This was the original glory of his obedience. This wisdom, the grace, the love, the condescension that was in this choice, animated every act, every duty of his obedience, — rendering it amiable in the sight of God, and useful unto us. So, when he went to John to be baptized, he, who knew he had no need of it on his own account, would have declined the duty of administering that ordinance unto him ; but he replied, " Suffer it to be so now ; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness," Matt. iii. 15. This I have undertaken willingly, of my own accord, without any need of it for myself, and therefore will discharge it. For him, who was Lord of all universally, thus to submit himself to universal obedience, carrieth along with it an evidence of glorious grace.
2. This obedience, as unto the use and end of it, was not for him- self, but /or us. We were obliged unto it, and could not perform it; • — ^he was not obliged unto it any otherwise but by a free act of his OAvn will, and did perform it. God gave him this honour, that he should obey for the whole church, — that by "his obedience many should be made righteous," Rom. v. 19. Herein, I .say, did God give him honour and glory, that his obedience should stand in the stead of the perfect obedience of the church as unto justification.
3. His obedience being absolutely universal, and absolutel3^2>er-
340 THE GLORY OF CHRIST
feet, was the great representative of the hohness of God in the law. It was represented glorious when the ten words were written by the finger of God in tables of stone ; it appears yet more eminently in the spiritual transcription of it in the hearts of believers : but abso- lutely and perfectly it is exemplified only in the holiness and obedi- ence of Christ, which answered it unto the utmost. And this is no small part of his glory in obedience, that the holiness of God in the law was therein, and therein alone, in that one instance, as imto human nature, fully represented.
4. He wrought out this obedience against all difficulties and oppo- sitions. For although he was absolutely free from that disorder which in us hath invaded our whole natures, which internally renders all obedience difficult unto us, and perfect obedience impossible ; yet as unto opposition from without, in temptations, sufferings, reproaches, contradictions, he met with more than we all. Hence is that glorious word, "Although he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered," Heb. v. 8. See our exposition of that place. But, —
5. The glory of this obedience ariseth principally from the consi- deration of the person who thus yielded it unto God. This was no other but the Son of God made man, — God and man in one person. He who was in heaven, above all. Lord of all, at the same time lived in the world in a condition of no reputation, and a course of the strictest obedience imto the whole law of God. He unto whom prayer was made, prayed himself night and day. He whom all the angels of heaven and all creatures worshipped, was continually conversant in all the duties of the worship of God. He who was over the house, diligently observed the meanest office of the house. He that made all men, in whose hand they are all as clay in the hand of the potter, observed amongst them the strictest rules of justice, in giving unto every one his due ; and of charity, in giving good things that were not so due. This is that which renders the obedience of Christ in the discharge of his office both mysterious and glorious.
II. Again, the glory of Christ is proposed unto us in what he suffered in the discharge of the office which he had undertaken. There be- longed, indeed, unto his office, victory, success, and triumph with great glory, Isa. Ixiii. 1-5 ; but there were sufferings also required of him antecedently thereunto : "Ought not Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into his glory?"
But such were these sufferings of Christ, as that in our thoughts about them our minds quickly recoil in a sense of their insufficiency to conceive aright of them. Never any one launched into this ocean with his meditations, but he quickly found himself unable to fathom the depths of it ; nor shall I here undertake an inquiry into them. I shall only point at this spring of glory, and leave it under a veil.
IN THE DISCHARGE OF HIS MEDIATORY OFFICE. 341
We miffht here look on him as under the weisfht of the wrath of God, and the curse of the law ; taking on himself, and on his whole soul, the utmost of evil that God had ever threatened to sin or sinners. We might look on him in his agony and liloody sweat, in his strong cries and supplications, when he was sorrowful unto the death, and began to be amazed, in apprehensions of the things that were coming on him, — of that dreadful trial which he was entering into. We might look upon him conflicting with all the powers of darkness, the rage and madness of men, — suffering in his soul, his body, liis name, his reputation, his goods, his life; some of these sufferings being imme- diate from God above, others from devils and wicked men, acting according to the determinate counsel of God. We might look on him praying, weeping, crying out, bleeding, dying, — in all things making his soul an oifering for sin ; so was he " taken from prison, and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off from the land of the living: for the transgression," saith God, " of my people was he smitten," Isa. liii. 8. But these things I shall not insist on in particular, but leave them under such a veil as may give us a prospect into them, so far as to fill our souls with holy admiration.