CHAP. IV. The Glory of Christ in his Susception of the Office of a Mediator. First in his Condescension.

The things of which we have thus far discoursed, relating immediately unto the Person of Christ in itself, may seem to have somewhat of difficulty in them, unto such whose minds are not duly exercised in the contemplation of heavenly things. Unto others they are evident in their own experience, and instructive unto those who are willing to learn. That which remains will be yet more plain unto the understanding and capacity of the meanest believer. And this is the glory of Christ in his office of Mediator, and the discharge thereof.

In our beholding of the glory of Christ herein, does the exercise of faith in this life principally consist; so the Apostle declares it (Philippians 3:8-12): "Yes doubtless, and I count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord... to know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, and to be made conformable unto his death." This therefore we must treat of somewhat more at large.

"There is one God," says the Apostle, "and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). In that great difference between God and man occasioned by our sin and apostasy from him, which of itself could issue in nothing but the utter ruin of the whole race of mankind, there was none in heaven or earth in their original nature and operations, who was fit or able to make up a righteous peace between them. Yet must this be done by a Mediator, or cease forever.

This Mediator could not be God himself absolutely considered; for a mediator is not of one, but God is one (Galatians 3:20). Whatever God might do herein in a way of sovereign grace, yet he could not do it in the way of mediation, which yet was necessary unto his own glory, as we have at large discoursed elsewhere.

And as for creatures, there was none in heaven or earth that was fit to undertake this office. For if one man sin against another, the judge shall judge herein; but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall intercede for him? (1 Samuel 2:25). "There is not any mediator between us, to lay his hand upon us both" (Job 9:33).

In this state of things the Lord Christ as the Son of God said, "Lo I come to do your will, O God; sacrifice and burnt offerings you would not, but a body have you prepared me, and lo I come to do your will" (Hebrews 10:5-9). By the assumption of our nature into union with himself, in his one divine Person he became every way fit for the discharge of this office, and undertakes it accordingly.

That which we inquire after at present is the glory of Christ herein, and how we may behold that glory. And there are three things wherein we may take a prospect of it.

1. In his undertaking of this office. 2. In his discharge of it. 3. In the event and consequence thereof, or what ensued thereon.

In the undertaking of this office we may behold the glory of Christ. (1) In his condescension. (2) In his love.

1. We may behold his glory in his infinite condescension to take this office on him, and our nature to be his own unto that end. It did not befall him by lot or chance; it was not imposed on him against his will; it belonged not unto him by any necessity of nature or condition, he stood not in need of it; it was no addition unto him; but of his own mind and accord he graciously condescended unto the undertaking and discharge of it.

So the Apostle expresses it (Philippians 2:5-8): "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took on himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

It was the mind that was in Jesus Christ, which is proposed unto our consideration and imitation. What he was inclined and disposed unto from himself and his own mind alone. And that in general which is ascribed unto him is self-emptying; he emptied himself. This the ancient church called his condescension, an act of which kind in God is called the humbling of himself (Psalm 113:6).

Therefore the undertaking of our nature for the discharge of the office of mediation therein, was an infinite condescension in the Son of God, wherein he is exceedingly glorious in the eyes of believers.

And I shall do these three things: (1) show in general the greatness of this condescension; (2) declare the especial nature of it; and (3) take what view we are able of the glory of Christ therein.

1. Such is the transcendent excellency of the divine nature, that it is said of God, that he dwells on high, and humbles himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth (Psalm 113:5-6). He condescends from the prerogative of his excellency, to behold, to look upon, to take notice of the most glorious things in heaven above, and the greatest things in the earth below. All his respect unto the creatures, the most glorious of them, is an act of infinite condescension. And it is so on two accounts.

1. Because of the infinite distance that is between his essence, nature, or being, and that of the creatures. Hence all nations before him are as the drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance; yes, that they are as nothing, that they are accounted unto him less than nothing, and vanity. All being is essentially in him, and in comparison thereto, all other things are as nothing. And there are no measures, there is no proportion between infinite being and nothing; nothing that should induce a regard from the one unto the other. Therefore the infinite, essential greatness of the nature of God, with its infinite distance from the nature of all creatures thereby, causes all his dealings with them to be in the way of condescension or humbling himself. So it is expressed (Isaiah 57:15): "Thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." He is so the high and lofty one and so inhabits eternity, or exists in his own eternal being, that it is an act of mere grace in him, to take notice of things below; and therefore he does it in an especial manner of those whom the world does most despise.

2. It arises from his infinite self-sufficiency unto all the acts and ends of his own eternal blessedness. What we have a regard unto, what we respect and desire, it is that it may add unto our satisfaction. So it is, so it must be with every creature; no creature is self-sufficient unto its own blessedness. The human nature of Christ himself in heaven is not so; it lives in God, and God in it, in a full dependance on God, and in receiving blessed and glorious communications from him. No rational creature, angel or man, can do, think, act anything, but it is all to add to their perfection and satisfaction, they are not self-sufficient. God alone wants nothing, stands in need of nothing, nothing can be added unto him, seeing he gives unto all life and breath, and all things (Acts 17:25). The whole creation in all its excellency cannot contribute one mite unto the satisfaction or blessedness of God. He has it all in infinite perfection from himself and his own nature; our goodness extends not unto him; a man cannot profit God, as he may profit his neighbor. "If you sin, what do you do against him? and if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do unto him? and if you be righteous, what do you give unto him, or what does he receive at your hand?" (Job 35:6-8). And from this also it follows that all God's concernment in the creation, is by an act of condescension.

How glorious then is the condescension of the Son of God in his undertaking of the office of mediation? For if such be the perfection of the divine nature, and its distance so absolutely infinite from the whole creation, and if such be his self-sufficiency unto his own eternal blessedness, as that nothing can be taken from him, nothing added unto him, so that every regard in him unto any of the creatures is an act of self-humiliation and condescension from the prerogative of his being and state; what heart can conceive, what tongue can express the glory of that condescension in the Son of God, whereby he took our nature upon him, took it to be his own, in order unto a discharge of the office of mediation on our behalf?

But that we may the better behold the glory of Christ herein, we may briefly consider the especial nature of this condescension, and wherein it does consist.

But whereas not only the denial, but misapprehensions hereof have pestered the church of God in all ages, we must in the first place reject them, and then declare the truth.

1. This condescension of the Son of God did not consist in a laying aside, or parting with, or separation from the divine nature, so as that he should cease to be God, by being man. The foundation of it lay in this, that he was in the form of God, and counted it not robbery to be equal with God (Philippians 2:6). That is, being really and essentially God in his divine nature, he professed himself therein to be equal with God or the Person of the Father. He was in the form of God, that is, he was God, participant of the divine nature, for God has no form but that of his essence and being; and hence he was equal with God, in authority, dignity, and power. Because he was in the form of God, he must be equal with God, for there is order in the divine persons, but no inequality in the divine being. So the Jews understood him, that when he said, God was his Father, he made himself equal with God. For in his so saying, he ascribed unto himself equal power with the Father, as unto all divine operations: "My Father," says he, "works hitherto, and I work" (John 5:17-18). And those by whom his divine nature is denied, do cast this condescension of Christ quite out of our religion, as that which has no reality or substance in it. But we shall speak of them afterwards.

Being in this state, it is said that he took on him the form of a servant, and was found in fashion as a man (verse 7). This is his condescension. It is not said, that he ceased to be in the form of God; but continuing so to be, he took on him the form of a servant in our nature: he became what he was not, but he ceased not to be what he was. So he testifies of himself (John 3:13): "No man has ascended up into heaven, but he that came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven." Although he was then on earth as the Son of man; yet he ceased not to be God thereby; in his divine nature he was then also in heaven.

He who is God, can no more be not God, than he who is not God can be God: and our difference with the Socinians herein is, we believe that Christ being God, was made man for our sakes; they say, that being only a man, he was made a god for his own sake.

This then is the foundation of the glory of Christ in this condescension, the life and soul of all heavenly truth and mysteries; namely, that the Son of God becoming in time to be what he was not, the Son of man; ceased not thereby to be what he was, even the eternal Son of God.

2. Much less did this condescension consist in the conversion of the divine nature into the human, which was the imagination of some of the Arians of old, and we have yet (to my own knowledge) some that follow them in the same error. They say that the Word which was in the beginning, by which all things were made, being in itself an effect of the divine will and power, was in the fullness of time turned into flesh; that is, the substance of it was so, as the water in the miracle wrought by our Savior, was turned into wine; for by an act of the divine power of Christ it ceased to be water substantially, and was wine only; not water mixed with wine. So these men suppose a substantial change of the one nature into the other, of the divine nature into the human; like what the papists imagine in their transubstantiation. So they say God was made man, his essence being turned into that of a man.

But this in no way belongs unto the condescension of Christ. We may call it Ichabod, it has no glory in it. It destroys both his natures, and leaves him a Person in whom we are not concerned. For according unto this imagination, that divine nature wherein he was in the form of God, did in its own form cease to be, yes, was utterly destroyed, as being substantially changed into the nature of man; as the water did cease to be, when it was turned into wine; and that human nature which was made thereof, has no alliance or kinship unto us, or our nature, seeing it was not made of a woman, but of the substance of the Word.

3. There was not in this condescension, the least change or alteration in the divine nature. Eutyches and those who followed him of old, conceived that the two natures of Christ, the divine and human, were mixed and compounded as it were into one: and this could not be without an alteration in the divine nature, for it would be made to be essentially what it was not; for one nature has but one and the same essence.

But as we said before; although the Lord Christ himself in his Person was made to be what he was not before, in that our nature hereby was made to be his, yet his divine nature was not so. There is in it neither variableness nor shadow of turning. It abode the same in him in all its essential properties, actings, and blessedness, as it was from eternity. It neither did, acted, nor suffered anything, but what is proper unto the divine being. The Lord Christ did and suffered many things in life and death, in his own Person, by his human nature, wherein the divine neither did, nor suffered anything at all; although in the doing of them, his Person is denominated from that nature; so "God purchased his church with his own blood" (Acts 20:28).

4. It may then be said, what did the Lord Christ in this condescension, with respect unto his divine nature? The Apostle tells us, that he humbled himself, and made himself of no reputation (Philippians 2:7-8). He veiled the glory of his divine nature in ours, and what he did therein, so as that there was no outward appearance or manifestation of it. The world thereupon was so far from looking on him as the true God, that it believed him not to be a good man. Hence they could never bear the least intimation of his divine nature, supposing themselves secured from any such thing, because they looked on him with their eyes to be a man, as he was indeed, no less truly and really than any one of themselves. Therefore on that testimony given of himself, "Before Abraham was, I am," which asserts a pre-existence from eternity in another nature than what they saw, they were filled with rage, and took up stones to cast at him (John 8:58). And they give a reason of their madness (John 10:33): namely, that he being a man, should make himself to be God. This was such a thing, they thought, as could never enter into the heart of a wise and sober man, namely, that being so, owning himself to be such, he should yet say of himself, that he was God: this is that which no reason can comprehend, which nothing in nature can parallel or illustrate, that one and the same Person should be both God and man: and this is the principal plea of the Socinians at this day, who through the Mohammedans succeed unto the Jews in an opposition unto the divine nature of Christ.

But all this difficulty is solved by the glory of Christ in this condescension; for although in himself, or his own divine Person, he was over all God blessed forever, yet he humbled himself for the salvation of the church unto the eternal glory of God, to take our nature upon him, and to be made man: and those who cannot see a divine glory in his so doing, do neither know him, nor love him, nor believe in him, nor do any way belong unto him.

So it is with the men of these abominations. Because they cannot behold the glory hereof, they deny the foundation of our religion, namely, the divine Person of Christ. Seeing he would be made man, he shall be esteemed by them no more than a man. So do they reject that glory of God, his infinite wisdom, goodness, and grace, wherein he is more concerned than in the whole creation. And they dig up the root of all evangelical truths, which are nothing but branches from it.

It is true, and must be confessed, that herein it is that our Lord Jesus Christ is a stumbling stone, and a rock of offense unto the world. If we should confess him only as a prophet, a man sent by God, there would not be much contest about him, nor opposition unto him. The Mohammedans do all acknowledge it, and the Jews would not long deny it; for their hatred against him was, and is solely because he professed himself to be God, and as such was believed on in the world. And at this day partly through the insinuation of the Socinians, and partly from the efficacy of their own blindness and unbelief, multitudes are willing to grant him to be a prophet sent of God, who do not, who will not, who cannot believe the mystery of this condescension in the undertaking of our nature, nor see the glory of it. But take this away, and all our religion is taken away with it. Farewell Christianity as unto the mystery, the glory, the truth, the efficacy of it; let a refined heathenism be established in its room. But this is the Rock on which the church is built, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail.

4. This condescension of Christ was not by a phantasm or an appearance only. One of the first heresies that pestered the church immediately after the days of the Apostles, was this, that all that was done or suffered by Christ as a man, were not the acts, doings, or sufferings of one that was truly and really a man, but an outward representation of things, like the appearance of angels in the shape of men, eating and drinking under the Old Testament; and suitably hereunto some in our days have spoken; namely, that there was only an appearance of Christ in the man Jesus at Jerusalem, in whom he suffered no more than in other believers. But the ancient Christians told those men the truth; namely, that as they had imagined unto themselves an imaginary Christ, so they should have an imaginary salvation only.

But the true nature of this divine condescension does consist in these three things.

1. That the eternal Person of the Son of God, or the divine nature in the Person of the Son of God, did by an ineffable act of his divine power and love, assume our nature into an individual subsistence, in or with himself; that is, to be his own, even as the divine nature is his. This is the infallible foundation of faith even to those who can comprehend very little of these divine mysteries. They can and do believe that the Son of God did take our nature to be his own, so as that whatever was done therein, was done by him, as it is with every other man. Every man has human nature appropriated unto himself by an individual subsistence; whereby he becomes to be that man which he is, and not another; or that nature which is common unto all, becomes in him to be peculiarly his own, as if there were none partaker of it but himself. Adam in his first creation, when all human nature was in him alone, was no more that individual man which he was, than every man is now the man that he is, by his individual subsistence. So the Lord Christ taking that nature which is common unto all, into a peculiar subsistence in his own Person, it becomes his, and he the man Christ Jesus. This was the mind that was in him.

2. By reason of this assumption of our nature, with his doing and suffering therein, whereby he was found in fashion as a man, the glory of his divine Person was veiled, and he made himself of no reputation. This also belongs unto his condescension, as the first general effect and fruit of it. But we have spoken of it before.

3. It is also to be observed, that in the assumption of our nature to be his own, he did not change it into a thing divine and spiritual; but preserved it entire in all its essential properties and actings. Hence it really did and suffered, was tried, tempted, and forsaken as the same nature in any other man might do and be. That nature as it was peculiarly his, and therefore he or his Person therein, was exposed unto all the temporary evils which the same nature is subject unto in any other person.

This is a short general view of this incomprehensible condescension of the Son of God, as it is described by the Apostle (Philippians 2:5-8). And this is that wherein in an especial manner we are to behold the glory of Christ by faith while we are in this world.

But had we the tongue of men and angels, we were not able in just measure to express the glory of this condescension. For it is the most ineffable effect of the divine wisdom of the Father and of the love of the Son, the highest evidence of the care of God toward mankind. What can be equal unto it? What can be like it? It is the glory of Christian religion, and the animating soul of all evangelical truth. This carries the mystery of the wisdom of God, above the reason or understanding of men and angels to be the object of faith and admiration only. A mystery it is that becomes the greatness of God with his infinite distance from the whole creation; which renders it unbecoming him that all his ways and works should be comprehensible by any of his creatures (Job 11:4-9; Romans 11:34-36).

He who was eternally in the form of God, that is, was essentially so, God by nature, equally participant of the same divine nature with God the Father: God over all blessed forever; who humbles himself to behold the things that are in heaven and earth: he takes on him the nature of man, takes it to be his own; whereby he was no less truly a man in time, than he was truly God from eternity. And to increase the wonder of this mystery, because it was necessary unto the end he designed, he so humbled himself in this assumption of our nature, as to make himself of no reputation in this world; yes, unto that degree, that he said of himself, that he was a worm and no man, in comparison of those who were of any esteem.

We speak of these things in a poor, low, broken manner. We teach them as they are revealed in the Scripture. We labor by faith to adhere unto them as revealed. But when we come into a steady, direct view and consideration of the thing itself, our minds fail, our hearts tremble, and we can find no rest, but in a holy admiration of what we cannot comprehend. Here we are at a loss, and know that we shall be so while we are in this world: but all the ineffable fruits and benefits of this truth are communicated unto those who do believe.

It is with reference hereunto, that that great promise concerning him is given unto the church (Isaiah 8:14): "He shall be for a sanctuary" (namely, unto all that believe, as it is expounded in 1 Peter 2:8) "but for a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to those who stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed."

He is herein a sanctuary, an assured refuge unto all who betake themselves unto him. What is it that any man in distress, who flies thereunto may look for in a sanctuary? A supply of all his wants, a deliverance from all his fears, a defense against all his dangers, is proposed unto him therein. Such is the Lord Christ herein unto sin-distressed souls; he is a refuge unto us in all spiritual distresses and consolations (Hebrews 6:18). Are we or any of us burdened with a sense of sin? Are we perplexed with temptations? Are we bowed down under the oppression of any spiritual adversary? Do we on any of these accounts walk in darkness and have no light? One view of the glory of Christ herein is able to support us and relieve us.

Unto whom we betake ourselves for relief in any case, we have regard to nothing but their will and their power. If they have both, we are sure of relief. And what shall we fear in the will of Christ as unto this end? What will he not do for us? He who thus emptied and humbled himself, who so infinitely condescended from the prerogative of his glory in his being and self-sufficiency, in the undertaking of our nature for the discharge of the office of a Mediator on our behalf; will he not relieve us in all our distresses? Will he not do all for us we stand in need of, that we may be eternally saved? Will he not be a sanctuary unto us?

Nor have we herein any ground to fear his power: for by this infinite condescension to be a suffering man, he lost nothing of his power as God omnipotent; nothing of his infinite wisdom or glorious grace. He could still do all that he could do as God from eternity. If there be anything therefore in a coalescence of infinite power with infinite condescension, to constitute a sanctuary for distressed sinners, it is all in Christ Jesus. And if we see him not glorious herein, it is because there is no light of faith in us.

This then is the rest with which we may cause the weary to rest, and this is the refreshment. Herein is he a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Hereupon he says, "I have satisfied the weary soul, and have refreshed every sorrowful soul." Under this consideration it is, that in all evangelical promises and invitations for coming to him, he is proposed unto distressed sinners as their only sanctuary.

Herein he is a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense unto the unbelieving and disobedient, who stumble at the word. They cannot, they will not see the glory of this condescension, they neither desire nor labor so to do; yes, they hate it and despise it. Christ in it is a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense unto them. Therefore they choose rather utterly to deny his divine Person, than allow that he did thus abase himself for our sakes. Rather than they will own this glory, they will allow him no glory. A man they say he was, and no more, and this was his glory. This is that principle of darkness and unbelief, which works effectually at this day in the minds of many. They think it an absurd thing, as the Jews did of old, that he being a man should be God also; or on the other hand that the Son of God should thus condescend to take our nature on him. This they can see no glory in, no relief, no refuge, no refreshment unto their souls in any of their distresses: therefore do they deny his divine Person. Here faith triumphs against them, it finds that to be a glorious sanctuary, which they cannot at all discern.

But it is not so much the declaration or vindication of this glory of Christ which I am at present engaged in, as an exhortation unto the practical contemplation of it in a way of believing. And I know that among many this is too much neglected, yes, of all the evils which I have seen in the days of my pilgrimage now drawing to their close, there is none so grievous as the public contempt of the principal mysteries of the Gospel among those who are called Christians. Religion in the profession of some men is withered in its vital principles, weakened in its nerves and sinews, but thought to be put off with outward gaiety and bravery.

But my exhortation is unto diligence in the contemplation of this glory of Christ, and the exercise of our thoughts about it. Unless we are diligent herein it is impossible we should be steady in the principal acts of faith, or ready unto the principal duties of obedience. The principal act of faith respects the divine Person of Christ, as all Christians must acknowledge. This we can never secure (as has been declared) if we see not his glory in this condescension: and whoever reduces his notions unto experience, will find that herein his faith stands or falls. And the principal duty of our obedience, is self-denial, with readiness for the cross. Hereunto the consideration of this condescension of Christ is the principal evangelical motive, and that wherein our obedience in it is to be resolved, as the Apostle declares (Philippians 2:5-7). And no man denies himself in a due manner, who does it not on the consideration of the self-denial of the Son of God. But a prevalent motive this is thereunto. For what are the things wherein we are to deny ourselves, or forgo what we pretend to have a right unto? It is in our goods, our liberties, our relations, our lives. And what are they, any, or all of them, in themselves, or unto us, considering our condition, and the end for which we were made? Perishing things, which whether we will or no, within a few days death will give us an everlasting separation from. Things under the power of a fever or an asthma, as unto our interest in them. But how incomparable with respect hereunto is that condescension of Christ, of which we have given an account? If therefore we find an unwillingness in us, a tergiversation in our minds about these things when called unto them in a way of duty, one view by faith of the glory of Christ in this condescension, and what he parted from therein, when he made himself of no reputation, will be an effectual cure of that sinful distemper.

Herein then, I say, we may by faith behold the glory of Christ, as we shall do it by sight hereafter. If we see no glory in it, if we discern not that which is matter of eternal admiration, we walk in darkness. It is the most ineffable effect of divine wisdom and grace. Where are our hearts and minds, if we can see no glory in it? I know in the contemplation of it, it will quickly overwhelm our reason, and bring our understanding into a loss: but unto this loss do I desire to be brought every day. For when faith can no more act itself in comprehension, when it finds the object it is fixed on, too great and glorious to be brought into our minds and capacities, it will issue (as we said before) in holy admiration, humble adoration, and joyful thanksgiving. In and by its actings in them, does it fill the soul with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

The things we have discussed so far — concerning the person of Christ in itself — may seem somewhat difficult to those whose minds are not regularly exercised in the contemplation of heavenly things. To others, these truths are clear in their own experience, and instructive to those willing to learn. What remains will be more readily understood by even the simplest believer. This is the glory of Christ in His office as Mediator, and in the carrying out of that office.

The principal exercise of faith in this life consists in beholding the glory of Christ in His mediatorial work. So the apostle declares (Philippians 3:8-12): 'Yes, indeed, and I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord... that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.' This therefore we must treat at somewhat greater length.

'For there is one God,' says the apostle, 'and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus' (1 Timothy 2:5). In the great conflict between God and humanity — brought on by our sin and our turning away from Him — which left to itself could issue in nothing but the total ruin of the entire human race, there was no one in heaven or earth, in their original nature and powers, who was fit or able to establish a righteous peace between them. Yet it had to be done by a Mediator, or it would never be done at all.

This Mediator could not be God Himself considered absolutely, for a mediator does not represent one party alone — but God is one (Galatians 3:20). Whatever God might do here through sovereign grace, He could not do it in the way of mediation, which was nonetheless necessary for His own glory, as we have explained at length elsewhere.

As for creatures, there was none in heaven or earth fit to take on this office. 'If one man sins against another, God will mediate for him; but if a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him?' (1 Samuel 2:25). 'There is no mediator between us, who may lay his hand upon us both' (Job 9:33).

In this situation, the Lord Christ as the Son of God said: 'Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God; sacrifice and whole burnt offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me... behold, I have come to do Your will' (Hebrews 10:5-9). By taking our nature into union with Himself in His one divine person, He became in every way qualified to carry out this office, and He undertook it accordingly.

What we are inquiring into now is the glory of Christ in this work, and how we may behold that glory. There are three aspects in which we may catch a glimpse of it.

1. In His undertaking of this office. 2. In His carrying out of it. 3. In the outcome and consequences — what followed from it.

In the undertaking of this office, we may behold the glory of Christ in two things. First, in His condescension. Second, in His love.

First. We may behold His glory in His infinite condescension in taking this office upon Himself, and taking our nature as His own for that purpose. This did not come to Him by lot or chance; it was not forced upon Him against His will; it did not belong to Him by any necessity of nature or circumstance; He had no need of it; it was no addition to Him. Rather, of His own free will and accord He graciously condescended to undertake and carry out this office.

The apostle expresses this (Philippians 2:5-8): 'Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.'

It was the mindset that was in Jesus Christ — set before us for consideration and imitation. It was what He was inclined and disposed toward from Himself and His own will alone. And the general thing attributed to Him is self-emptying: He emptied Himself. The ancient church called this His condescension — an act of which kind in God is also called His humbling Himself (Psalm 113:6).

Therefore the taking on of our nature for the exercise of the office of mediation was an infinite condescension in the Son of God — one in which He is exceedingly glorious in the eyes of believers.

I will do three things: first, show in general the greatness of this condescension; second, explain what it specifically involved; and third, take whatever view we can of the glory of Christ in it.

First. The transcendent excellency of the divine nature is such that it is said of God that He dwells on high and humbles Himself to behold the things that are in heaven and on earth (Psalm 113:5-6). He condescends from the prerogative of His excellence to notice, look upon, and take account of even the most glorious things in heaven above and the greatest things on earth below. All His regard for the creatures — even the most glorious of them — is an act of infinite condescension. And this is so for two reasons.

First. Because of the infinite distance between His essence, nature, and being, and that of all creatures. All nations before Him are as a drop in a bucket and are counted as the dust on the scales. Yes, they are as nothing — accounted as less than nothing, and emptiness. All true being is essentially in Him, and in comparison with that, all other things are as nothing. There are no measures, no proportion between infinite being and nothing — nothing that would naturally call for regard from the one to the other. Therefore the infinite, essential greatness of God's nature — with its infinite distance from the nature of all creatures — means that all His dealings with them take the form of condescension, of His humbling Himself. So it is expressed (Isaiah 57:15): 'For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy, I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.' He is so high and exalted, and so inhabits eternity in His own eternal being, that it is an act of pure grace for Him to take notice of things below — and therefore He does so in a special way toward those whom the world most despises.

Second. This condescension also arises from God's infinite self-sufficiency for all the acts and ends of His own eternal blessedness. When we regard, desire, or seek something, it is because we expect it to add to our satisfaction. This is how it is — how it must be — for every creature, for no creature is self-sufficient for its own blessedness. Even the human nature of Christ in heaven is not self-sufficient; it lives in God and God in it, in full dependence on God and in receiving blessed and glorious communications from Him. No rational creature — angel or human — can do, think, or accomplish anything except in view of adding to its own perfection and satisfaction; they are not self-sufficient. God alone lacks nothing, needs nothing, and can have nothing added to Him, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things (Acts 17:25). The whole creation in all its excellence cannot contribute one fraction to the satisfaction or blessedness of God. He possesses all of it in infinite perfection from Himself and His own nature. Our goodness does not reach Him; a person cannot benefit God as he might benefit a neighbor. 'If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against Him? And if your transgressions are many, what do you do to Him? If you are righteous, what do you give to Him, or what does He receive from your hand?' (Job 35:6-8). From this it also follows that all of God's engagement with the creation is an act of condescension.

How glorious, then, is the condescension of the Son of God in undertaking the office of mediation! If the divine nature is so perfect, and its distance from all creation so absolutely infinite — and if God is so entirely self-sufficient for His own eternal blessedness that nothing can be taken from Him and nothing added to Him, so that every act of regard toward any creature is an act of self-humbling and condescension — what heart can conceive, and what tongue can express, the glory of that condescension in the Son of God by which He took our nature upon Himself, made it His own, in order to carry out the office of mediation on our behalf?

But so that we may better behold the glory of Christ in this, let us briefly consider what this condescension specifically involved and what it consisted in.

Since not only the denial of this truth but also misunderstandings of it have troubled the church of God in every age, we must first set aside the errors and then declare the truth.

First. The condescension of the Son of God did not consist in laying aside, parting with, or being separated from the divine nature — as if He ceased to be God by becoming man. The very foundation of His condescension lay in the fact that He was in the form of God and considered equality with God not something to be held onto (Philippians 2:6). That is, being truly and essentially God in His divine nature, He professed Himself to be equal with God — equal with the Father. He was in the form of God — meaning He was God, a participant of the divine nature, for God has no form apart from His own essence and being — and so He was equal with God in authority, dignity, and power. Because He was in the form of God, He must be equal with God, for while there is order among the divine persons, there is no inequality in the divine being. The Jews understood this: when He said that God was His Father, they recognized that He was making Himself equal with God. By saying so, He claimed equal power with the Father in all divine operations: 'My Father is working until now,' He said, 'and I Myself am working' (John 5:17-18). Those who deny His divine nature thereby strip this condescension of Christ entirely from our religion, as something with no real substance. But we will speak of them later.

Being in this state, it is said that He took the form of a servant and was found in appearance as a man (Philippians 2:7). This is His condescension. It is not said that He ceased to be in the form of God; rather, while continuing to be so, He took the form of a servant in our nature. He became what He was not, without ceasing to be what He was. So He testifies of Himself (John 3:13): 'No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man who is in heaven.' Although He was at that moment on earth as the Son of Man, He had not ceased to be God; in His divine nature He was also still in heaven.

He who is God can no more cease to be God than he who is not God can become God. Our difference with the Socinians on this point is precisely this: we believe that Christ, being God, was made man for our sakes; they say that being only a man, he was made a kind of god for his own sake.

This, then, is the foundation of the glory of Christ in His condescension — the life and soul of all heavenly truth and mystery: the Son of God, becoming in time what He was not — the Son of Man — did not thereby cease to be what He eternally was — the eternal Son of God.

Second. Much less did this condescension consist in a conversion of the divine nature into the human — an idea imagined by some of the Arians of old, and one which (to my own knowledge) some still follow today. They say that the Word which existed in the beginning, through whom all things were made — being itself an effect of the divine will and power — was in the fullness of time turned into flesh. That is, its substance was changed, just as the water in our Savior's miracle was turned into wine; by an act of His divine power it ceased to be water substantially and became wine alone — not water mixed with wine. These people suppose a substantial change from one nature into the other, from the divine nature into the human, similar to what Roman Catholics imagine in transubstantiation. In this way they say God was made man by having His essence converted into that of a man.

But this understanding has nothing to do with Christ's condescension. We may call it Ichabod — there is no glory in it. It destroys both natures and leaves us a person in whom we have no stake. For according to this view, the divine nature in which He existed in the form of God ceased to exist in its own form — indeed, was utterly destroyed — being substantially changed into the nature of man, just as the water ceased to exist when it became wine. And the human nature produced by this change has no connection or kinship to us or our nature, since it was not made of a woman but out of the substance of the Word.

Third. This condescension involved not the slightest change or alteration in the divine nature. Eutyches and his followers of old imagined that the two natures of Christ — the divine and the human — were blended and compounded into one. But this could not happen without an alteration in the divine nature, since it would mean the divine nature was made to be essentially what it was not — for one nature has only one essence.

But as we said before: although the Lord Christ Himself in His person was made to be what He was not before — in that our nature was made His own — His divine nature was not changed. In it there is neither variation nor shadow of change. It remained the same in Him in all its essential attributes, activities, and blessedness, just as it was from eternity. It neither did, acted, nor suffered anything except what belongs to the divine being. The Lord Christ did and suffered many things in His life and death — in His own person, through His human nature — in which the divine nature neither acted nor suffered anything at all. Yet in doing those things, His person is spoken of in terms of that nature: 'God purchased His own church with His blood' (Acts 20:28).

Fourth. Someone may ask: then what did the Lord Christ do, with respect to His divine nature, in this condescension? The apostle tells us He humbled Himself and emptied Himself (Philippians 2:7-8). He veiled the glory of His divine nature in ours — and what He did in our nature — so that there was no outward appearance or manifestation of it. As a result, the world was so far from regarding Him as the true God that they did not even believe He was a good man. They could never bear the slightest suggestion of His divine nature, supposing themselves safe from any such claim, because with their own eyes they saw Him to be a man — just as truly and really as any one of themselves. So when He testified of Himself, 'Before Abraham was born, I am' — asserting a pre-existence from eternity in a nature other than the one they saw — they were filled with rage and took up stones to throw at Him (John 8:58). They gave their reason (John 10:33): that He, being a man, was making Himself out to be God. This was something, they thought, that no wise and sober man could ever claim — that while being and acknowledging Himself to be a man, He should also say He was God. This is something no human reason can grasp, nothing in nature can parallel or illustrate: that one and the same person is both God and man. This remains the primary objection of the Socinians today, who through the followers of Muhammad continue the Jewish opposition to the divine nature of Christ.

But all this difficulty is resolved by the glory of Christ in His condescension. Although in Himself — in His own divine person — He is God over all, blessed forever, He humbled Himself for the salvation of the church and the eternal glory of God to take our nature upon Himself and be made man. Those who cannot see divine glory in His doing so neither know Him, nor love Him, nor believe in Him, nor belong to Him in any way.

So it is with those who hold such wicked views. Because they cannot see the glory of this, they deny the foundation of our religion — the divine person of Christ. Since He chose to be made man, they will esteem Him as nothing more than a man. In doing so they reject that glory of God — His infinite wisdom, goodness, and grace — in which God is more directly concerned than in the whole creation. And they tear up the root from which all the truths of the Gospel grow as branches.

It is true — and must be openly acknowledged — that in this very matter our Lord Jesus Christ is a stumbling stone and a rock of offense to the world. If we confessed Him only as a prophet, a man sent by God, there would be little dispute or opposition to Him. The Muslims all acknowledge that much, and the Jews would not long deny it — for their hatred toward Him was, and is, solely because He claimed to be God and was believed on as such throughout the world. Today, partly through the influence of the Socinians and partly from the power of their own blindness and unbelief, multitudes are willing to grant that He was a prophet sent by God, while refusing to believe the mystery of this condescension in His taking on our nature, or to see the glory in it. But remove this, and all our religion is taken away with it. Farewell to Christianity — to its mystery, its glory, its truth, its power — and let a refined paganism take its place. But this is the Rock on which the church is built, against which the gates of hell will not prevail.

Fourth. This condescension of Christ was not merely a phantom or an appearance. One of the first heresies to trouble the church immediately after the apostolic age was the claim that everything Christ did and suffered as a man was not the action or suffering of one who was truly and really a man, but an outward representation of things — like the appearances of angels in human form, eating and drinking under the Old Testament. In keeping with this, some in our own day have said that there was only an appearance of Christ in the man Jesus at Jerusalem, and that He suffered in Him no more than He does in other believers. But the early Christians told those men the truth: just as they had imagined a fictitious Christ, so they could expect only a fictitious salvation.

The true nature of this divine condescension consists in these three things.

First. The eternal person of the Son of God — or the divine nature in the person of the Son — by an inexpressible act of His divine power and love, assumed our nature into an individual existence in or with Himself. That is, He made it His own, just as the divine nature is His. This is the unshakeable foundation of faith, even for those who can understand very little of these divine mysteries. They can and do believe that the Son of God took our nature as His own — so that whatever was done in that nature was done by Him, just as it is with every other person. Every human being has human nature made personally his own through individual existence, by which he becomes the particular person he is, and not another. That nature which is common to all becomes in him peculiarly his own, as if no one else shared it. Adam at his first creation, when all human nature resided in him alone, was no more uniquely the individual man he was than every man today is the particular man he is through his own individual existence. So the Lord Christ, taking the nature common to all into a unique subsistence in His own person, made it His, and became the man Christ Jesus. This was the mindset that was in Him.

Second. By reason of this taking on of our nature — and His doing and suffering in it, whereby He was found in appearance as a man — the glory of His divine person was veiled, and He emptied Himself of reputation. This also belongs to His condescension, as its first and immediate result. But we have already spoken of this.

Third. It should also be noted that in taking our nature as His own, He did not transform it into something divine and spiritual, but preserved it intact in all its essential attributes and functions. As a result, that nature genuinely did and suffered, was tried, tempted, and forsaken, just as the same nature in any other person can do and be. That nature as specifically His own — and therefore He Himself in that nature — was exposed to all the temporal evils to which the same nature is subject in any other person.

This is a brief general view of the Son of God's incomprehensible condescension, as the apostle describes it in Philippians 2:5-8. And this is what we are especially to behold by faith as the glory of Christ while we remain in this world.

But even with the tongues of men and angels, we would not be able to express the glory of this condescension as it deserves. For it is the most inexpressible effect of the divine wisdom of the Father and the love of the Son — the highest evidence of God's care for mankind. What can equal it? What can be compared to it? It is the glory of the Christian religion and the animating soul of all the truths of the Gospel. It carries the mystery of God's wisdom beyond the reason or understanding of men and angels, to be the object of faith and wonder alone. It is a mystery befitting the greatness of God and His infinite distance from all creation — a mystery that makes it fitting that all His ways and works should be beyond the full understanding of any creature (Job 11:4-9; Romans 11:34-36).

He who was eternally in the form of God — essentially and truly so, God by nature, equally sharing the same divine nature with God the Father, God over all blessed forever, who humbles Himself to look upon the things that are in heaven and earth — took on the nature of man and made it His own. By this He was no less truly man in time than He was truly God from eternity. And to heighten the wonder of this mystery further, because it was necessary for the purpose He had in mind, He so humbled Himself in this assumption of our nature as to make Himself of no reputation in this world — yes, to such a degree that He said of Himself that He was a worm and no man, compared to those who held any standing.

We speak of these things in a poor, halting, inadequate way. We teach them as they are revealed in Scripture. We labor by faith to hold on to them as revealed. But when we come to a steady, direct contemplation of the thing itself, our minds fail, our hearts tremble, and we find no rest except in a holy wonder at what we cannot comprehend. Here we are at a loss, and we know we will be so as long as we are in this world. But all the inexpressible fruits and benefits of this truth are given to those who believe.

It is with reference to this that the great promise concerning Christ is given to the church (Isaiah 8:14): 'He shall be a sanctuary' — that is, to all who believe, as it is explained in 1 Peter 2:8 — 'but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to those who stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which they were also appointed.'

He is in this a sanctuary — a sure refuge for all who flee to Him. What does anyone in distress, who runs to a sanctuary, look for there? Supply for all his needs, deliverance from all his fears, and protection against all his dangers are offered there. So the Lord Christ is to souls distressed by sin: He is a refuge in all spiritual distresses (Hebrews 6:18). Are we burdened by the weight of sin? Are we perplexed by temptations? Are we bowed down under the oppression of some spiritual enemy? Do we on any of these accounts walk in darkness and have no light? One sight of the glory of Christ in this condescension is sufficient to uphold and relieve us.

When we turn to someone for relief in any situation, we have regard only to their will and their power. If they have both, we can be certain of relief. What then should we fear about the will of Christ in this regard? What will He not do for us? He who so emptied and humbled Himself — who descended so infinitely from the prerogative of His glory, His self-sufficient being, to take on our nature for the sake of carrying out the office of Mediator on our behalf — will He not relieve us in all our distresses? Will He not do all we need in order to be eternally saved? Will He not be a sanctuary to us?

Nor do we have any reason to fear His power in this regard: by this infinite condescension to become a suffering man, He lost nothing of His power as almighty God, nothing of His infinite wisdom or glorious grace. He could still do all that He could do as God from eternity. If anything could combine infinite power with infinite condescension to constitute a sanctuary for distressed sinners, all of it is found in Christ Jesus. And if we do not see Him as glorious in this, it is because there is no light of faith in us.

This, then, is the rest that causes the weary to rest, and this is the refreshment. In this He is a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, as streams of water in a dry land and as the shadow of a great rock in a parched and weary land. On this account He says, 'I have satisfied the weary and refreshed everyone who was sorrowful.' Under this consideration He is, in all the Gospel's promises and invitations to come to Him, set before distressed sinners as their only sanctuary.

In this He is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to the unbelieving and disobedient who stumble at the word. They cannot and will not see the glory of this condescension; they neither desire nor seek to do so. Yes, they hate it and despise it. Christ in it is a stumbling stone and a rock of offense to them. Therefore they would rather deny His divine person entirely than acknowledge that He so abased Himself for our sake. Rather than accept this glory, they will allow Him no glory at all. A man, they say, He was and nothing more — and that was His glory. This is the principle of darkness and unbelief that works powerfully in many minds today. They think it as absurd as the Jews did of old — that He, being a man, should also be God; or on the other hand that the Son of God should so descend as to take our nature upon Himself. In this they see no glory, no relief, no refuge, no refreshment for their souls in any of their distresses — and so they deny His divine person. Here faith triumphs over them, finding in what they cannot see at all a glorious sanctuary.

But I am not so much engaged here in explaining or defending this glory of Christ as in urging its practical contemplation through faith. And I know that among many it is too much neglected. Of all the evils I have witnessed in the days of my pilgrimage — now drawing to their close — none is so grievous as the public contempt of the principal mysteries of the Gospel among those called Christians. Religion, in the profession of some, has withered in its vital principles, grown weak in its strength and sinews, but is thought to be adequately sustained by outward display and ceremony.

But my exhortation is to diligence in contemplating this glory of Christ and exercising our thoughts about it. Unless we are diligent in this, it is impossible to be steady in the principal acts of faith or ready for the principal duties of obedience. The principal act of faith concerns the divine person of Christ — as all Christians must acknowledge. We can never maintain this act of faith, as has been shown, if we do not see His glory in this condescension, and whoever tests his ideas against experience will find that his faith stands or falls here. The principal duty of our obedience is self-denial and readiness for the cross. For this, the contemplation of Christ's condescension is the chief Gospel motive and the ground on which our obedience in it must rest — as the apostle declares (Philippians 2:5-7). No one denies himself rightly who does not do so in light of the self-denial of the Son of God. And this is a powerful motive. What are the things in which we are called to deny ourselves and give up what we think we have a right to? Our possessions, our freedoms, our relationships, our lives. And what are any or all of these — considered in themselves, or in light of our condition and the purpose for which we were made? They are perishing things from which death — whether we are willing or not — will give us an eternal separation within a few days. Things that a fever or a sickness can strip away from us at any moment. How incomparably greater is the condescension of Christ, as we have described it! Therefore, if we find ourselves reluctant or evasive in our minds when we are called to these duties, one sight by faith of the glory of Christ in this condescension — and of what He set aside when He made Himself of no reputation — will be an effective cure for that sinful condition.

Here then, I say, we may by faith behold the glory of Christ, as we will one day behold it by sight. If we see no glory in it — if we fail to perceive in it what deserves eternal wonder — we walk in darkness. It is the most inexpressible effect of divine wisdom and grace. Where are our hearts and minds if we can see no glory here? I know that in contemplating it, our reason will quickly be overwhelmed and our understanding will be brought to its limits. But this is exactly the limit I desire to reach every day. For when faith can no longer comprehend, when it finds the object it is fixed upon too great and glorious to be brought within the range of our minds and capacities, it will issue — as we said before — in holy wonder, humble worship, and joyful thanksgiving. And in those acts, faith fills the soul with joy inexpressible and full of glory.