The Knowledge of JESUS CHRIST the best Knowledge.
1 CORINTHIANS ii. 2.
_I determined not to know any thing among you, save JESUS CHRIST, and him crucified._
THE persons to whom these words were written, were the members of the church of _Corinth_; who, as appears by the foregoing chapter, were not only divided into different sects, by one saying, “I am of _Paul_, and another, I am of _Apollos_;” but also had many amongst them, who were so full of the wisdom of this world, and so wise in their own eyes, that they set at nought the simplicity of the gospel, and accounted the Apostle’s preaching foolishness.
Never had the Apostle more need of the wisdom of the serpent, mingled with the innocency of the dove, than now. What is the sum of all his wisdom? he tells them, in the words of the text, “I determined not to know any thing amongst you, save JESUS CHRIST, and him crucified.”
A resolution this, worthy of the great St. _Paul_; and no less worthy, no less necessary for every minister, and every disciple of CHRIST, to make always, even unto the end of the world.
In the following discourse, I shall,
_First_, Explain what is meant by “not knowing any thing, save JESUS CHRIST, and him crucified.”
_Secondly_, Give some reasons why every christian should determine not to know any thing else. And
_Thirdly_, Conclude with a general exhortation to put this determination into practice.
_First_, I am to explain what is meant by “not knowing any thing, save JESUS CHRIST, and him crucified.”
By JESUS CHRIST, we are to understand the eternal Son of GOD. He is called JESUS, a Saviour, because he was to save us from the guilt and power of our sins; and, like _Joshua_, by whom he was remarkably typified, to lead GOD’s spiritual _Israel_ through the wilderness of this world, to the heavenly _Canaan_, the promised inheritance of the children of GOD.
He is called _Christ_, which signifies anointed, because he was anointed by the Holy Ghost at his baptism, to be a prophet to instruct, a priest to make an atonement for, and a king to govern and protect his church. And he was crucified, or hung (O stupendous love!) till he was dead upon the cross, that he might become a curse for us: for it is written, “Cursed is every man that hangeth upon a tree.”
The foundation or first cause of his suffering, was our fall in _Adam_; in whom, as the living oracles of GOD declare, “We all died;” his sin was imputed to us all. It pleased GOD, after he had spoken the world into being, to create man after his own divine image, to breathe into him the breath of life, and to place him as our representative in the garden of _Eden_.
But he being left to his own free will, did eat of the forbidden fruit, notwithstanding GOD had told him, “The day in which he eat thereof, he should surely die;” and thereby he, with his whole posterity, in whose name he acted, became liable to the wrath of GOD, and sunk into a spiritual death.
But behold the goodness, as well as the severity of GOD! For no sooner had man been convicted as a sinner, but lo! a Saviour is revealed to him, under the character of the _seed of the woman_: the merits of whose sacrifice were then immediately to take place, and who should, in the fulness of time, by suffering death, satisfy for the guilt we had contracted; by obeying the whole moral law, work out for us an everlasting righteousness; and by becoming a principle of new life in us, destroy the power of the devil, and thereby restore us to a better state than that in which we were at first created.
This is the plain scriptural account of that mystery of godliness, GOD manifested in the flesh; and to this our own hearts, unless blinded by the god of this world, cannot but yield an immediate assent.
For, let us but search our own hearts, and ask ourselves, if we could create our own children, whether or not we would not create them with a less mixture of good and evil, than we find in ourselves? Supposing GOD then only to have our goodness, he could not, at first, make us so sinful, so polluted as we are. But supposing him to be as he is, infinitely good, or goodness itself, then it is absolutely impossible that he should create any thing but what is like himself, perfect, entire, lacking nothing. Man then could not come out of the hands of his Maker, so miserably blind and naked, with such a mixture of the beast and devil, as he finds now in himself, but must have fallen from what he was; and as it does not suit with the goodness and justness of GOD, to punish the whole race of mankind with these disorders merely for nothing; and since men bring these disorders into the world with them; it follows, that as they could not sin themselves, being yet unborn, some other man’s sin must have been imputed to them; from whence, as from a fountain, all these evils flow.