The Glory of the Redeemer in His Humiliation c'

cont'd
There cannot, perhaps, be a position, however peculiar and difficult, in which the believer may be placed, but he will find that Jesus, either by precept or example, has defined the path in which he should walk. Let me illustrate this, by citing a few individual cases. The subject of this chapter pointedly and solemnly addresses itself to the rich. Circumstanced as you are by the providence of God, you have need closely and prayerfully to ascertain how, in your situation, Jesus walked. One of the peculiar snares to which your station exposes you is high-mindedness, and consequent self-trust and complacency. But here the Lord Jesus presents Himself as your example. He, too, was rich; creating all things, He possessed all things. The Creator of all worlds, all worlds were at His command. Yet, amazing truth! in the days of His humiliation, He was as though He possessed nothing, "Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor." In view of such an illustrious Pattern, what is your duty? Simple and obvious. You are in a degree to become poor, by devoting your substance to the glory of God. To amass wealth, for the purpose of hoarding it, is contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, and is opposed to the teaching and example of Christ. It is a sin- an awful, a soul-periling sin. It exposes you to a vortex, which has already drawn and engulfed within its fearful abyss thousands of rich professors. Unless you are strictly following the steps of Christ, as one to whom immense responsibilities attach in connection with worldly prosperity, increasing wealth, or already acquired affluence, you are encircled by imminent danger. Your property is a talent, for which, as a steward, you are as certainly and as solemnly accountable to God as for any other. It is perhaps the one talent that He has given you. What if you bury it in covetousness, or in prodigal expenditure and self-indulgence, refusing to relax your grasp of it to promote His cause and truth, who became poor to enrich us; how will you meet His scrutiny and His glance when the judgment is set, and He demands an account of your stewardship? Nor is it a small, though, perhaps, a solitary talent. Bestowed upon but few, the obligation becomes the greater to consecrate it unreservedly to the Lord. And how can you withhold it, in view of the claims which crowd upon you on either hand? What! are you at a loss for a channel through which your benevolence might flow? Are you inquiring, "How shall I devote my property to God? To what especial object shall I contribute of my substance? In what way may this my one talent best answer the end for which it is bestowed?" Cast your eye around you- surely you cannot long hesitate. Survey the map of Christian missions, is there no part of Christ's kingdom languishing through an inadequacy of pecuniary support? Is there no mission embarrassed, if not abandoned, no laborious missionary disheartened, perhaps recalled, for the lack of that very substance which you are either hoarding up in the spirit of avarice, or lavishing in unnecessary and extravagant selfishness, or else, in the anticipation of a posthumous benevolence, have locked up in a piece of dry parchment, in the shape of a testamentary bequest, to be disposed of after your death? Is there no important enterprise impeded in its course of benevolence by the lack of funds? -no useful society discouraged and crippled through the narrowness and insufficiency of its resources? Is there no important sphere of labor in your vicinity neglected, no spot in the moral wilderness entirely untilled, because the means to supply and sustain an effective agency have been lacking? Is there no sanctuary of God burdened with debt, the existence of which presses like an incubus upon the spiritual prosperity and zealous exertion of the Christian community worshiping within its walls, and which your outstretched hand could remove and cast away? Is there no faithful, hard working minister of Christ within your knowledge and your reach, combating with straitened circumstances, oppressed by poverty, and toiling amid lonely care, embarrassment, and anxiety, studiously and delicately screened from human eye, which it is in your power to alleviate and remove? Is there no widow's heart you could make to sing for joy? no orphan, whose tears you could dry? no saint of God tried by sickness, or need, or imprisonment, from whose spirit you could lift the burden, and from whose heart you could chase the sorrow, and from whose feet you could strike the fetter? Surely a world of need, and woe, and suffering is before you, nor need you yield to a moment's hesitation in selecting the object around which your charity should entwine.
Here, then, is your example. Jesus became poor, lived poor, and died poor. Dare you die a rich man, an affluent professor? I beseech you, ponder this question. If your Lord has left you an example that you should follow His steps, then you are called upon to become poor, to live poor, yes, even to die poor for Him.
But especially are you exhorted to rejoice in that, by the grace of God, you are made low. That in the midst of so much calculated to nourish the pride and lofty independence of the natural heart, you have been made to know your deep spiritual poverty, and as a sinner have been brought to the feet of Jesus. By that grace only can you be kept low. Here is your only security. Mere wealth invests its possessor with no real power or greatness. It confers no moral nor intellectual glory. It insures not against the inroad of evil. It throws around no shield. It may impart a measure of artificial importance, authority, and influence in the world's estimation; beyond this, what is it? Unsanctified by Divine grace, it entails upon its unhappy possessor an innumerable train of evils. As a Christian man, then, exposed to the snares of even a moderate degree of worldly prosperity, your only security is in drawing largely from the "exceeding riches of Christ's grace;" your true wealth is in the fear of God ruling in your heart, in the love of Christ constraining you to "lie low in a low place;" to bear the cross daily; to walk closely, obediently, and humbly with God; employing the property with which He has intrusted you as a faithful steward; your eye ever "looking unto Jesus" as your Pattern.
Equally full and pointed in its instruction is this dark page in the Redeemer's history, to those of His saints who, by the providence of God, are placed in elevated walks in life, and upon whom are conferred the distinctions of human rank, power, and greatness. To assert, as some have done, that the word of God refuses to recognize human distinctions in society, and that when Divine grace takes possession of the heart, it becomes the duty of its subject to relinquish the rank, forego the influence, descend from the position, and go out of the sphere of life in the possession of which grace found him, would seem, not only to transcend the wisdom, but even to arraign the providence of God.
He who despises a rich man because he is rich, as much reproaches God, as he who oppresses a poor man because he is poor. The same providence which ordained the one, created the other. In the one case, we reproach God for creating the rich, and in the other, we reproach Him for creating the poor. In both we impeach His sovereignty, wisdom, and goodness. There is much in the leveling and equalizing spirit of the age to awaken strong suspicion and alarm. Let us be clearly understood. With the holy desire and fervent prayer of those who long for a clearer and wider line of demarcation between the Church and the world- for a more visible separation of the one from the other- for more spirituality among the Lord's people- more heavenly-mindedness, less sinful conformity to, and unnecessary mingling with, the world, we truly and deeply sympathize. But with the spirit to which we have alluded- a spirit which seeks to sap the foundation of human governments, to upheave human society, to loosen its bonds, annihilate its orders, and equalize its distinctions, we can have no sympathy whatever, believing it opposed to the spirit of true Christianity, which inculcates upon all men reverence for the civil power; which enjoins homage to kings, obedience to magistrates, prayer for all that are in authority, "honor to whom honor, and tribute to whom tribute is due;" remembering that "the powers that be are ordained by God."
Would it not also appear on examination, that, even among many saints of God, views are found to exist, the tendency of which is to foster a similar principle to that we have just reprehended? There would seem to be an impression- though the idea would probably meet with instant rejection- that providence and grace are opposed to each other- that, when the purpose of grace is accomplished, the arrangements of providence must be broken up; in other words, that the grace of God disqualifies for the previous sphere of elevated life which the providential arrangements of God had assigned to its subject. We think such an idea, practically acted upon, as some have done, fraught with many and serious evils. God will be glorified in everything that He has created, from the mote in the sunbeam to the highest product of His power. Especially is He glorified in maintaining His saints in the different spheres and relations of life in which His grace has called them. Thus He makes use of one believer's rank, of another's wealth, of another's influence, of another's attainments. On all is inscribed, "Holiness to the Lord;" and all, sanctified and set apart to a holy purpose and end, are pressed into His service, and are made to contribute to His glory. Imagine, then, how antagonistical the one to the other would providence and grace be made to appear, were a man of rank to relinquish his rank, a man of wealth to part with his wealth, a man of influence to come out of the sphere of his influence, the moment the great transition from death to life, from darkness to light, had taken place. The change from nature into grace is not an immediate translation from grace to glory. He is called spiritually out of the world, but yet left in the world, and left in it, too, that for awhile be may glorify Him who has called him. "These are in the world," says Christ to His Father. And again; "As You have sent me into the world, even so also have I sent them into the world." And although it is most true that "not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called;" yet it is equally true that to those who are so called the inspired exhortation is addressed, "Brothers, each man, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation God called him to."
But if, my reader, God has called you by His sovereign grace in the circumstances to which I have alluded, the grand point that we would press upon you, is the importance of placing prominently and constantly before you the Lord Jesus as your Pattern. Have you rank? have you distinction? have you wealth? have you influence? So had Christ. But how did He wear that rank, and sustain that distinction, and dispose of that wealth, and employ that influence? In the spirit of the profoundest humility, and with a view to the holiest and most sublime end! On what occasion will you detect in Him the parade of lofty title, or the pride of elevated distinction, or the haughty reserve of superior birth, or the tyrannical exercise of sovereign power, or the selfish indulgence of unbounded influence? Never! The "Ancient of days" did seem to be the infant of days, the eternal God as the lowliest man- with so meek, so humble, and so condescending a carriage, did He deport Himself in the days of His flesh. Of Him, and from Him, you have need to learn how best to glorify your heavenly Father in your present position. Looking narrowly into His word, examining closely His precept and example, you will avoid all worldly aggrandizement in your profession of Christian discipleship- you will be reminded that His "kingdom is not of this world;" that in the Church the "rich and the poor meet together;" that on common ground they there stand; that there all human distinction is lost, and all embrace each other as fellow-heirs of the same eternal inheritance. But if forbidden to carry your worldly distinctions into your Christianity, you are not forbidden to carry your Christianity into the elevated circle in which you move, showing how the grace of the Lord Jesus can make you poor, though rich; humble, though elevated; and child-like, though gifted. Oh, be constrained in the spirit of the profoundest humility to lay your title, your wealth, your honor, and your intellectual attainments at the foot of the cross, an unreserved, consecrated, and willing offering to His glory, who though the "King of kings, and Lord of lords," once hung upon it in ignominy and suffering and death. You "know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," -the rich, the amazing, the sovereign, the free grace of Jesus, to which you owe all that is precious and glorious in the prospect of eternity; you know from personal and blessed experience this fathomless, boundless grace, which has made you what you are, and will make you what you shall yet be- let this grace, then, accomplish its perfect work in you, by leading you to glory only of Jesus, to yield yourself supremely to His service, and to regard the worldly distinction God has conferred upon you as valuable only as it promotes His kingdom, truth, and glory, who "though rich, for your sakes became poor, that you, through His poverty, might be made rich."
Permit me to reiterate the exhortation- cultivate, above all spiritual conditions, most assiduously, prayerfully, earnestly, and fervently, poverty of spirit. Rest not short of it. This is the legitimate fruit, and the only safe evidence, of our union to Christ, and the indwelling of the Spirit in our hearts. Nothing can suffice for it. Splendid talent, versatile gifts, profound erudition, gorgeous eloquence, and even extensive usefulness, are wretched substitutes for poverty of spirit. They may dazzle the eye, and please the ear, and delight the taste, and awaken the applause of man, but, dissociated from profound humiliation of mind, God sees no glory in them. What does He say? "To this man" (to him only, to him exclusively) "will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word." We may think highly of gifts, but let us learn their comparative value and true place from the words of our Lord, spoken in reference to John: "Verily I say unto you, Among those who are born of women there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." Behold the true position which Christ assigns to distinction of office, of place, and of gifts-subordinate to lowliness of spirit. This is their proper rank; and he who elevates them above profound self-abasement, deep lowliness of spirit, sins against God, impeaches His wisdom, and denies the truth of His word.
But how shall we adequately describe this blessed state? how draw the portrait of the man that is "poor, and of a contrite spirit?" Look at him as he appears in his own apprehension and judgment- "the chief of sinners," "less than the least of all saints," "though I be nothing." Prostrate, where others exalt him; condemning, where others approve him; censuring, where others applaud him; humbling himself, where others have put upon him the greatest honor. Confessing in secret and in the dust before God, the flaws, the imperfections, and the sins of those things which have dazzled the eyes, and awakened to trembling ecstasy the souls of the multitude. Look at him in the place he assumes among others- taking the low position; in honor preferring others; washing the disciples' feet; willing to serve rather than be served; rejoicing in the distinction, the promotion, the gifts, the usefulness, and the honor put upon his fellow-saints; and ready himself to go up higher at his Master's bidding. Look at him under the hand of God- meek, patient, resigned, humbled, drinking the bitter cup, blessing the hand that has smitten, justifying the wisdom, the love, and the gentleness which mark the discipline, and eager to learn the holy lessons it is sent to teach. Look at him before the cross- reposing all his gifts, and attainments, and honors at his foot, and glorying only in the exhibition it presents of the holy God pardoning sin through the death of His Son, and as the hallowed instrument by which he becomes crucified to the world, and the world to him.
And how shall we array, in the strongest light, before you, the motives which urge the cultivation of this poverty of spirit? Is it not enough that this is the spiritual state on which Jehovah looks with an eye of exclusive, holy, and ineffable delight? "To this man will I look." "Splendid gifts, brilliant attainments, costly sacrifices, are nothing to me. To this man will I look, that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembles at my word."
To this would add, if you value your safe, happy, and holy walk- if you prize the manifestations of God's presence- "the kisses of His mouth, whose love is better than wine," the teaching, guiding, and comforting influence of the Holy Spirit, seek it. If you would be a "savor of Christ in every place," -if you would pray with more fervor, unction, and power- if you would labor with more zeal, devotedness, and success, seek poverty of spirit. By all that is dear, and precious, and holy- by your own happiness, by the honor of Christ, by the glory of God, by the hope of heaven, seek to be found among those who are "poor, and of a contrite spirit," who, with filial, holy love, tremble at God's word, whom Jesus has pronounced blessed here, and fit for glory hereafter. And though, in approaching the Great High Priest, you have no splendid and costly intellectual offerings to present, yet with the royal penitent you can say, "You would not be pleased with sacrifices, or I would bring them. If I brought you a burnt offering, you would not accept it. The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise." "This, Lord, is all that I have to bring You."
Avoid a spurious humility. True humility consists not in denying the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, in underrating the grace of God in our souls, in standing afar off from our heavenly Father, and in walking at a distance from Christ, always doubting the efficacy of His blood, the freeness of His salvation, the willingness of His heart, and the greatness of His power to save. Oh no! this is not the humility that God delights to look at, but is a false, a counterfeit humility, obnoxious in His sight. But, to "draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith," in lowly dependence upon His blood and righteousness; to accept of salvation as the gift of His grace; to believe the promise, because He has spoken it; gratefully and humbly to acknowledge our calling, our adoption, and our acceptance, and to live in the holy, transforming influence of this exalted state, giving to the Triune God all the praise and glory; this is the humility which is most pleasing to God, and is the true product of the Holy Spirit.
This subject addresses itself especially and soothingly to those who, like their Lord, are the subjects of deep humiliation and suffering. But imperfectly, perhaps, beloved reader, are you aware of the high privilege to which you are admitted, and of the great glory conferred upon you in being identified with Jesus in His life of humiliation. This is one of the numerous evidences by which your adoption into the family of God is authenticated, and by which your union with Christ is confirmed. It may be you are the subject of deep poverty, your circumstances are straitened, your resources are limited, your necessities are many and pressing. Perhaps you are the "man that has known affliction;" sorrow has been your constant and intimate companion; you have become "acquainted with grief." The Lord has been leading you along a path of painful humiliation. You have been "emptied from vessel to vessel." He has brought you down, and laid you low; step by step- and yet, oh how wisely and how gently He has been leading you deeper and yet deeper into the valley! But why all this leading about? why this emptying? why this descending? Even to bring you into a union and communion with Jesus in His life of humiliation! Is there a step in your abasement that Jesus has not trodden with you- ah, and trodden before you? Is there a sin that He has not carried, a cross that He has not borne, a sorrow that has not affected Him, an infirmity that has not touched Him? Even so will He cause you to reciprocate this sympathy, and have fellowship with Him in His sufferings. As the Head did sympathize with the body, so must the body sympathize with the Head. Yes, the very same humiliation which you are now enduring, the Son of God has before endured. And that you might learn something what that love, and grace, and power were which enabled Him to pass through it all, He pours a little drop into your cup, places a small part of the cross upon your shoulder, and throws a slight shadow on your soul! Yes, the very sufferings you are now enduring are, in a faint and limited degree, the sufferings of Christ. "Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you," says the apostle, "and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for His body's sake, which is the Church."
There is a twofold sense in which Jesus may be viewed as a sufferer. He suffered in His own person as the Mediator of His Church; those sufferings were vicarious and complete, and in that sense He can suffer no more; "for by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified." The other now presents Him as suffering in His members- in this sense Christ is still a sufferer; and although not suffering to the same degree, or for the same end, as He once did, nevertheless He who said, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?" is identified with the Church in all its sufferings; in all her afflictions, He being afflicted. The apostle therefore terms the believer's present sufferings, the "afflictions of Christ." Behold, then, your exalted privilege, you suffering sons of God! See how the glory beams around you, you humble and afflicted ones! You are one with the Prince of sufferers, and the Prince of sufferers is one with you! Oh! to be one with Christ- what tongue can speak, what pen can describe the sweetness of the blessing, and the greatness of the grace? To sink with Him in His humiliation here, is to rise with Him in His exaltation hereafter. To share with Him in His abasement on earth, is to blend with Him in His glory in heaven. To suffer shame and ridicule, persecution and distress, poverty and loss, for Him now, is to wear the crown, and wave the palm, and swell the triumph, and shout the song, when He shall descend the second time in glory and majesty, to raise His bride from the scene of her humiliation, robe her for the marriage, and make her manifestly and eternally His own.
Oh! laud His great name for all the present conduct of His providence and grace. Praise Him for all the wise, though affecting, discoveries He gives you of yourself, of the creature, of the world. Blessed, ah! truly blessed and holy is the discipline that prostrates your spirit in the dust. There it is that He reveals the secret of His own love, and draws apart the veil of His own loveliness. There it is that He brings the soul deeper into the experience of His sanctifying truth; and with new forms of beauty, and expressions of endearment, allures the heart, and takes a fresh possession of it for Himself. And there, too, it is that the love, tenderness, and grace of the Holy Spirit are better known. As the Comforter, as the Revealer of Jesus, we are, perhaps, more fully led into an acquaintance with the work of the Spirit in seasons of self-abasement, than at any other time. The mode and time of His Divine manifestation are thus beautifully predicted: "He shall come down like rain on the mown grass; as showers that water the earth." Observe the gentleness, the silence, end the sovereignty of His operation- "He shall come down like rain." How characteristic of the blessed Spirit's grace! Then mark the occasion on which it descends- it is at the time of the soul's deep prostration. The waving grass is mown, the lovely flower is laid low, the fruitful stem is broken; that which was beautiful, and fragrant, and precious, is cut down- the fairest first to fade, the loveliest first to die, the fondest first to depart; then, when the mercy is gone, and the spirit is bowed, and the heart is broken, and the mind is dejected, and the world seems clad in wintry desolateness and gloom, the Holy Spirit, in all the softening, reviving, comforting, and refreshing tendency of His grace, descends, speaks of the beauty of Jesus, leads to the grace of Jesus, lifts the bowed soul, and reposes it on the bosom of Jesus, and wakes its heart to the sweetest strains of music.
"I live, His power to show, who once did bring
My joys to weep, and now my griefs to sing."
Precious and priceless, then, beloved, are the seasons of the believer's humiliation. They tell of the soul's emptiness, of Christ's fulness; of the creature's insufficiency, of Christ's all-sufficiency; of the world's poverty, of Christ's affluence: they create a necessity which Jesus supplies, a void which Jesus fills, a sorrow which Jesus soothes, a desire which Jesus satisfies. They endear the cross of the incarnate God, they reveal the hidden glory of Christ's humiliation, they sweeten prayer, lift the soul to God; and then, "truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ." Are you as a bruised flower? Are you as a broken stem? Does some heavy trial now bow you in the dust? Oh, never, perhaps, were you so truly beautiful; never did your grace send forth such fragrance, nor your prayers ascend with so sweet an odor; never did faith, and hope, and love develop their hidden glories so richly, so fully as now! In the eye of the wounded, bruised, and humbled Christ, you were never more lovely, and to His heart never more precious than now- pierced by His hand, smitten by His rod, humbled by His chastisement, laid low at His feet, condemning yourself, justifying Him, taking to yourself all the shame, and ascribing to Him all the glory.
"Thanks Be unto God For His Unspeakable Gift!"