THAT GOD'S ELECT MIGHT BE SAVED (A.W. Pink John Brown, and others)
"For the Son of man is come to seek and to
save that which was lost" (
Luke 19:10). How different is this plain, positive and unqualified statement from the tale which nearly all preachers tell today! The story of the vast majority is that Christ came here to make salvation
possible for sinners: He has done His part, now they must do theirs. To reduce the wondrous, finished, and glorious work of Christ to a merely making salvation possible is most dishonoring and insulting to Him.
Christ came here to carry into effect God's sovereign purpose of election, to save a people already "His" (
Matthew 1:21) by covenant settlement. There are a people whom God has "from the beginning chosen unto salvation" (
2 Thessalonians 2:13), and redemption was in order to the
accomplishing of that decree. And if we believe what Scripture declares concerning the person of Christ,
then we have indubitable proof that there can be no possible failure in connection with His mission. The Son of man, the Child born, was none other than "the mighty God" (
Isaiah 9:6). Therefore is He omniscient, and knows where to look for each of His lost ones; He is also omnipotent, and so cannot fail to deliver when they are found.
Observe that
Luke 19:10 does not say that Christ came here to seek and to save
all the lost. Of course it does not. Two thirds of human history had already run its course before Jesus was born. Half the human race had already died in their sins, when He entered Bethlehem's manger. It was "
the lost" for which He became incarnate. That is the awful condition in which God's elect are by nature. Lost! They have lost all knowledge of the true God, all liking for Him, all desires after Him. They have lost His image in which they were originally created, and
have contracted the image of Satan.
They have lost all knowledge of their own actual condition, for their understanding is darkened (Ephesians 4:18), they are spiritually dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). Totally unconscious of their terrible state they neither seek Christ nor realize their need of Him.
Christ did not come here to see if there were any who would seek after Him. Of course not.
Romans 3:11 emphatically declares "there is
none that seeks after God."
Christ is the seeker. Beautifully is that brought out by Him in His parable of the lost sheep. A strayed dog or a lost horse will usually find its way back home. Not so a sheep: the longer it is free, the farther it strays from the fold. Hence, if that sheep is ever to be recovered, one must go after it. This is what Christ did, and which by His Spirit He is still doing. As
Luke 15:4 declares, He goes "after that which is lost until He
find it." But more: Christ came here not only to seek and find, but also to
save. His words are, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to
save that which was lost." Note it is not merely that He offers to, nor helps to, but that He actually
saves. Such was the emphatic and unqualified declaration of the angel to Joseph, "You shall call his name Jesus, for he
shall save his people from their sins" - not try to, not half do so, but actually
save them.
Christ came here with a definitely defined object in view, and being who He is there is no possible room for any failure in His mission. Hence, before He came here, God declared that He should "see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied" (Isaiah 53:10). As the Mediator He solemnly covenanted with the Father to save His people from their sins. He actually purchased them with His blood (Acts 20:28). He has wrought out for them a perfect salvation, therefore is He "mighty to save" (
Isaiah 63:1). Blessedly is this illustrated in the immediate context of
Luke 19:10. To Zacchaeus He said, "Make haste, and come down; for today
I must abide at your house... This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham" (verses 5,9). Yes, "a son of Abraham,"
one of the elect seed. Therefore we boldly say to the reader, If you belong to the sheep of Christ, you
must be saved, even though now you may be quite unconscious of your lost condition. Though, like Saul of Tarsus, you may yet "kick against the pricks," invincible grace
shall conquer you, for it is written, "Your people shall be willing in the day of your power" (
Psalm 110:3).
"I am come
that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep" (
John 10:10,
11). Here again we have clearly defined the
design of Christ's mission and satisfaction. His sheep once possessed "life," possessed it in their natural head, Adam. But when he fell, they fell; when he died, they died. As it is written, "In Adam all die" (
1 Corinthians 15:22). But by Christ, through His work, and in Him their spiritual Head, they obtain not only "life," but "more abundant" life; that is, a "life" which as far excels what they lost in their first father, as the last Adam excels in His Person, the first Adam. Therefore is it written, "The first Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam a quickening spirit" (
1 Corinthians 15:45).
"As the Father has life in himself, so has he given to the Son to have life in himself" (
John 6:26), which speaks of Christ as the God-man, the Mediator, as is clear from the words "given to." But that "life" had to be "laid down" (
John 10:17) and received again in resurrection before it could be, efficaciously, bestowed on His people:
John 12:24. It was as the Risen One that Christ was made "a quickening spirit." The first Adam was "made a living soul" that he might communicate natural life to his posterity; the last Adam was "made a quickening spirit" that He might impart spiritual life to all His seed. As the soul dwelling in Adam's body animated it and so made him to be a "living soul," so the man Christ Jesus being united to the second of the Trinity, has constituted Him a "quickening spirit," that is, quickening His mystical body, both now and hereafter. The life of the Head is the life of His members.
The Christian first has a federal life in Christ before he has a vital life from Christ. Being legally one with Christ, this must be so. When Christ died His people died,
when Christ was quickened His people were quickened "together with" Him (
Ephesians 2:5). It is to this union with the life of Christ that
Romans 5:17 refers: "For if by one man's offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." Yes, there is a "much more": the abundance of grace is greater than the demerits of sin, and the gift of righteousness exceeds that which was lost in Adam.
The righteousness of God's elect far surpasses that which they possessed in innocence by the first Adam, for it is the righteousness of Christ, who is God. To this, neither the righteousness of Adam nor of angels can be compared. Those redeemed by Christ are not only recovered from the fall, but they are made to "
reign in life" to which they had no title in their first parent. Since Christ is King, His people are made "kings" too (
Rev. 1:6).
The same truth is set before us in
1 Peter 2:24, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness." The first part of this verse has been before us in a previous chapter. The second half of it expresses the Divine design in appointing Christ to be federally and vicariously the Bearer of His peoples' sins. Christ's death was their death: they are "dead to sins," not to "sinning"! Let the reader compare
Romans 6:2 and the apostle's exposition in the next nine verses. Further, Christ's resurrection was their resurrection: they "live," legally and representatively, "unto righteousness" in Christ their risen Head, of whom it is written "He lives unto God" (
Romans 6:10). We quote below from John Brown's lucid exposition of
1 Peter 2:24.
"To be 'dead to sins' is to be delivered from the condemning power of sin; or, in other words, from the condemning sentence of the law, under which, if a man lies, he cannot be holy; and from which, if a man is delivered, his holiness is absolutely secured. To 'live unto righteousness' is plainly just the positive view of that, of which 'to be dead to sins' is the negative view. 'Righteousness,' when opposed to 'sin,' in the sense of guilt or liability to punishment, as it very often is in the writings of the apostle Paul, is descriptive of a state of justification. A state of guilt is a state of condemnation by God; a state of righteousness is a state of acceptance with God. To live unto righteousness, is in this case to live under the influence of a justified state, a state of acceptance with God; and the apostle's statement is: Christ Jesus, by His sufferings unto death, completely answered the demands of the law on us by bearing away our sins, that we, believing in Him, and thereby being united to Him, might be as completely freed from our liabilities to punishment, as if we, in our own person, not He Himself, in His own body, had undergone them; and that we might as really be brought into a state of righteousness, justification, acceptance with God, as if we, not He, in His obedience to death, had magnified the law and made it honorable."
"God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us" (
Romans 8:3,
4). Here again the
design of Christ's mission is clearly stated. God sent His Son here in order that (1) the punishment of His peoples' guilt should be inflicted upon their Head, (2) that the righteous requirements of the law - perfect obedience - might be met by Him for us. This righteousness is said to be "fulfilled
in us" because representatively, we were "in Christ" our Surety: He obeyed the law not only "for" our good, but so that His obedience should become actually ours by imputation; and thus Christ purchased for us a
title to Heaven.
A parallel passage to
Romans 8:3,
4 is found in 2 Corinthians 5:21, "For he has made him sin for us, who knew no sin;
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." The purpose of Christ's vicarious life and death was that a perfect righteousness should be wrought out for His people and imputed to them by God, so that they might exclaim, "In
the Lord have I righteousness" (
Isaiah 45:24). This will come before us more fully when we take up the
results of Christ's Satisfaction, yet a few words upon it are here in place. The righteousness of the believer is wholly
objective; that is to say, it is something altogether outside of himself. This is clear from the antithesis of
2 Corinthians 5:21. Christ was "made sin" not inherently,
but imputatively, by the guilt of His people being
legally transferred to Him. In like manner, they are "made the righteousness of God
in Him",
not "in themselves," by Christ's righteousness being
legally reckoned to their account. In the repute of God, Christ and His people constitute one mystical person,
hence it is that their sins were imputed to Him, and that His righteousness is imputed to them, and therefore we read: "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes" (Romans
"For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust,
that he might bring us to God" (
1 Peter 3:18). This wondrous declaration gives us a remarkably clear view of the substitutionary punishment which Christ endured, with the design thereof, namely, to restore His people to priestly nearness and service to God. Four things in it are worthy of our most close attention. First, Christ "suffered."
Sin was the cause of His suffering. Had there been no sin, Christ had never suffered. To "suffer" means "to bear punishment," as in ordinary speech we say, a child suffers for the sins of its parents. Christ suffered for "us," the whole election of grace: it was for their sin He was penalized. Second, He suffered "once." This must not be understood to signify that His suffering was confined to the three hours of darkness, but means "once for all" as in
Hebrews 9:27,
28. The "suffering" which pervaded the whole of Christ's earthly life culminated at the Cross. That suffering was final. His all-sufficient Atonement possesses eternal validity.
Third, Christ Himself was personally sinless: it was the "Just" or "Righteous" One who suffered. To affirm that He was "righteous" means that He was approved of God as tested by the standard of the law. He was not only sinless, but One whose life was adjusted to the Divine requirements. As such, He suffered, the pure for the impure, the innocent for the guilty. His sufferings were not on His own account, nor were they from the inevitable course of events or laws of evil in a sinful world; but they were the direct and necessary consequence of His vicariously taking the place of His guilty people. Christ received the punishment they ought to have suffered. He was paid sin's wages which were due them.
Fourth, the end in view of Christ's substitutionary sufferings was to bring His people
to God. This was only possible by the removal of their sins, which separated them from the thrice Holy One: (
Isaiah 59:2).
By His sufferings Christ has procured for us access to God. "But in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off, are made near by the blood of Christ" (
Ephesians 2:13). "That he might bring us to God" is the most comprehensive expression used in Scripture for stating the design of Christ's Satisfaction. It includes the bringing of His people out of darkness into marvelous light: out of a state of alienation, misery and wrath, into one of grace, peace and eternal communion with God. By nature they were in a state of enmity, but Christ has reconciled them by His death (
Romans 5:10). By nature they were "children of wrath" (
Ephesians 2:3), obnoxious to God's judicial displeasure; but by grace they have been accepted into His favor (
Romans 5:2). By nature they were spiritual lepers, but by one offering Christ has "perfected forever them that are sanctified" (
Hebrews 10:14).
