man, when he is come into the depth of sins, contemneth.” But Christ, after His triumphant return from the dead, immediately showed Himself to His disciples and, having had intercourse with them for forty days, ascended of His own motion to the Father in sight of the disciples [Acts 1:3]. All this I have briefly narrated the more willingly, in order to make clearer to every beholder the righteousness of Christ by which He healed the wound of Adam. For we are still dealing with the point that Christ is our righteousness, our innocence, and the price of our redemption. For to this end He died for us and rose again, that He might declare the mystery of our deliverance and confirm the hopes which, when men saw that He had died and afterwards by His own power had become alive again, could not but be made sure in regard to life everlasting after this life. For “in that he died, he died unto sin,” Rom. 6:10; but not unto His sin, for He was absolutely free from sin, but unto ours. And He rose again in order that we may know that we have been made alive through Him.
[7]. Gospel
Christ suffered all these things for us. If we could have won salvation by our own works or our own innocence, He would have died in vain, Gal. 2:21. The nature of the Gospel may, therefore, now be briefly expressed as follows. As regards the name, to preface the subject with that, it is known to all that it means nothing but “good tidings.” But what those tidings are must be learned from the words of Him who brings them. He sent forth His disciples with the injunction, Mark 16:15: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned.” Here we learn, first, that the gospel is a thing which saves the believer We have, then, what it does, but we do not yet have what it is. We must, therefore, consult another Evangelist, which is by far the most convenient way of coming to an understanding of the Holy Scriptures. Luke, then, 24: 45-47, writing of the same idea and of what happened on the same day, namely, that on which Christ rose, says: “Then opened he their mind, that they might understand the Seriptures, that it is written
so and so, and that it behooved Christ to suffer so and so, and on the third day to rise from the dead, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all nations.” Here we have clearly what the gospel is and how it ought to be preached. This is the gospel, that sins are.” remitted in the name of Christ; and no heart ever received tidings more glad. But it is desirable to explain the plan thereof a little further, for when that is known we shall get a closer view of the thing itself. Christ taught [Lk. 24: 47] that repentance and remission of sins were to be preached in His name unto all nations. First, I think it is generally agreed that “name” is used here for “force, power, might, majesty,” as in Mark 16:17: “In my name,” i. e, in my might or power, “shall they cast out demons.” And in Acts 3:6 Peter says: “In the name,” i. e., through the force or power, “of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” And, a little later [3:16]: “And by faith in his name hath his name made this man strong, whom ye see and know, etc.” “By faith in his name”— what else can it mean than having faith in His power and force? “His name hath made strong,” i. e., His power and majesty? Through Christ, therefore, it is brought about that we repent of our former life. For I showed clearly enough, where we were considering man, that without the grace of God man knows himself just as little as without it he recog- nizes God. It has to be through the power of God that man knows himself. In order, then, that one may repent of one’s errors, it is necessary that one shall know that one’s errors are errors, which certainly is not in the power of the flesh, 1. e., of man. For he is so blind in his own concerns that he never condemns himself in anything. If it comes to pass that he condemns himself, it comes to pass not through his own power but another’s. But this other’s power cannot be the power of other flesh, for the nature of all flesh is the same. The other power, therefore, that brings man to a knowledge of himself must be of the Spirit. And this I constantly inculcate in the sense that I leave nothing to man, to whom some, on the contrary, ascribe so much. It is a result wrought by the Divine Spirit alone that man knows himself. But unless knowledge precedes, no self-abasement follows. For who would abase him-
self unless he saw in himself something offensive? Christ teaches first, therefore, how repentance should arise and be preached in His name; ὁ. e., that it is through His power that man knows himself and is disgusted with himself when known. Then, to return to the exposition of Luke’s words, unless we repent, are disgusted with ourselves, ashamed of ourselves, Christ does not become saving and valuable to us who now know what law is and what sin is.