You may turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 8 for our meditation this evening before we participate in the Lord's Supper. Romans chapter 8, our focus will be on verse 32 specifically. I do want to read the larger section 31 to 39. I want to acknowledge my thankfulness to the sermons of John Flavel and Thomas Manton.
I will probably quote those men several times tonight. Both sermons on this particular text are very edifying. Romans 8, beginning in verse 31. What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen. Well, let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for the Word of God, we thank you for this epistle to the Romans, and for the great exposition of the Gospel. We thank you, our Father, for making us participants in these blessings.
We know it's not because of our merit, it's not because of our choices, it's not because of our wretched free will, but it's all because of the free grace of God Almighty and His purpose and His plan to save a great multitude, His purpose to redeem His elect by the Lord Jesus Christ. We give all praise to You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for so great a salvation. May this particular passage tonight encourage our hearts along the way As pilgrims in this world, God, may you strengthen us as we reflect upon this most blessed argument given by the Apostle for the encouragement of the people of God. And we pray these things through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
Introduction
Well, in this particular section in verses 31 to 39, the Apostle is celebrating essentially the believer's security in Jesus Christ. Douglas Moo in his commentary says that this section, this beautiful and familiar celebration of the believers' security in Christ comes in response to Paul's rehearsal of the blessings that have been granted to the believer through the gospel. In other words, 31 to 39 are intimately connected to what has preceded. If you go back for just a moment in verses 29 and 30, for whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called. Whom he called, these he also justified. And whom he justified, these he also glorified." This has been referred to as the golden chain of salvation. Others call it the ordo salutis, or the order of salvation.
But based on the reality of verses 29 and 30, 31 to 39 certainly and necessarily follow. In other words, if God has purposed to save a great multitude, if God has given His elect to His Son, the Lord Jesus, Jesus has shed His blood on their behalf and the Holy Spirit has been given to them to seal and to guarantee their redemption. If they have been called, they have been justified, they have been or they will be rather glorified then we ought to see that 31 to 39 necessarily and gloriously follows. In other words, our God doesn't initiate a salvation plan.
He doesn't predestine things in such a way so as to lose the elect that he has given to his son. No, rather it is to secure them, most certainly. As we look specifically at verse 32, what we see is a proposition or a declaration in the first part of the verse, and then we see an implication drawn out. We want to consider these two broad categories.
First, the declaration concerning God's liberality. Liberality. God's not a liberal in that political sense, but He is very liberal in terms of pouring out His grace and His mercy upon His people. So we have in the first part of the verse a declaration or an assertion or a proposition concerning God's liberality.
And then in the second place we have an implication concerning God's liberality. In other words, if this is true, that God did not spare His own Son, God gave Him up for us all, then it necessarily follows, or this implication comes to us, how will He not with Him also freely give us all things? It truly is a blessed and wonderful argument.
Declaration: God's Liberality
So let's look first at the declaration concerning God's liberality in verse 32a. And it's a negative and a positive. Notice in the first place the negative. He who did not spare his own son He who did not spare his own son.
That means that God the Father gave his son on our behalf. That will come in the positive declaration wherein he delivered him up for us all. This whole idea of not sparing him. The relationship is highlighted here.
He who did not spare his own son. Now the obvious antecedent to the he is God from verse 31. Specifically, God the Father. And it speaks of His own Son.
Now, chapter 8 in the book of Romans makes much of the doctrine of adoption. We are adopted sons and daughters of our God Most High. We are joint heirs with Christ. But the highlight, or the emphasis here, is on His own Son.
His eternally begotten Son, His unique Son, the Son that is of the very nature of the Father. The uniqueness is highlighted in this particular instance and perhaps in the backdrop is the Mount Moriah in Genesis chapter 22. Remember that God tells Abraham to take Isaac, your only son, the son whom you love, take him up there and deliver him up. Do not let him, or rather make sure that you bring this knife to bear upon him.
And in Genesis 22 at verse 12, the father says to Abraham, For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. So what we find in this particular instance is that God, the father, did not spare his own son. Flavel says, and thus you see the reasons of all this severity to Jesus Christ. God intended the sweetest mercies for you and therefore prepared the bitterest sufferings for Christ.
From the deep sufferings you may confidently conclude the best of mercies are designed for you. God did not spare his own son. He didn't spare his son first in the incarnation. He did not spare His Son in the incarnation.
The Son of Man came. He takes on our humanity. He clothes Himself in our flesh. The Father doesn't spare Him.
He takes on the seed of Abraham. And in so doing, He is in the incarnate Son. The Father does not spare Him in Gethsemane. What happens when the Son cries out to the Father, If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.
But he says, nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. Listen again to John Flavel on this particular statement. The fact that the Father did not spare the Son in Gethsemane. He said, and that which makes a further discovery of divine severity towards Jesus Christ.
You understand what divine severity is. The Father dealt severely with the Son. in terms of the sufferings, in terms of death, in terms of all that he bore on behalf of his people so that we would receive mercy from the Father. Blabel says that which makes a further discovery of divine severity towards Jesus Christ is this. God spared not his own son in the day of his greatest distress, when he cried to his father in an agony, that if it were possible the cup might pass from him.
For of that day this scripture is mainly to be understood, the day when he fell to the ground and prayed, that if it were possible the hour might pass from him. He said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from me. He beheld his own dear son sweltering under the heaviest pressure of wrath, sweating great drops of blood, crying, if it be possible, let this hour, let this pass.
And yet, it could not be granted. Listen to what Flavel goes on to say. Oh, the severity of God. He heard the cry of Ahab and spared him.
He heard the Ninevites cry and spared them. He heard the cries of Hagar and Ishmael and spared them. Yea, he hears the young ravens when they cry and feeds them. But when his son cried with the most vehement cry that the cup might pass, he cannot be excused.
He must drink it up, even the very dregs of the cup of trembling, and that to the last drop. Oh, the justice and the severity of God.
Not Sparing the Son: The Negative
He who did not spare his own son. He didn't spare him in the garden. He certainly didn't spare him on Calvary's cross. The son of God himself cries out in that dereliction.
He says, why hast thou forsaken me? You see, what the Apostle Paul wants us as believers to understand is that this proposition, this assertion, the reality that he did not spare his own son, the reality that he delivered him up for us all, this serves in Manton's language as the super structure of grace. It is on this basis, it is on this foundation, it is on this redemptive reality that the implication necessarily follows. If God has done the greater, then certainly he will do the lesser.
If your father gives you a million dollars, certainly he will give you ten dollars. If your father did not spare his only begotten son on your behalf, shall he not come to your aid when you have trial? Shall he not come to your aid when you are sorrowful? Shall he not come and deliver you in the hour of death?
Most assuredly he will.
Delivered Up for Us: The Positive
So there is the negative statement. He didn't spare his own son, but notice the positive. It says, but delivered him up for us all. We need to recognize the Father's initiative here.
We need to see this. Isaiah the prophet, 53.10 says that Yahweh was pleased to bruise him, the servant of the Lord. In Acts 2, we just read it. I hope that you remember.
The Father delivered up the Son. In Acts chapter 4, they pray and they acknowledge that whatever has happened, happened according to the predetermined plan and purpose of God Almighty. Now, the Scripture tells us that Pilate delivered up Jesus. The Scripture tells us that the people delivered up Jesus.
The Scripture tells us that Jesus willingly was delivered up. So all those persons are involved to be sure, but what the Apostle highlights here is the divine initiative behind the scenes. Again, listen to Flavel. God the Father delivered him as a judge by sentence of law delivers up the prisoner to be executed.
It is true Pilate delivered him up to be crucified, and he also gave himself for us, but betwixt God's delivering, Pilate's delivering, and his own, there is this difference to be observed. In God, it was an act of highest justice. In Pilate, an act of greatest wickedness in himself, an act of wonderful obedience. So what is behind or what is Paul doing here?
But he is highlighting the divine initiative in the delivering up of his own son on behalf of the people whom the father had given to him. And if we tease this out with some other scriptures, we know that in the first place, he was delivered up as a substitutionary sacrifice. It's all about substitution. Penal substitution is what took place on the cross.
He bore our sins on the tree. This is very clearly declared in 1 Peter. In Matthew 20, 28, it says, the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. He is a substitutionary, curse-bearing sacrifice on behalf of the people.
The Father delivered Him up for this very purpose. 1 Corinthians 5, 7, Jesus Christ is our Passover. He was sacrificed for us. In the second place, he was delivered up as a propitiatory sacrifice. You can go back to 3.25 in the book of Romans.
Notice in Romans 3, we'll pick up reading in verse 23. The apostle there says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom Christ Jesus, God the Father, set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith. You see, the divine initiative in the cross. The Father sets forth the Son as the propitiation, as the one who bears the wrath and the fury of God Most High.
This is what propitiation assumes, is that God is angry and that God is wrathful towards sinners. Well, Christ, as a substitute, as the sacrifice, propitiates the wrath of God. Notice what He continues to say, to demonstrate His righteousness. We notice this on Wednesday night.
The cross publishes the love of God. The cross testifies concerning the mercy of God, the goodness of God, the kindness of God. But the cross declares the righteousness of God. You see, it is at the cross that God can be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in the Lord Jesus.
God did not relax His law, God did not bend it, God did not wink at sin, but rather because of the doctrine of imputation, Christ stood in the place of His people and He took the wrath and fury that you and I deserve. The Father delivered Him up to be a propitiatory sacrifice. In the third place, He was delivered up as a sin-bearing sacrifice. What's the point in 2 Corinthians 5.21?
God, the Father, made Him, Christ, the Son, who knew no sin, to be sin for us. That we might become the righteousness of God in Him. See, the idea is that by amputation, it's put on Christ. And it's punished in Christ who stands in the stead of His people and satisfies divine justice.
In the fourth place, he was delivered up. Again, just taking some of the passages, you could comb through the New Testament and find a multitude more of reasons why this happens. Romans 4.25. We read that he was delivered up because of our offenses, and he was raised because of our justification.
He was delivered up because of our offenses. He is the sin-bearing sacrifice. Now remember, he does not become sinful. You need to understand this whole doctrine of imputation.
Our sin cast upon the Lord Jesus Christ is a legal transaction. It is forensic in nature. The father punishes the son who has the imputed sins of all his people. Just like when the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, we don't magically get real holy, do we?
It is forensic. It is legal. It is a declaration. It is a transaction.
This is why the reformers emphasize the forensic nature of justification. In justification, it's not transformative. It's not me being more holy. It is constitutive.
It is God declaring because of what Christ has done, not guilty to those whom the Father had given to Him. And he was delivered up finally for the curse, or as a curse, for those who were under the curse. Galatians 3.13. You can turn there.
It's important for us to understand this text in the larger scheme of redemptive history. Galatians 3.13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. having become a curse for us. For it is written, curse it is everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. One of my sons recently listened to Ralph Davis' sermon from Genesis chapter 15.
If you remember Genesis chapter 15, it's a covenant ratification ceremony between, or betwixt, if I can use Flavel's old language there, the Twix, the Father, and Abraham. You remember what Abraham was instructed to do. Abraham was told to take animals and to cut them into pieces and set them in two rows. You see, this was a cutting of the covenant ceremony.
The participants in this cutting of the covenant ceremony would march between those two rows with the dead animals on either side. And when the two parties marched between those two rows, what they were affirming by this activity What they were symbolically conveying is that if we renege on the covenant, if we break the covenant, if we don't fulfill our covenantal obligations, may what happened to these animals happen to us. It was a malediction. It was a curse.
You know the word benediction. Sometimes we end the service with a benediction. We say a good word. The contrary to benediction is a malediction.
It is a bad word. And I don't mean a curse word, you know, like a bad word that you might hear on the playground. But it's a curse or an invoking of a curse upon the person that expresses this maledictory oath. What's intriguing about that covenantal ceremony?
What happens? God puts Abraham to sleep. Abraham wakes up long enough to see this torch passing betwixt the animals. What's the symbolism involved?
God ratifies the covenant on his own. God undertakes on his own. God says, essentially, if parties break this covenant, then what happens to the animals must happen to me. It ought not to surprise us that Galatians 3.13 is in our Bibles.
Because what happens? We broke that covenant. There must be someone treated like those animals. There must be penalty inflicted on the part of the covenant breaker.
You see, that's the beauty of Christ. He takes our place. He renders to God a perfect obedience, but that sin is heaped upon him in the doctrine of imputation. Christ then suffers the wrath and fury of God that you and I deserve.
Those bleeding animals should be us. That cutting off should be us, but Christ was made a curse for us. Those who were under the curse of the law have been blessed very much by our Lord Jesus, because the Father spared Him not, and the Father delivered Him up as a curse for us all.
Who Are the 'All'?
We go back to Romans chapter 8 and we ask the question, who is all? Does all mean everybody without distinction? Does all mean everybody without exception? Does all mean every single human being?
Did the father spare not his own son? Did the father deliver up his son for all? Are the Universalists right? Are the Armenians right?
Are the Pelagians right? Remember that words find definition in the context. What is or who are the all? They're the verse 29 and 30 people.
They're the ones that were foreknown. They're the ones that were predestined. They're the ones that were called. They're the ones that were justified.
They're the ones that will be glorified. That's the all in verse 32. We see that in verse 31 as well. What shall we say to these things if God is for us?
Of course God is for his elect. Of course God is for those called and justified, on their way to glory. He's not for those who are outside of Christ. This is not a promise, verse 31, for the unbeliever.
If you are not a believer tonight, God is against you. If you are not a believer in Christ tonight, the Lord God Most High, maker of heaven and earth, maker of things seen and unseen, the one who holds this world together and is bringing it to a particular end, that God is against you. The Psalter says that God is angry with the wicked every single day. This is not a text for the unbeliever.
It is for us. It is for those who by God's grace are in Christ. They are called the elect in verse 33. In verses 35 and 39 it's indicated that they will never fall away.
The ones for whom Christ was not spared, the ones for whom Christ was delivered up, are all those whom the Father had given to Him in the covenant of redemption, when He said essentially to His Son, here is a miserable lot of sinners, go and redeem them. And Christ willingly undertakes, He obeys the terms and the obligations laid upon Him. And he successfully executes this covenant in a manner that brings glory to God and eternal blessing to his people. Truly is an amazing thing.
Amen, brother. Go ahead and say amen because there's a world of amening to be had in Romans 8.32.
Implication: God Will Give All Things
Now notice the implication is drawn out. Notice the implication is drawn out. He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? You see, it's a greater to the lesser argument.
As I mentioned before, if your father hands you a million dollars, you can trust him to give you ten. If the father spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, you can trust him to guide you and grant you grace with a peculiar temptation you are facing. How will he not with him also freely give us all things? The basis of this particular implication is what we have seen preceding.
The basis is the redemptive work of Christ that was initiated by the Father and executed by the Son. Manton again says, two things breed confidence. Two things breed confidence, the fidelity of God and His liberality, right? Doesn't this provoke confidence in you?
The fidelity or the faithfulness of God and His liberality. Isn't that what's been set forth in this particular passage? Manton says His liberality in His gifts and His fidelity in His promises. His giving up Christ to die for us is a pledge of both.
This was the greatest promise, the exhibition of the Messiah, and this was the greatest gift. If He's done the greater, He will do the lesser. If He did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not? You see, it's a no-brainer, isn't it?
Paul's not trying to insult us, but in many respects, he's saying, this is just the way you ought to figure it to be. Flavel says, how is it imaginable that God should withhold, after this, spirituals or temporals from his people? The Father is going to give us this. He's going to give us the lesser.
Manton summarizes the doctrine of the sermon this way. that in the death of Christ, God hath laid a broad foundation for a large superstructure of grace to be freely dispensed to all those that have an interest in Him." It's a beautiful argument.
Application to Security and Sanctification
With reference to the particular application, what's the context? Your security, your stability, your place before a holy God. When we get to verses 31 to 39, as I said, they follow naturally from what has been given to us in 29 to 30. Actually, the entirety of the book.
After Paul sets forth the universality of God's wrath and judgment upon sin and sinners in 118 to 320, he shifts directions, or he rather expounds the truth of the gospel. He gives the bad news in 1.18 to 3.20, and from 3.21 all the way to the end of 11. He gives the good news, but now the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. It is witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, simply this, that those who are in Christ have everlasting life.
So you see, all of that is given to the believers so that we will not be fearful. so that we will not falter, so that we will not conclude that God is going to leave us. If He did not spare His own Son, if He delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give you all things that you stand in need of? You see, this implication brings a bit of responsibility. Maybe it is the case that we have not because we ask not.
Maybe it is the case that we do not successfully battle sin and temptation and resist evil because we are not crying out to the Lord in light of Romans 8.32. Perhaps we ought to come to the Father and say, Lord, we know you didn't spare your own son. We know that you delivered him up for us all. And we know that you have promised to freely, with him, give us all things.
God, I need grace. I need strength. I need stability. I am facing a peculiar temptation in this particular regard.
Help me to resist it. Help me to fight it. Help me, Lord God. I know that You did not send Your Son in vain.
I know that You did not send Him for naught. I know that You sent Him to secure my salvation, and through His blood I have everlasting life. You're not going to be finished with me now. I love the way our confession describes adoption.
I think it's a different Adoption isn't strictly what verses 31 to 39 are, but it certainly encompasses this. Our confession says, all those that are justified, God vouchsafed in and for the sake of His only Son, Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption, by which they are taken into the number and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God. have His name put upon them, receive the spirit of adoption, have access to the throne of grace with boldness, are enabled to cry, Abba, Father, are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by Him as by a father. You've probably heard me before say it bugs me when people treat the confessions as just these sort of academic and sort of clinical approaches to Christian theology. Can you get any more hearty than this?
Can you get any more soul-stirring than this? They are enabled to cry, Abba, Father, are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by Him as by a father. You could comb the modern Christian bookstore and search in vain to find that rich of theology. That is beautifully formulated.
That's experimental Christianity. That is experientialism and not in some whacked out mystical esoteric sense. It is experiencing the blessings of the gospel because of the goodness of God. Confession in this chapter ends by saying, yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption and inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation.
You see, Paul wants us, in the context of the security of the believer, consider the superstructure of grace. He did not spare his own son, but he delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? We have security in our God.
We have stability in our God. I echo Spurgeon when he said that such a gospel that teaches that men who are saved can finally be lost is no gospel at all. I abhor such an arrangement. The one who begins a good work in us will complete it onto the day of Christ.
Brethren, you need to understand, as Moat wrote, his oath, his covenant, his blood, support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay. It's on Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
Isn't that what 8.32a says? He did not spare his own son. He delivered him up for us all. That's the solid rock that the believer's security is tapped into, is tied onto.
You ought to be a happy people, brethren, if you have a saving interest in the Lord Jesus. Yes, there'll be doubts. Yes, there'll be temptations. Yes, there'll be resistance.
Yes, there'll be hardship. Yes, there'll be woes. Yes, there'll be sufferings. But His oath, His covenant, His blood support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay. The believer's security is bound up in the implication of verse 32. As well, the believer's sanctification. You say, well, I just can't get over this, or I can't stop this.
I'm a gossipy Gertrude, and I just can't stop. I'm a nagging Nelly, and I just can't stop. I'm kleptomaniac Kevin, and I just can't stop. No, if you are in Christ, if the Spirit of God is yours, you can resist those temptations.
You must fight, you must endure, you must persevere. You must resist those things every step of the way. You need to understand the reality of Him not sparing His own Son, but delivering Him up for us all. The primary focus, or at least an aspect there, is that Christ saves us from the penalty of sin.
The whole idea of atonement is in the idea of the satisfaction of divine punishment, or the divine penalty for sin. But it's not just the penalty that Christ breaks. It is the power of sin. You see, you cannot say, well, I just can't do it.
You cannot say, I'll never be successful. You cannot say, I'll never get to the place. You'll never get to the place of perfection. You'll never be sinlessly holy.
You'll never be without spot. But to make progress in the faith has been secured for you by the gift and the power of the Holy Spirit Himself. He is the Holy Spirit. He has been given to us.
Yes, as a seal. Yes, as a guarantee. But as a person who indwells us so that we resist pornography. So that we resist pride.
So that we resist drugs. So that we resist drunkenness. So that we put things to death by his spirit. Never forget, this is the climax of chapter 8 as a whole.
What else does chapter 8 deal with? If by the Spirit, verse 13, you do mortify the deeds of the body, then you will live. Romans chapter 8 is a blessed, glorious statement concerning or starting off with no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We have been justified freely by His grace.
Moves on into sanctification. moves on into this ordo salutis or golden chain in 29 to 30, and it ends on this high crescendo that there is nothing that can ever separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Brethren, you need to understand if He's done the greater, He can do the lesser, giving you aid in a particular day to fight manfully against a particular sin. So how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? security of the believer, the sanctification of the believer, and ultimately the glorification of the believer. Isn't that beautiful?
And isn't that what the cross and the empty tomb teaches us? You know, what's one of the significances of the tomb? He was delivered up because of our offenses. He was raised for our justification.
Paul then in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 indicates the close relationship between the resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection of all men. If Christ has been raised, what does that mean? It means that you and I will be raised. It means that you and I will enter into glory.
That you and I will be in the presence of the Father and the Son and the Spirit, world without end. Amen. It means that we will stand before Him and we will see Him as He is. And in the gospel, God has not only secured our justification and our sanctification, but he has secured our glorification.
And we need to understand this and we need to be encouraged by this and strengthened and blessed and helped. We are heading to glory. We are on our way to Emmanuel's land. We're going to that place where there's no sorrow, no pain, no hunger, no thirst, no more death.
We're going to be with God and the Lamb who sits upon the throne. And in light of that, if you are not a believer tonight, I invite you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing better. There is nothing more excellent in this world than to be able to say with Paul, He who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
There is nothing, no joy greater than to know that my sins are blotted out, that Christ paid the debt, that I have a righteousness that avails with God. I have been clothed in the righteousness of another. I will go into that wedding feast and I will be able to sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb. If you have not believed, come to the Lord Jesus Christ. and by His grace and for His glory lay hold of offered mercy."
The Graciousness of the Father
Well, in conclusion, we see first the graciousness of the Father in this passage. I could have already concluded, but I did want to read this one more quote from John Flavel. Listen to this. The man had a way with words, I got to say.
When God spared not His own Son, this was the design of it. And could you know the thoughts of his heart, they would appear to be such as these. He does this in another place with reference to the covenant of redemption. He personifies the person of the father and the person of the son.
Says the father says something to the effect, my son, here is a lot of miserable sinners. They demand punishment and all these sorts of things. And the son steps up and says, father, give them to me. I will be their surety.
I will pay their debt. I will pay it to the uttermost. Beautiful, beautiful. Does the same thing here in this context.
Says when God spared not his own son, this was the design of it. And could you know the thoughts of his heart, they would appear to be such as these. I will now manifest the fierceness of my heart to Christ and the fullness of my love to believers. The pain shall be his, that the ease and the rest may be theirs.
The stripes his and the healing balm issuing from them theirs. The condemnation his and the justification theirs, the reproach and shame his and the honor and glory theirs, the curse his and the blessing theirs, the death his and the life theirs, the vinegar and gall his, the sweet of it theirs. He shall groan, and they shall triumph. He shall mourn, that they may rejoice.
His heart shall be heavy for a time, that theirs may be light and glad forever. He shall be forsaken, that they may never be forsaken. Out of the worst miseries to him shall spring the sweetest of mercies to them. Oh, grace, grace beyond conception of the largest mind.
The graciousness of the Father we ought to consider.
The Willingness of the Son
Secondly, the willingness of the Son. He was a willing participant in this covenant. He willingly goes into this world. He willingly becomes a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
He willingly sees the foxes with their holes and the birds of the air with their nests. And he sees that the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. He willingly passes through Gethsemane. He does pray in his humanity.
If it be possible, Father, let this cup pass from me. Christ, of all persons, knew what the cup contained. If you do a bare study on the idea, the idea is that the wrath of God is in the cup. The wrath of God is poured out upon the nations.
The wrath of God is what must be drank. And the Lord Jesus says, nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. How many times in the Gospel of John, how many times does He willingly acquiesce to the Father? How many times does He express His submission?
How many times does He say, whatever my Father commands, I love to do? How many times does He say that my meat is to do the will of Him who sent me? So the graciousness of the Father is paralleled by the willingness of the Son. The Lord Jesus says, I lay down my life for the sheep.
The Lord Jesus is an active participant in this whole affair. The Lord Jesus, through His active and passive obedience, provides the basis and the framework and the ground for our justification. The Lord Jesus takes the cup of God's wrath and He drinks it down. He exhausts damnation in the language of John Murray.
He cries, why hast thou forsaken me? He does this because of the elect. He does this for the glory of his Father. You see, all these things converge finally upon the security of the believer.
If the Father has been willing to do this, if the Son has been willing to do this, then get up out of your bed and live your Christian life for the glory of God, for the praise and exaltation of His name. You ought to be rejoicing when you come to the house of the Lord. You ought not to be falling in here. You ought to imbibe the ethic of King David when he said, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the house of the Lord.
We open our books of Psalms. We open our books of hymns. And we use this time to praise and to glorify and honor God. We come to the supper tonight not because it's some religious ritual that Christians through the ages have done, but it's the Father feeding His children.
It's the Father giving us bread and wine as weary pilgrims along the way. We come into His house on the Lord's Day, and He refreshes us, and He blesses us, and He encourages us, and He sends us back out in there. And we daily have the Spirit, we daily have the Word, we daily have prayer, we daily have this abundance of resources given unto us. Brethren, let us run with endurance the race that is laid before us.
Let us look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. For God did not spare His own Son, but God delivered Him up for us all. And in light of that proposition, in light of that declaration, in light of that assertion, the implication necessarily follows. How will He not with Him also freely give us all things? all things necessary for our security, all things necessary for our sanctification, all things necessary that will land us in Emmanuel's land.
And we will say it with the hymn writer. We may even be in close proximity to Newton. When we've been there 10,000 years, we've bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing what? To sing God's praise than when we first begun. for this largeness, this massiveness, this liberality of grace.
God has poured it upon us.
Closing Prayer
Well, let us pray. Our Father, we thank you so much for this passage. We thank you, God, that you did the greater and you promised to do the lesser. We ask that you would keep us, that you'd watch over us, that passages like these would encourage us along the way, and that as we eat this bread and we drink this cup tonight, we would do so in remembrance of the Lord, the one who willingly submitted to the wrath and judgment of God Most High.
And may we do so in light of the reality that our Father has purposed these things for our well-being and for our eternal bliss. God, we praise Father, Son, and Spirit for so great a salvation, and may you bless this time together. who we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.