Without this, all his previous labours and sufferings would be in vain. For this, therefore, he longed, that he might be able to say, " It is finished k" — ]
3. Because by it salvation would be wrought for a ruined world —
[This was the great work which Jesus had come to effect: and so intent was he upon it, that, when Peter would have persuaded him to spare himself, he reproved his infatuated Disciple in the most indignant terms : " Get thee behind me, Satan ; thou art an offence unto me1." This was, in fact, " the joy that had been set before him ;" in the prospect of which he not only "endured the cross, and despised the shame m," but desired both the one and the other ; fully " satisfied, if only he might see at last of the travail of his soul " in the happiness and salvation of his redeemed people11 ]
Think now, Brethren,
1. What obligations we owe to the Lord Jesus Christ !
[How amazing is it, that ever He should undertake such a work for us ; and that he should persevere in it, till it was altogether accomplished! He knew from the beginning all that should come upon him : yet, so far from drawing back, " he went before his timid Disciples, and, to their utter amaze- ment, led the way" to the place that was to be the scene of all his sorrows0. He shewed, throughout, that the whole of his sufferings were voluntary. When, by his word, he struck to the ground the whole band that came to apprehend him, he shewed, that he could as easily have struck them all dead upon the spot? : and, in liberating his Disciples, he shewed that he could with equal ease, if it had pleased him, have liberated himself also % He himself tells us, that, if it had pleased him, he might have had " more than twelve legions of angels" to deliver himr. But " having loved his own, he loved them to the end ;" and drew not back, till, by his own obedience unto death, he had " made an end of sin, and brought in an everlasting righteousness8." How " passing the knowledge, whether of men or angels, was this unutterable, incomprehensible love!" Seek, my dear Brethren, so far as your feeble capacities will enable you, to comprehend it ; that so, being transported with the view of it, " ye may be filled with all the fulness of God*."]
k John xix. 30. 1 Matt. xvi. 21—23. m Heb. xii. 2.
n Isai. liii. 11. ° Mark x. 32 — 34. p John xviii. 4 — 6.
i John xviii. 7 — 9. r Matt. xxvi. 53, 54, s Dan. ix. 24.
* Eph. iii. 18, 19.