[The Jews were called " Christ's own" because he had separated them from all other people, brought them out of Egypt, led them through the wilderness, and derived his human nature from the stock of Abraham, their father. Their very country was called " Emmanuel's lande. But we are his in a still more appropriate sense ; because he has bought us with his blood ; and we have been baptized into his name ; and profess ourselves his followers. Yet we " do not really receive him," any more than the Jews themselves did. We do not receive him in the character which he bears in the Holy Scrip- tures* We do not receive him for the ends and
purposes for which he came8 ]
Alas ! what contempt is this which we pour upon him ! We can shudder at the indignities offered him by the Jews ; but we ourselves are no less criminal than the people who crucified and slew him : they through ignorance apprehended and exe- cuted him as a malefactor: we, with our eyes open, cry, " Hail, Master!" and betray him\]
But that we may not continue to treat him thus, let us consider,
II. The honour he confers on those who believe in him —
A " receiving of Christ," and a " believing in him," are represented in the text as of precisely the same import. It is superfluous therefore to add any thing more in explanation of the terms. The benefits accruing from faith are the objects which next de- mand our attention. Unspeakable is the honour of becoming a child of God : yet to every one that believes in him, our blessed Lord gives,
1. To bear this relation to God —
[" To the Jews belonged the adoption'," as far as related to the external privileges of it. But we, on believing, " are made partakers of the Divine naturek." We become the chil- dren of God as well by regeneration as adoption : yea, faith is at once the means1, and the evidence"1, of our sonship with
e Isai. viii. 8.
f He is a Prophet to teach us, a Priest to atone for us, a King to rule over us and in us. Do we receive him under these characters ?
s He came to justify us by his blood, to sanctify us by his grace, and to save us with an everlasting salvation. Do we receive him for these ends ?
h^Matt. xxvi. 49. > Rom. ix. 4. k 2 Pet. i. 4.
1 Gal. iii. 20. m 1 John v. 1.