IN the last chapter we traced some few of the instances in which the Lord Jesus Christ so patiently sought to pour “the oil of gladness” on the heads of unwilling sinners, ever singling out the vilest, the most wretched, or those who could not escape his loving hands; as if to compel men to see, in spite of themselves, the grace that yearned to do them good. To pursue this part of our subject would be to rewrite the whole of the four Gospels; nor even then should we have all the acts of mercy and goodness he performed; for “there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.” But “he spent his strength for naught, and his labor in vain.” The greater the grace displayed, the higher grew man’s opposition. This is a terrible truth, and a solemn comment on the inspired words, “The heart of man is.... desperately wicked.” If “he went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil,” it did but increase man’s hatred.
As the fig-tree supplies both food and nourishment to the wayfarer in Eastern lands, so he presented himself to Israel, crying, “He that cometh unto me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” Sweet indeed was the “fruit of his ways” to Him who sent him. He was “the BREAD or GOD,” the delight of the Father. His ever-perfect obedience was “sweetness” to Him; but to man the “good fruit” was offered in vain. “Bread strengtheneth man’s heart,” but God’s Bread, which came down from heaven — and because it did, —was hateful to sinners. “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.” Yes; if anything could prove it, if proof were needed, man’s ways with “the delight of the Father” fully gave it. He must “leave his fatness, wherewith by him God and man were honored” —must forsake his “sweetness and good fruit” —must leave his “wine, which cheereth God and man,” or man would not have him. “Cheereth God!” what a remarkable expression! When, in days before the flood, God looked down from heaven, what did he see? “That the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.” As when Noah sent forth the dove, and she “found no rest for the sole of her foot,” because the waters of death prevailed everywhere, so, from pole to pole, from the center to the circumference of this wide earth, was there no spot, no heart on which that holy eye could rest. “And it grieved him at his heart.” How tenderly the words fall upon the ear How wonderful to find no words of just indignation, anger, and abhorrence! “God so loved the world.” Alas, that man will not believe it; would not when “God manifest in the flesh” was there, “pouring out his love” by offering himself to every form of human need, in every way man’s desperate case required.
But, just because “God so loved,” the precious outgoings towards man of that spotless, loving life were as wine to Him who sent him. Yes, blessed truth! “God so loved the world;” but who proved it? Christ, in all his works and words and ways toward man; and therefore it was that, independently of his precious fruit towards God, the outgoings of that life on earth were as wine that “cheereth God.” Yet, the “wine that he had mingled,” man would not have. For the loaves and fishes he would own him Lord — “Lord, evermore give us this bread;” but divine unction, sustenance, and fruit, he abhors; he will resist all his offers, expel him from his coasts, take up stones to stone him, blaspheme, and seek to kill him, rather than receive the “oil of gladness,” the Bread of God, the wine of joy divine. Well might the sorrowing suffering One exclaim: “I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” So perfect was man’s ruin, so irremediable, save through death and resurrection, that, although “God manifest in the flesh” was there — there in the world his own hands had made, sinners, as such, could not be happy. Satan came to man in innocence and needing nothing, and was heard and obeyed at once. God came in the Person of his blessed Son to man ruined, wretched, needing all things, and was rejected — rejected because he was God! The hatred so persistently shown to Christ was not only personal to himself — it was hating the Father; for “he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father.” “They have both seen and hated both me and my Father;” for “the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” And the intensity of this hatred is shown in the fact that every word and deed which so declared the Father, drew forth not only undisguised opposition, but also repeated attempts at violence against the blessed person of his dear Son. If “because his hour was not yet come,” he suffered not these desperate and persistent attempts to succeed as yet if he “withdrew himself,” “escaped their hands,” “hid himself, and so passed by,” it was not, most surely, that he might escape, but that they might have yet a longer season of opportunity. But in vain. Man is a sinner and so desperate was the ruin, that, if he could help it, God himself should not lift him out of it!
And what was the end of it all? “They took Jesus, and led him away.” And he, “bearing his cross” (oh, how meekly!), “went forth” (of his own free will — there was no resistance) “into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: where they crucified him.” There the baptism he had to be baptized with was accomplished. There man gave Him the only reward he had to give for all His love. There those hands, so oft stretched forth in sweet compassion to bestow the needed grace — those feet, so swift, so untiring to hasten to the relief of the wretched, they nailed to the cross. There that heart — which beat so true to them, mourned evermore over the ruin they were in, and was broken by reproach — they pierced. If my reader be yet ignorant of Christ, let him pause here for a moment, and consider. What must have boon the love which, foreseeing all this, knowing beforehand how man would requite it, could proceed as Jesus did all through his gracious ministry? Read the inspired narrative of the Lord’s ways when on earth with the cross in full view. Peruse each chapter with the last scene indelibly fixed upon the memory. Surely you cannot remain indifferent to such love? But, alas! you will, if the Spirit do not apply it in his own power to your heart; for you are yet just what and where they wore who thus requited him. To you it may seem impossible that you could have acted thus, and yet, if you have hitherto remained content to be reckoned with the world, to be without Christ — if, having heard the Gospel of his grace so often, and being familiar with its teachings, you are still where nature placed you, still in the flesh — does not the indifference (to call it by no harder name) which you have shown to all HIS perfections prove you his enemy? Is contempt no symptom of enmity? Do trifles command an influence over you, which all you know and have heard again and again concerning Jesus, God’s dear Son, cannot even approach, much less equal? If so, as compared with them, you clearly despise him. Have the invitations, the pleadings, the solemn warnings of his Gospel sounded in your ears, met your eyes, been forced on your attention again and again in vain? If so, you have rejected him. Now, “he was despised, and rejected of men”, when on earth; but you have despised and rejected him now that he is in heaven, “declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead.” Which is the heaviest responsibility? “Much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.” Have you done this? God bore long with Israel. Infinite grace in its wondrous searching’s could see excuse for them where no other eye could see it (Acts 3:1717And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. (Acts 3:17)); but for you there is absolutely NONE. The old year is dying out; its moments will soon be buried in the grave of forgotten time. But the responsibilities they have brought to you, as one by one they have flitted by, will rise again, unless blotted out in the blood of Christ. Think of this as you listen to the death knell of the dying year, sounded from steeples which point upward to that heaven where he whom you have hitherto rejected is seated at God’s right hand!
There, “exalted where he was before,” the infinite love of his heart can now pour out itself unhindered. Through death and resurrection he is now all that his heart desired. His blood is shed, the way is made, in spite of man and Satan, and, “being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath,” says Peter, “shed forth this which ye now see and hear.” Through him, as the alone Source of all spiritual blessings, we who believe in his name, “washed from our sins in his most precious blood,” “have an unction from the holy One, and know all things.” Antitype of the olive oil, the Spirit is poured out, and dwells in them that believe. “Blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,” the believer can sing―
“What in thy love possess I not,
My Star by night, my Sun by day;
My Spring of life when parched with drought,
My Wine to cheer, my Bread to stay;
My Strength, my Shield, my safe Abode,
My Robe before the throne of God?”
“Of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.” Led of the Spirit, as his power of counion, he feeds on the risen Christ. Like Stephen of old, “gazing steadfastly up into heaven, and seeing Jesus,” “beholding with unveiled face the glory of the Lord,” he is “changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Taking his yoke upon him, and learning of him who is “meek and lowly in heart,” he finds rest to his soul. Drinking of “the wine” that he has mingled,
“Full of light and life and love,”
he finds “the joy of the Lord,” his strength. If “God and man are honored” in any measure by him, it is only as he is partaker of the fatness of the true Olive-tree. If “sweetness and good fruit” fill his inmost soul, and yield results to the glory and praise of God, it is only as he feeds on the Bread of God, and, so feeding, finds communion at the golden table with Him whose delight He is. Wonderful thought! that we should be permitted a communion so intimate, so blessed, as that of having one Object in common with the Father to gaze upon, and delight in! Would that we appreciated this most precious privilege more than we do! The wilderness would often “blossom as the rose,” for how should the way seem long and dreary in such company?