Christ the Fountain of Life — Sermon 1

1 John 5:12. He that has the Son, has life, and he that has not the Son, has not life.

These words contain the third part of the record that God bore of his Son, to whom this eternal life is communicated, and that is to all such, as to whom the Son is communicated; amplified by the contrary, He that has not the Son, has not life.

Doctrine: According to, or upon our having, or not having of Christ, depends our having or not having of life.

The note is of special weight in our Christian experience, and therefore let us take so much the more care in opening of it; He that finds me (which is all one with, he that has me) he has life (Proverbs 8:34), but he that is estranged from me, he loves death (verse 36). So that, find Christ, and find life. Find him not, but be estranged from him, and find death. So (Ephesians 2:12), In times past you were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world, and (Ephesians 4:18-19), There he speaks of some that were alienated from the life of God; but in (verse 20), You have not so learned Christ, if so be you have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus.

For further clearing of this point, let me show you first the reasons upon which it depends, and then the uses of it.

Reason 1. For the first; the first reason arises from the insufficiency of all the body of the creature to give us life without Christ (Hebrews 10:1-4). It is not possible that the blood of bulls, and goats should cleanse the conscience from sin; they are not a valuable recompense to God for the transgressions we have done by our transgressions; we had deserved death, for which the death of the beasts cannot make recompense.

And besides, should we die for our sins ourselves, our death would not free us from the punishment, for we are not able to overcome death, but should forever sink under it: if there had been a law that could have given us life, then we might have lived by it, but there is no such law as can give us spiritual life. David speaks in the name of Christ (Psalm 22:29), it is the speech of our Savior, or of David in his name, No man can keep alive his own soul. It is beyond the power of the creature to keep alive his own soul, no not so much as natural life (Psalm 49:7-9). No man can give a ransom for the soul of his brother; no man is able to ransom, or redeem his own life or another's; indeed (which is much) Adam in innocence, was taught to look for the preservation of his innocent nature out of himself, for to that end did God give him the tree of life (Genesis 2:9), the tree of life grows not in Adam, but in the garden. Now he that was to eat of the tree, called the tree of life, he was taught from there, that the maintenance and continuance of that life which he then lived (a life of grace and glory) was not to be expected from his own strength, but from something without himself: the tree of life was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person in Trinity (1 John 3:4). Now if Adam could not keep alive his own soul but by that tree, how much less Adam fallen and corrupted, being now become unable to keep that law which in innocence he might have kept?

But more clearly see the grounds of this insufficiency in the creature to help itself.

The first is taken from the preciousness of the price of our redemption. The costliness of it, the matter of our justification is the price of our redemption, and without justification, no spiritual life at all. Now the price of our redemption is our justification, the form of that justification is God's accepting of it, and imputing it to us; but the matter of it is the price of our redemption, and that is the root of all our spiritual life, the price of our redemption given to God is accepted of him, and by him given to us (Psalm 49:8). Precious is the redemption of souls; it is far beyond the power of the creature, that which may be fit matter to give to God by way of satisfaction for a soul that is very precious, and this was only the obedience of Christ to the death, he by suffering death for us, and rising from the dead, declared himself mightily to be the Son of God, and he by his obedience to the death, offered to God the price of our redemption; he gave himself a ransom for many. And this shows that it had been impossible for any under the Son of God, to have given a sufficient price for our redemption; neither man nor angels could do it: but he in giving a sufficient price for us, did thereby mightily declare himself to be the Son of God, he only by his death, is the matter of our justification, and his rising is our life: the Father himself, it could not stand with his justice to give a price for our redemption, he being the person offended; but the Son taking upon him our nature, that nature which had offended God, he by this means made atonement, between the Father and us, and in making atonement declared himself mightily to be the Son of God, none but he alone was able to tender to God such a recompense as might be a satisfaction for our sins.

2. And as this is ground why there is no sufficiency in the creature to give us the life of our justification; so it is also taken from the root of our sanctification and consolation, for they spring both from one fountain, and that is the Spirit of God's grace (John 16:7). He is the comforter, that is our sanctifier, and this springs in us to everlasting life (John 4:14). Now he that can give a spirit of sanctification, and consolation, is only the Lord Jesus Christ, unless he go away, and send the Comforter to us, he never comes. If you would know who it is that can give this water of life, you shall read (John 4:10) that it is only the Lord Jesus; he it is only that goes to the Father, and sends his Spirit of grace into our hearts, unless he go to heaven, and send it down from heaven to us, it is not given. So that he being the root of the Spirit of consolation, and of sanctification, all this life of consolation and sanctification springing from the Spirit as from a fountain, and Christ being he that sets open this fountain (Zechariah 1:13), therefore it is that there is an insufficiency in the creature to shed abroad such a thing as this into our hearts. (Acts 2:33) when he was to give a reason of the spirit of tongues, he fetches it from the resurrection of Christ, that he by his ascending into heaven, did shed abroad this word which you now see and hear; so that by his death he gave to God, not only the price of our redemption, but prevailed with the Father to bestow upon him the Spirit to give where, and to whom he will.

3. And for a third ground, why eternal life cannot be given by any but by Christ, is taken from the invincible difficulty of the passage to eternal life, from the hand of death and the grave, there is no redemption. What man is he that can deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? (Psalm 49). And if the soul be severed from the body: no man can quicken his own soul, that is beyond the power and reach of the creature, death is the passage to eternal life, and this passage is of invincible difficulty, for a man to die, and then to translate himself from death to life, is far beyond the capacity of the creature, and therefore says our Savior, I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). And he speaks of it formally and properly; as if he should say, being risen from the dead myself, I rise myself, and therefore raise up others also; so that if you look at the invincible difficulty of it, you shall see, that it only is the Lord Jesus, that can give eternal life. It is a sign of a hypocrite, when with Simon Magus we think this gift may be bought with money.

Reason 2: It is taken from the good pleasure of the Father, whom it has pleased that in Christ all fullness of life should dwell (Colossians 1:19). And when he which is our life shall appear, we shall appear with him (1 Corinthians 1:30). And therefore since God has concluded, and shut up all the springs of life in Christ, and out of Christ there is nothing but death, the good pleasure of the Father has determined this point, that he having given us this eternal life in his Son, there is no deriving life from any fountain, but only from the Son.

Use: If upon our having, or not having of Christ, depends our having, or not having of life; then from hence you see an evident ground of trial of every one of our estates, whether we be alive or dead; would any man know whether he have, or not have life; consider then whether you have, or not have Christ.

And from hence you may discern three grounds of trial to discern whether we have Christ or no.

First, consider what it is to have a Christ.

Secondly, what it is to have the Son.

Thirdly, what signs there be of life; and hereby we shall have direction, whether we have Christ or no, and by this, we may inform ourselves aright in this particular.

This point contains in it the pith and marrow of Christianity, so far as any comfort of it may redound to us.

First, then let us consider what signs the Holy Ghost has given us of our having of Christ.

We are said to have Christ four ways in Scripture.

First, by the honor, or service, or worship of him.

Secondly, in some sense we are said to have Christ by purchase.

Thirdly, by way of covenant.

Fourthly, by way of free acceptance, when God offers him.

First, a man is said to have God, or to have Christ, that worships him, and the very worshiping of him, is the having of him; so you read (Exodus 20:3), 'You shall have no other gods but me;' it is the express words of the commandment. And by having of God there, he means this much, 'You shall worship no other gods but me; worship me, and you have me; worship any other, and you have another god, and not me.' So have the Lord Jesus Christ by worshiping of him; and you have him fully (Psalm 45:10-11). He is the Lord your God, and worship him; implying, that as God has set over his Son to us, to be our Lord, so we must receive, accept, and worship him; this is that which Moses and the people of Israel sang, 'He is my God, and is become my salvation' (Exodus 15:2). 'He is my God, and he is my Father's God, and therefore I will exalt him.' So that to set up and exalt God in our hearts and lives, and to worship him, is all one; this sets up the Lord, to worship him, is to be our God.

Now a little better to understand this point, that you may conceive what this worship of Christ is; you are to conceive that worship is performed to Christ, in mind, in heart, in life, both in our obedience that we perform, in our life, in suffering, and patience which we yield to God in our lives, by all this we worship Christ, and so have him.

First, in our minds, we then indeed worship Christ, when we have him in high estimation. The worship, and honor that we owe to Christ, is to have him in high esteem (Song of Solomon 5:10). She, the Spouse there may well call him her beloved, Christ is my Christ, when he is to me the chiefest of ten thousand (Psalm 89:6). Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the Lord. And (Exodus 15:11) Who is a God like to you: when the soul of a man does esteem of Christ above all other things in the world, when there is nothing that the soul so prizes as the Lord Jesus Christ, then the soul has him; and in this lies the difference between spiritual and earthly things, you have a high esteem of an earthly thing, and yet have it not; a man may highly prize a good bargain, and yet have it not: but no man sets a high price upon Christ, but he that has him; spiritual things we wholly neglect, until we have them, and when we have them, then there is [reconstructed: nothing] with us comparable to them, until a man have his portion in the word of God, it is but a thing of small value to him, and so the Spirit of God's grace, and the blood of Christ until a man have it; it is but a light vain thing to him; indeed till he have the Lord Jesus himself, no spiritual thing is of any value with him; but as soon as ever the heart begins to prize Jesus Christ, as the chiefest of all the blessings that ever God bestowed upon the sons of men; and if the soul think, that had he but his part in Christ, he were the happiest man in the world; in thus prizing him, he worships him; and in worshipping him, he has him.

Now you must conceive that all worship stands in advancing another, with the debasing of ourselves; we humble ourselves, that we may advance another. Now if our debasement to them be such as is not compatible to a creature, as when we subject our heart and spirits to them; this is divine honor: now that soul that exalts the Lord Jesus Christ as the highest in his own esteem, he debases himself to the dust in his spirit before him (John 1:27). It is the speech of John Baptist (speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ) He that comes after me, is preferred before me, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to loose. This is a true worshipping of Christ, when in comparison of Christ he thinks himself unworthy to loose his shoe latchet. No mortal man but he may be worthy to loose any man's shoe latchet, if he be but worthy to live; but this is the honor and worship of Christ, that when your soul looks upon Christ, he is so highly to be preferred before him, as that he thinks himself not worthy to untie his shoe.

Now when a man is framed to these thoughts in his mind, as that he looks at Christ as the chiefest of all the blessings of God, as the greatest mercy that ever could befall a poor soul; and in respect of Christ, he looks at himself as an unworthy creature, most unworthy of Christ, most unworthy to come in his presence, and much more unworthy to be made partaker of so glorious a match as the Lord Jesus is, or to have his part in his body and blood, the very worship of Christ, in truth, the having of Christ; if we have such a singular esteem of him, we may be sure we could never have thus prized him, but that he first prized us.

For further opening this worship of Christ in our minds, because it is of singular importance, and may help and stay a poor Christian, when his heart may be most dead, and all other things fail him, yet this high esteem of Christ in his mind is never wanting to an honest hearted Christian, but he ever has occasion to look at Christ as most glorious, and at himself in comparison of Christ, as unworthy to loose his shoe latchet.

Let us therefore consider a little further of it; you may read the like gracious disposition in Moses; he so prizes Christ, that every thing belonging to Christ seems honorable to him, he esteemed the very reproaches of Christ, above all the treasures of Egypt, and those are less, than a shoe latchet (Hebrews 11:26). In untying a shoe latchet, there is neither shame nor pain: but for a man to be reproached for Christ, if any thing be base and dishonorable, sure it is that: for a man that was taken to be the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and for him not to be ashamed of the people of God: nor of being reproached with them; indeed, so far from being ashamed, as to think it greater riches, than the treasures of Egypt, he was sure gone far in his esteem of Christ: that man truly worships Christ, that honors the reproaches of Christ above all other things.

But yet there is something more in it than this, in this worship of Christ in our minds: We honor, or worship Christ in our minds, when we make him the chiefest, and esteem nothing more worthy to be known, than to know the Lord Jesus Christ (John 17:3). This is life eternal to know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent: Now when the soul esteems nothing more worth the knowing than Jesus Christ, this is an honoring of him (1 Corinthians 2:2). I determined not to know anything among you, save Christ and him crucified, and (Philippians 3:7-10) he looks at all things as loss, and dross, and dung that he might be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, but might know the power and virtue of his resurrection; This is that which the Apostle did prize in his judgment as more honorable, and comfortable, than anything under the sun, and this was an evident sign that Paul had Christ; for this is an ordinary experiment in nature, no man has any blessing, but he would know the worth of it; if a man have a farm or a yoke of oxen, he will prove them (Luke 14:19). A man will know beforehand if he can, but when he has it then he will prove it, and truly so is it with every one that has the Lord Jesus, he is desirous to prove Christ, he would know by experience, what the virtue and power of his death is, how it pardons his sin, and mortifies his corruptions, and he would know the power of his resurrection: strengthening and quickening grace in him, and the power of Christ's ascension, ascending into the presence of his Father, and sitting at the right hand of God to rule all creatures in heaven and in earth, for the church's good, and subduing our enemies, and bringing us to glory in the end. A man that has Jesus Christ, he is inquisitive to know all the virtue that is in Christ, and he thinks in his mind, there is nothing better worth the knowing, than to know and feel the virtue and power of Christ Jesus in his heart: And this is the first part of the worship of Christ, though we be yet doubtful whether we have Christ or no; Yet it is an evidence to the soul, that you have him; because you do worship him, and so highly prize him in your mind, and if you could but know him, and your part in him, this is the chiefest comfort you can pitch your mind upon; certainly he is your beloved, since he is to you the chiefest of ten thousand.

Secondly, a man worships Christ, not only by an act of his mind, but a man has Christ likewise when he has him in the deep affection of his heart, when he deeply affects him in his heart, as his chiefest good. The former was an act of the judgment and understanding; this belongs to the heart, will, and affections. [reconstructed: Psalm] 73:25. Whom have I in heaven but you, or in earth in comparison of you, and (Psalm 42:1) my soul pants or breathes after you my God. He was then a banished man from the congregation, and it was a weary sad time to him, his soul panted like a chased deer, for the rivers of water, his soul was thirsty for God! Oh when shall I come, and appear before him? this is such a longing desire, when a man wants Christ; As that it is called, hunger and thirst (Matthew 5), such a desire as cannot be satisfied, but with meeting with that which the soul does hunger and thirst for; give a hungry man a house full of gold, and he is hungry still, but give him meat and then you satisfy him; So in this case, the soul that hungers after Christ, give him profit and pleasure, and you give him nothing, but his soul is fit to perish for want of Christ, this is a deep worship we put upon Christ; and in so affecting of him, we have him; When the soul has the Lord Jesus, the highest and chiefest cause of rejoicing it has, is, only its having of Christ (Galatians 6:14). If he has his part in Christ, that is his crown and his portion, he counts it a goodly portion, his lot is fallen into a pleasant place; if we have him for our portion, we have enough, therein the soul is fully satisfied, and if we have lost him, we chiefly mourn for that, our chiefest care is to get him; and we mourn most bitterly for want of him (Zechariah 12:10). And we make it our desire chiefly to have him, and then we truly have him when we so set him up in our hearts, we may affect many earthly blessings and want them, as gold and silver, and friends, and health, and yet want them all, but no man desires Christ thus, but he has him. I mean if he desire him as his chiefest good, the having of any blessing does not so rejoice his heart, nor the want of it so afflict him, such a soul has Christ.

Object. But the church in (Song of Solomon 3:1) she wanted Christ, and yet earnestly desired him, therefore a soul may have a strong desire to Christ, and yet be without him, how can she be said not to find Christ, and yet to have him?

She could neither have loved him nor have sought him, nor have so known the worth of him, if he had not loved her first, and if she in some measure had not had him: But when she says she found him not, the meaning is, not in that feeling and comfort, not in that measure she sought for, not in that life and power, her soul desired, she sought him by night in a dark time, but though she wanted the comfort of Christ in his ordinances, as she then desired, yet she had Christ, and had true fellowship with him, else she could never have so loved him, for she says she sought him whom her soul loved; and this is indeed so much the more true worship of him when it is so hearty; in our judgments we prize him as the chiefest blessing in heaven and in earth, and in our hearts we so affect him, and cleave to him, so now on the contrary, let the same heart look into itself, and in comparison of Christ, he not only in his judgment basely esteems of himself, but in our affections we look at ourselves as loathsome in comparison of Christ, this you shall find to be true, the more the heart does inwardly love Christ, the less we do love ourselves, so when God revealed himself to Job he cried out, I am vile (Job 40:4) and then he abhors himself, and repents in dust and ashes. There is no soul that has any high esteem of God, or any strong affection to him; but the more highly and deeply he affects him, the more he disaffects himself and loathes himself, as unfit to come into the presence of the Lord, when as Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord sitting upon the cherubins, he cried out woe is me I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips, etc. (Isaiah 6:5-6) this shall you ever find to be the frame of the spirit of a Christian, the more deeply he affects Christ, the more inwardly he loathes himself, he looks at himself as fit rather to be swallowed up of judgment than capable of any mercy, not only grieve for his sin against Christ or not only the more fear his sin, or the more be ashamed of his sin, by how much the more he sees the glory of Christ, but he so much the more loathes himself, as one clean out of heart, he abhors himself as an unclean and abominable thing, that if he could go out of himself, and be severed from his own soul, he would never own himself more, and therefore Christ puts self denial for a principal part of his worship (Luke 9:23) this very denial of ourselves is a worship of Christ, hereby we so affect Christ, that we are quite out of conceit and love of ourselves. And so loathe ourselves for our sins, as they make us unfit to be joined to so glorious a head as Christ, and then indeed we have him.

A third part of this worship of him is in our life: And in our life we worship him, by obedience in doing his will, and by patience in suffering his will, or anything comfortably for his sake.

Hearty obedience is a true and sincere, and real sign of this worship of Christ, and true sincere obedience to him is a true having of him.

This is, first when a man has such respect to all the commandments of God, as that there is none of them but he greatly delights in it (Psalm 119:6) then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect to all your commandments: He looks at them all with such respect, as the commandments of a great God, he respects them all as God's commandments: When as a man is willing to take up every commandment of Christ, he submits to them all every one.

And which is more, as he has respect to all God's commandments, so he has respect to all God's commandments in all his ways, there is a double universality of obedience, and they both hold forth this truth; it brings into subjection every thought and imagination to the will of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:9) now this is a marvelous subjection, that a man is not to dare to allow himself in so much as a thought, unless it be in a way of obedience to the will and word of God, unless a thought be suitable to the will of Christ, and allowable to the word of Christ, he dare not accept it, when a man has such a professed subjection to Christ, that as he respects every commandment of God, so he would not be at his own choice, in so much as in any one thought, and this is such solid and complete worship of Christ as that a greater honor cannot be done to him (Matthew 4:10) him only shall you serve, he will not allow himself in one evil thought, much less will he allow himself to speak evil words, or least of all, to do this or that evil in the sight of God, so that this is the worship of him, when we subject all the passages of our heart and life to his will, we serve the Lord and not man (Colossians 3:23-24) we do not anything in our callings, but we do it in obedience to Christ, and according to the rules of Christ, and for the glory of Christ, and this is the service we do to Christ, not a passage in our whole life, but we desire to have respect to all God's commandments, and this is a right and true having of him.

And as it is thus for our obedience in doing his will, so is it for our patience in suffering his will, there is a glorious worship given to Christ in patience, when as if so be it be the will of God to call us to suffer, we lay our hands upon our mouths and sit down and quiet ourselves in this, that it is the will of Christ it should be so, and being for the glory of his name, in the defense of his truth, and from his own hand, [reconstructed: it daunts us not], we sit down quietly under the hand of Christ as knowing whose hand it is that is upon us, it is a worship of Christ and we debase ourselves to worship him, when we acknowledge that it is no matter what becomes of us so the will of God be done, this is true worship of Christ (1 Samuel 3:18). It was a good testimony of Eli's sincerity, when he heard of the woeful judgment that God would inflict upon his household; when Samuel had made an end of expressing the whole judgment, says he, it is the Lord, let him do what seems good to him in his own eyes; wherein he fittingly expresses the point in hand; It is the Lord let him therefore do what he will, we have the Lord for our Lord, and he is a Lord to us, when we give him leave to rule us, the Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be his name (Job 1:20-21). This shows the subjection of Job's will to God. If he see it good to take all away as he sometime saw it good, to give it all, this patient submission of the heart to God, is an undoubted argument, that we have the Lord for our God, had we not him for our God, the heart of man would so grudge at this and that evil which befalls us, and would bitterly fall upon instruments, and weary heaven and earth with our moans and cries. But I held my peace and said nothing, for you Lord have done it (Psalm 39:19). A sign we have him for our Lord when in all his providences, we acknowledge his good hand in it, and he is our Lord if we can so sit down and not murmur nor grudge against him, according to that you read (Lamentations 3:29) the church complaining of her misery, he tells you the frame of her spirit, in such a temper the soul now sits alone and keeps silence. He has learned to bear God's yoke, he is yoked to the will of God; to his commandments, to his providence, and he puts his mouth in the dust if there may be any hope, he is content to lie down under the hand of God, grudges not at it, but in quietness and silence of heart bears God's yoke, and God is then the God of our salvation, when we keep silence before him (Psalm 62:1). This is a solemn worship of God when in the midst of trouble, we can quietly sit down, when the soul can say, I will bear the indignation of the Lord (Micah 7:8-9). When we see the Lord's hand in all the punishments and judgments that befall us, and we bear it willingly, this is solemnly to worship him, and to be wrought upon as clay in the hand of the potter, and in thus doing we have him. And if the case should be, that we should come to suffer for the name of Christ, it is so far off from being matter of murmuring to a Christian man, as that he suffers not only patiently, but joyfully, and if any man suffer for the name of Christ as a Christian, let him glorify God on that behalf, for the spirit of glory and of God shall rest upon him (1 Peter 4:14, 16). When a man thus worships God, patiently submitting himself to him, and gives up himself in his way, to be quieted by him, this is a true worshiping of Christ, and whoever thus worships him, has him, though we cannot yet tell whether we have faith or no, whether repentance or no, whether any true love to God or no, yet if we can find this in us, that in our hearts we thus worship the Lord Jesus, so highly prize him as the chiefest of ten thousand, etc. In so doing we worship Christ and in worshiping him we have him, but on the other side, if we so look at Christ as we can prefer ten thousand other things before him, and can sit down quietly without him, if we look at Christ as a refuse commodity, not worth the seeking to buy, and we look at ourselves as the great omegas of the world, and we would not have our names blemished with seeking after Christ, but have greater business than that to look after, and we will be our own carvers; if so, then we do not worship Christ, and then we have him not, and so no redemption by him.