Chapter 9: Christ Seen as God's Salvation

Chapter 9: Christ Seen as God's Salvation "Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation?—Luke 2:30.

Thousands of times that song of Simeon has been sung by careless, thoughtless persons, but surely it is one of those songs that ought never to come except from believing lips. To make it merely a part of a liturgy, and for shamelessly living men to say, 'Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation,' must be an atrocious sin before God. Let every one who has ventured to use such words as these without having thought of their meaning, confess their sin before God and ask that He would make those words to be true which have hitherto been so frivolously uttered, and that ere they close their eyes in death their eyes may see God's salvation.

I. The text as it drops from Simeon's lips

I shall first of all take the text as it drops from Simeon's lips and follow his leading. We will start with Simeon's main idea. He came into the temple, he saw there a little babe, and he recognized in that newly-born child Jesus the promised Saviour, and as he took up that Saviour into his arms, and said, 'Mine eyes have seen'—what? 'Thy salvation;' God's salvation—not the worker of the salvation only, but the salvation itself. From which I gather that wherever we see Jesus we see God's salvation; wherever our eye spiritually lightens upon the Christ of God there we see salvation. Whether in Bethlehem's manger or on the cross, or on yonder throne of glory from which He shall judge the quick and the dead—wherever we see Him we see the salvation of God.

Let me then take your thoughts along the history of our Saviour for a moment. Far back into the ages when as yet this world and sun and moon were not created—when God dwelt alone—then in the foreknowledge of God it was apparent that man would sin—that elect men, beloved of God, would fall in the common ruin. Then came the grand debate, the mighty question to be only solved by the supreme intellect of heaven, 'How can sinners be reconciled to God?' and the covenant was formed, that ancient covenant of which David sang—'Ordered in all things and sure.' Jesus, the second person of the blessed Godhead, entered into covenant with His Father, that in the fulness of time He would stand in the sinner's place and pay the sinner's debt; that He would lead up in Himself as many as the Father gave Him, and become the second restoring Adam to them, though through the first and falling Adam they, with others, had been destroyed. Then when the covenant was signed, and the divine parties to that grand trans-action struck hands and ratified the bond, mine eye, as it looks into that vast eternity and with holy curiosity, desires to scan that council chamber—mine eye perceives God's salvation in the person of Jesus Christ. This was all that could have been seen by faith, even after the world had been created and man had fallen, until that day when the fulness of time was come—when Jesus Christ, Who had covenanted to save His people, came to perform the work. Oh! the grandeur of that day when angels came in haste to sing that the babe was born in Bethlehem Ah! Simeon, what thou seest there is not merely a babe—a little child hanging upon a woman's breast—it is the Word incarnate—the Logos without Whom was not anything made that is made. He that spake, and it was done, lies there. He that said, 'Light be,' and light was—the wisdom that was with God when He balanced the clouds and when He fixed the sockets of the Universe; even He is there in the person of that child. The Son of Mary is also the Son of God, and whenever we look into the God incarnate and understand the mystery, 'The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,' and men chosen of Him behold His glory—'the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth'—then, when you see God in human flesh you see God's salvation.

Follow with the eyes of your love that babe when He had become a man. See Him, in the obedience of thirty years to His reputed father, handling the adze and the hammer in the carpenter's shop of Joseph. 'Being found in fashion as a man He humbled Himself.' See Him in the three years of His most blessed ministry. What work was crowded into those few months! How did the zeal of God's house eat Him up! The dews fell upon Him in the night when He kept the sheep of God in the wilderness and on the mountain's brow shepherding them in midnight prayers. Oftentimes the sweat fell from Him in that daily service which, as the servant of servants, He rendered to all His brethren. None toiled as He, so arduously, none so perfectly, none so willingly, none with so complete a bending of His whole faculties to His all-absorbing work. Behold the righteousness of the saints. This work of Christ is making a robe in which the saints shall be arrayed. His active obedience renders unto God a recompense for our breaches of His holy law. In Christ, the actively obedient, you see God's salvation.

But, oh! let your eyes swim with tears as you follow Him from His active to His passive obedience. I stayed midway in a verse just now,

'Being found in fashion as a man He humbled Himself; 'as you go on, you read, 'and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.' There is He in yonder garden among the olives, do you hear His sighs, His deep-fetched groans? Do you mark the sweat drops of blood as it falls upon the earth? He is pleading, 'If it be possible let this cup pass from Me,' but possible it is not. Do you see Him hurried away with the felon's kiss still upon His cheek—hurried away by traitorous hands to Caiaphas—hurried to Pilate and Herod, one after the other—scorned and scoffed at everywhere. He whose visage is bright as the morning when the sun ariseth, and whose countenance is like Lebanon, comely as the cedars; He it is that they make nothing of and scout and scoff at Into His face, which angels look on with hushed awe, they cast their accursed spittle; they buffet Him, and say, 'Hail King of the Jews'; they mock His royalty with a crown of thorns and His priesthood by binding His eyes and saying, 'Who is it that smote Thee?' He Who is in this shame is God's salvation remember. He is made lower than earth's basest menials that He might lift us higher than heaven's brightest seraphs: coming down from where He was in heaven's excellency to all this depth of shame, that out of all our shame He might uplift us to the excellency supernal.

Then at length it comes to a climax and the patient sufferer gives His hands to the iron and His feet to the nails. They lift Him up; a felon's death He must die. Without the camp must He suffer. Made sin for us He cannot be in the congregation. He must be numbered with transgressors. Behold Him dying in bodily pains not to be readily described! But, bethink you, the worst was this—God, to whom good men look for succour when they die, refused Him help. Jehovah, who never did forsake the virtuous, forsook Him, the most virtuous of all. He who is our castle and high tower, our rampart and defence in our extremity, hid, as it were, His face from Him and that bitterest of all cries which contains in it as much grief as all the shrieks of the damned in hell went up, 'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' There was He, the forsaken one, yet He was God's salvation, for He was:—

'Bearing that we might never bear His Father's righteous wrath.'

Enduring to be cast away of heaven that we, base as we are, might be enfolded in the divine bosom and loved with the divine affection. Nor is this all. On the third day He, who on the cross had conquered, rose to claim the victory. Behold Him! he is God's salvation as He rises from the tomb. 'Where is thy sting, O death? Where is thy victory, boastful grave?' Jehovah Jesus has saved us from death, He has risen from the sepulchre. Behold Him as He ascends! Let not your eyes be too dazzled with the glory. He rides in solemn pomp up to heaven's gate. Your ears can even now catch the echoes of that song, 'Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may come in.' He that enters through has saved us, and has gone to receive gifts for men. His entrance there is the entrance of all His people, for He is their representative, and takes possession of heaven on their behalf. Being there for us we are saved; His presence on the throne is the presence of God's salvation.

If time did not fail me I would like to pursue the story and point you to Him looking still like a Lamb that has been slain, pleading with His never-ceasing, ever-prevalent, intercession. I would like to bid your faith anticipate the day when He shall come again With no sin offering but unto salvation, when you and I shall see God's salvation seeing Him, when our bodies shall be perfected, no more to be weak and suffering, but made like His glorious body. Our brethren that have gone before us, who at this moment sleep in their silent tombs amongst the purple heather, or in the crowded cemetery, or in the chill vault, they also shall hear the sound of His second advent when the herald blast shall bid the world know that the Lord has come, and 'From beds of dust and silent clay To realms of everlasting day' they shall wing their triumphant course, for Jesus Christ shall be to them, as to us, God's salvation. That was Simeon's idea, I think; we have but hammered out his ingot of gold a little, 'Where Jesus is, there is the salvation of God.'

II. Some leaves out of our own autobiography And now in the second place we shall take some leaves out of our own autobiography. The text says, 'Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.' Simeon must not be allowed the monopoly of these words. I claim them, 'Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.' Brethren and sisters, many of you can, in a spiritual sense, use the same language as this patriarch about to depart. You, too, can say, 'Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.' Will you turn over the book of your life awhile as I turn over mine?

Well, we need not read those early pages, the pages of our estate of sin. Drop tears and blot them out. Dear hand of Jesus stained with blood wipe down each one of them and blot them out for ever. But what is this first bright page? It is the page where we began to live; the page that records our spiritual birth, and I think we shall find written somewhere across it, 'This day mine eyes beheld God's salvation.' Well do I remember that day. I had looked here and looked there. This was the question. I had offended God—how can He forgive me? It was no use to tell me God was merciful, I had an answer for that—'God is just.' It little availed to say, 'Sin is little,' I knew better. It was heavy to me; what must it be to Him? The question I wanted to have answered was—How can God in justice pass by my iniquities? Then did I learn, as in a moment, this sweet story which it has been my delight to tell in various forms a thousand times, that Jesus came and said, 'I will be the sinner's Surety. I will stand in His place of curse and ruin, and will bear for Him the penalty of pain, for Him I will bear even death.' I learned that if I looked—just looked and that was all, that if I trusted—did simply trust in Jesus, I should be saved. I looked—I looked, and, happy day, mine eyes saw His salvation. That blessed doctrine of substitution, that simple command, 'Believe and live,' that was the glass through which my soul looked and saw God's salvation. But if I remember rightly a little further on—in my case it was not above a week after I had seen my sin forgiven, I felt myself in another difficulty. I found I could not do what I would. My will was now never to sin again, but I did sin. I willed to be holy, but I was not what I would be. I groaned and cried, 'Where is salvation from this evil heart of mine, from this corruption of nature?' And I remember well going to the same place where I had heard of the Saviour, and hearing the minister declare that if any man felt in himself the evil nature, he was not saved. 'Ah!' I thought, 'I know better than that;' I could not be persuaded of that. I knew I was saved. I had looked to Christ, and I did find that I was where Paul was when he said,

'To will is present with me, but how to perform that which I would I find not.' I seemed then to say to myself, 'My will is so tickle; how can I hold on? My power is so feeble; how can I stand against sin?' Ah! and well do I remember the day when I could say in a more emphatic sense than before, 'Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.' For as I searched the Word I perceived that as many as believed in Christ had eternal life, and eternal life is not a life that lasts a little while; it is what it is said to be—everlasting life.

Then I perceived in the Word that against this everlasting life the old body of sin and death would struggle, but that it was written that the new life was a living and incorruptible seed 'which liveth and abideth for ever.' And I discovered the apostle's words, 'Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ' It was a grand discovery when I perceived that the life God had given me could not die any more than God could; that it was a beam from Himself; that He had made me a partaker of that divine nature, since I had escaped the corruption that was in the world through lust; that the Spirit of the Most High was given to the believer to dwell in him and to be with him for ever, and that He who began the work had declared, that He would carry it on and perfect it unto the day of the appearing of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. When I learned that truth I felt as if I had not seen God's salvation before. I had seen so little of it the first time, enough to make me leap for joy, it is true; but on the second discovery I beheld that He that redeemed me from the guilt of sin would quite as certainly redeem me from the power of sin; that He that set me on the rock would keep me there; that He that put me on the road had said about all His servants, 'I will put My fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from Me.' That was a glorious discovery! None of your two penny-half penny salvations that some people profess to have, that only last for a day or two, or a few weeks at most, and then depart. In Christ to-day and out of Christ to-morrow. Christ hath pardoned their sin, and yet they think He hath not given them salvation! But to know that' the gifts and calling of God are without repentance,' that He hath said, 'He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,' that 'The righteous also shall hold on his way,' that 'he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger,' that the Word of Christ stands sure, 'I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hands,' this is to see God's salvation in a broader light. I pray that every hearer who has seen Christ may go on to see more of Christ till he has seen his full security in the person of the Well-Beloved. But further on (and it was with me a long time after), when I had discovered that the Christ who saved me from the guilt was also pledged to save me from the power of sin, then I found afresh that he was God's salvation. I discovered partly through thought, and partly through the clear testimony of the written Word, that every soul that believes in Christ believes in Christ because God made him believe in Christ. That concerning that soul there was a purpose made by God that that soul should be a believer, and that purpose was made from all eternity—was made or ever the earth was, and that purpose once made could never be changed. It was like the mountains of brass which could never be moved. I say that the salvation of the believer in Christ did not rest on his own will, but on God's will; that the purpose that saved him was not his own purpose. Even as it is written, 'It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.' Why, I remember that was as good a discovery to me as the very first; it was almost like another conversion. I had been up to the ankles in the water of life before, but now I was up to the very breast, and what could I say but this:—

'I'm a monument of grace, A sinner saved by blood, The streams of love I trace Up to the fount of God; And in His sacred bosom see Eternal thoughts of love to me.'

Here it was that 'mine eyes have seen God's salvation'—seen the source of it, the secret springs of it, the eternity of it, the immutability of it, and the divinity of it. I pray that every burdened child of God may get to see that also. Then will he sing for joy of heart indeed.

Probably, dear brethren, we have not all gone further than that, if so far; but it is a very blessed thing when we are led to see another truth—namely, that every quickened believer is one with Jesus Christ. We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. The Christ in heaven is the same Christ who is here on earth in every one of His saved ones; they are all parts of Him. There is a vital union subsisting between them, so that whatever Christ is they are. They were one with

Him of old, they were one in the grave, one when He rose, one when He triumphed o'er His foes, and they are at this day one with Him as:—

'Now in heaven He takes His seat, And angels sing all hell's defeat.'

Every believer is as much one with Christ as the finger is one with the body. If I lost my finger I should not be a perfect man as to my body; and if Christ lost the meanest member of His body, it would be a part of Christ that would be lost, and Christ would not be a perfect Christ. We are one with Jesus by indissoluble vital union, and if your soul perceives that, you will clap your hands and say to the Father, 'I have seen Thy salvation indeed, for now I see that I am in heaven.' He 'hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.' We are saved and glorified in Christ Jesus as our representative and covenant head. Not even yet have I exhausted this theme, and I only pray that you and I may go on to know yet more and more the heights and depths of God's salvation. I was thinking just now before I began to preach that, if ever you and I should be permitted to look down upon the world of misery—if in some future state we should ever gaze into that land of darkness and despair where sinners cast away from God are suffering the due reward of their sins; if our eyes should ever see their agonies, and our ears should ever hear their cries of despair, we should, among other things, say 'My God! I never knew before how great Thy salvation is, for I also had been there, but for Thy mercy. Until I saw something of what hell is, I could not tell how much I owed Thee, I could not say, that, in its heights and depths, mine eyes had seen Thy salvation.'

And, brethren (to put a better, a more pleasing light upon it), 'When I stand before the throne Dressed in beauty not my own;' when I shall see Him—and see Him I shall, for it is written, 'Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold and not another;' when you and I shall cast our crowns at His feet; when we shall raise our voices with all the white-robed throng in the everlasting Hallelujahs, then we shall say, 'My God my Father, "Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." '

III. There are some here who have never seen God's salvation.

Time fails me, and so I must pass on to spend a few minutes in a third portion of my topic. It is this, There are some here who have never seen God's salvation. The gospel is hid to them; and if it be hid, it is not hid because we have used hard words to hide it. 'If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them who are lost, in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe not.' Blind sinner, dost thou desire to see the salvation of God? Ah! sayest thou,

'If I know my own heart I do.' Why, canst thou not see it then, man? It is very plain. Ah! I see, thine eyes—thine eyes are sealed up. The first seal I see on thine eyes like a fixed scale (and, oh! I wish I could take it off for thee) is this, Thou dost not even believe that thou needest any salvation. The man who does not believe he needs saving of course will never see God's salvation. In heart thou sayest, 'I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing;' my poor friend be persuaded to take God's opinion of thee, which is much nearer the truth than thine. Thou art naked, and poor, and miserable; thou art lost, ruined and condemned, as it is written, 'He that believeth not is condemned already.' Is that scale gone?

Now I see another (I wish that I could take that off, too), and that is, thou knowest thou art blind, but thou sayest, 'I must try and save myself.' This is a very thick scale. You will never see while that is on thy eyes. Do you not notice how Simeon put it; not 'Mine eyes have seen my own salvation,' but, 'Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation'—that is, God's salvation—the Lord's salvation. Let me tell thee, poor man, if ever thou art saved thy salvation must be God's in the beginning, God's in the carrying on, and God's in the concluding. No salvation will ever serve thy turn but one which is divine from top to bottom. If nature's fingers could nimbly spin a garment that should cover human nakedness, it would be of no avail. All that nature spins God must unravel before a soul can be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. It is not your doings, man, it is Christ's doings that must save you, not your tears, but Christ's blood; not your feelings, not anything in you or from you. Listen, thou hast an ear to hear it: 'Salvation is of the Lord,' of the Lord from first to last. Oh! if that scale come off thine eye, I know that thou wilt say, 'Now I begin to see enough to know that I cannot see. I have just enough light to discover the darkness I am in; I see that none can save me but God, He must do it, but will He save me? Will He save me?'

Lend me thy finger, man; God, by His Spirit, make my hand His Spirit's hand. Dost thou see? No, thou dost not, but there is the hem of Jesu's garment; touch that with thy finger and thou shalt be restored to sight at once. I mean this. Jesus died to save such as thou art, trust Him and thou art saved, thou art saved completely and at once. A physician who was under some concern of soul asked his patient, who was a godly man, 'Can you explain to me what faith is?' 'Yes,' said his godly patient, 'I can let you see it very soon if God will let you see it. It is like this: You see, I am very ill, I cannot help myself, I do not attempt to do it, I have confidence in you, I put myself into your care, I take what medicine you send me, I do what you bid me. That is faith. You must trust yourself in the hands of Christ like that.' That is it. When you, my dear friends, wholly and entirely trust yourself in the hand of Christ, then your eyes have seen God's salvation.

I have no time for more, I wish I had. But I want to say this final word to everyone who has seen God's salvation. Perhaps one of you is poor; well, go home to-night, saying, 'I am poor, but mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.' One of you perchance is in suffering, then say, 'I feel ill; never mind, mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.' And perhaps there are some warnings and intimations that make another of you think you will soon be called to die. Consumption is undermining your constitution; never mind, don't fret, your eyes have seen God's salvation. How much better to die in a garret or in a ditch and see God's salvation, than be carried in the most pompous manner to your grave a soul that knows nothing of God and of the Saviour. O you that are much tried and much troubled, bear up, bear up, your sorrow will not last much longer. When you and I get to heaven, as I trust we shall, as I know we shall, if we are resting on the atonement of Christ, these troubles by the way will only be matter for us to talk of, and to say to one another, 'How graciously the Lord hath held us in His providence, and how wonderfully He hath brought us through every trial! Even in my poverty mine eyes saw His salvation. In my sickness and in my death I did but see it all the more clearly because of the clouds and darkness that were round about me! God bless you, dear friends. I earnestly pray that you may all see God's salvation. May He hear the prayer, for Christ's sake! Amen.