Preached at Charicombe, 1st Sunday after Easter, April 27, 1862.
“It is God that justifieth, Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again.”—Romans viii. 33, 34.
We have been thanking the Almighty Father to-day that He has given His only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification. We have been asking Him to grant that we may put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, and serve Him in pureness of living and truth.
What did we mean by our thanksgiving? Is it true that God has justified us—you and me? How has He done that? What did we mean by our request? What is that leaven of malice and wickedness which we want to get rid of? Will God’s justification of us help us to get rid of it?
My friends! these are great questions; the greatest that anyone can ask. They concern every man and woman and child in this world. And there is an answer to them for every man and woman and child in this world. Let us listen to it, and try to take it in.
St. Paul, you see, has no doubt at all about this point. He says boldly “It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?” That is as much as to say, ‘I know, verily, that God, the creator of heaven and earth, is on our side; that He takes our part. And, therefore, I do not care who takes the other side; there may be a host of enemies that seek to destroy us. But there is one Friend whose will is to save us, and I verily think He is stronger than they are.’
But of whom does the apostle speak thus? He is telling us all through the Epistle of whom he speaks. The Jews had fancied that they were God’s favoured people; that He hated all other people. It was a strange fancy; for God had said unto Abraham “In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” He had chosen them out of all nations to do good to all the nations. He had chosen them out of all nations to tell all the nations, ‘God is not the partial, changeable being you have taken Him to be; He is the righteous God. He is determined to set up righteousness in the earth, and to put down all unrighteousness.’ But, in spite of this, the Jews had said, ‘He justifies us; He counts us a good and true nation; all besides us are accursed and hateful to Him.’
Now St. Paul, who was a Jew, and who had been at one time as narrow and bitter as anyone of his countrymen, wrote this letter to answer this calumny against Him who had made all men; he wrote to say that God had justified both Jews and Gentiles, one as much as the other. And how had He justified them?
It is Christ, he says, that has died. Whatever difference there was between Jews and the other people of the earth, there was one thing that was common to them—death was common to them; they all died. And Death said to every man, ‘I am coming to thee because thou hast gone wrong; if all were right with thee, thou wouldst live and not die. I shall take thee away from thy neighbours, and thy family, and from all thy plans and purposes. Thou mayest have friends and helpers above and below, but who will help thee against me? Who will take thee out of my hands? And if I once get thee, dost thou think that I shall ever lose hold of thee?’
So Death spoke to each man; so Death claimed each man as his prize and his slave. Who could answer him? St. Paul says Christ has answered him. The Son of God became a man. He conquered death for other men. He bade Death do his worst on Him. He did this not in obedience to Death, for He was not Death’s servant; but in obedience to His Father, the everlasting God. He said, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again.” He said on the cross, “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”
Christ died then. The perfectly holy Lord—the Lord of angels—the head of every man—underwent death, the worst kind of death, the death that only slaves and criminals had to bear. Death had seemed to be God’s curse upon men, cutting them off from the beautiful earth and all His mercies; Christ, who was perfectly one with God, suffered this curse. Death had seemed to be God’s messenger, to tear men from each other. Christ went under death, because He was the head of all men; because He felt for all men.
If St. Paul had stopped there, he might have said to Jews and Gentiles, ‘How can you dare to set yourselves up one against the other. Have not you a common enemy—Death, who hates you all? Have not you a common friend—Jesus Christ, who cares for you all?’ But he could not stop there; He had said “It is God that justifieth,” and he must show that God had justified. So he goes on, “Yea, rather that is risen again.”
Christ took our flesh upon Him. He died the death of men. He lay in such a grave as men’s corpses are put into, but the grave could not hold Him. God raised Him out of the grave, so He declared that this was indeed His Son. But was that all He declared? Christ had been His Son before the worlds were. No! He said that men whose nature Christ had taken, whose death Christ had died, were His children. He came to claim them for God. He came to tell Death that he was not their master, not the master of any man whatsoever because they were Christ’s brothers, because they belonged to Him.
Thus you see what St. Paul means when he told his own countrymen, the Jews, and the Gentiles who had been worshipping false gods, that Christ had died for their sins, and risen again for their justification. This was the belief that would raise them out of their sins; this was the belief that would lead them to trust in the true God, and to turn to Him, and fear Him, and love Him.
And this is what our collect this morning has been teaching us to do. It has put very bold language into our mouths. Almighty Father! What a name that is to address to Him who made the heaven and earth! Which of us can offer any reason why he should use it? Which of us has done anything or thought anything that can make him worthy of such an honour? But we, all of us, young men and maidens, old men and children, have a right to use that name; we have no right to shrink from using it. For God of His own free will has sent His own well beloved Son to come into our death on purpose that we might not remain apart from Him, refusing to be a part of His family, and He has raised up His Son to justify us from all our accusers, who would keep us from Him. Therefore, do we believe that He is our Father; the Father of us who are here to-day, and of all those who are worshipping Him everywhere, and of all men who have not yet learnt to worship Him. For, as St. Paul shows, He has sent His Son for our nation, and every nation. He has not justified men of one age, but men of every age; Wherever sin and death have reigned, there may we declare that Christ is a greater king than they; whereever men have chosen some god to worship who is not their Redeemer and their Father, but their enemy, there we may declare that the God whom Christ has declared to us is the true God, and that there is none other but He.
But I said that we asked something of this Almighty Father. What is it? Do we ask Him to be more gracious to us than He has shown Himself to be? How can He be that if He has given His only Son to die for us; to rise again for us; to justify us? How can He be that if He has treated our enemies as His enemies; if He has himself declared war against death and the grave and hell; if He has redeemed us out of the power of the evil spirit?
What have we then to pray to Him for? It is for this, that He would enable us to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness.
We do not beg Him to change His mind, but we beg Him to change our minds. There are a number of false, mean, malicious thoughts in them, which make us suspicious of our neighbours; which make us untrue to ourselves; which keep us from worshipping God, as if He were our Father, and we were His children. We think ourselves better than our neighbours; we try to make out that we are better by hiding our own faults, and by making the most of theirs. So we never become humble as Christ would have us be; so we never really overcome our bad habits. And we suspect God of having some evil designs against us; we think He is malicious because we are. We do not heartily believe that it is His desire to bring us out of all bad ways into the good and blessed way. This is the leaven which defiles our prayers; this is the leaven which defiles all our actions. But how can we get rid of it? The more we try, the more we feel how it has worked itself into our very selves; how it is killing us like a slow poison. Men have been driven to despair sometimes by finding how insincere they were in all their best services, how pride ruined them all. But what a help is here! We may turn to our Almighty Father; we know what His mind is. We know that He has given His Son to die for our sins, that we might be united to Him who has cared for us all; we know that He gave His Son to be raised again for our justification, that we might draw nigh to Him as His holy and redeemed children in Christ; therefore we know that He is willing to cast the bad leaven out of us; all our malice and wickedness; therefore we know that He wishes us to serve Him in pureness of living and truth; therefore we know that His almighty power will be on our side if we turn to Him, and ask Him to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
Christ brought this great promise with Him into the world, That He would baptize men with His Holy Spirit. That is to say, He did not come to tell men to be good, but He came to make them good. He did not only say ‘Avoid this and that wrong thing;’ but, ‘I will give you strength to avoid it, yes and to hate it.’ So when He had risen from the dead and ascended on high, He sent His Spirit to dwell among men. And those who believed in God’s great love, and were baptized, received power to do good deeds, and to speak good words; and men that had been cowards became brave; and men that had been quarrelsome and hateful, loved one another; and men that had been given up to lust and filthiness became pure; for the Spirit of God led them to trust in Christ who had died for them and risen again, and to ask His Almighty Father to deliver them from the leaven of malice and wickedness. Now, brethren, that promise of Christ’s has been fulfilled to us. We are baptized into the name of the Almighty Father, and of His only Son, and of the Holy Ghost; our children are baptized into that same name; and what was done in our infancy is confirmed or assured to us in our manhood. The bishop came into this neighbourhood the other day to confirm—that is, to assure those who had grown into young men and women, and were going out to their places as servants or to sell in shops, or to be prepared for being magistrates, and doctors, and lawyers, and members of parliament, that they should have God’s Holy Spirit with them in all their temptations, to keep them from going wrong, and to make them true and righteous men and women in their different callings.
Think only what that means. The Almighty Father has given His Son to die for our sins and rise again for our justification, that we might be His own children in Christ. And because we are His children He has given us this Holy Spirit who knows our hearts, and all that is likely to corrupt and ruin them, and who desires to plant in us good thoughts and desires, and right counsels, and to make us do just works, that He may be with us wherever we are, and guide us and strengthen us in whatever we are doing. How shall we turn such blessings to account?
First of all, you are here in church to be assured that you have this Almighty Father, and that He has given His Son to die for your sins and to rise again for your justification. That has been done already. Christ said of this work, “It is finished.” We are claimed as God’s children. He has justified us.
Next, when you go out of church remember that this is ever so. It was not true just when you were on your knees or hearing a sermon. It is true always. And you want this truth for week-days just as much as for Sundays. You want it in the fields, you want it in the shops. Young men want it that they may be brave and true, and not poor and base and sneaking creatures. Girls want it in their places, that they may keep themselves from bad people who would lead them into sin, and that they may be faithful to their masters and mistresses when no eye but God’s is on them. Masters and mistresses want it that they may be just and equal to their servants. Yes! we all want to remember the Almighty Father has justified us; He verily loves us and counts us His children. And, therefore, in all troubles, in all temptations, we may arise and go to Him, and He will certainly help us with His own mighty arm, and make us more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
And those want this belief who have fallen into bad and evil practices and find they cannot raise themselves out of them. A man who has become a sot finds the sight of liquor too much for him. He says he will not drink; but the next time the opportunity offers he gives way, his resolutions all gone, and no fear of what people will say to him, or of what will come to his family, or of his own health, is enough. But if he will think thus, ‘The Almighty Father who sent His own Son to die for me and for all men, and to be raised again for our justification, He does not wish me to be the slave of this accursed tyrant. He is stronger than my enemy; He can deliver me from this leaven of wickedness’—that will be a different kind of help altogether. He has God on his side, the Almighty Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. And he may defy the world and the flesh and the devil to keep him down and drag him to hell when it is the will of God to raise him to Heaven, and to give him a place among His sons and daughters for ever.
Next remember, that whatever your place in the world, you are called by God, your Almighty Father, to that place. He calls you to be farmers, labourers, schoolmasters, magistrates, physicians, clergymen. They are all His servants. They may all serve Him in pureness of living and truth if they ask Him to be with them, and cast the bad leaven out of them. And He will keep them through their work here, and He will lead them to better and nobler work when He has kept them here as long as He sees fit. For Christ died and rose again, that He might not be separated from those who sleep in Him, but that we should all wait for the day when He shall put death and all His enemies under His feet, and when all shall be gathered together in Him.