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CHRISTMAS DAY.

SERMON III.

THE MERCY OF GOD IN REDEMPTION.

(PART I.)

JOHN iii. 17.

God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved."

THE subject involved in these words, is one of the most important that can possibly engage our thoughts. It is the state of man, the state therefore of ourselves, in the sight of God: the way in which our sinful nature is viewed by him, and the manner in which it may be justified before him, and accepted, and sanctified. These are questions which scripture alone can enable us to answer. We may meditate, we may reason, we may conjecture, and we may be mistaken the heathen long followed, and now following, their own ideas and the

are

imaginations of their hearts; and they are mistaken and to be mistaken in a matter of such stupendous moment as our everlasting state, how dreadful! But to us God has spoken. Nay, "he who in time past spake unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." The scripture contains his declarations; if we apply to that, we cannot err : we learn there from his own mouth, what his will is, and what his purpose is: whom he will pardon, and why he will pardon them; who are justified, and who continue guilty before him.

Surely then we may exclaim, "he that hath ears to hear, let him hear."

It is affirmed in the text, that God "sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." In the same spirit is the angel's assurance, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."

Such then is the account given by our Lord himself of the mystery, the wonderful mystery

which we are now commemorating, his Incarnation. The season invites us to contemplate it. Not that it is a truth which can ever be absent from the Christian's mind: for in it, he "lives and moves and has his being." Still there are certain times which properly bring the subject into more formal discussion. Ignorance will exist; nay, ignorance does prevail most widely and ignorance will be thus instructed. Among the jarring and unsettled opinions of the world, many will hesitate and waver; and the wavering may be thus fixed, the doubtful enabled to decide. Even sound and vital faith requires to be strengthened by frequent recollection and meditation. And therefore the observance of certain seasons is a wise appointment, which naturally leads us to search the doctrines of scripture to their foundation.

Apply yourselves, then, with me, to consider the import of these words of our Lord; what they express, and what they assume. For on the right understanding of this point the whole of christian faith depends.

You observe that it is announced to us as a

most welcome message, that A SAVIOUR is born into the world: our Lord adduces it as a proof of God's love, that he sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Such passages evidently assume, that this is what the world stood in need of, what mankind ought to be most grateful for. If it is a sign of the mercy of God that Christ came to save, this implies that in justice he might have come to condemn. And the question is, how does this agree with what we know and see and feel?

It agrees too well, my brethren. If we look around us, or if we look within ourselves, we cannot but acknowledge that what the world most wanted, what might well have been "the desire of all nations," was a deliverer from the guilt and from the power of sin.

This is the point which St. Paul labours especially to prove, when he is opening a way to the right understanding and grateful reception of the gospel. He was aware that unless the heart is convinced of sin, the gospel will be an empty sound, and the name of Saviour a vain and unmeaning title. He was aware that a

principal cause of the rejection of Christ by the

Jews his countrymen, was an erroneous opinion of their state before God: and that the like error will always lead to the same virtual unbelief. Therefore in his epistle to the Romans he systematically describes the holiness of the divine law, the nature of sin as the transgression of that law, and the guilt of mankind by reason of such transgression. He represents in particular detail the moral condition of the world when Christ appeared incarnate and certainly we are prepared to esteem it as a token of God's mercy, that he sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, when the wickedness which prevailed throughout the immense regions of heathenism is pourtrayed before our eyes, in the apostle's true though vivid colouring.1

We might expect, however, that the Jewish people would be excepted out of the general condemnation. To them the Creator was revealed. To them a law, a written law, was given. To them prophets had been sent with words of correction, and admonition, and instruction in righteousness. "What then?" says the apostle ; are we better than they?? No, in no

1

Rom. i. 21-32.

2

Rom. iii. 9-18.