A sign is something that points to something else. By the very words of the Lord Jesus, above quoted, Jonas in the whale’s belly is made the figure of Christ in death. The sins of Nineveh were up before God, and judgment is pronounced against them. But love has pity, and spares nothing to turn away judgment; Jonas, therefore, is sent to call them to repentance. His comfort is disturbed; and the self-denial of the mission brings out the shameful selfishness of his heart, in wonderful contrast with that of his antitype; for Christ, sent with the mission of calling sinners to repentance, takes it up with all its consequences in this spirit, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God;” and again, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” Lovely obedience! calling out the adoration of those who know and taste the blessed end of it for themselves.
But, willing or unwilling Jonas must drink the cup which God’s love to Nineveh necessitates. He must be pitched into the raging sea, that it may be calmed. He must be made to cry from the horrible darkness, “The floods compassed me about; all thy billows and thy waves passed over me;... I am cast out of thy sight.”
How solemn is the scene of Calvary, where all this is carried out in Him who is “greater than Jonas,” and who has come to call men to escape from as much greater judgment than that of Nineveh. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He cries, as all the billows of the wrath of God pass over Him on account of our sins.
But now, “the sea ceased from her raging,” Jonas is “upon the dry land,” and he cries to Nineveh with blessed effect, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed.” They hear, they believe; they repent, they are saved!
Reader, Christ has been in the deep for our sins, and, therefore, instead of a “raging sea,” instead of “sin reigning unto death,” we have “grace reigning through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:2121That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:21)). He is now “upon the dry land.” He is risen from the dead, and in His precious name I preach to you repentance, and the remission of sins.
Instead of taking upon you the “sackcloth and ashes,” bowing your face to the ground, and confessing yourself a guilty sinner, deserving only judgment, a repentance which is sure to produce a new life, are you going to excuse yourself? Are you going to measure yourself with sinners more guilty, in your judgment, than yourself? Are you going to make promises of amendment of life, put on a religious profession, and perform religious rites, which in the end will prove only “fig leaves?” Then I plant before you the “sign of the prophet Jonas,”―the suffering death of our Lord Jesus Christ, ―and, solemnly, I ask you, What does it mean?
Do you talk of goodness, of kindness, of morality, of anything that may be found in cultivated man? I set again that awful “sign” before you, and I say, Repent! His death means, that nothing but that could turn the wrath of God from you, because you are a sinner, a guilty sinner, in His sight, whatever else you or your neighbors may think. And well indeed can you afford thus to repent, for through that same death is now preached also the remission of sins; not any man pronouncing it over your head, but a proclamation from God Himself, to all that repent; for He looks with delight upon His blessed Son, once in death, now risen and seated at His right hand. Hear it for yourself, ― “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:38, 3938Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:38‑39)). P. J. L.
HEALTH is unconscious existence. Spiritual health is just the same. The healthy soul, delighting in and occupied with Christ, has neither time, desire, nor need to look at itself. Happy state! W. T. P. W.