“This is a true saying, and everyone should believe it: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—and I was the worst of them all.”1 Timothy 1:15
The gospel, as the name signifies, denotes glad tidings. This blessed gospel is sent to us: to you, reader, are these glad tidings conveyed. “That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” is the best news that ever fell on the ears of a dying world. Life and immortality are brought to light through this gospel of the grace of God. Let us now contemplate the glorious character of our blessed Redeemer, and the love which he has manifested in coming into the world to save sinners.
1. In the person of Christ, the human and divine natures are united. His DIVINITY is clearly asserted in the Scriptures. The Redeemer of lost sinners is the eternal Son of God -equal with the Father, the Creator of the universe, the upholder of all things. Endued with supreme power, he reigns universal Lord. All power is given to him, in heaven and earth. All worlds are his. All kingdoms are his domain. He made all things. At his command, worlds sprung into being. By his power all created matter is upheld in existence. He has caused the sun to shine with undiminished splendor on our globe for nearly six thousand years. “Without warning, he moves the mountains, overturning them in his anger. He shakes the earth from its place, and its foundations tremble. If he commands it, the sun won’t rise and the stars won’t shine. He alone has spread out the heavens and marches on the waves of the sea. He made all the stars—the Bear, Orion, the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky. His great works are too marvelous to understand. He performs miracles without number.”
Open the blessed volume, and read the fundamental doctrine of Christianity, that Christ, the redeemer of sinners, is God. “In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn’t make.” It is a matter of great consolation for the believer who has entrusted his immortal concerns in the hands of his blessed Redeemer, to know that he is God over all, blessed forever. Let him ever bear in mind that the Savior, who loves him is the only begotten Son of God, and bears his very image. He is the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person. He is clothed with divine majesty, and possesses all divine perfections, and infinite excellences. He is equal with God in all his glorious perfections.
He is called “the Lord of Glory,” the “King of glory,” “the mighty God,” “Jehovah;” and in the Revelation he is described as having on his vesture, and on his thigh a name written, “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” Again, it is said of him that “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before God made anything at all and is supreme over all creation. Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—kings, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities. Everything has been created through him and for him. He existed before everything else began, and he holds all creation together. Christ is the head of the church, which is his body. He is the first of all who will rise from the dead, so he is first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ.”
There is a transcendent loveliness in the person of Christ. He is “fairer than the children of men:” “the chief among ten thousand; yes, he is altogether lovely.” What glorious and lovely attractions center in Emmanuel! Such is the character of Him who came into our sin-polluted world, to shed on Calvary his precious blood for the redemption of his people.
Continue reading The Love of Christ in Coming into the World to Save Sinners
