John Owen · 14 of 43

Digression II. · Part 2

So, then, this also is hid in Christ, — the great and unspeakable riches of the wisdom of God, in pardoning sin, saving sinners, satisfying justice, fulfilling the law, repairing his own honour, and providing for us a more exceeding weight of glory; and all this out of such a condition as wherein it was impossible that it should enter into the hearts of angels or men how ever the glory of God should be repaired, and one sinning creature delivered from everlasting ruin. Hence it is said, that at the last day God “shall be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe,” 2 Thess. i. 10. It shall be an admirable thing, and God shall be for ever glorious in it, even in the bringing of believers to himself. To save sinners through believing, shall be found to be a far more admirable work than to create the world of nothing.

[4.] His all-sufficiency is the last of this sort that I shall name.

God’s all-sufficiency in himself is his absolute and universal perfection, whereby nothing is wanting in him, nothing to him: No accession can be made to his fulness, no decrease or wasting can happen thereunto. There is also in him an all-sufficiency for others; which is his power to impart and communicate his goodness and himself so to them as to satisfy and fill them, in their utmost capacity, with whatever is good and desirable to them. For the first of these, — his all-sufficiency for the communication of his goodness, that is, in the outward effect of it, — God abundantly manifested in the creation, in that he made all things good, all things perfect; that is, to whom nothing was wanting in their own kind; — he put a stamp of his own goodness upon them all. But now for the latter, — his giving himself as an all-sufficient God, to be enjoyed by the creatures, to hold out all that is in him for the satiating and making them blessed, — that is alone discovered by and in Christ. In him he is a Father, a God in covenant, wherein he hath promised to lay out himself for them; in him hath he promised to give himself into their everlasting fruition, as their exceeding great reward.

And so I have insisted on the second sort of properties in God, whereof, though we have some obscure glimpse in other things, yet the clear knowledge of them, and acquaintance with them, is only to be had in the Lord Christ.

That which remaineth is, briefly to declare that not any of the properties of God whatever can be known, savingly and to consolation, but only in him; and so, consequently, all the wisdom of the knowledge of God is hid in him alone, and from him to be obtained.

2. There is no saving knowledge of any property of God, nor such as brings consolation, but what alone is to be had in Christ Jesus, being laid up in him, and manifested by him. Some eye the justice of God, and know that this is his righteousness, “that they which do such things” (as sin) “are worthy of death,” Rom. i. 32. But this is to no other end but to make them cry, “Who amongst us shall dwell with the devouring fire?” Isa. xxxiii. 14. Others fix upon his patience, goodness, mercy, forbearance; but it doth not at all lead them to repentance; but “they despise the riches of his goodness, and after their hardness and impenitent hearts treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath,” Rom. ii. 4, 5. Others, by the very works of creation and providence, come to know “his eternal power and Godhead; but they glorify him not as God, nor are thankful, but become vain in their imagination, and their foolish hearts are darkened,” Rom. i. 20. Whatever discovery men have of truth out of Christ, they “hold it captive under unrighteousness,” verse 18. Hence Jude tells us, verse 10, that “in what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.”

That we may have a saving knowledge of the properties of God, attended with consolation, these three things are required:— (1.) That God hath manifested the glory of them all in a way of doing good unto us. (2.) That he will yet exercise and lay them out to the utmost in our behalf. (3.) That, being so manifested and exercised, they are fit and powerful to bring us to the everlasting fruition of himself; which is our blessedness. Now, all these three lie hid in Christ; and the least glimpse of them out of him is not to be attained.

(1.) This is to be received, that God hath actually manifested the glory of all his attributes in a way of doing us good. What will it avail our souls, what comfort will it bring unto us, what endearment will it put upon our hearts unto God, to know that he is infinitely righteous, just, and holy, unchangeably true and faithful, if we know not how he may preserve the glory of his justice and faithfulness in his comminations and threatenings, but only in our ruin and destruction? if we can from thence only say it is a righteous thing with him to recompense tribulation unto us for our iniquities? What fruit of this consideration had Adam in the garden? Gen. iii. What sweetness, what encouragement, is there in knowing that he is patient and full of forbearance, if the glory of these is to be exalted in enduring the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction? nay, what will it avail us to hear him proclaim himself “The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, abundant in goodness and truth,” yet, withal, that he will “by no means clear the guilty,” — so shutting up the exercise of all his other properties towards us, upon the account of our iniquity? Doubtless, not at all. Under this naked consideration of the properties of God, justice will make men fly and hide, Gen. iii.; Isa. ii. 21, xxxiii. 15, 16; — patience, render them obdurate, Eccles. viii. 11. Holiness utterly deters them from all thoughts of approach unto him, Josh. xxiv. 19. What relief have we from thoughts of his immensity and omnipresence, if we have cause only to contrive how to fly from him (Ps. cxxxix. 11, 12), if we have no pledge of his gracious presence with us? This is that which brings salvation, when we shall see that God hath glorified all his properties in a way of doing us good. Now, this he hath done in Jesus Christ. In him hath he made his justice glorious, in making all our iniquities to meet upon him, causing him to bear them all, as the scape-goat in the wilderness; not sparing him, but giving him up to death for us all; — so exalting his justice and indignation against sin in a way of freeing us from the condemnation of it, Rom. iii. 25, viii. 33, 34. In him hath he made his truth glorious, and his faithfulness, in the exact accomplishment of all his absolute threatenings and promises. That fountain-threat and commination whence all others flow, Gen. ii. 17, “In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death;” seconded with a curse, Deut. xxvii. 26, “Cursed is every one that continueth not,” etc. [Gal. iii. 10] — is in him accomplished, fulfilled, and the truth of God in them laid in a way to our good. He, by the grace of God, tasted death for us, Heb. ii. 9; and so delivered us who were subject to death, verse 15; and he hath fulfilled the curse, by being made a curse for us, Gal. iii. 13. So that in his very threatenings his truth is made glorious in a way to our good. And for his promises, “They are all yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us,” 2 Cor. i. 20. And for his mercy, goodness, and the riches of his grace, how eminently are they made glorious in Christ, and advanced for our good! God hath set him forth to declare his righteousness for the forgiveness of sin; he hath made way in him for ever to exalt the glory of his pardoning mercy towards sinners. To manifest this is the great design of the gospel, as Paul admirably sets it out, Eph. i. 5–8. There must our souls come to an acquaintance with them, or for ever live in darkness.

Now, this is a saving knowledge, and full of consolation, when we can see all the properties of God made glorious and exalted in a way of doing us good. And this wisdom is hid only in Jesus Christ. Hence, when he desired his Father to glorify his name, John xii. 24, — to make in him his name (that is, his nature, his properties, his will) all glorious in that work of redemption he had in hand, — he was instantly answered from heaven, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” He will give it its utmost glory in him.

(2.) That God will yet exercise and lay out those properties of his to the utmost in our behalf. Though he hath made them all glorious in a way that may tend to our good, yet it doth not absolutely follow that he will use them for our good; for do we not see innumerable persons perishing everlastingly, notwithstanding the manifestation of himself which God hath made in Christ. Wherefore farther, God hath committed all his properties into the hand of Christ if I may so say, to be managed in our behalf, and for our good. He is “The power of God, and the wisdom of God;” he is “The Lord our Righteousness,” and is “made unto us of God wisdom, and righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” Christ having glorified his Father in all his attributes, he hath now the exercise of them committed to him, that he might be the captain of salvation to them that do believe; so that if, in the righteousness, the goodness, the love, the mercy, the all-sufficiency of God, there be any thing that will do us good, the Lord Jesus is fully interested with the dispensing of it in our behalf. Hence God is said to be “in him, reconciling the world unto himself,” 2 Cor. v. 18. Whatever is in him, he layeth it out for the reconciliation of the world, in and by the Lord Christ; and he becomes “The Lord our Righteousness,” Isa. xlv. 24, 25. And this is the second thing required.

(3.) There remaineth only, then, that these attributes of God, so manifested and exercised, are powerful and able to bring us to the everlasting fruition of him. To evince this, the Lord wraps up the whole covenant of grace in one promise, signifying no less: “I will be your God.” In the covenant, God becomes our God, and we are his people; and thereby all his attributes are ours also. And lest that we should doubt — when once our eyes are opened to see in any measure the inconceivable difficulty that is in this thing, what unimaginable obstacles on all hands there lie against us — that all is not enough to deliver and save us, God hath, I say, wrapped it up in this expression, Gen. xvii. 1, “I am,” saith he, “God Almighty” (all-sufficient); — “I am wholly able to perform all my undertakings, and to be thy exceeding great reward. I can remove all difficulties, answer all objections, pardon all sins, conquer all opposition: I am God all-sufficient.” Now, you know in whom this covenant and all the promises thereof are ratified, and in whose blood it is confirmed, — to wit, in the Lord Christ alone; in him only is God an all-sufficient God to any, and an exceeding great reward. And hence Christ himself is said to “save to the uttermost them that come to God by him,” Heb. vii. And these three things, I say, are required to be known, that we may have a saving acquaintance, and such as is attended with consolation, with any of the properties of God; and all these being hid only in Christ, from him alone it is to be obtained.

This, then, is the first part of our first demonstration, — that all true and sound wisdom and knowledge is laid up in the Lord Christ, and from him alone to be obtained; because our wisdom, consisting, in a main part of it, in the knowledge of God, his nature, and his properties, this lies wholly hid in Christ, nor can possibly be obtained but by him.

II. For the knowledge of ourselves, which is the second part of our wisdom, this consists in these three things, which our Saviour sends his Spirit to convince the world of, — even “sin, righteousness, and judgment,” John xvi. 8. To know ourselves in reference unto these three, is a main part of true and sound wisdom; for they all respect the supernatural and immortal end whereunto we are appointed; and there is none of these that we can attain unto but only in Christ.

1. In respect of sin. There is a sense and knowledge of sin left in the consciences of all men by nature. To tell them what is good and evil in many things, to approve and disapprove of what they do, in reference to a judgment to come, they need not go farther than themselves, Rom. ii. 14, 15. But this is obscure, and relates mostly to greater sins, and is in sum that which the apostle gives us, Rom. i. 32, “They know the judgment of God, that they which do such things are worthy of death.” This he placeth among the common presumptions and notions that are received by mankind, — namely, that it is “righteous with God, that they who do such things are worthy of death.” And if that be true, which is commonly received, that no nation is so barbarous or rude, but it retaineth some sense of a Deity; then this also is true, that there is no nation but hath a sense of sin, and the displeasure of God for it. For this is the very first notion of God in the world, that he is the rewarder of good and evil. Hence were all the sacrifices, purgings, expiations, which were so generally spread over the face of the earth. But this was and is but very dark, in respect of that knowledge of sin with its appurtenances, which is to be obtained.

A farther knowledge of sin, upon all accounts whatever, is giver by the law; that law which was “added because of transgressions.” This revives doctrinally all that sense of good and evil which was at first implanted in man; and it is a glass, whereinto whosoever is able spiritually to look, may see sin in all its ugliness and deformity. The truth is, look upon the law in its purity, holiness, compass, and perfection; its manner of delivery, with dread, terror, thunder, earthquakes, fire; the sanction of it, in death, curse, wrath; and it makes a wonderful discovery of sin, upon every account: its pollution, guilt, and exceeding sinfulness are seen by it. But yet all this doth not suffice to give a man a true and thorough conviction of sin. Not but that the glass is clear, but of ourselves we have not eyes to look into it; the rule is straight, but we cannot apply it: and therefore Christ sends his Spirit to convince the world of sin, John xvi. 8; who, though, as to some ends and purposes, he makes use of the law, yet the work of conviction, which alone is a useful knowledge of sin, is his peculiar work. And so the discovery of sin may also be said to be by Christ, — to be part of the wisdom that is hid in him. But yet there is a twofold regard besides this, of his sending his Spirit to convince us, wherein this wisdom appears to be hid in him:— First, because there are some near concernments of sin, which are more clearly held out in the Lord Christ’s being made sin for us, than any other way. Secondly, in that there is no knowledge to be had of sin, so as to give it a spiritual and saving improvement, but only in him.

For the first, there are four things in sin that clearly shine out in the cross of Christ:— (1.) The desert of it. (2.) Man’s impotency by reason of it. (3.) The death of it. (4.) A new end put to it.

(1.) The desert of sin doth clearly shine in the cross of Christ upon a twofold account:— [1.] Of the person suffering for it. [2.] Of the penalty he underwent.

[1.] Of the person suffering for it. This the Scripture oftentimes very emphatically sets forth, and lays great weight upon: John iii. 16, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” It was his only Son that God sent into the world to suffer for sin, Rom. viii. 32. “He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.” To see a slave beaten and corrected, it argues a fault committed; but yet perhaps the demerit of it was not very great. The correction of a son argues a great provocation; that of an only son, the greatest imaginable. Never was sin seen to be more abominably sinful and full of provocation, than when the burden of it was upon the shoulders of the Son of God. God having made his Son, the Son of his love, his only begotten, full of grace and truth, sin for us, to manifest his indignation against it, and how utterly impossible it is that he should let the least sin go unpunished, he lays hand on him, and spares him not. If sin be imputed to the dear Son of his bosom, as upon his own voluntary assumption of it it was (for he said to his Father, “Lo, I come to do thy will,” and all our iniquities did meet on him), [and] he will not spare him any thing of the due desert of it; is it not most clear from hence, even from the blood of the cross of Christ, that such is the demerit of sin, that it is altogether impossible that God should pass by any, the least, unpunished? If he would have done it for any, he would have done it in reference to his only Son; but he spared him not.

Moreover, God is not at all delighted with, nor desirous of, the blood, the tears, the cries, the inexpressible torments and sufferings, of the Son of his love (for he delights not in the anguish of any, — “he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men,” much less the Son of his bosom); only he required that his law be fulfilled, his justice satisfied, his wrath atoned for sin; and nothing less than all this would bring it about. If the debt of sin might have been compounded for at a cheaper rate, it had never been held up at the price of the blood of Christ. Here, then, soul, take a view of the desert of sin; behold it far more evident than in all the threatenings and curses of the law. “I thought, indeed,” mayest thou say from thence, “that sin, being found on such a poor worm as I am, was worthy of death; but that it should have this effect if charged on the Son of God, — that I never once imagined.”

[2.] Consider also, farther, what he suffered. For though he was so excellent a one, yet perhaps it was but a light affliction and trial that he underwent, especially considering the strength he had to bear it. Why, whatever it were, it made this “fellow of the Lord of hosts,” this “lion of the tribe of Judah,” this “mighty one,” “the wisdom and power of God,” to tremble, sweat, cry, pray, wrestle, and that with strong supplications. Some of the popish devotionists tell us that one drop, the least, of the blood of Christ, was abundantly enough to redeem all the world; but they err, not knowing the desert of sin, nor the severity of the justice of God. If one drop less than was shed, one pang less than was laid on, would have done it, those other drops had not been shed, nor those other pangs laid on. God did not cruciate the dearly-beloved of his soul for nought. But there is more than all this:—

It pleased God to bruise him, to put him to grief, to make his soul an offering for sin, and to pour out his life unto death. He hid himself from him, — was far from the voice of his cry, until he cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He made him sin and a curse for us; executed on him the sentence of the law; brought him into an agony, wherein he sweat thick drops of blood, was grievously troubled, and his soul was heavy unto death. He that was the power of God, and the wisdom of God, went stooping under the burden, until the whole frame of nature seemed astonished at it. Now this, as I said before that it discovered the indignation of God against sin, so it clearly holds out the desert of it. Would you, then, see the true demerit of sin? — take the measure of it from the mediation of Christ, especially his cross. It brought him who was the Son of God, equal unto God, God blessed for ever, into the form of a servant, who had not where to lay his head. It pursued him all his life with afflictions and persecutions; and lastly brought him under the rod of God; there bruised him and brake him, — slew the Lord of life. Hence is deep humiliation for it, upon the account of him whom we have pierced. And this is the first spiritual view of sin we have in Christ.

(2.) The wisdom of understanding our impotency, by reason of sin, is wrapped up in him. By our impotency, I understand two things:— [1.] Our disability to make any atonement with God for sin. [2.] Our disability to answer his mind and will, in all or any of the obedience that he requireth, by reason of sin.

[1.] For the first, that alone is discovered in Christ. Many inquiries have the sons of men made after an atonement, — many ways have they entered into to accomplish it. After this they inquire, Mic. vi. 6, 7, “Will any manner of sacrifices, though appointed of God, as burnt-offerings, and calves of a year old; though very costly, thousands of rams, and ten thousand rivers of oil; though dreadful and tremendous, offering violence to nature, as to give my children to the fire;” — will any of these things make an atonement? David doth positively, indeed, determine this business, Ps. xlix. 7, 8, “None of them” (of the best or richest of men) “can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him; for the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever.” It cannot be done, — no atonement can be made; yet men would still be doing, still attempting: hence did they heap up sacrifices, some costly, some bloody and inhuman. The Jews, to this day, think that God was atoned for sin by the sacrifices of bulls and goats, and the like. And the Socinians acknowledge no atonement, but what consists in men’s repentance and new obedience. In the cross of Christ are the mouths of all stopped as to this thing. For, —

1st. God hath there discovered that no sacrifices for sin, though of his own appointment, could ever make them perfect that offered them, Heb. x. 11. Those sacrifices could never take away sin; — those services could never make them perfect that performed them, as to the conscience, Heb. ix. 9; as the apostle proves, chap. x. 1. And thence the Lord rejects all sacrifices and offerings whatever, as to any such end and purpose, verses 6–8, Christ, in their stead, saying, “Lo, I come;” and by him we are “justified from all things, from which we could not be justified by the law,” Acts xiii. 39: God, I say, in Christ, hath condemned all sacrifices, as wholly insufficient in the least to make an atonement for sin. And how great a thing it was to instruct the sons of men in this wisdom, the event hath manifested.

2dly. He hath also written vanity on all other endeavours whatever, that have been undertaken for that purpose. Rom. iii. 24–26, by setting forth his only Son “to be a propitiation,” he leaves no doubt upon the spirits of men that in themselves they could make no atonement; for “if righteousness were by the law, then were Christ dead in vain.” To what purpose should he be made a propitiation, were not we ourselves weak and without strength to any such purpose? So the apostle argues, Rom. v. 6, when we had no power, then did he by death make an atonement; as verses 8, 9.

This, wisdom then, is also hid in Christ. Men may see by other helps, perhaps, far enough to fill them with dread and astonishment, as those in Isa. xxxiii. 14; but such a sight and view of it as may lead a soul to any comfortable settlement about it, — that only is discovered in this treasury of heaven, the Lord Jesus.

[2.] Our disability to answer the mind and will of God, in all or any of the obedience that he requireth, is in him only to be discovered. This, indeed, is a thing that many will not be acquainted with to this day. To teach a man that he cannot do what he ought to do, and for which he condemns himself if he do it not, is no easy task. Man rises up with all his power to plead against a conviction of impotency. Not to mention the proud conceits and expressions of the philosophers, how many that would be called Christians do yet creep, by several degrees, in the persuasion of a power of fulfilling the law! And from whence, indeed, should men have this knowledge that we have not? Nature will not teach it, — that is proud and conceited; and it is one part of its pride, weakness, and corruption, not to know it at all. The law will not teach it: for though that will show us what we have done amiss, yet it will not discover to us that we could not do better; yea, by requiring exact obedience of us, it takes for granted that such power is in us for that purpose: it takes no notice that we have lost it; nor doth it concern it so to do. This, then, also lies hid in the Lord Jesus. Rom. viii. 2–4, “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, 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.” The law can bring forth no righteousness, no obedience; it is weak to any such purpose, by reason of the flesh, and that corruption that is come on us. These two things are done in Christ, and by him:— First, Sin is condemned as to its guilt, and we set free from that; the righteousness of the law by his obedience is fulfilled in us, who could never do it ourselves. And, secondly, That obedience which is required of us, his Spirit works it in us. So that that perfection of obedience which we have in him is imputed to us; and the sincerity that we have in obedience is from his Spirit bestowed on us. And this is the most excellent glass, wherein we see our impotency; for what need we his perfect obedience to be made ours, but that we have not, can not attain any? what need we his Spirit of life to quicken us, but that we are dead in trespasses and sins?

(3.) The death of sin; — sin dying in us now, in some measure, whilst we are alive. This is a third concernment of sin which it is our wisdom to be acquainted with; and it is hid only in Christ. There is a twofold dying of sin:— as to the exercise of it in our mortal members; and as to the root, principle, and power of it in our souls. The first, indeed, may be learned in part out of Christ. Christless men may have sin dying in them, as to the outward exercise of it. Men’s bodies may be disabled for the service of their lusts, or the practice of them may not consist with their interest. Sin is never more alive than when it is thus dying. But there is a dying of it as to the root, the principle of it, — the daily decaying of the strength, power, and life of it; and this is to be had alone in Christ. Sin is a thing that of itself is not apt to die or to decay, but to get ground, and strength, and life, in the subject wherein it is, to eternity; prevent all its actual eruptions, yet its original enmity against God will still grow. In believers it is still dying and decaying, until it be utterly abolished. The opening of this treasury [mystery?] you have, Rom. vi. 3–6, etc. “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” This is the design of the apostle in the beginning of that chapter, not only to manifest whence is the principle and rise of our mortification and the death of sin, even from the death and blood of Christ; but also the manner of sin’s continuance and dying in us, from the manner of Christ’s dying for sin. He was crucified for us, and thereby sin was crucified in us; he died for us, and the body of sin is destroyed, that we should not serve sin; and as he was raised from the dead, that death should not have dominion over him, so also are we raised from sin, that it should not have dominion over us. This wisdom is hid in Christ only. Moses at his dying day had all his strength and vigour; so have sin and the law to all out of Jesus: at their dying day, sin is no way decayed. Now, next to the receiving of the righteousness prepared for us, to know this is the chiefest part of our wisdom. To be truly acquainted with the principle of the dying of sin, to feel virtue and power flowing from the cross of Christ to that purpose, to find sin crucified in us, as Christ was crucified for us, — this is wisdom indeed, that is in him alone.