3. But now, as we cannot be worse than lost, so our being lost, so far from shutting us out from the Saviour, forms a kind of strange door of entrance into the whole riches of His salvation, — a kind of strange qualification for the Lord, who declares here that they whom He came into the world to seek and to save were only the " lost."
^ My old friend. Dr. Duncan, used to say, " For myself, I cannot always come to Christ direct, but I can always come by sin. Sin is the handle by which I get to Christ. I take a verse in which God has put Christ and sin together. I cannot always put my finger upon Christ, and say, * Christ belongs to me.' But I can put my finger upon sin, and say, * Sin belongs to me.' I take that word, for instance, * The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.' Yes, lost — I'm lost. I put my finger upon that word, and say, 'I'm the lost one; I'm lost'; and I cry out, 'What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.'"^
» C. J. Brown, The Word of Life, 236.
ST. LUKE XIX. lo 387
II.
Christ Came to Seek and to Save the Lost.
1. Christ came to seek and to save the lost. This was the greatest mission ever recorded, and this the greatest missionary that ever came to the world. Men have gone forth on different missions. Alexander went forth to conquer the world; Caesar went forth to subdue his enemies ; Plato and Socrates went forth in search of knowledge; Columbus went forth to discover the new world; Stanley went forth to explore Africa. Warriors have gone forth to rout armies, and their march has been tracked with blood, misery, and death. Travellers have gone forth to explore distant regions, to see the wonders of nature and view the monuments of art. Philanthropists have gone forth on errands of mercy, but our blessed Saviour went forth from heaven and came into the world to submit to shame, to endure scourgings and to suffer death, for a race of guilty men, that He might be able to save them from their lost condition.
^ While he stayed in Shansi his thoughts dwelt much on the condition of the very poor, and on some permanent work in their behalf. "The matter which weighs on me most heavily," he writes, " is the question of what to do for the lost of Chinese society. These people are the very class Jesus would seek out to save, though I am not sure that the publicans and sinners were quite so low in the social scale as the ' lost ' I speak of. The people I refer to are simply the scum of Chinese society, chiefly opium- smokers and gamblers. ... I have sometimes thought I might or ought to give my whole time to do something for these lost." ^
2. Christ is a divine-human Saviour. He is one that partakes both of the nature of God and of the nature of man. He comes into the world as the Mediator between God and man, and how fitly qualified He is for this part of His work in redemption. The knowledge which He possesses of the two parties to be re- conciled is not merely abstract and theoretical ; it is personal and experimental, for He is God. He knows God by experience, for He is God ; He knows man by experience, for He is man. As God, He knows what is required and what is to be done to save
» J. E. Hellier, Lift ofBavid Hill, 140.
388 CUR DEUS HOMO
the lost ; as man, He knows how to apply this salvation to the hearts of men. As God, He requires an infinite sacrifice to justify the ungodly ; as the God-man, He becomes the Substitute of the sinner and offers up Himself as this perfect sacrifice. Christ, as a Divine Person, possesses all the attributes and perfections of the Godhead. " In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead." He is limitless in the extent of His power and wisdom, and in the sweep of His duration. He is without beginning of years or end of days. He is infinite, eternal and unchangeable in all the Divine attributes. But Christ was human as well as Divine. He was a man. In the text He calls Himself the Son of Man. This seems to have been His favourite appellation of Himself. He was Divine, the Son of God, equal with the Father ; and at the same time. He was human ; and He wanted to impress this truth upon the hearts and lives of the people. So He called Himself the Son of Man.
^ Malan read some portions of the First Epistle of John — and proceeded to pray. There was something in his foreign accent and silvery voice most winning, as he rose from a few calm little sentences into glowing utterance. In spite of occasional difficulty in finding the precise words he wanted, it was like clear water sparkling in the sun. One expression — which came out in the midst of a strain of holy yet reverential familiarity of talk with Heaven, as if the thin veil could be seen through — I can never forget : " Lord Jesus, everlasting Son of the Father, come near to us as the Son of Man, and lay Thy warm fleshy hand upon us, that we may feel it." ^