"He that did not spare his Son will spare no other."
When
any man sins, he denies the holiness of God's law. When a man swears,
or breaks the Sabbath, or dishonours his parents, or lies, or steals, he
says in his heart: God will not see—God will not take notice—God will
not cast me into hell for this. He does not believe the threatenings of
God. He does not believe that the law is holy and just. If those of you
who live in sin really believed that every
sin you committed was to bring down another stripe for eternity,
another wave of fire to roll over your bodies and souls in hell for
ever, you could not sin as you do; and therefore you dishonour the law—
you make it small and contemptible—you persuade yourselves that God's
law will never be put in force. Thus every sin is done against
God—"against thee, thee only." Now God sent his Son into the world to
magnify the law, by dying under its curse. He took upon him the curse
due to sinners, and bore it in his body on the tree, and thereby proved
that God's law cannot be mocked.
When God cast the devil and
his angels into hell, this showed in a very dreadful manner the truth of
his threatenings—the awful strictness of his law. If God had cast all
men into hell, it would have shown the same thing. But much more when
Christ bowed his head under the stroke of the law's curse. He was a
person of infinite dignity and glory: "God over all, blessed for ever."
He thought it no robbery to be equal with God. He was far exalted above
all blessing and. praise. God-man—the only being who ever stood on this
earth who was God and man. He was one who had no personal sin. He was
perfect—knew no sin—did no sin—was holy, harmless, undefiled, and
separate from sinners. He was infinitely dear to God. His own Son—his
only begotten Son; one who was in the beginning with God, and was God;
into whose bosom the love of the uncreated God had flowed from all
eternity. It was he who came and bowed his neck to the stroke of the
law. He was seen of angels. Angels desired to look into the awful scene.
The eyes of millions of worlds were turned towards Calvary. When Jesus
died, he redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for
us; and now all worlds saw that God could not be mocked. He added lustre
to the holy law. Angels and archangels saw, and trembled as they saw.
He that did not spare his Son will spare no other.
Learn the
certainty of hell for the Christless. Which of you that are Christless
can hope to escape the curse of the law, since God did not spare his
Son? If you have made up your mind to refuse Christ, then you must bear
hell. You say you are a person of great mind—of great power—of great
wealth; but, ah! you are not equal to the Son of God, and even he was
not spared. You say your sins are not many—not gross—not so bad as those
of other men; ah! but Christ knew no sin: he had no personal sin—all
was imputed sin. How surely will you suffer! You say God has been kind
to you—has given you many mercies; ah! remember, Christ was the Son of
his love, and yet, when the law demanded it, God spared not his own Son.
Though you were the signet on his right hand, yet would he pluck you
thence—though you were a right eye, yet would he pluck you out.
Learn to fee from sin. Every sin will have its eternal punishment. The
sin you are committing has either been suffered for in Christ, or will
be suffered for by you in hell.
~Robert Murray M'Cheyne
