Yea, rather, do not his labours for you shew
how you ought to labour for yourselves ? Awake, then, from your slumbers, and work out your salvation with fear and trembling. You feel the need of labouring for the bread that perisheth ; begin then to labour in good earnest for that which endureth to everlasting life, which the Son of man will give you.
2. Next observe, How wonderful was the love of Christ in undertaking such things for the effecting of your salvation !
When God declared that he had no pleasure in sacrifices and burnt-offerings, and that he must have a far nobler sacrifice than that of beasts to satisfy the
demands of his justice, the Saviour instantly under- took for us, saying, " Lo, I come to do thy will, O God ; I delight to do thy will, however painful the consequences of it may be to myself ; yea, thy law is within my heart." He perfectly knew what it was to make his soul an offering for sin : he did not under- take it hastily, or without being apprised of the full extent of his engagements : but, foreseeing all the shame and misery that he must endure for our re- demption, he undertook to effect it ; nor ever receded, till he had accomplished all that was needful for it. Never can we sufficiently admire this astonishing love. O let us fix our minds upon it, and labour, if possible, to comprehend its heights and depths ! Though " it passes the knowledge" of men and angels, yet shall our meditations on it be sweet, and our sense of it an antepast of heaven itself.
3. Lastly, How cheerfully should we submit to any conditions for his glory, who submitted to such con- ditions for our good!
What is it that our God requires of us ? It is simply this ; that we should repent, believe, obey. And shall such conditions appear hard ? If God had required that, in order to our final happiness, every one of us should endure the miseries of hell a thou- sand years, we ought to have embraced his offers of salvation with gratitude and joy; for, what are a thousand years in comparison of eternity ? But when he only enjoins us to repent of those iniquities, for which the Saviour died ; and to believe in him, whom the Father has set forth for a propitiation ; and to obey his precepts, which are holy, just, and good ; shall these injunctions be thought grievous ? Shall we turn our back upon him, saying, " If I cannot be saved without all this trouble, I will not be saved at all?" Well indeed might Jesus, when the conditions of our salvation were proposed to him, have replied, " No ; if man cannot be saved on lower terms than these, let him perish. But what lower terms could we wish for ? Yea, what is there in all our duties, which does
974.1 Christ's satisfaction in his people. 407
not tend even to our present happiness ? Let us then embrace the Gospel with all thankfulness : and let us cheerfully comply with all that God lias required of us, knowing assuredly that he is faithful who hath promised, and that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.