"Now then we are amba.s.sadors for Christ, as though G.o.d did beseech ... by us: we pray ... in Christ"s stead, be ye reconciled to G.o.d."--2 COR. v. 20.
These are wonderful and bold words, not so much because of what they claim for the servants as because of what they reveal of the Lord.
That thought, "as though G.o.d did beseech," seems to me to be the one deserving of our attention now, far rather than any inferences which may be drawn from the words as to the relation of preachers of the Gospel to man and to G.o.d. I wish, therefore, to try to set forth the wonderfulness of this mystery of a beseeching G.o.d, and to put by the side of it the other wonder and mystery of men refusing the divine beseechings.
Before doing so, however, I remark that the supplement which stands in our Authorised Version in this text is a misleading and unfortunate one. "As though G.o.d did beseech _you_" and "we pray _you_" unduly narrow the scope of the Apostolic message, and confuse the whole course of the Apostolic reasoning here. For he has been speaking of a world which is reconciled to G.o.d, and he finds a consequence of that reconciliation of the world in the fact that he and his fellow-preachers are entrusted with the word of reconciliation. The scope of their message, then, can be no narrower than the scope of the reconciliation; and inasmuch as that is world-wide the beseeching must be co-extensive therewith, and must cover the whole ground of humanity. It is a universal message that is set forth here. The Corinthians, to whom Paul was speaking, are, by his hypothesis, already reconciled to G.o.d, and the message which he has in trust for them is given in the subsequent words: "We then, as workers together with G.o.d, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of G.o.d in vain." But the message, the pleading of the divine heart, "be ye reconciled to G.o.d," is a pleading that reaches over the whole range of a reconciled world. I take then, just these two thoughts, G.o.d beseeching man, and man refusing G.o.d.
I. G.o.d beseeching man.
Now notice how, in my text, there alternates, as if substantially the same idea, the thoughts that Christ and that G.o.d pray men to be reconciled. "We are amba.s.sadors on _Christ"s_ behalf, as though _G.o.d_ did beseech you by us, we pray on _Christ"s_ behalf."
So you see, first, Christ the Pleader, then G.o.d beseeching, then Christ again entreating and praying. Could any man have so spoken, pa.s.sing instinctively from the one thought to the other, unless he had believed that whatsoever things the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise; and that Jesus Christ is the Representative of the whole Deity for mankind, so as that when He pleads G.o.d pleads, and G.o.d pleads through Him. I do not dwell upon this, but I simply wish to mark it in pa.s.sing as one of the innumerable strong and irrefragable testimonies to the familiarity and firmness with which that thought of the divinity of Jesus Christ, and the full revelation of the Father by Him, was grasped by the Apostle, and was believed by the people to whom he spoke. G.o.d pleads, therefore Christ pleads, Christ pleads, therefore G.o.d pleads; and these Two are One in their beseechings, and the voice of the Father echoes to us in the tenderness of the Son.
So, then, let us think of that pleading. To sue for love, to beg that an enemy will put away his enmity is the part of the inferior rather than of the superior; is the part of the offender rather than of the offended; is the part of the vanquished rather than of the victor; is the part surely not of the king but of the rebel. And yet here, in the sublime transcending of all human precedent and pattern which characterises the divine dealing, we have the place of the suppliant and of the supplicated inverted, and Love upon the Throne bends down to ask of the rebel that lies powerless and sullen at His feet, and yet is not conquered until his heart be won, though his limbs be manacled, that he would put away all the bitterness out of his heart, and come back to the love and the grace which are ready to pour over him. "He that might the vengeance best have taken, finds out the remedy." He against whom we have transgressed prays us to be reconciled; and the Infinite Love lowers Himself in that lowering which is, in another aspect, the climax of His exaltation, to pray the rebels to accept His amnesty.
Oh, dear brethren! this is no mere piece of rhetoric. What facts in the divine heart does it represent? What facts in the divine conduct does it represent? It represents these facts in the divine heart, that there is in it an infinite longing for the creature"s love, an infinite desire for unity between Him and us.
There are wonderful significance and beauty in the language of my text which are lost in the Authorised Version; but are preserved in the Revised. "We are amba.s.sadors" not only "_for_ Christ," but "_on Christ"s behalf_." And the same proposition is repeated in the subsequent clause. "We pray you," not merely "in Christ"s stead,"
though that is much, but "_on His account_," which is more--as if it lay very near His heart that we should put away our enmity; and as if in some transcendent and wonderful manner the all-perfect, self-sufficing G.o.d was made glad, and the Master, who is His image for us, "saw of the travail of His soul, and," in regard to one man, "was satisfied," when the man lets the warmth of G.o.d"s love in Christ thaw away the coldness out of his heart, and kindle there an answering flame. An old divine says, "We cannot do G.o.d a greater pleasure or more oblige His very heart, than to trust in Him as a G.o.d of love." He is ready to stoop to any humiliation to effect that purpose. So intense is the divine desire to win the world to His love, that He will stoop to sue for it rather than lose it. Such is at least part of the fact in the divine heart, which is shadowed forth for us by that wonderful thought of the beseeching G.o.d.
And what facts in the divine conduct does this great word represent?
A G.o.d that beseeches. Well, think of the tears of imploring love which fell from Christ"s eyes as He looked across the valley from Olivet, and saw the Temple glittering in the early sunshine. Think of "O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! ... how often would I have gathered thy children together ... and ye would not." And are we not to see in the Christ who wept in the earnestness of His desire, and in the pain of its disappointment, the very revelation of the Father"s heart and the very action of the Father"s arm? "Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." That is Christ beseeching and G.o.d beseeching in Him. Need I quote other words, gentle, winning, loving? Do we not feel, when looking upon Christ, as if the secret of His whole life was the stretching out imploring and welcoming hands to men, and praying them to grasp His hands, and be saved? But, oh, brethren! the fact that towers above all others, which explains the whole procedure of divinity, and is the keystone of the whole arch of revelation; the fact which reveals in one triple beam of light, G.o.d, man, and sin in the clearest illumination, is the Cross of Jesus Christ. And if that be not the very sublime of entreaty; and if any voice can be conceived, human or divine, that shall reach men"s hearts with a more piercing note of pathetic invitation than sounds from that Cross, I know not where it is.
Christ that dies, in His dying breath calls to us, and "the blood of sprinkling speaketh better things than that of Abel"; inasmuch as its voice is, "Come unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth."
Not only in the divine facts of the life and death of Jesus Christ, but in all the appeals of that great revelation which lies before us in Scripture; and may I say, in the poor, broken utterances of men whose harsh, thin voices try to set themselves, in some measure, to the sweetness and the fulness of His beseeching tones--does G.o.d call upon you to draw close to Him, and put away your enmity. And not only by His Word written or ministered from human lips, but also by the patient providences of His love He calls and prays you to come. A mother will sometimes, in foolish fondness, coax her sullen child by injudicious kindness, or, in wise patience, will seek to draw the little heart away from the faults that she desires not to notice, by redoubled ingenuity of tenderness and of care. And so G.o.d does with us. When you and I, who deserve--oh! so different treatment--get, as we do get, daily care and providential blessings from Him, is not that His saying to us, "I beseech you to cherish no alienation, enmity, indifference, but to come back and live in the love"? When He draws near to us in these outward gifts of His mercy, is He not doing Himself what He has bid us to do; and what He never could have bid us to do, nor our hearts have recognised to be the highest strain of human virtue to do, unless He Himself were doing it first? "If thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head."
Not only by the great demonstration of His stooping and infinite desire for our love which lies in the life and death of Jesus Christ, nor only by His outward work, nor by His providence, but by many an inward touch on our spirits, by many a p.r.i.c.k of conscience, by many a strange longing that has swept across our souls, sudden as some perfumed air in the scentless atmosphere; by many an inward voice, coming we know not whence, that has spoken to us of Him, of His love, of our duty; by many a drawing which has brought us nearer to the Cross of Jesus Christ, only, alas! in some cases that we might recoil further from it,--has He been beseeching, beseeching us all.
Brethren! G.o.d pleads with you. He pleads with you because there is nothing in His heart to any of you but love, and a desire to bless you; He pleads with you because, unless you will let Him, He cannot lavish upon you His richest gifts and His highest blessings. He pleads with you, bowing to the level, and beneath the level, of your alienation and reluctance. And the sum and substance of all His dealings with every soul is, "My son! give Me thy heart." "Be ye reconciled to G.o.d."
II. And now turn, very briefly, to the next suggestion arising from this text, the terrible obverse, so to speak, of the coin: Man refusing a beseeching G.o.d.
That is the great paradox and mystery. n.o.body has ever fathomed that yet, and n.o.body will. How it comes, how it is possible, there is no need for us to inquire. It is an awful and a solemn power that every poor little speck of humanity has, to lift itself up in G.o.d"s face, and say, in answer to all His pleadings, "I will not!" as if the dwellers in some little island, a mere pin-point of black, barren rock, jutting up at sea, were to declare war against a kingdom that stretched through twenty degrees of longitude on the mainland. So we, on our little bit of island, our pin-point of rock in the great waste ocean, we can separate ourselves from the great Continent; or, rather, G.o.d has, in a fashion, made us separate in order that we may either unite ourselves with Him, by our willing yielding, or wrench ourselves away from Him by our antagonism and rebellion. G.o.d beseeches because G.o.d has so settled the relations between Him and us, that that is what He has to do in order to get men to love Him.
He cannot force them. He cannot prise open a man"s heart with a crowbar, as it were, and force Himself inside. The door opens from within. "Behold! I stand at the door and knock." There is an "if."
"If any man open I will come in." Hence the beseeching, hence the wail of wisdom that cries aloud and no man regards it; of love that stands at the entering in of the city, and pleads in vain, and says, "I have called, and ye have refused.... How often would I have gathered ... and ye would not." Oh, brethren! it is an awful responsibility, a mysterious prerogative, which each one of us, whether consciously or no, has to exercise, to accept or to refuse the pleadings of an entreating Christ.
And let me remind you that the act of refusal is a very simple one.
Not to accept is to reject; not to yield is to rebel. You have only to do nothing, to do it all. There are dozens of people in our churches and chapels listening with self-satisfied unconcern, who have all their lives been refusing a beseeching G.o.d. And they do not know that they ever did it! They say, "Oh! I will be a Christian sometime or other." They cherish vague ideas that, somehow or other, they are so already. They have done nothing at all, they have simply been absolutely indifferent and pa.s.sive. Some of you have heard sermons like this so often that they produce no effect. "It is the right kind of thing to say. It is the thing we have heard a hundred times." Perhaps you wonder why I should be so much in earnest about the matter, and then you go outside, and discuss me or the weather, and forget all about the sermon. And thus, once more, you reject Christ. It is done without knowing it; done simply by doing nothing.
My brother! do not stop your ears any more against that tender, imploring love.
Then let me remind you that this refusing the beseeching of G.o.d is the climax of all folly. For consider what it is,--a man refusing his highest good and choosing his certain ruin. I am afraid that people have been arguing and fighting so much of late years over disputable points in reference to the doctrine of future retribution that the indisputable fact of such retribution has lost much of its solemn power.
I pray you, brethren, to ask yourselves one question: Is there anything, in the present or in the future condition of a man that is not reconciled to G.o.d, which explains G.o.d"s beseeching urgency? Why this energy and intensity of divine desire? Why this which, if it were human only, would be called _pa.s.sionate_ entreaty? Why was it needful for Jesus Christ to die? Why was it worth His while to bear the punishment of man"s sin? Why should G.o.d and Christ, through all the ages, plead with unintermittent voice? There must be some explanation of it all, and here is the explanation, "They that hate Me love _death_." "Be ye reconciled to G.o.d," for enmity is ruin and destruction.
And finally, dear friends, this turning away from Him that speaketh from Heaven, of which some of you have all your lives been guilty, is not only supreme folly, but it is the climax of all guilt. For there can be nothing worse, darker, arguing a nature more averse or indifferent to the highest good, than that G.o.d should plead, and I should steel my heart and deafen mine ear against His voice. The crown of a man"s sin, because it is the disclosure of the secrets of his deepest heart as loving darkness rather than light, is turning away from the divine voice that woos us to love and to G.o.d.
Oh! there are some of you that have heard that Voice too often to be much touched by it. There are some of you too busy to attend to it, who hear it not because of the clatter of the streets and the whir of the spindles. There are some of you that are seeking to drown it in the shouts of mirth and revelry. There are some of you to whom it comes m.u.f.fled in the mists of doubt; but I beseech you all, look at the Cross, _look at the Cross!_ and hear Him that hangs there pleading with you.
Before the battle there comes out the captain of the twenty thousand to the King with the ten thousand, who in His loftiness is not afraid to stoop to sue for peace from the weaker power. My brother! the moment is precious; the white flag may never be waved before your eyes again. Do not; do not refuse! or the next instant the clarion of the a.s.sault may sound, and where will you be then?
It is vain for thee to rush against the thick bosses of the Almighty buckler. "We beseech, in Christ"s behalf, be ye reconciled with G.o.d."