At His first advent, we adore Him with gratitude, rejoicing that He is “God with us,” making Himself to be our near Kinsman. We gather with grateful boldness around the Infant in the manger and behold our God. But, in the anticipation of His second advent, we are struck with a solemn reverence, a trembling awe. We are not less grateful, but we are more prostrate, as we bow before the majesty of the triumphant Christ. Jesus in His glory is an overpowering vision for mortal man to behold. John, the beloved disciple, writes, “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.” We could have kissed His blessed feet till He quitted us on Mount Olivet, but at the sight of our returning Lord, when Heaven and earth shall flee away, we shall bow in lowliest adoration. His first appearing has given us eternal life, and that holy confidence with which we are looking forward to His glorious appearing, which is to be the crown of all His mediatorial work.
There are many contrasts between our Lord’s first and second appearings, but the great contrast is that when He comes again, it will be “without a sin-offering unto salvation.” The end and object of His first coming was “to put away sin.” The modern babblers say that He appeared to reveal to us the goodness and love of God. This is true, but it is only the fringe of the whole truth. The all-important fact is that He revealed God’s love in the provision of the only sacrifice which could put away sin. Then they say that He appeared to exhibit perfect manhood and to let us see what our nature ought to be. Here also is a truth, but it is only part of the sacred design of Christ’s coming to earth. He appeared, say they, to manifest self-sacrifice and to set us an example of love to others; by His self-denial, He trampled on the selfish passions of man. We deny none of these things, and yet we are indignant at the way in which the less is made to hide the greater. To put the secondary ends of our Lord’s first advent into the place of the grand object of His coming is to turn the truth of God into a lie. It is easy to distort truth, by exaggerating one portion of it, and diminishing another, just as the drawing of the most beautiful face may soon be made a caricature rather than a portrait by neglect of the rule of proportion. You must observe proportion if you would take a truthful view of things, and in reference to the first appearing of our Lord, His chief purpose was “to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
The great object of our Lord’s coming here was not to live but to die. He appeared, not so much to subdue sin by His teaching, or to manifest goodness, or to perfect an example for us to imitate, but “to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” That which the modern teachers of error would thrust into the background, our Lord placed in the forefront. He came to take away our sins, even as the scapegoat typically carried away the sin of Israel into the wilderness, that the people might be clean before the living God. Do not let us think of Jesus without remembering the design of His coming. I pray you, know not Christ without His cross, as some pretend to know Him.
From Christ's Incarnation: The Foundation of Christianity by C.H. Spurgeon (emphasis mine)
Photo Credit: Attributed to Carel Fabritius [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
There are many contrasts between our Lord’s first and second appearings, but the great contrast is that when He comes again, it will be “without a sin-offering unto salvation.” The end and object of His first coming was “to put away sin.” The modern babblers say that He appeared to reveal to us the goodness and love of God. This is true, but it is only the fringe of the whole truth. The all-important fact is that He revealed God’s love in the provision of the only sacrifice which could put away sin. Then they say that He appeared to exhibit perfect manhood and to let us see what our nature ought to be. Here also is a truth, but it is only part of the sacred design of Christ’s coming to earth. He appeared, say they, to manifest self-sacrifice and to set us an example of love to others; by His self-denial, He trampled on the selfish passions of man. We deny none of these things, and yet we are indignant at the way in which the less is made to hide the greater. To put the secondary ends of our Lord’s first advent into the place of the grand object of His coming is to turn the truth of God into a lie. It is easy to distort truth, by exaggerating one portion of it, and diminishing another, just as the drawing of the most beautiful face may soon be made a caricature rather than a portrait by neglect of the rule of proportion. You must observe proportion if you would take a truthful view of things, and in reference to the first appearing of our Lord, His chief purpose was “to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
The great object of our Lord’s coming here was not to live but to die. He appeared, not so much to subdue sin by His teaching, or to manifest goodness, or to perfect an example for us to imitate, but “to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” That which the modern teachers of error would thrust into the background, our Lord placed in the forefront. He came to take away our sins, even as the scapegoat typically carried away the sin of Israel into the wilderness, that the people might be clean before the living God. Do not let us think of Jesus without remembering the design of His coming. I pray you, know not Christ without His cross, as some pretend to know Him.
From Christ's Incarnation: The Foundation of Christianity by C.H. Spurgeon (emphasis mine)
Photo Credit: Attributed to Carel Fabritius [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
This is so good. Thank you for sharing it, Sister
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