ETERNAL LIFE IN CHRIS'I'.
By Job Hupton
By nature we are
sinners. We sinned in our first father : by his disobedience we were made
sinners, and by his transgression judgment came upon us to condemnation and
death. Our nature was poisoned in the fountain and cursed in the root. Our
progenitor chose sin, and it compassed him about like a garment; and entered
into his bowels like water. It ran through his veins, contaminated his blood,
polluted every member of his body, and defiled every faculty of his soul. Thus
he became a complete mass of moral corruption ; and we, his children, inherit
his depravity. We are shaven in iniquity, and in sin did our mother conceive
us. Being conceived and horn in sin, we have conceived mischief, brought, forth
falsehood, and added sin to sin, till the number of our crimes exceeds all
calculation, and our amazing guilt has reached unto the heavens. We are
criminals, deserving ten thousand deaths, and to death eternal, the righteous
law, which we have transgressed in every point, has justly condemned us; nor is
it possible that it should administer any thing to us but death and damnation.
Yet, under these awful circumstances, we need not abandon ourselves to despair
: life, eternal life, is proclaimed; a covenant of life was made by the eternal
three, and it promise of life was given long before sin entered into the world,
and death passed upon man. 'The second person of the holy trinity was ordained
by the first, with his own free and full consent, to assume human nature and
take it into personal union with himself; and become God-Man. As such in the
divine purpose, he was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the
earth was, as the head of the body, the church, and the saviour of all his
members; and it pleased the Father, that in him should all fulness dwell. All
the fulness of the elect was chosen in him by a sovereign, act of stupendous
matchless grace, and fixed in him, never to be separated from him : it is, I
think, with respect to this, that the apostle calls the church "the
fulness of him, that filleth all in all."
As God, this
glorious head of all principalities and powers, has life eternal dwelling
essentially in himself; as God-Man,, and the head of the church, he has
everlasting life given him by the Father for all his people. This we leant from
his Own; gracious mouth. The words are these: ''As the Father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself:" "As
the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Fatter: so he that eateth me,
even he shall live by me." Indissoluble union to Jesus is the ground on
which we partake of eternal life. Being chosen in him, made one with him, and
immutably fixed in him, by an eternal act of the divine mind, we are made
partakers of his life and of all his fulness. Our title to life, spiritual and
eternal, is indisputable. It was freely granted, and made absolutely certain in
that covenant which is ordered in all things and sure. These ancient counsels,
and these acts of grace ; Oh ! how glorious! how precious! The eternal God
freely gives eternal life, by an eternal act of his own will, in an eternal
testament, to be enjoyed by all the objects of his eternal love, through an
eternal union with Jehovah Jesus, and all this is confirmed by his oath: "
Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the
immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath.'' This has, at once,
raised our title to everlasting life, far above every idea of human merit, and
placed it infinitely beyond the influence of the caprice of mortals, and the
fictitious power of chance.
At the time
appointed by the Father, our glorious Immanuel came, that his sheep might have
this life in real possession, as well as in title, and that they might have it
more abundantly. As the representative of the whole general assembly and church
of the first born, whose names are written in heaven, he stood under the law,
obliged by his own absolute engagement, to obey its precepts with the utmost
exactness, and to suffer its penalty in its full extent. By his obedience he
brought in a complete righteousness, through which grace reigns, in the
absolute justification of the ungodly, unto eternal life ; and by his amazing
sufferings upon the cross, he at once made the most complete atonement for all
the sins of his people, that God the Father as a judge, could demand, made
peace with God, obtained eternal redemption, removed the curse of the law,
demolished the sting of death, crushed the empire of hell, and completed the
work of salvation. Having conquered principalities and powers by his death, he
made an open show of them in his resurrection and ascension, triumphing over
them in the man, and brought life and immortality to light by the gospel.
''Though he were dead, he is alive again, he lives to die no more, and has the
keys of hell and of death. All enemies are under his exalted feet, all power in
heaven and in earth is his ; he is the head over all principalities and powers
; andl he claims all dominion and authority to give eternal life to us many as
the Father has given him. He is our life ; because he lives, we shall live
also. In his obedience we have justification, free, complete, eternal. In his death,
we have pardon, peace, deliverance from all condemnation, and victory over
death itself:. His blood cleanseth us from all sin, and through it we shall
overcomc every enemy, and triumph with him in the world of light.
The eternal life,
which we have in, and from Jesus, is not barely an everlasting existence, but
an endless state of being accompanied with coeval delight the most refined : a
life of endless communion with the infinite divinity, in all his persons,
perfections, characters, and all the riches of his own supreme blessedness.
The enjoyment of
this life begins while we are in this present evil world. He who has said of
himself, " I am the life," causes the dead to hear his voice, and
live. He says unto them, " live," and his commandment is life. A new
life, spiritual, heavenly, divine, and inextinguishable, is communicated to all
the elect; from the overflowing fulness of their ever living head, in
consequence of which they believe and live a life of faith. This truth is
inculcated by our Lord himself in those memorable words, "I am the
resurrection and the life, he that liveth and believeth in me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live." The spirit of life, from the incarnate God, is
entered into him, and he lives spiritually, believes scripturally, and shall
live eternally. Christ and he are one. He lives in Christ, and Christ lives in
him: he handles and tastes the word of life, and has real communion with him as
the true God and eternal life. The life of faith is supported in him, by constant
supplies of grace from the living vine on which he lives, and on which he
grows. He feeds upon the bread of life, and lives by him ; as it is written,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, hath everlasting life
" I an, that bread of life. This is the bread that cometh down from
heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which
came down from heaven ; if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever ;
and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of
the world. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and
I will raise him up at the last day. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my
blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live
by the father; so he that eateth me shall live by me." From this food the
true believer receives present succour, strength, and comfort. In the strength
which he derives from it, he stands, he fights, he conquers, and he triumphs.
In this his might, still leaning upon his beloved, he marches on his heavenly
way over mountains of difficulties; under burdens of afflictions and troubles;
through floods of temptations and flames of persecution. He follows the good
shepherd, listening to the gracious words of his mouth. "My sheep hear my
voice, I know them and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and
they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My father
who gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. "This gracious and faithful declaration of his Almighty
Redeemer, is the ground of his hope of' immortality and the basis of his
confidence, that he shall be with him where he is, to behold his glory: here he
rests. Drawn by the almighty love of his glorious forerunner, he presses after
him, ardently longing to be with him, to see him as he is, and to feel a
perfect transformation into his likeness, till he enters his everlasting rest,
begins his life of glory, and is filled with the fulness of God. Thus divine
love, sovereign, free, and immutable, flowing from the eternal throne, through
the channel of a well ordered covenant, and in the streams of the mediator's
blood, raises all the vessels of mercy from their lapsed state to glory
ineffable. Now unto him that is able to keep us from falling, and to present us
faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise
God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for
ever. Amen.
Please direct your comments to Mike
Krall.