Welcome to A Discourse of the Knowledge of Christ Crucified from the works of Stephen Charnock. We are continuing to read at page 494 for this reading. This Reformation audio resource is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. Many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog containing classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, CDs, and much more at great discounts, are on the web at www.PuritanDownloads.com. Also, please consider, pray, and act upon the important truths found in the following quotation by Charles Spurgeon. As the Apostle says to Timothy, so also he says to everyone, give yourself to reading. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own. You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritanic writers and the expositions of the Bible. The best way for you to spend your leisure is to be either reading or praying. And now to SWRB's reading of A Discourse of the Knowledge of Christ Crucified from the works of Stephen Charnock. Our reading will begin at page 494. A Discourse of the Knowledge of Christ Crucified For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 2. The church of Corinth, to which the apostle directs this epistle, was a church as flourishing in gifts as any, yet as much crumbled into divisions as eminent in knowledge. A year and six months the apostle had been conversant among them, planting and watering with expectation of a plentiful harvest. But no sooner had he turned his back, but the devil steps in and sows his tares. It was a church still, but divided. It had the evangelical doctrine, but too much choked with schismatical weeds. Number one, observe, the best churches are like the moon, not without their spots. The purest times had their imperfections. A pure state is not allowed to this, but reserved for another world. Number two, church antiquity is a very unsafe rule. Other churches, at some distance from the apostles, were as subject to error as this. Pride and ambition were less like to keep out of them than out of Christ's family. Had the history of this church's practices and tenets, without this corrective epistle of the apostle being transmitted to after ages, they would have been used as a pattern not the church, but scripture authority is to be followed. Fathers must not be preferred before apostles. Church practices are no patterns, but as they are parallel to the grand and unerring rule. The apostle, laying to heart the rents, draws up the whole doctrine he had before preached unto first declares the manner of his first carriage among them, verse one. He came not to them with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto them the testimony of God. To come with man's wisdom, one, would detract from the strength and excellency of the word, which, as the sun, shines best with its own beams. The spirit's eloquence is most piercing and demonstrative, and quickly convinces the man by its own evidence. Carnal wisdom charms the ear, but this strikes the heart. Number two. It detracts from the glory of God, who is more honored by the simplicity of the gospel than luxuriances of wit. It was his honor, by the doctrine of a crucified Savior, to nonpluss the wisdom of the world, and the glory of his wisdom, as well as strength, to confound by impotent and weak men the power of Satan, which so long had possessed the hearts of the Corinthians. Number three. It would be an argument of hypocrisy to use any other arguments than divine. Men in this would seek but themselves, not God's glory. It would be pride to think that their fancies could be more prevalent than evangelical reason. And therefore, the apostle would do nothing but endeavor to set out Christ in his own colors, as he hung upon the cross, that their souls might be captivated to the obedience of a crucified Lord. I determined, ooh, gar, eh, rina. I judged it most convenient for me, most profitable for you. It was a resolution taken up deliberately. It was not for want of the knowledge of those principles which are cried up in the world for true wisdom. I understand them as well as others, but what things I counted gain before, I now count loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ and think it not worth the while and pains to make much inquiry about them. To know nothing to believe nothing, to approve of nothing, to make known nothing. Number one, not your traditions, which are for themselves the plea of venerable antiquity and have been handed to you from your ancestors. What I chiefly determined to know is as ancient as the oldest of those mysteries you so much admire, even the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Number two, not your philosophical wisdom so much admired by you and the rest of the world. I come not to teach you a doctrine from Athens, but from Jerusalem, and not so much from Jerusalem as from heaven. I come to declare him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Number three, not your poets, wherein the chief mysteries of your religion are couched. I come to teach him to you, which your sybils and their prophetic writings pointed at long ago. Number four, not your mysterious oracles, which had so long deluded the world, but I come to declare him by whose death they were silenced. but Jesus Christ and him crucified. Christ in the deity and glory of his person, but also as crucified in the ignominy of his passion and the advantages of his office. This is the sum of the gospel and contains all the riches of it. Paul was so much taken with Christ that nothing sweeter than Jesus could drop from his lips and pen. It is observed that he hath the word Jesus 500 times in his epistles. Others understand it thus. I will know nothing but Jesus Christ, though he were crucified. I will boast of him whom others despise. among you. You Corinthians, though learned, though rich, I would not know anything else among you than Christ, who is the wisdom of God and the treasures of God. Observe. Number 1. All human wisdom must be denied when it comes in competition with the doctrine of Christ. Number 2. Christ and His death is the choicest subject for the wisest ear. Number three, as all Christ, so especially his death is the object of faith. Number four, as all of Christ, so more especially his death and all the mysteries of it ought to be the main subject of a Christian study and knowledge. Doctrine. For the last, as all of Christ, so more especially in his death, and all the mysteries of it, ought to be the principal subject of a Christian's study and knowledge. This is the honor of the gospel, and therefore the preaching of the gospel is called the preaching of the cross. 1 Corinthians 1.8. which should be considered by us, one, in the first spring, two, in the person suffering, three, in the fruits of it. One, in the first spring, his death was ordered by God. Peter, as the president of the apostles, delivers it in the sense of the whole college of apostles then present. Acts 2, verse 23. He was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. It was decreed and enacted in heaven, resolved before time, though done in the fullness of time. Therefore, Christ is called the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. Determinately, in the counsel and decree of God, promissorily, in the promise and word of God passed to Adam after the fall, typically in the sacrifices which were settled immediately upon that promise of redemption. Efficaciously, in regard to the merit of it applied by God to believers before the actual suffering, He was made sin not by us, not only by himself and by his own will, but by God's ordination. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. He hath made him to be sin for us. By a divine statute, i.e., he was ordained to be put into the state and condition of a sinner in our stead. not into the practical and experimental state of sin, but the penal state of a sin, to be a sacrifice for it, not to be polluted with it. Indeed, had not God appointed it, it had not been meritorious, for the merit was not absolute for us, but factional and conditional. It was capable of meriting because of the worth and dignity of the person, but not actually meritorious for us, but upon the covenant transacted between the father and the son, that it should be performed by him for us and accepted by the father for us and applied by the spirit to us. And as it was appointed by God, it was, number one, an act of his sovereignty. Suppose God might have pardoned sin and recovered man by his own absolute prerogative, had not his word been passed that, in case of man's transgression, he should die the death, as a word created earth, and cast it into such beautiful frame and order, so by one word he might have restored man, and set him upon his former stock, and have forever kept him from falling again, as he did the standing angels from ever sinning. Yet God pitcheth upon this way, and is pleased with no other contrivance but this. And in a way of sovereignty, he calls out his son to be a sacrifice. And the son, putting himself into the state of assurity and redeemer, is set to have a command given him on the part of God as a sovereign. John 14, 31. As the father hath given me commandment, even so I do. And received by him as a subject, John 10, 18. And as God owns him as his servant, Isaiah 42, verse 1, so he took upon him the form of a servant, Philippians 2, 6, i.e., the badge and livery of a servant. And the whole business he came upon, from his first breath to his last gasp, is called the will of God. And at the upshot, he pleads his own obedience in finishing the work given him to do as the ground of his expectations and the glory promised him. John 17, verse two. Number two, an act of the choicest love. God, at the creation, beheld man, a goodly frame of his own rearing, adorned with his own image, beautified with his graces, embellished with holiness and righteousness, and furnished with a power to stand. and afterwards beheld him ungratefully rebelling against his sovereign, invading his rights and condemning his goodness, forfeiting his own privileges, courting his ruin and sinking into misery. So blinded is his mind as not to be able to find out a way for his own recovery, so perverse is his will that instead of craving pardon of his judge, He flies from him, and when his flight would not advantage him, he stands upon his own defense and extenuates his crime, thus adding one provocation to another, as if he had an ambition to harden the heart of God against him and render himself irrecoverably miserable. God so overlooks these as in immense love and grace to settle away for man's recovery without giving any dissatisfaction to his justice, so strongly engaged for the punishment of the offense. And rather than this notorious rebel and prodigious apostate should perish according to his merit, he would transfer the punishment which he could not remit without a violation of his truth and an injury to his righteousness, upon a person equal to himself, most beloved by him, his delight from eternity, and infinitely dearer to him than anything in heaven or earth. Herein was the emphasis of divine love to us, that he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sin, 1 John 4, 10. It was love that he would restore man after the fall. There was no more necessity of doing this than of creating the world. As it added nothing to the happiness of God, so the want of it had detracted nothing from it. There was no more absolute necessity of setting up man again after his breaking than of a new repair of the world after the destructive deluge. but that he might wind up his love to the highest pitch. He would not only restore man, but rather than let him lie in his deserved misery, would punish his own bowels to secure man from it. It was purely his grace which was the cause that his son tasted death for every man." Hebrews 2, 9. Number three, an act of justice. As his love to us proposed it, and Christ, out of his affection to the honor of the Father and our welfare, accepted it and was willing to undertake for us and interpose between us and divine wrath to stand in our stead and bear our sins, so it was then an act of justice to inflict. For God being the governor of the world, the great lawgiver righteously exacting obedience from his rational creature, upon the transgression of his law becomes a judge, and his rectoral justice demands the punishment due for the transgression to be inflicted upon the offender. To preserve the rights of justice and to give a contenting answer to the cry of the bowels of mercy, to wipe off, as I may say, the tears of one and smooth the frowns of the other. God lays our iniquity upon Christ. Isaiah 53, Christ takes the punishment upon himself to bear our sins in his own body on the tree and becomes responsible for our transgressions. And though he never sinned, nor stood indebted to God in his own person, yet becoming our surety, and being made under the law, putting himself in subjection to the law, and standing in our stead, he put himself also under the obligations of it to punishment. And thus the weight of the whole punishment due man was laid upon Christ by God as a just judge. that which he could not have from the debtors he might have from the surety who had put himself under that obligation of payment and so was bound to undergo all those curses the law might have inflicted upon us. And pursuant to this obligation, God imputed our iniquities to him and punished them in him. Number two, Consider the person suffering. One, in regard of his dignity, the Son of God became man. The Lord of glory emptied himself. It was the Lord of angels that took upon him the nature of a servant. The Lord of life shed his blood. It was the Son of God that stooped down infinitely below himself into our nature to be a sacrifice for our redemption. He that was greater than heaven became meaner than a worm. Number two, the willingness of his suffering. He, being equal with the Father, could not be commanded to undertake this. He willingly consented and willingly accomplished, as the legal sacrifices were, to the altar. His enemies were not so desirous to make him a sufferer as he himself was straightened till he was a sufferer." Luke 12 verse 50. The cup was as willingly drunk by him as it was tempered by God. And his enemies did not so maliciously put him to shame as he joyfully endured it. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2. The desire that the cup might pass from him was the struggles of his human nature, not an unwillingness in his person or a repenting of his undertaking this office. It was a natural motion, evidencing the truth of his humanity and the greatness of what he was to suffer. Number three, the greatness of his suffering. His death had all the ingredients of bitterness in it. It was a grievous punishment because the holiness of God would not have been so manifested in a light one. One, ignominious. It was a death for slaves and malefactors, for slaves whose condition rendered them most despicable. and for malefactors whose actions had rendered them most abominable. The Lord of heaven endured the punishment of a slave and was numbered among transgressors. It is called shame. Hebrews 12, two. Each suffering was sharpened with shame. He was buffeted, spit upon, wounded in his good name, accounted an imposter. The most odious terms of blasphemer, Beelzebub's agent, etc., were put upon the Son of God. 2. Cruel and sharp, lingering, not sudden. From his scourging by Pilate to his death was six hours, all that while and much torture. He suffered from heaven, earth, hell, in his body, in his soul. Three, a curse. Under God's blessing, all blessings are included. So under the notion of a curse, all punishments are contained. Galatians 3, 13, he was made a curse for us. There must be something more dreadful than a bare outward pain or bodily punishment. Christ wanted not courage to support that as well as the most valiant martyr. He bore the beginnings of it till he saw a black cloud between his father and himself. This made him cry out, my God, my God, et cetera. The agonies of Christ were more than the sufferings of all the martyrs. and all men in the world, since God laid upon him the sins of the whole world. Number three, consider the fruits of his death, which will render it worth our study. Number one, the appeasing of the wrath of God for us. God was willing to be appeased, hence the sending of Christ is everywhere in scripture ascribed to the love and grace of God. But his justice was not actually appeased till the death of Christ. As a merciful God, he pitied us. But as a holy God, he could not but hate our transgression. As a God of truth, he could not but fulfill his own threatening. As a God of justice, he must avenge himself for the offense against him. He gave Christ as a God of mercy and required satisfaction as a God of justice. He set him forth as a propitiation that he might be just. Romans 3 25-26. His mercy rendered him placable, but his righteousness hindered the actual placation He had a kindness for man, but could not have a kindness for his sin. He had bowels for his creature to free him, but no bowels for his transgression to let him go unpunished. That justice whereby he can no more absolve the guilty than condemn the innocent, that justice whereby he can no more absolve the guilty than condemn the innocent, was an obstacle to the full issues of his mercy. But when an offering for sin was made by an infinite person, and our near kinsman, who had a right of redemption, there was no plea in justice against it, since the sacrifice was complete. No plea in divine veracity, since the penalty was suffered. No plea in divine holiness, since that was infinitely manifested. No bar to mercy to come smiling upon the world. The wrath of God was appeased upon the death of the Redeemer, and this reconciliation is actually applied upon the acceptance of the believer. If God had not been placable, He had never accepted a substitute. And if he had not been appeased, he had never raised the substitute after his passion, nor ever held out his hand of grace to invite us to be reconciled to him. There is nothing now remains to be done but our consenting to those terms upon which he offers us the actual enjoyment of it. This crucified redeemer was only able to effect this work. He was an infinite person. consisting of a divine and human nature. The union of the one gave value to the suffering of the other. The word of God was passed in his threatening. His justice would demand its right of his veracity. A sacrifice there must be to repair the honor of God by bearing the penalty of the law, which could not be done by the strength and holiness of any creature. All the created force in the earth and the strongest force of the angelical nature were too feeble for so great a task. Justice must have satisfaction. The sinner could not give it without suffering eternal punishment. He then puts himself into our place to free us from the arrest of justice, and bear those strokes which, by virtue of the law, wrath had prepared for us. The dignity of his person puts a value upon his punishment and renders it acceptable for us, it being a death superior in virtue to the death of world. It was a death which justice required, and at the sight of it justice was so calmed that the sharp revenging sword drops out of his hand. God hath smelt it in it so sweet a savour that hath fully pleased him. He can now pardon the sins of the believers with the glory of his righteousness, as well as of his. He can legally justify a repenting sinner. God hath been served in the passion of the Redeemer. His justice and holiness were glorified, and the law accomplished, the honor of God is salved, and the author of the law righted, the justice of God sweetened. By this propitiation for sin, God is rendered propitious to guilty man, and stretcheth out his arms of love instead of brandishing his sword of vengeance. The ancient believers lived in the expectation of this, but they beheld not the consummation of it. They thirsted for it, but were not satisfied with it to the fullness of time. It solely depended upon the passion of Christ. It is by the cross that God is reconciled and all enmity slain. Ephesians chapter two, verse 14. He was then wounded for our iniquities, and being cast into the furnace of divine wrath, quenched the flames. As Jonah, the type, being cast into the raging sea, quelled the storm, suffering its strokes. It could not stand with that justice to punish him if he were not placed in our stead to be the mark and butt of that justice for us and our sins. Doth not then a crucified Christ deserve to be known and studied by every one of us, who hath done that upon the cross which the holy law sacrifices divinely instituted, the blessed angels, the purity and strength of universal nature had never been able to affect? He hath expiated our sins, and by his blood hath secured us from the sword of divine vengeance. if we refuse not the atonement he hath made. Number two, silencing the law. Christ crucified, by satisfying the justice of God, break the thunders of the law and dissolve the flame of all its anathemas. Being made a curse for us, he hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. Galatians 3.13, i.e., from the sentence of the lawgiver, denounced in his law against the transgressors of it, so that now there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8.1, Because they are dead to the law by the body of Christ. Romans 7.4. by the body of Christ as slain and raised again. For this handwriting of ordinances, which was contrary to us, is taken out of the way by God, being nailed to his cross." Colossians 2, 14. He hath abolished the obligation of the moral law. as to any condemning power, it being the custom to cancel bonds anciently by piercing the writing with a nail. The ceremonial law was abolished in every regard, since the substance of it was come, and that which it tended to was accomplished. And so one, footnote, Pearson on the Creed, page 424, understands verse 15, Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly. Of the ceremonies of the law, called principalities and powers in regard of the divine authority whereby they were instituted. These he spoiled. The word apectuamai signifies unclothing or unstripping. He unveiled them and shewed them to be misty figures that were accomplished in His own person. The flower falls when the fruit comes to appear. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Grace to obey the precepts and truth to take away the types. But it was also meant of the condemning power of the moral law. which was nulled by the death of Christ, who upon his cross, sealing another covenant, repealed the former. The settling a new covenant implies the dissolution of the old. That was nailed to the cross, which was contrary to us, a law that was charged against us, and by virtue whereof we were sued. And this was the law as sentencing us to death. which was pierced and torn by those nails, that did discover that debt and denounce the sentence, which cannot be meant so properly of the ceremonial as the moral law. The ceremonial law of sacrifices was the gospel in shadows, and appointed for the relief of men, and as a ground whereon to exercise their faith till the appearance of the substance, and therefore cannot be said to be contrary to us. but an amicable discovery that we are to have that relief in another which we wanted in ourselves, and that we were to be freed from the sentence of death by some grand sacrifice represented by those sacrifices of animals. Besides, the Apostle writes this as a cordial issuing out the blood of Christ to the Gentile Colossians who never were under the obligations of the ceremonial law. that being appropriated to the Jews. The Apostle brings it back to his assertion that their trespasses were forgiven. This argument had been of no use to the Gentiles, who sinned not against ceremonial law, but the moral law. And if one only had been cancelled, and not the other, the Jews themselves, whose offensive were most against the moral law, had had little or no comfort in having the fewest of their sins forgiven. Our Savior died by the power and force of the moral law. That brought him to the cross for the fulfilling it and its penalty, as well as he had done in his life by his obedience. And he receiving the full execution of his sentence upon himself on the cross as a substitute in our place, null that sentence as to any force upon those that believe in him. The plea against it is that it hath already been executed, though not upon our persons, yet upon our surety. So that being nailed to his cross, the virtue of his cross must cease before the killing power of the law can revive. This crucified Christ, who disarmed the law of its thunders, defaced the obligation of it as a covenant, and, as it were, round the stones upon which it was writ to powder, is worth our exact knowledge and studious inquiry. Still Waters Revival Books is now located at PuritanDownloads.com. It's your worldwide, online Reformation home for the very best in free and discounted classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, MP3s, and videos. For much more information on the Puritans and Reformers, including the best free and discounted classic and contemporary books, mp3s, digital downloads and videos, please visit Still Waters Revival Books at PuritanDownloads.com Stillwater's Revival Books also publishes The Puritan Hard Drive, the most powerful and practical Christian study tool ever produced. All thanks and glory be to the mercy, grace, and love of the Lord Jesus Christ for this remarkable and wonderful new Christian study tool. 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