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power of the prince of darkness: according to the usual tenor of prophecy" the visiting of the host of high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth;" or in the language of the Psalm just quoted:

After the order of Melchizedec

Is my Lord at thy right hand:

Kings shall he smite in the day of his wrath,

He contendeth with the nations, filling all with dead bodies; He hath smitten the head of a great country.

In short, it is still the destruction of Antichrist, that emphatical enemy, whom we have seen all along to be the object of the great Redeemer's vengeance when he shall appear. At that time, too, as we have ever been told, "the last enemy, death, is to be destroyed," "put down," as the same word is rendered above, or more strictly, be so debilitated or restrained in its powers, that it can no longer injure as an enemy.

Observe, it is not the subduing of death, as holding the wicked in subjection, which is here contemplated; but the victory over death, as having power to seize and to hold in subjection the people of God; that is to say, their bodies. In this sense, death is their last enemy, the last enemy that could ever touch them in the least degree; and in this sense death is destroyed, when, at Christ's second coming, the dead rise in their glorified bodies, or when the living saints experience such a change that death hath no more dominion over their animal frame.

The "kingdom," therefore, in this passage, I understand, not of the personal reign of Christ upon earth, commencing from his second advent, but of his reign now, as seated at the right hand of power, -as seated,

not in his own throne as Messiah and King of glory, but on the throne of GoD, having "all power in heaven and in earth" committed into his hand, till the mediation be finished; so that "the FATHER judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son," as it is expressly said, "because he is the Son of man." With the absolute Deity-often designated by the term FATHER ALMIGHTY, or GOD EVEN THE FATHER, when not the eternal personalities so much, as the office and mission of the WORD and of the SPIRIT are to be distinguished; — with absolute Deity existing in FATHER, SON, and SPIRIT, three persons in one undivided essence, creation has as yet no immediate connexion; not this lower creation at least, from the sons of Adam downward.

"The elect angels," we know, do now "behold the face of the heavenly Father:" they are already fixed in their eternal state, having been separated from those of their kind who are gone into perdition. They have already been presented in the Divine Presence by the Eternal Word, by whom and for whom they were whether they be thrones, or dominions, or

created,"

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principalities, or powers."

But this relates to a former world, whose dispensation has been so far finished. The world that now is, in its creation so much lower, in its destined end so much higher, than the angelic,-where the Son of God assumes his destined created nature, even the likeness of a fallen creature, and gives himself for his church, that he may exalt, from the lowest depths of misery, a peculiar people, to the glory of his grace, and carry them with him, as his kindred and his spouse, far above all heavens -" which things angels desire to look into :"- this creation is unfinished as to its final results, and not yet

presented by its Maker, as the finished workmanship of his hands.

The only begotten, that is in the bosom of the Father, the everlasting Son of God, who also becomes in time the first-born of every creature, who is God with God, and a creature with his creatures, He created it. He let the devil mar it in his hands, and is now fashioning it into another vessel, "as it seemed good to the potter to make it." But the accomplishment of these new ends, if it were lawful so to speak of the everlasting counsels of God, whose will none hath resisted; to accomplish these new ends, He that was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, divests himself of his glory, and assumes the form of one of his creatures: hence the wonderful mystery of the incarnation; the obedience of him that was God, as a servant and a man; his passion; his death the death of the Lord of glory, giving himself for his church: hence the high exaltation of him who had made himself so low: hence the enriching again of him who, by identifying himself with a portion of his fallen creatures, suffered himself to be impoverished to the utmost. Though clothed with humanity, he "ascends where he was before;" God, even the Father, hath exalted him to his own right hand in glory, and hath given him " power over all flesh"-" all power in heaven and earth."

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The ALMIGHTY FATHER, if we may so represent it, sustaining the absolute perfections of the Deity - the triune Jehovah has retired into the inaccessible light – the screen spread before the recesses of his royal throne. But the Son of Man is visibly seated thereon, and sways the sceptre of Deity; angels and principalities being made

subject to him, "that he may execute judgment, and save to the utmost all that come to God by him."

Moreover, while HE solely sits exhibited on the throne as Ruler in providence, till the mystery of redemption be accomplished, the HOLY SPIRIT condescends to be personally sent forth to be the COMFORTER or PATRON of Christ's church below, his invisible agent, to act in the hearts of his people, while, as to his humanity, he is absent, and "gone to appear in the presence of GOD for us:" so that now we come not immediately under the rule of God even the Father; he has committed us into other hands; Christ is PRINCE as well as SAVIOUR, and when it is said "we have access through him, by the SPIRIT, unto the FATHER," the term through him implies, that with him, the man Christ Jesus, the direct communication stops; he alone enters within the veil to appear before the presence of God for us: and all acts of providential governmentthe entire rule over us, is committed into his hand: all prayers from earth to the God of heaven are laid before him, and taken into his hands as Mediator.

But this state of things will not always last; when the elect of God shall have received" their perfect consummation of bliss both in body and soul;" when the decree is fulfilled, that all the called and justified should be conformed to the image of the only begotten Son, then, with respect to them, the mediatorial reign of Christ at least one dispensation of it, which provides for their acceptance as sinful creatures-its purposes having been effected, is at an end. It is no longer dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." The redeemed are then "presented by their triumphant

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Lord, faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy.'

A Mediator is still wanted between "God even the Father" and the nations upon earth; for, as we have seen all along, there still remain nations upon earth: and THE SON is about to descend on earth again, and to reign, not merely by his Spirit, but personally. His elect remnant, however, whose number is now accomplished, are not so much the subjects of this reign, as the partners of the great King in his rule over the earth; are so honoured by the grace of their Restorer that they are called "not servants," but "friends:" according to a standard metaphor of Scripture, the redeemed of the Lord are now " the bride," "the Lamb's wife," the spouse of Christ, made one with Christ, and, through that link of union, one with God.

The mediatorial reign over the earth is not given up to the FATHER; but the mediatorial reign over the glorified saints. They are "the children of God, being the children of the resurrection," and after having been presented to their God and Father, complete in Christ, they are commissioned by their Father to go forth as the brethren and companions of their only Saviour and Lord, to judge the world, and govern the nations upon earth. The nations upon earth are the subjects immediately of the kingdom, not of the FATHER, but of Christ and his saints: and the saints in their reign have certainly, by delegation from the one Mediator, somewhat of a mediatorial character; for they are to reign with Christ, and are "priests of God and of Christ." But the kingdom over these glorified saints is that of GOD even the FATHER; and hence our

* Jude, 24.

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