442 A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION UPON [ISA. LIII. 11.
By Ms knowledge shall mjj righteous servant justify many ; for he shall hear their iniquities.
I am now come to the next circumstance in the order of the words, and that is the efficient cause in justification, wliicli is Jesus Christ, expressed here by God's ' ri^^hteous servant ;' for so he is to be consi- dered in the business of justification, or else it were if I for the creatures. What tliis expression will amount to we shall see by and by. The point is: —
Dod. That Jesus Christ justifieth as God's righteous servant. I shall —
1. Explain the point.
2. Prove it.
3. Apply it.
For the explaining the matter to you, consider these two things : —
1. How Christ was God's servant.
2. How Christ was Gods righteous servant.
First, Christ was said to be God's servant, partly as he subjected himself to the condition of man, and because he lived among men in a needy, servile, and abject state of life, not like a prince, but a servant, which is the lowest form of rational creatures. And it is expressed by ' taking the form of a servant ' upon him, Phil, ii 7. Angels are called sons, and man a servant ; ' The sons of God shouted for joy,' Job xxxviii. 7. In the family of heaven they were to God as servants.
And partly as he was a choice instrument for the executing of God's decrees. Those that are taken into any degree of subserviency to God's counsels have this badge of honour put upon them, to be God's ser- vants, as Nebuchadnezzar is called God's servant, Jer. xxvii. 6. Now, because Christ submitted himself to the office of the mediatorship, and so to a subserviency to God's decrees, he is called a servant : Isa. xlii. 1, * Behold my servant, whom I uphold ;' Isa. xlix. 3, ' Thou art my servant.' And this being an instrument of God's decrees, is called service, because whosoever is employed in it is to sequester himself for the uses of God, and to divest himself of all self-res])ect, and like a ser- vant to be at the command of another, and wholly to give up himself to the profit and benefit of his Master. So Christ, not aiming at himself, accomplished the work of God to God's glory and the salvation of man. And—
Partly as he subjected liimself to tlie law of God and the covenant of works, which was a covenant of servants. A servant expects his hire as the reward of his work, and therefore the state of the gospel is called a state of sonship : Gal. iv. 5, ' To redeem them that were under the law, that they might receive the adoption of fjons.' So in the 1st verse of that chapter, ' The heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant;' that is, those that are under the covenant of grace did very little differ from those that are under the covenant of works, in the time of the church's infancy and ceremonial dispensation, because it was a ministry of condemnation. Everywhere the cove- nant of works is made as the covenant of an hireling, and implieth l)ondage and service. And therefore Christ, because he submitted himself to such a covenant, and seeing he was to be judged of God according to all extremity and rigour, things were carried be- tween God and Christ in a wny of justice, and our grace and glory
ISA. LIIL 11.] THE FIFTY-THIRD CHAPTER OF ISAIAH. 443
were due to him. So that in all these respects Christ was God's servant.
Use 1. Is to commend to us the service of God. It is a glory to a society when princes are of it : you count the order or company dignified when they will come into your fellowship. You have Jesus Christ in your fellowship. Oh, certainly the service of God can bo no disgrace to you ! God calleth him my servant. This was David's choice : Ps. Ixxxiv. 10, ' I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.' The meanest employ- ment in God's service is a greater honour than any sinful dignity. Christ did not honour kingship and lordship, and the dignities of the world in his person here upon earth, but only meanness and obedience. Think it no reproach to be engaged in such services with David as are most mean and low in the world's eye. Your fellow-servant is Clirist.
Use 2. To commend to us the love of Christ, that he should divest himself of all his glory, and appear in the form of a servant.
1. It was love that he should submit himself to our nature. Do but consider what an infinite distance there was between the Godhead and us, and then you may guess somewhat what a strange condescen- sion there was in his love. How many degrees it came down to meet the creatures for their good. There are divers things to aggravate it. That Christ should take our nature, when he left equal glory with the Father. It was a great abasement for Adam to fall from his excel- lency by sin to meanness ; for us to stoop is no such matter, but it was most amazing in him that ' thought it no robbery to be equal with God,' Phil. ii. 6. Then that he ' took upon him the form of a ser- vant,' not of angels, which is a higher degree of natures, and would have been a fitter form for a Son, but of a man, and that the form of a servant — he went to the lowest rank of rational creatures. Then how he took it, not of the highest order of men ; he came not in the pomp, equipage and appearance of a king and prince. The Jews looked for a mighty monarch. Christ had right to all the world, but he would not hold by that tenure. It was the form of a servant, not only in respect of the angels, but in respect of men. He was found in the lowest rank of men, poor and destitute, therefore called chadall ishim : Isa. Hi. 3, ' despised and rejected.' In the Hebrew it is the leavings off of men ; man just left off there where Christ was found : if he had gone lower, he could not be man : Ps. xx. 6, ' I am a worm, and no man ; ' rather found among the rank of poor despicable worms, than of men. Then, what were the effects of it? Even upon this he was refused of those for whose good he came; they rejected him, nay slew him, because he came in this disguise of meanness for their sakes. He gained no honour by it, neither did the world know him the better: John i. 11, * He came to his own, and his own received him not.' In short, this was the great cause why he was the object of the Jewish scorn and rejection. ISTay, further, consider this was not only an accidental event, and a thing' that wiis not aimed at, but the very end of Christ. He was found in the form of a servant, that he might be handled in a despitefid manner, and that the decrees of God might be accomplished upon his person. He could have shown himself in majesty, and have prevented his sufferings, as he saith, Mat. xxvi.