtain solid and substantial peace. Man by his fall has separated himself from God, and must remain eternally separated, but for this uniting medium. But thus united, the union is complete. We, who naturally imagine that peace is to be restored by some merit of our own, suppose * 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. |