1 Cor. i. 30. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto tis wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctijication, and redemption.
HABITUATED as we have been from our early childhood to read the Holy Scriptures, and to hear them read in public, it is surprising that we do not gain a more clear and accurate knowledge of their contents. But experience shews, that, however strongly the inspired writers have declared the re- vealed will of God, it is but very partially and imperfectly known amongst us. The fact is, that we do not sufficiently consider the import of what we read. We pass over the most plain and significant expressions, without considering what is contained in them. When we read of a Saviour, we do not advert to the awful truth comprehended in that word, namely, that in ourselves we are utterly and eternally lost. In other words, we are very little affected with what is expressed in Scripture, because
VOL. XVI. c
we do not pause to inquire into what those ex- pressions imply. That we suffer great loss by this inadvertence is evident from what our blessed Lord taught respecting the resurrection of our bodies to eternal life. The Sadducees could not find that doctrine contained in the Holy Scriptures, or at all events not in the Pentateuch, which alone they re- garded as of divine authority. Our Lord appealed to the name of Jehovah as proclaimed in the Penta- teuch, namely, as " the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Now, says our Lord, consider what is implied in that name. Jehovah, as their God, is the God of their whole persons, their bodies as well as their souls ; and, if their bodies are not to be raised again, that relation between God and them, so far as respects their bodies, is dissolved. But that relation never can be dissolved : therefore their bodies must be raised again, and be re-united to their souls, that so those departed saints may, in their whole and entire persons, for ever serve and enjoy their God^
Now I would wish to commend to you the passage before us in this peculiar view. St. Paul is shewing the Corinthians, that they neither have, nor ever can have, any thing to boast of; since " God has chosen the poor, and the weak, and the foolish, in preference to the rich, the mighty, and the wise ;" and since whatsoever any of them may have, they have it solely in Christ, who of God is made to them wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption ; and that consequently, whosoever glories, must glory, not in himself, but in the Lord alone.
In order that we may unfold these words to the greater advantage, we shall, in accordance with this hint, consider, first. What is implied in them, and then. What is expressed.
Now if we will duly consider these words, we shall see this evidently implied in them : first, that we are destitute of all good in ourselves, and, secondly, that we are incapable of acquiring it by any power of our
a Matt. xxii. 32.