[April 19th, 1857.]
I. Meaning of the passage. 1. To reveal is to disclose, to bring into view what before was hidden, to make known. To reveal his Son, therefore, is to cause me to know his Son. This knowledge is not external acquaintance, such as many who persecuted and crucified Jesus possessed. Nor is it familiarity with the facts of history. Nor is it a speculative knowledge of all the truth revealed concerning Christ. But it is spiritual knowledge, such knowledge as implies just appreciation, and is attended with appropriate affections. The object of this knowledge is the Son of God, i.e., Paul was brought to know that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus was the historical person so called. That person was the Son of God, i.e., the second person of the Trinity, clothed in our nature. He is God manifest in the flesh. This is what Paul was brought to know. Before, he did not believe it. He was blind to the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. As soon as he was brought to this knowledge, he was a new man. He was filled with adoring reverence, love and devotion to the Lord Jesus; to the Son of God who was in himself so gracious, and who for our salvation had assumed our nature, and suffered, and died upon the cross. The fact is that such was the nature of Paul’s conversion; and such were its effects.
II. Such also must in all cases be the nature of genuine conversion. 1. Because the Scriptures expressly assert the fact, that the knowledge of God is essential to true religion. Religion consists in the knowledge of God, and in right affections and acts. Religion includes, therefore, three things. (a.) Spiritual cognition. (b.) Right feelings. (c.) Corresponding acts. From the nature of the case, there can be no religion without knowledge of God, who is its object. 2. Because there can be no knowledge of God, but through Christ. This the Bible teaches, because whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father, etc. He is the way, and no man cometh unto the Father but by him. Because the glory of God is revealed in the person of Christ. Not to see it, recognize, and acknowledge it, is to refuse to acknowledge God as God. God as revealed in nature, in the Old Testament and in Christ, is the same God. It is absurd to pretend to believe in and admire the sun under a cloud, and refuse to do so when it is clear. And so it is to acknowledge our Father at a distance, and not when at hand. There can be, therefore, no true knowledge of God without the knowledge of the Son. 3. Because true religion includes in its Christian form the worship and love of Christ, and obedience to him. Take the reverse of these statements, and the truth becomes more familiar. The want of love, reverence and obedience towards Christ proves that a man is no Christian. Christian experience, however manifested, from the beginning consists in this worship, love and service of Christ. All the cultus, the prayers, the hymns of Christians are characterized by these things, and without them there is no Christianity. 4. Not only the experience of the Church as a whole proves this, but also the individual experience of every believer. To believe in Christ, to receive him as the Son of God, to say he is Lord, to bow the knee to him, to kiss the Son, to take him to be our portion, are all forms under which conversion is described in the Bible, and under which it is exhibited in the experience of Christians. Satan blinds our minds, prevents our seeing that Jesus is the Son of God, that he loves us, that he died for us, that he is able and willing to save us. When we are brought to see all this, what is the consequence? It is not simply that we trust in Christ. Faith is not simply trust; but it is receiving Christ as our prophet, priest and king. How is this possible without the recognition of his divinity? It cannot be done.
Inferences
This affords us, 1. A rule for deciding whether or not we are Christians. 2. A rule to direct our efforts in effecting the conversion of others. 3. A rule for deciding on doctrine and preaching. 4. A rule for guiding us how to preach.
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