CHAPTER 9.
CHRIST, THOUGH KNOWN TO THE JEWS UNDER THE LAW, YET ONLY MANIFESTED
UNDER THE GOSPEL.
There are three principal heads in this chapter. I.
Preparatory to a consideration of the knowledge of Christ, and the benefits
procured by him; the 1st and 2nd sections are occupied with the dispensation of
this knowledge, which, after the manifestation of Christ in the flesh, was more
clearly revealed than under the Law. II. A refutation of the profane dream of
Servetus, that the promises are entirely abrogated, sec. 3. Likewise, a
refutation of those who do not properly compare the Law with the Gospel, sec.
4. III. A necessary and brief exposition of the ministry of John Baptist, which
occupies an intermediate place between the law and the Gospel.
Sections.
1. The holy fathers under the Law saw the day of Christ, though obscurely.
He is more fully revealed to us under the Gospel. A reason for this, confirmed
by the testimony of Christ and his Apostles.
2. The term Gospel, used in its most extensive sense, comprehends the
attestations of mercy which God gave to the fathers. Properly, however, it
means the promulgation of grace exhibited in the God-man Jesus Christ.
3. The notion of Servetus, that the promises are entirely abolished, refuted.
Why we must still trust to the promises of God. Another reason. Solution of a
difficulty.
4. Refutation of those who do not properly compare the Law and the Gospel.
Answer to certain questions here occurring. The Law and the Gospel briefly
compared.
5. Third part of the chapter. Of the ministry of John the Baptist.
1. SINCE God was pleased (and not in vain) to testify in
ancient times by means of expiations and sacrifices that he was a Father, and
to set apart for himself a chosen people, he was doubtless known even then in
the same character in which he is now fully revealed to us. Accordingly
Malachi, having enjoined the Jews to attend to the Law of Moses (because after
his death there was to be an interruption of the prophetical office),
immediately after declares that the Sun of righteousness should arise (Mal.
4:2); thus intimating, that though the Law had the effect of keeping the pious
in expectation of the coming Messiah, there was ground to hope for much greater
light on his advent. For this reason, Peter, speaking of the ancient prophets,
says, "Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they
did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have
preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven," (1
Pet. 1:12). Not that the prophetical doctrine was useless to the ancient
people, or unavailing to the prophets themselves, but that they did not obtain
possession of the treasure which God has transmitted to us by their hands. The
grace of which they testified is now set familiarly before our eyes. They had
only a slight foretaste; to us is given a fuller fruition. Our Saviour,
accordingly, while he declares that Moses testified of him, extols the superior
measure of grace bestowed upon us (John 5:46). Addressing his disciples, he
says, "Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For
verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see
those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things
which ye hear, and have not heard them," (Mt. 13:16; Luke 10:23). It is no
small commendation of the gospel revelation, that God has preferred us to holy
men of old, so much distinguished for piety. There is nothing in this view
inconsistent with another passage, in which our Saviour says, "Your father
Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad," (John 8:56). For
though the event being remote, his view of it was obscure, he had full
assurance that it would one day be accomplished; and hence the joy which the
holy patriarch experienced even to his death. Nor does John Baptist, when he
says, "No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the
bosom of the Father, he has declared him," (John 1:18), exclude the pious who
had previously died from a participation in the knowledge and light which are
manifested in the person of Christ; but comparing their condition with ours, he
intimates that the mysteries which they only beheld dimly under shadows are
made clear to us; as is well explained by the author of the Epistle to the
Hebrews, in these words, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake
in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son," (Heb. 1:1, 2). Hence, although this only begotten Son, who
is now to us the brightness of his Father's glory and the express image of his
person, was formerly made known to the Jews, as we have elsewhere shown from
Paul, that he was the Deliverer under the old dispensation; it is nevertheless
true, as Paul himself elsewhere declares, that "God, who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," (2 Cor. 4:6);
because, when he appeared in this his image, he in a manner made himself
visible, his previous appearance having been shadowy and obscure. More shameful
and more detestable, therefore, is the ingratitude of those who walk blindfold
in this meridian light. Accordingly, Paul says that "the god of this world has
blinded their minds, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should
shine unto them," (2 Cor. 4:4).
2. By the Gospel, I understand the clear
manifestation of the mystery of Christ. I confess, indeed, that inasmuch as the
term Gospel is applied by Paul to the doctrine of faith (2 Tim. 4:10), it
includes all the promises by which God reconciles men to himself, and which
occur throughout the Law. For Paul there opposes faith to those terrors which
vex and torment the conscience when salvation is sought by means of works.
Hence it follows that Gospel, taken in a large sense, comprehends the
evidences of mercy and paternal favour which God bestowed on the Patriarchs.
Still, by way of excellence, it is applied to the promulgation of the grace
manifested in Christ. This is not only founded on general use, but has the
sanction of our Saviour and his Apostles. Hence it is described as one of his
peculiar characteristics, that he preached the Gospel of the kingdom (Mt. 4:23;
9:35; Mark 1:14). Mark, in his preface to the Gospel, calls it "The
beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." There is no use of collecting
passages to prove what is already perfectly known. Christ at his advent
"brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel," (2 Tim. 1:10). Paul
does not mean by these words that the Fathers were plunged in the darkness of
death before the Son of God became incarnate; but he claims for the Gospel the
honourable distinction of being a new and extraordinary kind of embassy, by
which God fulfilled what he had promised, these promises being realised in the
person of the Son. For though believers have at all times experienced the truth
of Paul's declaration, that "all the promises of God in him are yea and amen,"
inasmuch as these promises were sealed upon their hearts; yet because he has in
his flesh completed all the parts of our salvation, this vivid manifestation of
realities was justly entitled to this new and special distinction. Accordingly,
Christ says, "Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God
ascending and descending upon the Son of man." For though he seems to allude to
the ladder which the Patriarch Jacob saw in vision, he commends the excellence
of his advent in this, that it opened the gate of heaven, and gave us familiar
access to it.
3. Here we must guard against the diabolical
imagination of Servetus, who, from a wish, or at least the pretence of a wish,
to extol the greatness of Christ, abolishes the promises entirely, as if they
had come to an end at the same time with the Law. He pretends, that by the
faith of the Gospel all the promises have been fulfilled; as if there was no
distinction between us and Christ. I lately observed that Christ had not left
any part of our salvation incomplete; but from this it is erroneously inferred,
that we are now put in possession of all the blessings purchased by him;
thereby implying, that Paul was incorrect in saying, "We are saved by hope,"
(Rom. 3:24). I admit, indeed, that by believing in Christ we pass from death
unto life; but we must at the same time remember the words of John, that though
we know we are "the sons of God," "it does not yet appear what we shall be: but
we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him
as he is," (1 John 3:2). Therefore, although Christ offers us in the Gospel a
present fulness of spiritual blessings, fruition remains in the keeping of
hope,226 until we are divested of corruptible flesh, and transformed
into the glory of him who has gone before us. Meanwhile, in leaning on the
promises, we obey the command of the Holy Spirit, whose authority ought to have
weight enough with us to silence all the barkings of that impure dog. We have
it on the testimony of Paul, that "Godliness is profitable unto all things,
having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come," (1 Tim.
4:8); for which reason, he glories in being "an apostle of Jesus Christ,
according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 1:1). And he
elsewhere reminds us, that we have the same promises which were given to the
saints in ancient time (2 Cor. 7:1). In fine, he makes the sum of our felicity
consist in being sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Indeed we have no
enjoyment of Christ, unless by embracing him as clothed with his own promises.
Hence it is that he indeed dwells in our hearts and yet we are as pilgrims in
regard to him, because "we walk by faith, not by sight," (2 Cor. 5:6, 7). There
is no inconsistency in the two things--viz. that in Christ we possess every
thing pertaining to the perfection of the heavenly life, and yet that faith is
only a vision "of things not seen," (Heb. 11:1). Only there is this difference
to be observed in the nature or quality of the promises, that the Gospel points
with the finger to what the Law shadowed under types.
4. Hence, also, we see the error of those who, in
comparing the Law with the Gospel, represent it merely as a comparison between
the merit of works, and the gratuitous imputation of righteousness. The
contrast thus made is by no means to be rejected, because, by the term Law,
Paul frequently understands that rule of holy living in which God exacts what
is his due, giving no hope of life unless we obey in every respect; and, on the
other hand, denouncing a curse for the slightest failure. This Paul does when
showing that we are freely accepted of God, and accounted righteous by being
pardoned, because that obedience of the Law to which the reward is promised is
nowhere to be found. Hence he appropriately represents the righteousness of the
Law and the Gospel as opposed to each other. But the Gospel has not succeeded
the whole Law in such a sense as to introduce a different method of salvation.
It rather confirms the Law, and proves that every thing which it promised is
fulfilled. What was shadow, it has made substance. When Christ says that the
Law and the Prophets were until John, he does not consign the fathers to the
curse, which, as the slaves of the Law, they could not escape. He intimates
that they were only imbued with the rudiments, and remained far beneath the
height of the Gospel doctrine. Accordingly Paul, after calling the Gospel "the
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth," shortly after adds,
that it was "witnessed by the Law and the Prophets," (Rom. 1:16; 3:21). And in
the end of the same Epistle, though he describes "the preaching of Jesus
Christ" as "the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world
began," he modifies the expression by adding, that it is "now made manifest"
"by the scriptures of the prophets," (Rom. 16:25, 26). Hence we infer, that
when the whole Law is spoken of, the Gospel differs from it only in respect of
clearness of manifestation. Still, on account of the inestimable riches of
grace set before us in Christ, there is good reason for saying, that by his
advent the kingdom of heaven was erected on the earth (Mt. 12:28).
5. John stands between the Law and the Gospel,
holding an intermediate office allied to both. For though he gave a summary of
the Gospel when he pronounced Christ to be "the Lamb of God who taketh away the
sin of the world," yet, inasmuch as he did not unfold the incomparable power
and glory which shone forth in his resurrection, Christ says that he was not
equal to the Apostles. For this is the meaning of the words: "Among them that
are born of woman, there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist:
notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he,"
(Mt. 11:28). He is not there commending the persons of men, but after
preferring John to all the Prophets, he gives the first place to the preaching
of the Gospel, which is elsewhere designated by the kingdom of heaven. When
John himself, in answer to the Jews, says that he is only "a voice," (John
1:23), as if he were inferior to the Prophets it is not in pretended humility
but he means to teach that the proper embassy was not entrusted to him, that he
only performed the office of a messenger, as had been foretold by Malachi,
"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophets before the coming of the great and
dreadful day of the Lord," (Mal. 4:5). And, indeed, during the whole course of
his ministry, he did nothing more than prepare disciples for Christ. He even
proves from Isaiah that this was the office to which he was divinely appointed.
In this sense, he is said by Christ to have been "a burning and a shining
light," (John 5:35), because full day had not yet appeared. And yet this does
not prevent us from classing him among the preachers of the gospel, since he
used the same baptism which was afterwards committed to the Apostles. Still,
however, he only began that which had freer course under the Apostles, after
Christ was taken up into the heavenly glory.