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28   THE CONVENTION TEACHER

divided into misleaders and misled. Israel therefore has sinned, and the servant of God, Christ must be punished. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Thus it is wonderful that the sufferings that strike the servant of God are such as properly ought to strike us, God the Father, as the chief surpasser of all things lay upon the Son the burden which the Son voluntarily takes. It does not lessen the Son's exceeding mercy and loving kindness in accepting the burden that is laid for him by the Father. The redemption is universal as the sin, at any rate potentially. Christ on the cross made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.

II. JESUS' MIRACULOUS BIRTH. (VV. 21, 17, 26-28.) (21) And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call him JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. By a most extraordinary miracle, Mary, a virgin of the house of David, continuing her virginity, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, that the promised Messiah might be the seed of the woman, in the strictest sense; and though truly man, our Brother and Redeemer, yet not to be conceived and born in sin. It was after her espousal with Joseph that God sent an angel to him with instructions how to act and to take her as the Lord had so ordered and at His birth call Him Jesus. As this name was given to the Messiah it signified as it has been sufficiently proved, Jehovah, the Saviour and it was given Him, because He would save His people from their sins. Without doubt, the angel showed Joseph, that this child was He to whom all the prophets bear witness. This prophecy was fulfilled strictly when the Virgin Mary's Son was called Jesus for Jehovah, salvation. He He and no other is the expected Saviour. He saved, delivered, put on a state of safety. This is His great business in the world that great errand on which He is come, namely to make an atonement for, and to destroy sin, deliverance from all the power of guilt and pollution of sin is the privilege of every believer in Christ Jesus. In verse 1, He is called Jesus Christ. That the name of Jesus, so often added to the name Christ in the New Testament, is not only that Christ might be thereby pointed out as the Saviour, but also that Jesus might be pointed out as the true Christ or Messiah against the unbelief of the Jews.

(17) Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. Do not imagine that I have come to violate the law. I am not come to make the law of none effect, to dissolve the connection which subsists between its several parts, or the obligation that men are under to have their lives regulated by  its moral precepts; nor am I come to dissolve the connecting reference it has to the good things promised. Bit I am come to complete its great design, and to give grace to all my followers, to fill up or complete every moral duty, in a word, Christ, completed the law in itself, it was only the shadow, the typical representation, of good things to come; and He added to it that which was necessary to make it perfect.

(26) But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister: There was an ambition among the disciples to have the chief place in the Kingdom- The other disciples were as ambitious as James and John, although Jesus had just discussed that matter. The other disciples were angry with the two brothers for taking an undue advantage in this contested point; but Jesus aware of their resentment and ambition was pleased to argue the case with them. He showed them the difference between His Kingdom and the kingdom of the nations. The princess of the Gentiles were ambitious of lordly authority in order to gratify their love of domineering, and of being flattered, and every inferior ruler copied their example; but this resulted from false notions of greatness and from the pride of the human heart. Such conduct might be suitable too kings and tyrants and conquerors who know not God but it is wholly unsuitable to those who govern God's people and especially to Ministers of His Gospel. It must not be the case with His disciples. Instead of aspiring to domineer to lord it over God's heritage, he who would be great among you must become the menial servant of the whole company and stoop to the lowest and laborious employments in order to be the more useful. This humility, self-abasement and diligence would at length render him the chief while a contrary conduct would tend to a man's disgrace and degradation. In this way he would set them an example.

(27) And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant

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THE CONVENTION TEACHER   29

Thus Jesus teaches the spirit which must be in the one aspiring for first place, so styled. One must not consider himself a lord over Christ's flock. He is not to conduct the concerns of the church with an imperious spirit. He is to reform the weak, after Christ's example more by loving instruction than by reproof or censures, He should consider that true apostolic greatness consists in serving the followers of Christ with all the talents and powers he possesses, that he should be ready, if need be, to give up his life unto death, to promote the salvation of men.
(28) Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life as ransom for many. Christ announces His own example as a pattern of profound humility. Came not to be ministered. By His incarnation, Christ assumed the lowliest life of man. He took upon Himself the form of a servant and was active in ministering to others' wants, going about doing good, healing the sick, cleansing lepers, casting out demons, never weary of teaching, however fatigued His body - A servant to the race He came to save. A ransom for many, or a ransom instead of many - One ransom or atonement instead of the many prescribed in the Jewish law. The crowning example of His humility is that He gave His life as a ransom for the souls of men.

III. JESUS, THE SINLESS HIGH PRIEST. (VV. 15-16.) (15) For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. The power of sympathy of our great High Priest is not used here to distinguish Him from other high priests, but to express in this respect His resemblance to them. Let us hold fast to our confession, and not be moved from it by the thoughts of the super-human greatness of this High Priest of ours, who hath passed through the heavens; for He can still sympathize with our infirmities, having undergone our trials. Christ can sympathize by virtue of His own human experience. Himself took our infirmities and bare our sickness. The High Priest of the Jewish system if entered into the heavens, can have no participation with them, and no sympathy for them, because he is out of the reach of human feelings and infirmities; but our High Priest, though He be the Son of God, as to His human nature and equal in His divine nature with God, yet having partaken of human nature, and having submitted to all its trials and distresses, and being in all points tempted like as we are without feeling or consenting to sin, He is able to succour them that are tempted -We might say, as far as His human nature could bear affinity to ours for though He had a perfect human body and human soul, yet that body was perfectly tempered and was free from all morbid action, and consequently from all irregular movements. His mind or human soul being free from all sin, being in every way perfect, could feel no irregular temper.

(16) Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. The reference to the High Priest, and His office on the day of the atonement is here kept up. The approach mentioned here is to the propitiatory or mercy seat. This was the covering of the ark of the testimony or covenant, at each end of which was a cherub and between them, the symbol of Divine Majesty, which appeared to and conversed with the high priest. Here the apostle shows the great superiority of the privileges of the New Testament above the Old; for there the high priest only, and he with fear and trembling, was permitted to approach; and in that not without the blood of the victim, and if in anything the transgressed, he might expect to be struck with death. The throne of grace in heaven answers to this propitiatory but to this all may approach who feel their need of salvation; and they may approach with freedom, confidence, liberty of speech, in opposition to the fear and trembling of the Jewish high priest. Here nothing is to be feared, provided the heart be right with God, truly sincere, and trusting alone in the sacrificial blood. That we may obtain mercy. That we may receive pardon for all our sins, then is mercy for the taking. As Jesus Christ tasted death for every man so every man may go to that propitiatory an take the mercy that is suited to his degree of guilt. And find grace - Mercy refers to the pardon of sin,and being brought into the favor of God, Grave is that by which the soul is supported after it has received this mercy, and by which it is purified from all unrighteousness, and upheld in all trials and difficulties, and enabled to prove faithful until death.

Transcription Notes:
european / canadian spelling conventions (ie "colour", "Saviour") are author's own