THE COMING OF THE SAVIOUR
1 Timothy 1:15; Hebrews 10:5-7; Matthew 26:36-39, 42; 27: 45-54; Luke 24:1-6
I have an impression about this scripture in 1 Timothy, “Christ Jesus came into the world”. Jesus is the only Man of whom this could be said, “came into the world”. We cannot say that about ourselves, that we came into the world. We were brought into the world, we were born. So of course was Jesus, but think of what was involved in the Lord Jesus coming into the world. Men celebrate it, often in a profane way, at this time of year, but what majesty there is as we read that “Christ Jesus came into the world”. The way that the Lord Jesus came to this world was His own act. That blessed One came in at Bethlehem’s manger, of whom it says “and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins”, Matt.1:21. It was not your act when you were born, but this could be said of the Lord Jesus, that He “came into the world”. The blessedness of it has been weighing with me this week, something which had not laid hold of me in the same way before. I trust that the wonder of it will lay hold in a fresh way of the minds of each one of us here, that this glorious Person, the Lord Jesus, “came into the world”.
Then it gives the purpose for which He came, “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”. How wonderful that is! Where would we be, poor sinners as we are, if Jesus had not come into the world to save us at such a tremendous cost to Himself, in order that sinners like you and me might be saved? Oh, the wonder of it, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. The whole of the gospel is encapsulated in those words, although there is much more involved in Christ coming into the world than the salvation of sinners, and the forgiveness of their sins. Salvation involves so much. It involves salvation from our sins, and salvation from all that we are as sinners. Jesus came to save sinners in order that we might be delivered “out of the present evil world”, that we might be here “according to the will of our God and Father” (Gal.1:4), and that we might have our part in an eternity of bliss, with Him and like Him for God’s glory. How wonderful these things are! “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”; what a scope is in that, but it involved that this glorious Person, our Lord Jesus Christ, “came into the world to save sinners”.
I read in Hebrews because we have again this thought of His coming. We are so marked by doing our own wills, doing our own thing; how often it leads us into sin. Indeed, the very practice of our own wills is sin before God, but think of what it says here, that as coming into the world, the Lord Jesus said “Sacrifice and offering thou willedst not; but thou hast prepared me a body”. Think of who He is, in the glory of His Person, “who is over all, God blessed for ever” (Rom.9:5), and yet it says here “but thou hast prepared me a body”. Then “Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will”. How wonderful that He came! It was not on the basis of those sacrifices which had all looked forward as types to the coming in of Jesus, to His death and to the efficacy of His precious blood, for it says “coming into the world he says, Sacrifice and offering thou willedst not; but thou hast prepared me a body”.
Is it not a wonder, dear friend, that the God against whom you have sinned, the God against whom I have sinned, the God for whom I had no room in my life apart from His own work – that such a blessed God has come here in the Person of His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ? He came into a body and into a relationship of love, moving here as a Man who was absolutely pleasurable to the eye of God. How wonderful! The Lord Jesus was the only Man who never sinned. He “did no sin” (1 Pet.2:22), He “knew not sin” (2 Cor.5:21) and “in him sin is not”, 1 John 3:5. These things can only be said of this glorious Person. We need to treasure in our souls the things that are said in Scripture which could be said of none other, but could only be said of this glorious Person, our Lord Jesus Christ, the One who “came into the world to save sinners”. So He says “Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will”.
I read in the gospels to give us some impression of what God’s will involved for Jesus, the One who was here so infinitely pleasurable to God at every point of His life. He was entirely subject to the will of God. He always enjoyed that holy and blessed relationship into which He had come, and He glorified God on the earth. He could say “I have glorified thee on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”, John 17:4. As we read here in Matthew’s gospel, He was about to do this great work and all that it involved for Him. So He came to the garden of Gethsemane in the anticipation of what was before Him, and He spoke there of the will of God. As we read in Hebrews, He said “I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will”. What did that will involve? As He approached the time of His death, He said “My soul is very sorrowful even unto death”, and then He went forward and said “My Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me; but not as I will, but as thou wilt”. Later, He said “My Father, if this cannot pass from me unless I drink it, thy will be done”. Oh, the wonder of it, dear friend! Think of what the will of God involved for Jesus so that you and I should come into blessing, that we might be saved from an eternity of damnation, might come into an eternity of blessing in the presence of God, with Jesus forever. What did it cost? He said “if it be possible let this cup pass from me” – it was not possible because we were sinners, away from God. No sin could come into God’s presence; we would have been banished from His presence eternally, but there is One who has come, in order that He might fulfil the will of God and drink this awful cup.
We read later of what it involved for this One who was so infinitely pleasurable to God in every moment of His life, and now it came to the point where He was crucified. Men did their worst, you might say, and manifested what they were in absolute hatred of God; men crucified the Lord of glory. In wonderful grace, it is attributed to ignorance in their princes, “for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory”, 1 Cor.2:8. So Jesus was crucified. How great were His sufferings at the hands of men! It has been said that this death of crucifixion was the cruellest death that man has ever devised. So Jesus was hanging there, exposed and nailed to a cross, but now there is that which is beyond what any other man has ever suffered, or ever could suffer. Jesus cried “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Have you accounted for the fact that if Jesus had not gone this way, you would have been forsaken, you would have been excluded from the presence of God eternally in untold suffering as a result of your sinful history?
What a terrible thing it is to think of, and yet here is One who went that way for the myriads who have put their trust in Him. Oh, put your trust in Jesus, believe in His finished work and believe that He was there for you when He cried “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Can you give a reason for it? It was on account of your sins. Have you ever accepted that for yourself? Think of what the result was. Men did not understand it; natural man cannot understand the cross or what was done there, but the Lord Jesus went through, and “having again cried with a loud voice, gave up the ghost”. He went into death in power. It says later that Pilate wondered if He was already dead (Mark 15:44). Jesus did not die in weakness, He went into death in power and overcame “him who has the might of death” (Heb.2:14) so that you might be set free. Oh what a Saviour He is! What power was there in the death of Jesus; it says that He “cried with a loud voice”. Although outwardly He was crucified in weakness (2 Cor.13.4), that was only in the sight of wicked men. Men die in absolute weakness, and in due course, if the Lord Jesus does not come for us, we will die, but Jesus went into death in absolute power. He “cried with a loud voice, gave up the ghost”. His life was not taken from Him; He could say elsewhere “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself”, John 10:18. What an effect it had! The power of death was broken, so that after He came out of death, others came out as well. Everyone who puts their trust in Him and dies will be raised from the dead to be with Him forever. So the centurion says “Truly this man was Son of God”. There was no one else who could have gone into death in this way in power, and come out of it in victory.
In Luke’s gospel, they thought that they would have to embalm His body, but the Lord’s body could not be affected by corruption. He went into a grave in which no one had ever been laid. No corruption could ever attach to that precious body of Jesus. They came and “they found the stone rolled away”. Wicked hands had crucified Him, but loving hands had taken Him down and buried Him. He was put in the grave to put out of God’s sight every other man whose place He took on the cross. So “they found not the body of the Lord Jesus”. We spoke of His coming in, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”, and of the way in which He could say “but thou hast prepared me a body”. Now they did not find that precious body, it was not there in the tomb; it says that “they found not the body of the Lord Jesus”.
This is the first time that this name is given – “the Lord Jesus”. It does not refer to Him as the Lord Jesus in the gospels before this point, but the Lord Jesus is the name which attaches to Him as the One who is out of death. Faith in the name of the Lord Jesus is for your present salvation; “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from among the dead, thou shalt be saved”, Rom.10:9. What a power there is in the name of the Lord Jesus. So that His body was not there in the grave; He had already been raised, and now we can say that not only is He raised but He is in glory. The wonderful hope of the Christian is that we shall have bodies of glory in conformity to His body of glory (Phil.3:21). What a complete triumph it is. We are poor guilty sinners, hell deserving sinners, and yet as putting our trust in Jesus and in His precious blood which “cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7), we can say that we shall have bodies of glory in conformity to His body of glory. And the wonderful thing is that these bodies of ours can be here as the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor.6:19), another glorious divine Person that has come from Christ in glory, so that we might be here for the pleasure and the service of God in the little while that remains before the Lord Jesus returns for us.
How many hundreds of times have I heard this glorious Person spoken of in the gospel, and every time I can say I have had some fresh impression of this great and glorious Saviour, the One of whom it said that He “came into the world to save sinners”. Have you taken your place among them? Paul took his place among them; he said “of whom I am the first” (1 Tim.1:15), but since then, how many millions have followed on. Are you one of them? Have you come to accept the Lord Jesus as your own personal Saviour and come into all the blessing that is involved in such a full salvation? We are not in the gain of full salvation yet; we are waiting for the Lord Jesus as Saviour to save us out of these bodies of humiliation “into conformity to his body of glory”, Phil.3:21. As another has said, ‘Then, we shall not need a Saviour anymore’; there will be nothing more to be saved from. But while we are here, we need the Saviour all the time. How many times have you heard Him referred to as an all the way home Saviour? Is He your Saviour? Has He saved you from your sins? Has He saved you from the power of sin? Has He saved you in such a way that you can know the present enjoyment of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in view of having your part now in the testimony of our Lord? Own His claims upon you as the Lord Jesus, this One who has been made “both Lord and Christ”, Acts 2:36. He has a claim upon us through the way that He has gone for us. Then come to have your part in the service of God and in the testimony in the little while that remains.
May it be the portion of every one of us, for our blessing and for His name’s sake.
Preaching in Edinburgh
22 December 2013
D.J. Hutson