Chapter 113

And because a miscarriage in this great truth is the most dangerous and damning miscarriage, therefore should professors be the more fearful of swerving aside therefrom. The man that rejecteth the true knowledge of the person of the Lord Jesus, and the causes of his doing and suffering in the world, takes the next way to be guilty of that transgression that is not to be purged with sacrifice for ever; that fearful transgression for which is left no offering at all, nor anything to be expected by the person transgressing but fearful judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversary.

Now, for their sakes that have not sinned this sin, for their sakes that are in danger thereof, but yet not overcome, for their sakes have I written this little book, wherein is largely, and yet with few words, discovered the doctrine of the person, and doings, and sufferings of Christ, with the true cause thereof, also a removal of those objections that the crafty children of darkness have framed against the same.

And I have been the more plain and simple in my writing, because the sin against the Holy Ghost is in these days more common than formerly, and the way unto it more beautified with colour and pretence of truth. I may say of the way to this sin, it is, as was once the way to Jerusalem, strewed with boughs and branches; and by some there is cried a kind of hosanna to them that are treading these steps to hell. O the plausible pretences, the golden names, the feigned holiness, the demure behaviours, mixed with damnable hypocrisy, that attend the persons that have forsaken the Lord Jesus, that have despised his person, trampled upon him, and counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing! They have crucified him to themselves, and think that they can go to heaven without him; yea, pretend they love him, when they hate him; pretend they have him, when they have cast him off; pretend they trust in him, when they bid defiance to his undertakings for the world.

Reader, let me beseech thee to hear me patiently; read, and consider, and judge. I have presented thee with that which I have received from God; and the holy men of God, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, do bear me witness. Thou wilt say, All pretend to this. Well, but give me the hearing, take me to the Bible, and let me find in thy heart no favour if thou find me to swerve from the standard.

I say again, receive my doctrine; I beseech thee, in Christ’s stead, receive it; I know it to be the way of salvation. I have ventured my own soul thereon with gladness; and if all the souls in the world were mine, as mine own soul is, I would, through God’s grace, venture every one of them there. I have not writ at a venture, nor borrowed my doctrine from libraries. I depend upon the sayings of no man. I found it in the Scriptures of truth, among the true sayings of God.

I have done, when I have exhorted thee to pray, and give heed to the words of God as revealed in the Holy Writ. The Lord Jesus Christ himself give thee light and life by faith in him; to whom, with the Father and the good Spirit of grace, be glory and dominion, now and for ever. Amen.

JOHN BUNYAN.

LIGHT FOR THEM THAT SIT IN DARKNESS.

‘OF THIS MAN’S SEED HATH GOD, ACCORDING TO HIS PROMISE, RAISED UNTO ISRAEL A SAVIOUR, JESUS.’—ACTS 13:23.

These words are part of a sermon which Paul preached to the people that lived at Antioch in Pisidia, where also inhabited many of the Jews. The preparation to his discourse he thus begins—‘Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience’ (v 16); by which having prepared their minds to attend, he proceeds and gives a particular relation of God’s peculiar dealings with his people Israel, from Egypt to the time of David their king, of whom he treateth particularly—

That he was the son of Jesse, that he was a king, that God raised him up in mercy, that God gave testimony of him, that he was a man after God’s own heart, that he should fulfil all his will (v 22).

And this he did of purpose both to engage them the more to attend, and because they well knew that of the fruit of his loins God hath promised the Messiah should come.

Having thus therefore gathered up their minds to hearken, he presenteth them with his errand—to wit, that the Messiah was come, and that the promise was indeed fulfilled that a Saviour should be born to Israel—‘Of this man’s seed,’ saith he, ‘hath God, according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus.’

In this assertion he concludeth—1. That the promise had kept its due course in presenting a Saviour to Israel—to wit, in David’s loins—‘Of this man’s seed.’ 2. That the time of the promise was come, and the Saviour was revealed—‘God hath raised unto Israel a Saviour.’ 3. That Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, was he—‘He hath raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus.’

From these things we may inquire, for the explication of the words, First. What this Jesus is? Second. What it was for this Jesus to be of the seed of David? Third. What it was for Jesus to be of this man’s seed according to the promise? And, Fourth, what it was for him to be raised unto Israel? These things may give us light into what shall be spoken after.

Quest. First. What this Jesus is?

He is God, and had personal being from before all worlds; therefore not such an one as took being when he was formed in the world; he is God’s natural Son, the Eternal Son of his begetting and love—‘God sent forth his Son.’ He was, and was his Son, before he was revealed—‘What is his name, and what is his Son’s name, if thou canst tell?’ (Prov 30:4; Eze 21:10). He hath an eternal generation, such as none can declare, not man, not angel (Isa 53:8). He was the delight of his Father before he had made either mountain or hill. While as yet he had not made the earth or the fields, or the highest part of the dust of the world, all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. It is he with whom the Father consulted when he was about to make man, when he intended to overthrow Babel, and when he sent Isaiah to harden the hearts of Israel (Prov 8:26; John 1:3; Heb 1:2,3; Col 1:17; Gen 1:26, 11:7; Isa 6:8). This is the person intended in the text. Hence also he testifies of himself that he came down from the Father; that he had glory with him before the world was. And ‘what and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?’ (John 6:62, 16:28, 17:5).

Quest. Second. What was it for Jesus to be of David’s seed?

To be of David’s seed is to spring from his loins, to come of his race according to the flesh; and therefore as he is David’s God, so likewise is he David’s Son; the root and also the offspring of David. And this the Lord himself acknowledgeth, saying, ‘I am the root,’ or God, ‘and the offspring,’ and Son, ‘of David, and the bright and morning star’ (Rev 22:16). This is indeed the great mystery, the mystery of godliness. ‘If David then call him Lord, how is he his Son?’ (Matt 22:45; Luke 2:4; Rom 1:3; 2 Tim 2:8). And hence it is that he is said to be ‘wonderful,’ because he is both God and man in one person—‘Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful’ (Isa 9:6). Wonderful indeed! Wonderful God, Wonderful man, Wonderful God-man, and so a Wonderful Jesus and Saviour. He also hath wonderful love, bore wonderful sorrows for our wonderful sins, and obtained for HIS a wonderful salvation.

Quest. Third. What was it for Jesus to be of this man’s seed according to the promise?

This word ‘promise’ doth sometimes comprehend all the promises which God made to our fathers, from the first promise to the last, and so the Holy Ghost doth call them—‘The promise made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children’ (Acts 13:32,33). But the word ‘promise’ here doth in special intend that which God made to David himself—‘Men and brethren,’ said Peter, ‘let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ,’ &c. (Acts 2:29,30).

Quest. Fourth. What was it for Jesus to be raised thus up of God to Israel?

Here we have two things to consider of—1. Who Israel is. 2. What it was for Jesus to be raised up unto them.

1. Who Israel is. By ‘Israel’ sometimes we should understand the whole stock of Jacob, the natural children of his flesh; for that name they have of him, for he obtained it when he wrestled with the angel, and prevailed, and it remained with his seed in their generations (Gen 32). By ‘Israel’ we are to understand all those that God hath promised to Christ—‘The children of the promise are counted for the seed,’ the elect Jews and Gentiles. These are called ‘the Israel of God,’ and the seed of Abraham, whom Jesus in special regarded in his undertaking the work of man’s redemption (Rom 9:8; Gal 6:16; Heb 2:14-16).

2. What it was for Jesus to be raised up unto them. This word ‘raised up’ is diversely taken in the Scripture. (1.) It is taken for ‘sending’; as when he saith he raised them up judges, saviours, and prophets, he means he sent them such, and thus he raised up Jesus—that is, ‘he sent him’ (Judg 2:16,18, 3:9,15; Amos 2:11). ‘I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment’ (John 12:49). (2.) To be raised up, intimateth one invested with power and authority. Thus he raised up David to be the king of Israel, he anointed him and invested him with kingly power (1 Sam 16:13; Acts 13:22). And thus was Jesus Christ raised up. Hence he is called ‘the horn of salvation’—‘He hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David’ (Luke 1:69). (3.) To be raised up, intimateth quickening and strengthening, to oppose and overcome all opposition. Thus was Jesus raised up from under sin, death, the rage of the world, and hell, that day that God raised him out of the grave.

Thus, therefore, was Jesus raised up to Israel—that is, he was sent, authorized, and strengthened to, and in the work of, their salvation, to the completing of it.

The words thus opened do lay before us these two observations—FIRST. That in all ages God gave his people a promise, and so ground for a believing remembrance, that he would one day send them a Saviour. SECOND. That when Jesus was come into the world, then was that promise of God fulfilled.

[OBSERVATION FIRST.]

To begin with the first, THAT IN ALL AGES GOD GAVE HIS PEOPLE A PROMISE, AND SO GROUND FOR A BELIEVING REMEMBRANCE, THAT HE WOULD ONE DAY SEND THEM A SAVIOUR.

This Zacharias testifies when he was filled with the Holy Ghost; for, speaking of the Messiah or the Saviour, he saith that God spake of him by the mouth of all the prophets which have been since the world began; to which I will add that of Peter, ‘Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days’ (Luke 1:69,70; Acts 3:24).

From these texts it is evident that in every generation or age of the world God did give his people a promise, and so ground for a believing remembrance, that he would one day send them a Saviour; for indeed the promise is not only a ground for a remembrance, but for a believing remembrance. What God saith is sufficient ground for faith, because he is truth, and cannot lie or repent. But that is not all; his heart was engaged, yea, all his heart, in the promise which he spoke of sending us a Saviour.

From this observation I shall make inquiry into these three things—FIRST. What it is to be a Saviour. SECOND. How it appears that God in all ages gave his people a promise that he would one day send them a Saviour. THIRD. That this was ground for believing remembrance that a Saviour should one day come.

FIRST. What it is to be a Saviour.

First. This word ‘Saviour’ is easy to be understood, it being all one with Deliverer, Redeemer, &c. ‘A Saviour, Jesus,’ both words are of the same signification, and are doubled, perhaps to teach us that the person mentioned in the text is not called ‘Jesus’ only to distinguish him from other men—for names are given to distinguish—but also and especially to specify his office; his name is Saviour, because it was to be his work, his office, his business in the world. His name shall be called Jesus, ‘for he shall save his people from their sins’ (Matt 1:21).

Second. This word ‘Saviour’ is a word so large that it hath place in all the undertakings of Christ: for whatever he doth in his mediation he doth as a Saviour. He interposeth between God and man as a Saviour; he engageth against sin, the devil, death, and hell, as a Saviour, and triumphed over them by himself as a Saviour.

Third. The word ‘Saviour,’ as I said, is all one with Redeemer, Deliverer, Reconciler, Peace-maker, or the like; for though there be variation in the terms, yet Saviour is the intendment of them all. By redeeming he becomes a Saviour, by delivering he becomes a Saviour, by reconciling he becomes a Saviour, and by making peace he becometh a Saviour. But I pass this now, intending to speak more to the same question afterwards.

SECOND. How it appears that God in all ages gave his people a promise that he would one day send them a Saviour.

It appears evidently; for so soon as man had sinned, God came to him with a heart full of promise, and continued to renew, and renew, till the time of the promised Messiah to be revealed was come.

[First.] He promised him under the name of ‘the seed of the women,’ after our first father had sinned—‘I will also put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel’ (Gen 3:15).[1] This the apostle hath his eye upon when he saith, ‘When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law’ (Gal 4:4,5).

Second. God renewed this promise to Abraham, and there tells him Christ should be his seed, saying, ‘In thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed’ (Gen 12:3). ‘Now,’ saith Paul, ‘to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ’ (Gal 3:16).

Third. He was promised in the time of Moses under the name of a ‘prophet’—‘I will raise them up,’ saith God to him, ‘a prophet from among their brethren like unto thee’ (Deut 18:18). This Peter expounds of Christ, ‘For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you’ (Acts 3:22).

Fourth. He promised him to David under the title of a ‘son,’ saying, ‘I will be his Father, and he shall be my Son’ (2 Sam 7:14). For this the apostle expounded of the Saviour, saying, ‘Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee’; and again, ‘I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son’ (Heb 1:5).

Fifth. He was promised in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—

1. By the name of a ‘branch’—‘In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious’ (Isa 4:2).

2. Under the name of the ‘son of a virgin’—‘Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.’ This Matthew expounds of Christ (Isa 7:14; Matt 1:23).

3. He was promised under the name of a ‘rod’—‘There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.’ This answereth the text, David was the son of Jesse, and Christ the Son of David (Isa 11:1,2).

4. He is promised under the title of a ‘king’—‘Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness,—and a man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land’ (Isa 32:1,2).

5. He was promised under the name of an ‘elect servant’—‘Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench’ (Isa 42:1-3; Matt 12:17-20).

6. He was promised to Jeremiah under the name of ‘the Lord our Righteousness’—‘Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper; and shall execute judgment—in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS’ (Jer 23:5,6).

7. He was promised by the prophet Ezekiel under the name of ‘David, a shepherd’—‘And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it’ (Eze 24:23; John 10:1-3).

8. He was promised by the prophet Daniel under the name of ‘Messiah, or Christ, the most holy’—‘And after threescore and two weeks shall the Messiah be cut off, but not for himself’ (Dan 9:26).

9. He was promised by the prophet Micah under the name of the ‘ruler in Israel’—‘But thou, Bethlehem-Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come—that is to be ruler in Israel’ (Micah 5:2; Matt 2:6).

10. He was promised to Haggai as ‘the desire of all nations’—‘I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts’ (Hagg 2:7).

11. He was promised by Zechariah under the name of ‘servant and branch’—‘For, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.’ And again, ‘Behold the man whose name is the BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory’ (Zech 3:8, 6:12,13).

12. He was promised by Malachi under the name of ‘the Lord, and the messenger of the covenant’—‘Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts’ (Mal 3:1).

Indeed, the Scriptures of the Old Testament are filled with promises of the Messias to come, prophetical promises, typical promises; for all the types and shadows of the Saviour are virtually so many promises.

Sixth. Having therefore touched upon the prophetical, I will briefly touch the typical promises also; for as God spake at sundry times to the fathers, so also in diverse manners, prophetically, providentially, typically, and all of the Messias (Heb 1:1). The types of the Saviour were various—1. Sometimes he was typed out by men; 2. Sometimes by beasts; 3. Sometimes by insensible creatures.

1. He was typed forth sometimes by men. Adam was his type in many things, especially as he was the head and father of the first world. He was ‘the figure of him that was to come’ (Rom 5:14). Moses was his type as Mediator, and as builder of the tabernacle (Heb 3:2,3). Aaron was his type as he was high-priest, and so was Melchisedec before him (Heb 5:4,5, 7:1,21). Samson was his type in the effects of his death; for as Samson gave his life for the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines, Christ gave his life to deliver us from sin and devils. Joshua was his type in giving the land of Canaan to Israel, as Jesus will give the kingdom of heaven to the elect (Heb 4:8). David was his type in many things, especially in his subduing of Israel’s enemies, and feeding them [Israel]: hence he is sometimes called David their king, and David their shepherd (Eze 34:23,24). Solomon was his type in his building the temple, and in his peaceable kingdom. Hence it is said, ‘He shall build the temple of the Lord’; and again, ‘Of his government and peace there shall be no end.’

2. Beasts were his types. To instance some—

(1.) The paschal lamb was his type (Exo 12). In its spotlessness; Christ was ‘a lamb without blemish and without spot’ (1 Peter 1:18,19). In its being roasted it was a figure of the cursed death of Christ; for to be roasted bespake one accursed (Jer 29:22; Gal 3:13). In that it was to be eaten—‘Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood,’ saith Christ, ‘hath eternal life’ (John 6:54). In that its blood was to be sprinkled upon the doors of their houses, for the destroying angel to look on; the blood of Christ is sprinkled upon the elect for the justice of God to look on (Heb 9; 1 Peter 1:2). By eating the paschal lamb, the people went out of Egypt; by feeding upon Christ by faith we come from under the Egyptian darkness, tyranny of Satan, &c.

(2.) The red cow was his type (Num 19:2, &c.).[2] In that she was to be without blemish. In that she was to be slain without the camp—‘Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate’ (Heb 13:12). In that her flesh was to be burnt; a type of the grievous death of Christ. Her ashes were to be carried into a clean place without the camp; a type of the clean sepulchre where the body of Jesus was laid (John 19:38-41).

There were also divers other sacrifices, as bulls, goats, and birds, which were types of him, which I here omit.

3. Insensible creatures were his types. As,

(1.) The man in the wilderness (Exo 16). And that as it came down from heaven, for so did Christ—‘I came down from heaven,’ saith he; and again, ‘I am the living bread which came down from heaven’ (John 6:51). The manna was to be eaten; so is Christ by faith—‘If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world’ (John 6:51). The manna was to be gathered daily; so is Christ to be daily eaten. The manna was all the bread that Israel had in the wilderness; Christ is all the bread that believers have in this life for their souls. The manna came not by Moses’ law, neither comes Christ by our merits—‘Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven’ (John 6:32).

(2.) Again; the rock that gave them out water for their thirst was a type of him (Num 20). They ‘did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ’ (1 Cor 10:4). This rock was his type in four things—

(a.) It gave drink to the people in the wilderness when they were come out of Egypt; Christ gives drink to them that forsake the world for him. (b.) The rock yielded water by being smitten by Moses’ rod; Christ giveth drink, even his blood, by being stricken by Moses’ law (Num 20:11; Isa 53). (c.) The water out of this rock was given to the thirsty—‘I will give unto him that is athirst,’ saith Christ, ‘of the fountain of the water of life freely’ (Rev 21:6). (d.) The water of the rock in the wilderness ran after the people; they drank of that rock that followed them—‘He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out, they ran in the dry places like a river’ (Psa 110:41). Christ also is said by that type to follow us—‘They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ’ (1 Cor 10:4).