LX.

THE SAYING WORTHY OF ALL ACCEPTATION.*

1 TIMOTHY, i., 15: This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.

[Preached in the Clifton Ark, or Seaman's Floating Chapel, May, 1828.]

THE great apostle who wrote these words experienced, as you will remember, a very remarkable and miraculous conversion to the faith of the gospel. He was on his way to Damascus, for the express purpose of persecuting even to death the followers of Christ, when he was suddenly arrested by Divine power and grace, and led to "preach the faith which he once destroyed." As a demonstration of the reality of his conversion, he devoted, through the remainder of his life, all the energies of his great spirit to the service of the Saviour; and his wonderful conversion, thus established by the long course of his subsequent labours and sufferings, has been often and justly alleged as a decisive evidence of the truth and Divine origin of Christianity.

In the connexion of the text, he refers to his conversion; and then, as a grand inference from that supernatural event, he proceeds, in the words chosen for our present meditation, to affirm the truth and importance of the gospel. As if he had said, this is the proposition: “ Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners:" would you have a demonstration of its truth, a living proof of the reality of His divinity and His salvation? Behold it in me, "the chief of sinners," converted to the saving faith of Jesus Christ!

It is not, however, my intention to show from the conversion of the Apostle Paul that the gospel is an authentic revelation from God; but simply to open and apply the well-known and ever-memorable words of the text for our Christian instruction and benefit.

In order to this, it may be proper to consider, first, the end for which Jesus Christ came into the world; and, secondly, the declaration which the apostle makes regarding the truth and importance of

this fact.

I. First, we are to consider the end for which the Saviour appeared. 1. When the apostle says that "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners," it is implied in such language that He existed before He came. The expression "came into the world," taken by itself alone, has a peculiar meaning, as applied to the Son of God; it denotes His Divine pre-existence; and its meaning is unfolded by himself in those remarkable words, "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world." It is not, however, merely said of CHRIST, as, perhaps, it might have been said of any other man, that He " came into the world;" it is added that He came with this express design,

From the notes of the Rev. T. Grinfield.

"to save sinners." Now, whoever places himself in a particular situation for a specific purpose, must have existed prior to his making that choice. And Christ is here represented as having acted with a deliberate view of futurity; a view which He must have entertained before his appearance in our nature. He proposed to himself one great object; and, with that in his mind, He entered the world. He assumed our nature, in consideration that it is ours; consideration exercised in a state of being prior to his assuming it. He formed the plan of saving sinners before" He came into the world," where it was to be executed.

Surely, my brethren, it is a most extraordinary event for a person to come from one world into another, and take up his abode in that which was not his proper habitation. Angels have often visited this world; but their visits have been always transient; they never" dwelt among us," they never "pitched their tent" here below. He of whom the apostle speaks in the text is the only Person that ever left another world for this, to dwell among us as one of our own race. And what an exchange was that which He made! He left a world of glory for one of meanness, a world of bliss for one of misery, a world of purity for one of crime. God did, indeed, "make a new thing in the earth," when HE, who "in the beginning was, was with God, and was God;" HE, in the fulness of time, was made flesh, and dwelt among us;" when HE, "in whom was LIFE," as in its fountain, "became obedient unto DEATH, even the death of the cross!"

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2. Now there must have been some great end proposed in this wonderful proceeding of Jesus Christ; and that end was, according to the text, "to save sinners." His name, as the evangelist informs us, "was called Jesus, because He saves his people from their sins." He did many things while He was on earth; but this was the end of all that He did; all besides was subservient to this. He taught the will of God; He explained the Divine law in the most perfect manner, without the least fear of man; He wrought stupendous miracles in proof of his mission; He imbodied the character of God, and exhibited a pattern of holiness, so faultless and complete, that He could say even to his bitterest enemies, "Which of you convinceth Me of sin ?" 'He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and entirely separate from sinners," whose earthly habitation and whose human nature He shared.

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But this was not all this was not the chief end of his coming into the world; had He stopped here, sinners must have fallen short of salvation. Instruction and example alone would never have saved us from our sins. Every man, let it be supposed, has some degree of light afforded him in his natural conscience, sufficient, if he would but faithfully use it, to direct him in the path of duty: this makes him a responsible agent; but this can bring him no consolation for past offences. To exhibit a pattern of perfect holiness, may afford an impressive lesson to those that never sinned; it may animate them to pursue higher degrees of excellence; but what comfort can it yield to those who are conscious that they have often and deeply offended? The splendour of such an example, instead of inspiring them with

hope and peace, would serve only to give them a clearer view of their guilt and wretchedness; to render them more loathsome in their own eyes; and to disturb an accusing conscience with gloomy apprehensions of futurity.

It is astonishing that any should have supposed that Christ came only to leave us an example. He came, indeed, to do this; but He came to do much more than this. Had He done no more, He would have come, no doubt, as a great light of the world; but that light would have principally served to make our darkness visible, and open a darker prospect beyond the grave. He came, therefore, most especially, in this respect, to save sinners. He saw that all were lost by nature, and He came to seek and to save that which was lost. If He performed wonders, it was chiefly that He might prove himself to be the promised Saviour of prophecy; if He illustrated the law of God both by precept and example, both by doing and suffering, it was that He might give us deeper views of sin; "for by the law," whether taught or exemplified," is the knowledge of sin ;" it was that by his perfect obedience He might magnify and honour that law which we have broken. His great end in all was to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. According to his own declaration, He" gave himself a ransom for us." As the prophet Isaiah had long before so distinctly predicted, "He was wounded for our transgressions; He made his soul an offering for sin; and Jehovah laid on Him the iniquities of us all." As his own Divine nature was incapable of suffering, He united it with ours; the Father prepared for Him a body, as the material and the medium of his sacrifice; He assumed the nature of transgressors, though without transgression of his own his deity gave such a value, his humanity such a suitableness, to his sufferings on our account, that God could be at once "just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." Here was a greater vindication of the Divine character, a greater proof of God's hatred of sin, a greater display of his essential holiness and justice, than could have been given by the severest punishment He might have inflicted on those who had sinned. The death of Christ was sacrificial; and when He cried on the cross, "It is finished," He meant that the propitiation for our sins was then consummated. He was predicted in this character by the prophets; He was prefigured in it by the types of the law; and in the third chapter to the Romans, the apostle gives a very clear account of the righteousness of God, or his method of justifying sinners without the law, but witnessed both by the law and the prophets, and now manifested in Jesus Christ; "whom God," says he, "hath set forth a propitiation through faith in his blood." This great doctrine of the gospel was peculiarly represented by the sacrifice of the paschal lamb; in correspondence with which, and as the substance of that shadow, "Christ, our passover, was sacrificed for us;" "the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world."

It is by the exhibition of this great fact, my brethren, by the preaching of "Jesus Christ, and Him crucified," that sinners are brought to the knowledge of the way of salvation. Whoever believes with

his heart, and confesses with his mouth, that Jesus Christ is his only Saviour; whoever, by faith, casts himself entirely on this Divine sacrifice for sin, he is justified from all things, from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses; Christ becomes to him the wisdom of God, which provides for his righteousness, his sanctification, his complete and final redemption from sin and death.

This, my brethren, is the primary part of that salvation, of which Christ is the author and finisher. This is the new and living way, sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, by which we are invited to draw near and enter into the holiest, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. This is the true mercy-seat: Christ himself is set forth by God as the mercy-seat, on which the Father is enthroned, and from which He issues the invitation, "Peace, peace to those that were afar, as well as to those that were nigh." Every one who comes to God by this way is adopted as a child of God, and admitted as an heir of glory.

Still, this is not all that Christ came to effect: something yet re. mains, and that not less important to our perfect recovery. For sin disqualifies us for happiness, as well as renders us unworthy of it: we require to be delivered from its inherent misery, as well as from its deserved condemnation: the power of sin must be subdued, as well as its guilt pardoned: there must be a change wrought in the heart, the carnal must become spiritual, the disposition and affections must be renewed and raised; there must be produced a meetness for the undefiled inheritance of those, and only those, who are sanctified. And Christ came also to give the Holy Spirit: He came to open the wells of purifying influence on the soul. The Spirit was not given in full measure, until He, who had promised it, was glorified: He was exalted as a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance, or a new mind, as well as to give the remission of sins. The faith of Christ, accompanied by the Divine influence, purifies the heart; and the Spirit of grace carries on the work of sanctification, until the believer is made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, and presented faultless before the throne of God.

All this expensive machinery of redemption would never have been set on foot, if we had not been sinners. OUR extremity was God's opportunity: where our sin had abounded, his grace found room much more to abound; so that we may well exclaim, in adoring wonder, Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God," displayed in this incomparable fact, that “Jesus Christ came into the world TO SAVE SINNERS!"

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II. In the second place, let us attend to the declaration which the apostle makes concerning the truth and the importance of this great fact; when he pronounces it "a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation."

1. First, he calls it "a faithful saying." This implies both that it is true, and that it contains matter of promise and consolation.

The first question with a sinner, awakened to a sense of his situation before God, will naturally be, "Is there salvation for me? is the VOL IV.-G & G

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gospel true?" There is salvation, we answer, for the chief of sinners that sincerely seeks it; the gospel is "a faithful saying." God, who cannot lie, has pledged his word; staked, as it were, his deity; interposed his oath; sworn by himself, because He could by none greater, that, by two immutable things," the word and the oath of God, “we might have strong consolation," whoever among us, my brethren, “ have fled for refuge to the hope set before us." To remove all doubt and fear on the subject, to give us the fullest satisfaction in our faith, God has anxiously hedged round this precious truth with proofs of every kind. By the most stupendous and varied miracles, making it evident that Christ was sent by God; by his life of perfect holiness, proving his alliance with the Source of all that is holy; by his resurrection from the grave, setting the seal of the Almighty Father upon his finished work; by prophecies that point Him out to be the very person designed as the Messiah; by the purity of his doctrine and his precepts; by their effect upon the hearts of all who embrace the gospel, and experience its power: by these, and a vast variety of particular evidences, crowding upon us from every side, it is proved, to the utmost extent of moral demonstration, that Jesus Christ is the faithful and true Witness; that the gospel of Christ is the truth of God.

Here, indeed, we are overwhelmed with proofs; and the only difficulty is to select out of so many. There is one, however, which speaks to all, and which alone is all-sufficient: the testimony of personal experience; "the witness in himself," which every believer of the gospel possesses in the sanctifying and consoling effects of gospel truth on his own soul: an evidence independent of every other, intelligible to the poorest and most unlearned, ever growing in its clearness and force, and infinitely more satisfying than any arguments of a merely historical nature; an evidence which all the sophistry of unbelievers can never impair. In short, there exists no truth, or, at least, no supernatural truth, which is so abundantly confirmed to our belief as this, which is the greatest, beyond comparison, of all truths to us; this, which is the corner-stone of our religion, the resting-place of our hope towards God: and the only account that can be given why any should be found to disbelieve and reject it is, that " they love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil;" they wilfully shut their eyes against the light of heaven this, as our Saviour declares, is their condemnation.

The longer good men continue in the serious reception of that "faithful saying" which the text records, the longer they go on in an humble reliance on Christ as their Saviour, the more deeply they are convinced that He is such indeed; and, when their dying hour arrives, they are enabled to repose, or even to triumph, in this conviction, and to say with the patriarch, "I know that my Redeemer liveth;" or with the apostle, "I am not ashamed of my hope; for I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him against that day." I might appeal to the experience of every serious Christian, whether these things are not so. But if they are, the gospel of Christ is true; the intelligence of a Saviour for sinners is "a faithful saying." Pure and