BIBLES NET. COM
Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
on the Whole Bible
Back to Biblesnet.com Home Page
|
[Previous] [Next] |
Matthew Henry |
M A T T H E W.
CHAP. XXII.
This chapter is a continuation of Christ’s discourses in the temple,
two or three days before he died. His discourses then are largely
recorded, as being of special weight and consequence. In this chapter,
we have,
I. Instruction given, by the parable of the marriage-supper, concerning
the rejection of the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles
(ver. 1-10),
and, by the doom of the guest that had not the wedding-garment, the
danger of hypocrisy in the profession of Christianity,
II. Disputes with the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes, who opposed
Christ,
1. Concerning paying tribute to Cæsar,
2. Concerning the resurrection of the dead, and the future state,
3. Concerning the great commandment of the law,
4. Concerning the relation of the Messiah to David,
| The Parable of the Marriage Feast. |
|
|
1 And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and
said,
2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made
a marriage for his son,
3 And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to
the wedding: and they would not come.
4 Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which
are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my
fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the
marriage.
5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his
farm, another to his merchandise:
6 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them
spitefully, and slew them.
7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent
forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up
their city.
8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they
which were bidden were not worthy.
9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall
find, bid to the marriage.
10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered
together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the
wedding was furnished with guests.
11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a
man which had not on a wedding garment:
12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not
having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot,
and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
14 For many are called, but few are chosen.
We have here the parable of the guests invited to the
wedding-feast. In this it is said
(v. 1),
Jesus answered, not to what his opposers said (for they
were put to silence), but to what they thought, when they were
wishing for an opportunity to lay hands on him,
ch. xxi. 46.
Note, Christ knows how to answer men’s thoughts, for he is a Discerner
of them. Or, He answered, that is, he continued his discourse to
the same purport; for this parable represents the gospel offer, and the
entertainment it meets with, as the former, but under another
similitude. The parable of the vineyard represents the sin of the
rulers that persecuted the prophets; it shows also the sin of the
people, who generally neglected the message, while their great ones
were persecuting the messengers.
I. Gospel preparations are here represented by a feast which a king
made at the marriage of his son; such is the kingdom of
heaven, such the provision made for precious souls, in and by the
new covenant. The King is God, a great King, King of
kings. Now,
1. Here is a marriage made for his son, Christ is the
Bridegroom, the church is the bride; the gospel-day is the day of
his espousals,
Cant. iii. 11.
Behold by faith the church of the first-born, that are written in
heaven, and were given to Christ by him whose they were; and in
them you see the bride, the Lamb’s wife,
Rev. xxi. 9.
The gospel covenant is a marriage covenant betwixt Christ and
believers, and it is a marriage of God’s making. This branch of the
similitude is only mentioned, and not prosecuted here.
2. Here is a dinner prepared for this marriage,
v. 4.
All the privileges of church-membership, and all the blessings of the
new covenant, pardon of sin, the favour of God, peace of conscience,
the promises of the gospel, and all the riches contained in them,
access to the throne of grace, the comforts of the Spirit, and a
well-grounded hope of eternal life. These are the preparations for this
feast, a heaven upon earth now, and a heaven in heaven shortly. God has
prepared it in his counsel, in his covenant. It is a dinner, denoting
present privileges in the midst of our day, beside the supper at night
in glory.
(1.) It is a feast. Gospel preparations were prophesied of as
a feast
(Isa. xxv. 6),
a feast of fat things, and were typified by the many festivals
of the ceremonial law
(1 Cor. v. 8);
Let us keep the feast. A feast is a good day
so is the gospel; it is a continual feast. Oxen and fatlings are
killed for this feast; no niceties, but substantial food; enough,
and enough of the best. The day of a feast is a day of
slaughter, or sacrifice,
Gospel preparations are all founded in the death of Christ, his
sacrifice of himself. A feast was made for love, it is a reconciliation
feast, a token of God’s goodwill toward men. It was made for
laughter
(Eccl. x. 19),
it is a rejoicing feast. It was made for fulness; the design of the
gospel was to fill every hungry soul with good things. It was
made for fellowship, to maintain an intercourse between heaven and
earth. We are sent for to the banquet of wine, that we may tell what
is our petition, and what is our request.
(2.) It is a wedding feast. Wedding feasts are usually rich,
free, and joyful. The first miracle Christ wrought, was, to make
plentiful provision for a wedding feast
(John ii. 7);
and surely then he will not be wanting in provision for his own wedding
feast, when the marriage of the Lamb is come, and the bride hath
made herself ready, a victorious triumphant feast,
(3.) It is a royal wedding feast; it is the feast of a
king
at the marriage, not of a servant, but of a son; and then, if ever, he
will, like Ahasuerus, show the riches of his glorious kingdom,
Esth. i. 4.
The provision made for believers in the covenant of grace, is not such
as worthless worms, like us, had any reason to expect, but such as it
becomes the King of glory to give. He gives like himself; for he
gives himself to be to them El shaddai–a God that is enough, a
feast indeed for a soul.
II. Gospel calls and offers are represented by an invitation to this
feast. Those that make a feast will have guests to grace the feast
with. God’s guests are the children of men. Lord, what is man,
that he should be thus dignified! The guests that were first
invited were the Jews; wherever the gospel is preached, this invitation
is given; ministers are the servants that are sent to invite,
Now,
1. The guests are called, bidden to the wedding. All that are
within hearing of the joyful sound of the gospel, to them is the word
of this invitation sent. The servants that bring the invitation do not
set down their names in a paper; there is no occasion for that, since
none are excluded but those that exclude themselves. Those that are
bidden to the dinner are bidden to the wedding; for all that
partake of gospel privileges are to give a due and respectful
attendance on the Lord Jesus, as the faithful friends and humble
servants of the Bridegroom. They are bidden to the wedding, that
they may go forth to meet the bridegroom; for it is the Father’s
will that all men should honour the Son.
2. The guests are called upon; for in the gospel there are not only
gracious proposals made, but gracious persuasives. We persuade men,
we beseech them in Christ’s stead,
2 Cor. v. 11, 20.
See how much Christ’s heart is set upon the happiness of poor souls! He
not only provides for them, in consideration of their want, but sends
to them, in consideration of their weakness and forgetfulness. When the
invited guests were slack in coming, the king sent forth other
servants,
v. 4.
When the prophets of the Old Testament prevailed not, nor John the
Baptist, nor Christ himself, who told them the entertainment was almost
ready (the kingdom of God was at hand), the apostles and
ministers of the gospel were sent after Christ’s resurrection, to tell
them it was come, it was quite ready; and to persuade them to accept
the offer. One would think it had been enough to give men an intimation
that they had leave to come, and should be welcome; that, during the
solemnity of the wedding, the king kept open house; but, because the
natural man discerns not, and therefore desires not, the things
of the Spirit of God, we are pressed to accept the call by the most
powerful inducements, drawn with the cords of a man, and all the
bonds of love. If the repetition of the call will move us,
Behold, the Spirit saith, Come; and the bride saith, Come; let him
that heareth say, Come; let him that is athirst come,
Rev. xxii. 17.
If the reason of the call will work upon us, Behold, the dinner is
prepared, the oxen and fatlings are killed, and all things are
ready; the Father is ready to accept of us, the Son to intercede
for us, the Spirit to sanctify us; pardon is ready; peace is ready,
comfort is ready; the promises are ready, as wells of living
water for supply; ordinances are ready, as golden pipes for
conveyance; angels are ready to attend us, creatures are ready to be in
league with us, providences are ready to work for our good, and heaven,
at last, is ready to receive us; it is a kingdom prepared, ready to
be revealed in the last time. Is all this ready; and shall we be
unready? Is all this preparation made for us; and is there any room to
doubt of our welcome, if we come in a right manner? Come, therefore, O
come to the marriage; we beseech you, receive not all this
grace of God in vain,
2 Cor. vi. 1.
III. The cold treatment which the gospel of Christ often meets with
among the children of men, represented by the cold treatment that this
message met with and the hot treatment that the messengers met with, in
both which the king himself and the royal bridegroom are affronted.
This reflects primarily upon the Jews, who rejected the counsel of God
against themselves; but it looks further, to the contempt that would,
by many in all ages, be put upon, and the opposition that would be
given to, the gospel of Christ.
1. The message was basely slighted
(v. 3);
They would not come. Note, The reason why sinners come not to
Christ and salvation by him is, not because they cannot, but
because they will not
(John v. 40);
Ye will not come to me. This will aggravate the misery of
sinners, that they might have had happiness for the coming for, but it
was their own act and deed to refuse it. I would, and ye would
not. But this was not all
(v. 5);
they made light of it; they thought it not worth coming for;
thought the messengers made more ado than needs; let them magnify the
preparations ever so much, they could feast as well at home. Note,
Making light of Christ, and of the great salvation wrought out by him,
is the damning sin of the world. Amelesantes—They
were careless. Note, Multitudes perish eternally through mere
carelessness, who have not any direct aversion, but a prevailing
indifference, to the matters of their souls, and an unconcernedness
about them.
And the reason why they made light of the marriage feast was,
because they had other things that they minded more, and had more mind
to; they went their ways, one to his farm, and another to his
merchandise. Note, The business and profit of worldly employments
prove to many a great hindrance in closing with Christ: none turn their
back on the feast, but with some plausible excuse or other,
The country people have their farms to look after, about which there is
always something or other to do; the town’s people must tend their
shops, and be constant upon the exchange; they must buy, and sell,
and get gain. It is true, that both farmers and merchants must be
diligent in their business but not so as to keep them from making
religion their main business. Licitis perimus omnes–These lawful
things undo us, when they are unlawfully managed, when we are so
careful and troubled about many things as to neglect the one
thing needful. Observe, Both the city and the country have their
temptations, the merchandise in the one, and the farms in the other; so
that, whatever we have of the world in our hands, our care must be to
keep it out of our hearts, lest it come between us and Christ.
2. The messengers were basely abused; The remnant, or the rest
of them, that is, those who did not go the farms, or
merchandise, were neither husbandmen nor tradesmen, but
ecclesiastics, the scribes, and Pharisees, and chief priests;
these were the persecutors, these took the servants, and treated
them spitefully, and slew them. This, in the parable, is
unaccountable, never any could be so rude and barbarous as this, to
servants that came to invite them to a feast; but, in the application
of the parable, it was matter of fact; they whose feet should
have been beautiful, because they brought the glad tidings of
the solemn feasts
(Nahum i. 15),
were treated as the offscouring of all things,
1 Cor. iv. 13.
The prophets and John the Baptist had been thus abused already, and the
apostles and ministers of Christ must count upon the same. The Jews
were, either directly or indirectly, agents in most of the persecutions
of the first preachers of the gospel; witness the history of the
Acts, that is, the sufferings of the apostles.
IV. The utter ruin that was coming upon the Jewish church and nation is
here represented by the revenge which the king, in wrath, took on these
insolent recusants
(v. 7);
He was wroth. The Jews, who had been the people of God’s love
and blessing, by rejecting the gospel became the generation of his
wrath and curse. Wrath came upon them to the uttermost,
1 Thess. ii. 16.
Now observe here,
1. What was the crying sin that brought the ruin; it was their being
murderers. He does not say, he destroyed those despisers of
his call, but those murderers of his servants; as if God
were more jealous for the lives of his ministers than for the honour of
his gospel; he that toucheth them, toucheth the apple of his
eye. Note, Persecution of Christ’s faithful ministers fills the
measure of guilt more than any thing. Filling Jerusalem with
innocent blood was that sin of Manasseh which the Lord would not
pardon,
2 Kings xxiv. 4.
2. What was the ruin itself, that was coming; He sent forth his
armies. The Roman armies were his armies, of his raising, of his
sending against the people of his wrath; and he gave them a charge
to tread them down,
Isa. x. 6.
God is the Lord of men’s host, and makes what use he pleases of them,
to serve his own purposes, though they mean not so, neither doth
their heart think so,
Isa. x. 7.
See
His armies destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city.
This points out very plainly the destruction of the Jews, and the
burning of Jerusalem, by the Romans, forty years after this. No age
ever saw a greater desolation than that, nor more of the direful
effects of fire and sword. Though Jerusalem had been a holy city,
the city that God had chosen, to put his name there, beautiful for
situation, the joy of the whole earth; yet that city being now
become a harlot, righteousness being no longer lodged in it, but
murderers, the worst of murderers (as the prophet speaks,
judgment came upon it, and ruin without remedy; and it is set forth for
an example to all that should oppose Christ and his gospel. It was the
Lord’s doing, to avenge the quarrel of his covenant.
V. The replenishing of the church again, by the bringing in of the
Gentiles, is here represented by the furnishing of the feast with
guests out of the high-ways,
v. 8-10.
Here is,
1. The complaint of the master of the feast concerning those that were
first bidden
(v. 8),
The wedding is ready, the covenant of grace ready to be sealed,
a church ready to be founded; but they which were bidden, that
is, the Jews, to whom pertained the covenant and the promises,
by which they were of old invited to the feast of fat things,
they were not worthy, they were utterly unworthy, and, by their
contempt of Christ, had forfeited all the privileges they were invited
to. Note, It is not owing to God, that sinners perish, but to
themselves. Thus, when Israel of old was within sight of Canaan, the
land of promise was ready, the milk and honey ready, but their unbelief
and murmuring, and contempt of that pleasant land, shut them out, and
their carcases were left to perish in the wilderness; and these
things happened to them for ensamples. See
1 Cor. x. 11; Heb. iii. 16-iv. 1.
2. The commission he gave to the servants, to invite other guests. The
inhabitants of the city
(v. 7)
had refused; Go into the high-ways then; into the way of the
Gentiles, which at first they were to decline,
Thus by the fall of the Jews salvation
is come to the Gentiles,
Note, Christ will have a kingdom in the world, though many
reject the grace, and resist the power, of that kingdom. Though
Israel be not gathered, he will be glorious. The offer of Christ
and salvation to the Gentiles was,
(1.) Unlooked for and unexpected; such a surprise as it would be to
wayfaring men upon the road to be met with an invitation to a wedding
feast. The Jews had notice of the gospel, long before, and expected the
Messiah and his kingdom; but to the Gentiles it was all new, what they
had never heard of before
and, consequently, what they could not conceive of as belonging to
them. See
(2.) It was universal and undistinguishing; Go, and bid as many as
you find. The highways are public places, and there Wisdom
cries,
Prov. i. 20.
“Ask them that go by the way, ask any body
(Job xxi. 29),
high and low, rich and poor, bond and free, young and old, Jew and
Gentile; tell them all, that they shall be welcome to gospel-privileges
upon gospel-terms; whoever will, let him come, without exception.”
3. The success of this second invitation; if some will not come, others
will
(v. 10);
They gathered together all, as many as they found. The servants
obeyed their orders. Jonah was sent into the high-ways, but was
so tender of the honour of his country, that he avoided the errand; but
Christ’s apostles, though Jews, preferred the service of Christ before
their respect to their nation; and St. Paul, though sorrowing for the
Jews, yet magnifies his office as the apostle of Gentiles. They
gathered together all. The design of the gospel is,
(1.) To gather souls together; not the nation of the Jews only, but
all the children of God who were scattered abroad
(John xi. 52),
the other sheep that were not of that fold,
John x. 16.
They were gathered into one body, one family, one corporation.
(2.) To gather them together to the wedding-feast, to pay their respect
to Christ, and to partake of the privileges of the new covenant. Where
the dole is, there will the poor be gathered together.
Now the guests that were gathered were,
[1.] A multitude, all, as many as they found; so many, that the
guest-chamber was filled. The sealed ones of the Jews were numbered,
but those of other nations were without number, a very great
multitude,
Rev. vii. 9.
See
[2.] A mixed multitude, both bad and good; some that before
their conversion were sober and well-inclined, as the devout Greeks
and Cornelius; others that had run to an excess of riot, as the
Corinthians
Such were some of you; or, some that after their conversion
proved bad, that turned not to the Lord with all their heart,
but feignedly; others that were upright and sincere, and proved of the
right class. Ministers, in casting the net of the gospel, enclose
both good fish and bad; but the Lord knows them that
are his.
VI. The case of hypocrites, who are in the church, but not
of it, who have a name to live, but are not alive indeed, is
represented by the guest that had not on a wedding garment; one
of the bad that were gathered in. Those come short of salvation by
Christ, not only who refuse to take upon them the profession of
religion, but who are not sound at heart in that profession. Concerning
this hypocrite observe,
1. His discovery, how he was found out,
(1.) The king came in to see the guests, to bid those welcome
who came prepared, and to turn those out who came otherwise. Note, The
God of heaven takes particular notice of those who profess religion,
and have a place and name in the visible church. Our Lord Jesus
walks among the golden candlesticks and therefore knows their
works. See
Let this be a warning to us against hypocrisy, that disguises will
shortly be stripped off, and every man will appear in his own colours;
and an encouragement to us in our sincerity, that God is a witness to
it.
Observe, This hypocrite was never discovered to be without a wedding
garment, till the king himself came in to see the guests.
Note, It is God’s prerogative to know who are sound at heart in their
profession, and who are not. We may be deceived in men, either one way
or other; but He cannot. The day of judgment will be the great
discovering day, when all the guests will be presented to the King:
then he will separate between the precious and the vile
(ch. xxv. 32),
the secrets of all hearts will then be made manifest, and we
shall infallibly discern between the righteous and the wicked,
which now it is not easy to do. It concerns all the guests, to prepare
for the scrutiny, and to consider how they will pass the piercing eye
of the heart-searching God.
(2.) As soon as he came in, he presently espied the hypocrite; He
saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment; though but one,
he soon had his eye upon him; there is no hope of being hid in a crowd
from the arrests of divine justice; he had not on a wedding garment; he
was not dressed as became a nuptial solemnity; he had not his best
clothes on. Note, Many come to the wedding feast without a wedding
garment. If the gospel be the wedding feast, then the wedding garment
is a frame of heart, and a course of life agreeable to the gospel and
our profession of it, worthy of the vocation wherewith we are
called
(Eph. iv. 1),
as becomes the gospel of Christ,
Phil. i. 27.
The righteousness of saints, their real holiness and
sanctification, and Christ, made Righteousness to them, is the clean
linen,
Rev. xix. 8.
This man was not naked, or in rags; some raiment he had, but not a
wedding garment. Those, and those only, who put on the Lord
Jesus, that have a Christian temper of mind, and are adorned with
Christian graces, who live by faith in Christ, and to whom he is all in
all, have the wedding garment.
2. His trial
(v. 12);
and here we may observe,
(1.) How he was arraigned
(v. 12);
Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment?
A startling question to one that was priding himself in the place he
securely possessed at the feast. Friend! That was a cutting
word; a seeming friend, a pretended friend, a friend in profession,
under manifold ties and obligations to be a friend. Note, There are
many in the church who are false friends to Jesus Christ, who say that
they love him while their hearts are not with him. How camest thou
in hither? He does not chide the servants for letting him in (the
wedding garment is an inward thing, ministers must go according to that
which falls within their cognizance); but he checks his presumption in
crowding in, when he knew that his heart was not upright; “How durst
thou claim a share in gospel benefits, when thou hadst no regard to
gospel rules? What has thou to do to declare my statutes?”
Such are spots in the feast, dishonour the bridegroom, affront the
company, and disgrace themselves; and therefore, How camest thou in
hither? Note, The day is coming, when hypocrites will be called to
an account for all their presumptuous intrusion into gospel ordinances,
and usurpation of gospel privileges. Who hath required this at your
hand?
Isa. i. 12.
Despised sabbaths and abused sacraments must be reckoned for, and
judgment taken out upon an action of waste against all those who
received the grace of God in vain. “How camest thou to the
Lord’s table, at such a time, unhumbled and unsanctified? What brought
thee to sit before God’s prophets, as his people do, when thy heart
went after thy covetousness? How camest thou in? Not by the
door, but some other way, as a thief and a robber. It was a
tortuous entry, a possession without colour of a title.” Note, It is
good for those that have a place in the church, often to put it to
themselves, “How came I in hither? Have I a wedding-garment?” If we
would thus judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
(2.) How he was convicted; he was speechless:
ephimothe—he was muzzled (so the word is used,
the man stood mute, upon his arraignment, being convicted and condemned
by his own conscience. They who live within the church, and die without
Christ, will not have one word to say for themselves in the judgment of
the great day, they will be without excuse; should they plead, We
have eaten and drunk in thy presence, as they do,
that is to plead guilty; for the crime they are charged with, is
thrusting themselves into the presence of Christ, and to his table,
before they were called. They who never heard a word of this wedding
feast will have more to say for themselves; their sin will be more
excusable, and their condemnation more tolerable, than theirs who came
to the feast without the wedding garment, and so sin against the
clearest light and dearest love.
3. His sentence
(v. 13);
Bind him hand and foot, &c.
(1.) He is ordered to be pinioned, as condemned malefactors are, to be
manacled and shackled. Those that will not work and walk as they
should, may expect to be bound hand and foot. There is a binding in
this world by the servants, the ministers, whose suspending of persons
that walk disorderly, to the scandal of religion, is called binding of
them,
“Bind them up from partaking of special ordinances, and the peculiar
privileges of their church-membership; bind them over to the righteous
judgment of god.” In the day of judgment, hypocrites will be
bound; the angels shall bind up these tares in bundles for the
fire,
ch. xiii. 41.
Damned sinners are bound hand and foot by an irreversible sentence;
this signifies the same with the fixing of the great gulf; they can
neither resist nor outrun their punishment.
(2.) He is ordered to be carried off from the wedding feast; Take
him away. When the wickedness of hypocrites appears, they are to be
taken away from the communion of the faithful, to be cut of as withered
branches. This bespeaks the punishment of loss in the other world; they
shall be taken away from the king, from the kingdom, from the wedding
feast, Depart from me, ye cursed. It will aggravate their
misery, that (like the unbelieving lord,
they shall see all this plenty with their eyes, but shall not taste
of it. Note, Those that walk unworthy of their Christianity,
forfeit all the happiness they presumptuously laid claim to, and
complimented themselves with a groundless expectation of.
(3.) He is ordered into a doleful dungeon; Cast him into utter
darkness. Our Saviour here insensibly slides out of this parable
into that which it intimates–the damnation of hypocrites in the other
world. Hell is utter darkness, it is darkness out of heaven, the land
of light; or it is extreme darkness, darkness to the last degree,
without the least ray or spark of light, or hope of it, like that of
Egypt; darkness which might be felt; the blackness of darkness, as
darkness itself,
Job x. 22.
Note, Hypocrites go by the light of the gospel itself down to utter
darkness; and hell will be hell indeed to such, a condemnation more
intolerable; there shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth. This
our Saviour often uses as part of the description of hell-torments,
which are hereby represented, not so much by the misery itself, as by
the resentment sinners will have of it; there shall be weeping,
an expression of great sorrow and anguish; not a gush of tears, which
gives present ease, but constant weeping, which is constant torment;
and the gnashing of teeth is an expression of the greatest rage
and indignation; they will be like a wild bull in a net, full of the
fury of the Lord,
Isa. li. 20; viii. 21, 22.
Let us therefore hear and fear.
Lastly, The parable is concluded with that remarkable saying
which we had before
(ch. xx. 16),
Many are called, but few are chosen,
v. 14.
Of the many that are called to the wedding feast, if you set aside all
those as unchosen that make light of it, and avowedly prefer other
things before it; if then you set aside all that make a profession of
religion, but the temper of whose spirits and the tenour of whose
conversation are a constant contradiction to it; if you set aside all
the profane, and all the hypocritical, you will find that they are few,
very few, that are chosen; many called to the wedding feast, but few
chosen to the wedding garment, that is, to salvation, by
sanctification of the Spirit. This is the strait gate, and
narrow way, which few find.
| The Question Respecting Tribute. |
|
|
15 Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might
entangle him in his talk.
16 And they sent out unto him their disciples with the
Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and
teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any
man: for thou regardest not the person of men.
17 Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give
tribute unto Caesar, or not?
18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye
me, ye hypocrites?
19 show me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a
penny.
20 And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and
superscription?
21 They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render
therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God
the things that are God’s.
22 When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left
him, and went their way.
It was not the least grievous of the sufferings of Christ, that he
endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, and had
snares laid for him by those that sought how to take him off with some
pretence. In these verses, we have him attacked by the Pharisees and
Herodians with a question about paying tribute to Cæsar. Observe,
I. What the design was, which they proposed to themselves; They took
counsel to entangle him in his talk. Hitherto, his encounters had
been mostly with the chief priests and the elders, men in authority,
who trusted more to their power than to their policy, and examined him
concerning his commission
(ch. xxi. 23);
but now he is set upon from another quarter; the Pharisees will try
whether they can deal with him by their learning in the law, and in
casuistical divinity, and they have a tentamen novum–a new
trial for him. Note, It is in vain for the best and wisest of men
to think that, by their ingenuity, or interest, or industry, or even by
their innocence and integrity, they can escape the hatred and ill will
of bad men, or screen themselves from the strife of tongues. See
how unwearied the enemies of Christ and his kingdom are in their
opposition!
1. They took counsel. It was foretold concerning him, that
the rulers would take counsel against him
(Ps. ii. 2);
and so persecuted they the prophets. Come, and let us devise devices
against Jeremiah. See
Note, The more there is of contrivance and consultation about sin, the
worse it is. There is a particular woe to them that devise
iniquity,
Mic. ii. 1.
The more there is of the wicked wit in the contrivance of a sin, the
more there is of the wicked will in the commission of it.
2. That which they aimed at was to entangle him in his talk.
They saw him free and bold in speaking his mind, and hoped by that, if
they could bring him to some nice and tender point, to get an advantage
against him. It has been the old practice of Satan’s agents and
emissaries, to make a man an offender for a word, a word misplaced, or
mistaken, or misunderstood; a word, though innocently designed, yet
perverted by strained inuendos: thus they lay a snare for him that
reproveth in the gate
and represent the greatest teachers as the greatest troublers of
Israel: thus the wicked plotteth against the just,
Ps. xxxvii. 12, 13.
There are two ways by which the enemies of Christ might be revenged on
him, and be rid of him; either by law or by force. By law they could
not do it, unless they could make him obnoxious to the civil
government; for it was not lawful for them to put any man to
death
and the Roman powers were not apt to concern themselves about
questions of words, and names, and their law,
Acts xviii. 15.
By force they could not do it, unless they could make him obnoxious to
the people, who were always the hands, whoever were the heads, in such
acts of violence, which they call the beating of the rebels; but the
people took Christ for a Prophet, and therefore his enemies could not
raise the mob against him. Now (as the old serpent was from the
beginning more subtle than any beast of the field), the design
was, to bring him into such a dilemma, that he must make himself liable
to the displeasure either of the Jewish multitude, or of the Roman
magistrates; let him take which side of the question he will, he shall
run himself into a premunire; and so they will gain their point, and
make his own tongue to fall upon him.
II. The question which they put to him pursuant to this design,
Having devised this iniquity in secret, in a close cabal, behind the
curtain, when they went abroad without loss of time they practised it.
Observe,
1. The persons they employed; they did not go themselves, lest the
design should be suspected and Christ should stand the more upon his
guard; but they sent their disciples, who would look less like
tempters, and more like learners. Note, Wicked men will never want
wicked instruments to be employed in carrying on their wicked counsels.
Pharisees have their disciples at their beck, who will go any errand
for them, and say as they say; and they have this in their eyes, when
they are so industrious to make proselytes.
With them they sent the Herodians, a party among the Jews, who were for
a cheerful and entire subjection to the Roman emperor, and to Herod his
deputy; and who made it their business to reconcile people to that
government, and pressed all to pay their tribute. Some think that they
were the collectors of the land tax, as the publicans were of the
customs, and that they went with the Pharisees to Christ, with this
blind upon their plot, that while the Herodians demanded the tax, and
the Pharisees denied it, they were both willing to refer it to Christ,
as a proper Judge to decide the quarrel. Herod being obliged, by the
charter of the sovereignty, to take care of the tribute, these
Herodians, by assisting him in that, helped to endear him to his great
friends at Rome. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were zealous for the
liberty of the Jews, and did what they could to make them impatient of
the Roman yoke. Now, if he should countenance the paying of tribute,
the Pharisees would incense the people against him; if he should
discountenance or disallow it, the Herodians would incense the
government against him. Note, It is common for those that oppose one
another, to continue in an opposition to Christ and his kingdom.
Samson’s foxes looked several ways, but met in one firebrand. See
If they are unanimous in opposing, should not we be so in maintaining,
the interests of the gospel?
2. The preface, with which they were plausibly to introduce the
question; it was highly complimentary to our Saviour
(v. 16);
Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in
truth. Note, It is a common thing for the most spiteful projects to
be covered with the most specious pretences. Had they come to Christ
with the most serious enquiry, and the most sincere intention, they
could not have expressed themselves better. Here is hatred covered
with deceit, and a wicked heart with burning lips
as Judas, who kissed, and betrayed, as Joab, who kissed, and
killed.
Now,
(1.) What they said of Christ was right, and whether they knew it or
no, blessed be God, we know it.
[1.] That Jesus Christ was a faithful Teacher; Thou art true, and
teachest the way of God in truth. For himself, he is true, the
Amen, the faithful Witness; he is the Truth itself. As for his
doctrine, the matter of his teaching was the way of God, the way that
God requires us to walk in, the way of duty, that leads to happiness;
that is the way of God. The manner of it was in truth; he showed people
the right way, the way in which they should go. He was a skilful
Teacher, and knew the way of God; and a faithful Teacher, that would be
sure to let us know it. See
This is the character of a good teacher, to preach the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth, and not to suppress, pervert, or
stretch, any truth, for favour or affection, hatred or good will,
either out of a desire to please, or a fear to offend, any man.
[2.] That he was a bold Reprover. In preaching, he cared not for
any; he valued no man’s frowns or smiles, he did not court, he did
not dread, either the great or the many, for he regarded not the
person of man. In his evangelical judgment, he did not know faces;
that Lion of the tribe of Judah, turned not away for any
turned not a step from the truth, nor from his work, for fear of the
most formidable. He reproved with equity
(Isa. xi. 4),
and never with partiality.
(2.) Though what they said was true for the matter of it, yet there was
nothing but flattery and treachery in the intention of it. They called
him Master, when they were contriving to treat him as the worst
of malefactors; they pretended respect for him, when they intended
mischief against him; and they affronted his wisdom as Man, much more
his omniscience as God, of which he had so often given undeniable
proofs, when they imagined that they could impose upon him with these
pretences, and that he could not see through them. It is the grossest
atheism, that is the greatest folly in the world, to think to put a
cheat upon Christ, who searches the heart,
Those that mock God do but deceive themselves.
3. The proposal of the case; What thinkest thou? As if they had
said, “Many men are of many minds in this matter; it is a case which
relates to practice, and occurs daily; let us have thy thought freely
in the matter, Is it lawful to give tribute to Cæsar or not?”
This implies a further question; Has Cæsar a right to demand it? The
nation of the Jews was lately, about a hundred years before this,
conquered by the Roman sword, and so, as other nations, made subject to
the Roman yoke, and became a province of the empire; accordingly, toll,
tribute, and custom, were demanded from them, and sometimes poll-money.
By this it appeared that the sceptre was departed from Judah
and therefore, if they had understood the signs of the times, they must
have concluded that Shiloh was come, and either that this was
he, or they must find out another more likely to be so.
Now the question was, Whether it was lawful to pay these taxes
voluntarily, or, Whether they should not insist upon the ancient
liberty of their nation, and rather suffer themselves to be distrained
upon? The ground of the doubt was, that they were Abraham’s
seed, and should not by consent be in bondage to any man,
John viii. 33.
God had given them a law, that they should not set a stranger over
them. Did not that imply, that they were not to yield any willing
subjection to any prince, state, or potentate, that was not of their
own nation and religion? This was an old mistake, arising from that
pride and thathaughty spirit which bring destruction
and a fall. Jeremiah, in his time, though he spoke in God’s name,
could not possibly beat them off it, nor persuade them to submit to the
king of Babylon; and their obstinacy in that matter was then their ruin
and now again they stumbled at the same stone; and it was the very
thing which, in a few years after, brought final destruction upon them
by the Romans. They quite mistook the sense both of the precept and of
the privilege, and, under colour of God’s word, contended with his
providence, when they should have kissed the rod, and accepted the
punishment of their iniquity.
However, by this question they hoped to entangle Christ, and, which way
soever he resolved it, to expose him to the fury either of the jealous
Jews, or of the jealous Romans; they were ready to triumph, as Pharaoh
did over Israel, that the wilderness had shut him in, and his
doctrine would be concluded either injurious to the rights of the
church, or hurtful to kings and provinces.
III. The breaking of this snare by the wisdom of the Lord Jesus.
1. He discovered it
(v. 18);
He perceived their wickedness; for, surely in vain is the net
spread in the sight of any bird,
Prov. i. 17.
A temptation perceived is half conquered, for our greatest danger lies
from snakes under the green grass; and he said, Why tempt ye me, ye
hypocrites? Note, Whatever vizard the hypocrite puts on, our Lord
Jesus sees through it; he perceives all the wickedness that is in the
hearts of pretenders, and can easily convict them of it, and set it in
order before them. He cannot be imposed upon, as we often are, by
flatteries and fair pretences. He that searches the heart can call
hypocrites by their own name, as Ahijah did the wife of Jeroboam
Why feignest thou thyself to be another? Why tempt ye me, ye
hypocrites? Note, Hypocrites tempt Jesus Christ; they try his
knowledge, whether he can discover them through their disguises; they
try his holiness and truth, whether he will allow of them in this
church; but if they that of old tempted Christ, when he was but
darkly revealed, were destroyed of serpents, of how much sorer
punishment shall they be thought worthy who tempt him now in the
midst of gospel light and love! Those that presume to tempt Christ will
certainly find him too hard for them, and that he is of more piercing
eyes than not to see, and more pure eyes than not to hate, the
disguised wickedness of hypocrites, that dig deep to hide their counsel
from him.
2. He evaded it; his convicting them of hypocrisy might have served for
an answer (such captious malicious questions deserve a reproof, not a
reply): but our Lord Jesus gave a full answer to their question, and
introduced it by an argument sufficient to support it, so as to lay
down a rule for his church in this matter, and yet to avoid giving
offence, and to break the snare.
(1.) He forced them, ere they were aware, to confess Cæsar’s
authority over them,
In dealing with those that are captious, it is good to give our
reasons, and, if possible, reasons of confessed cogency, before we give
our resolutions. Thus the evidence of truth may silence gainsayers by
surprise, while they only stood upon their guard against the truth
itself, not against the reason of it; Show me the tribute-money.
He had none of his own to convince them by; it should seem, he had not
so much as one piece of money about him, for for our sakes he emptied
himself, and became poor; he despised the wealth of this world, and
thereby taught us not to over-value it; silver and gold he had none;
why then should we covet to load ourselves with the thick clay? The
Romans demanded their tribute in their own money, which was current
among the Jews at that time: that therefore is called the
tribute-money; he does not name what piece but the tribute
money, to show that he did not mind things of that nature, nor
concern himself about them; his heart was upon better things, the
kingdom of God and the riches and righteousness thereof, and ours
should be so too. They presently brought him a penny, a Roman
penny in silver, in value about sevenpence half-penny of our money, the
most common piece then in use: it was stamped with the emperor’s image
and superscription, which was the warrant of the public faith for the
value of the pieces so stamped; a method agreed on by most nations, for
the more easy circulation of money with satisfaction. The coining of
money has always been looked upon as a branch of the prerogative, a
flower of the crown, a royalty belonging to the sovereign powers; and
the admitting of that as the good and lawful money of a country is an
implicit submission to those powers, and an owning of them in money
matters. How happy is our constitution, and how happy we, who live in a
nation where, though the image and superscription be the sovereign’s,
the property is the subject’s, under the protection of the laws, and
what we have we can call our own!
Christ asked them, Whose image is this? They owned it to be
Cæsar’s, and thereby convicted those of falsehood who said, We were
never in bondage to any; and confirmed what afterward they said,
We have no king but Cæsar. It is a rule in the Jewish Talmud,
that “he is the king of the country whose coin is current in the
country.” Some think that the superscription upon this coin was a
memorandum of the conquest of Judea by the Romans, anno post captam
Judæam–the year after that event; and that they admitted that
too.
(2.) From thence he inferred the lawfulness of paying tribute to Cæsar
(v. 21);
Render therefore to Cæsar the things that are
Cæsar’s; not, “Give it him” (as they expressed it,
v. 17),
but, “Render it; Return,” or “Restore it; if Cæsar fill
the purses, let Cæsar command them. It is too late now to dispute
paying tribute to Cæsar; for you are become a province of the
empire, and, when once a relation is admitted, the duty of it must be
performed. Render to all their due, and particularly tribute
to whom tribute is due.” Now by this answer,
[1.] No offence was given. It was much to the honour of Christ and his
doctrine, that he did not interpose as a Judge or a Divider in matters
of this nature, but left them as he found them, for his kingdom is
not of this world; and in this he hath given an example to his
ministers, who deal in sacred things, not to meddle with disputes about
things secular, not to wade far into controversies relating to them,
but to leave that to those whose proper business it is. Ministers that
would mind their business, and please their master, must not
entangle themselves in the affairs of this life: they forfeit
the guidance of God’s Spirit, and the convoy of his providence when
they thus to out of their way. Christ discusses not the emperor’s
title, but enjoins a peaceable subjection to the powers that be.
The government therefore had no reason to take offence at his
determination, but to thank him, for it would strengthen Cæsar’s
interest with the people, who held him for a Prophet; and yet such was
the impudence of his prosecutors, that, though he had expressly charged
them to render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s,
they laid the direct contrary in his indictment, that he forbade to
give tribute to Cæsar,
Luke xxiii. 2.
As to the people, the Pharisees could not accuse him to them, because
they themselves had, before they were aware, yielded the premises, and
then it was too late to evade the conclusion. Note, Though truth seeks
not a fraudulent concealment, yet it sometimes needs a prudent
management, to prevent the offence which may be taken at it.
[2.] His adversaries were reproved. First, Some of them would
have had him make it unlawful to give tribute to Cæsar, that they
might have a pretence to save their money. Thus many excuse themselves
from that which they must do, by arguing whether they may do it or no.
Secondly, They all withheld from God his dues, and are reproved
for that: while they were vainly contending about their civil
liberties, they had lost the life and power of religion, and needed to
be put in mind of their duty to God, with that to Cæsar.
[3.] His disciples were instructed, and standing rules left to the
church.
First, That the Christian religion is no enemy to civil
government, but a friend to it. Christ’s kingdom doth not clash or
interfere with the kingdoms of the earth, in any thing that pertains to
their jurisdiction. By Christ kings reign.
Secondly, It is the duty of subjects to render to magistrates
that which, according to the laws of their country, is their due. The
higher powers, being entrusted with the public welfare, the protection
of the subject, and the conservation of the peace, are entitled, in
consideration thereof, to a just proportion of the public wealth, and
the revenue of the nation. For this cause pay we tribute,
because they attend continually to this very thing
(Rom. xiii. 6);
and it is doubtless a greater sin to cheat the government than to cheat
a private person. Though it is the constitution that determines what is
Cæsar’s, yet, when that is determined, Christ bids us render it to
him; my coat is my coat, by the law of man; but he is a thief, by the
law of God, that takes it from me.
Thirdly, When we render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s,
we must remember withal to render to God the things that are God’s. If
our purses be Cæsar’s, our consciences are God’s; he hath said, My
son, give me thy heart: he must have the innermost and uppermost
place there; we must render to God that which is his due, out of our
time and out of our estates; from them he must have his share as well
as Cæsar his; and if Cæsar’s commands interfere with God’s we must
obey God rather than men.
Lastly, Observe how they were nonplussed by this answer; they
marvelled, and left him, and went their way,
v. 22.
They admired his sagacity in discovering and evading a snare which they
thought so craftily laid. Christ is, and will be, the Wonder, not only
of his beloved friends, but of his baffled enemies. One would think
they should have marvelled and followed him, marvelled and submitted to
him; no, they marvelled and left him. Note, There are many in whose
eyes Christ is marvellous, and yet not precious. They admire his
wisdom, but will not be guided by it, his power, but will not submit to
it. They went their way, as persons ashamed, and made an
inglorious retreat. The stratagem being defeated, they quitted the
field. Note, There is nothing got by contending with Christ.
| The Question Respecting Marriage. |
|
|
23 The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there
is no resurrection, and asked him,
24 Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no
children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed
unto his brother.
25 Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when
he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his
wife unto his brother:
26 Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh.
27 And last of all the woman died also.
28 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the
seven? for they all had her.
29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing
the scriptures, nor the power of God.
30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in
marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.
31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not
read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,
32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
33 And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at
his doctrine.
We have here Christ’s dispute with the Sadducees concerning the
resurrection; it was the same day on which he was attacked by the
Pharisees about paying tribute. Satan was now more busy than ever to
ruffle and disturb him; it was an hour of temptation,
Rev. iii. 10.
The truth as it is in Jesus will still meet with contradiction, in some
branch or other of it. Observe here,
I. The opposition which the Sadducees made to a very great truth of
religion; they say, There is no resurrection, as there are some
fools who say, There is no God. These heretics were called
Sadducees from one Sadoc, a disciple of Antigonus Sochæus, who
flourished about two hundred and eighty-four years before our Saviour’s
birth. They lie under heavy censures among the writers of their own
nation, as men of base and debauched conversations, which their
principles led them to. They were the fewest in number of all the
sects among the Jews, but generally persons of some rank. As the
Pharisees and Essenes seemed to follow Plato and Pythagoras, so the
Sadducees were much of the genius of the Epicureans; they denied the
resurrection, they said, There is no future state, no life after this;
that, when the body dies, the soul is annihilated, and dies with it;
that there is no state of rewards or punishments in the other world; no
judgment to come in heaven or hell. They maintained, that, except God,
there is not spirit
nothing but matter and motion. They would not own the divine
inspiration of the prophets, nor any revelation from heaven, but what
God himself spoke upon mount Sinai. Now the doctrine of Christ carried
that great truth of the resurrection and a future state much further
than it had yet been revealed, and therefore the Sadducees in a
particular manner set themselves against it. The Pharisees and
Sadducees were contrary to each other, and yet confederates against
Christ. Christ’s gospel hath always suffered between superstitious
ceremonious hypocrites and bigots on the one hand, and profane deists
and infidels on the other. The former abusing, the latter despising,
the form of godliness, but both denying the power of
it.
II. The objection they made against the truth, which was taken from a
supposed case of a woman that had seven husbands successively; now they
take it for granted, that, if there be a resurrection, it must be a
return to such a state as this we are now in, and to the same
circumstances, like the imaginary Platonic year; and if so, it is an
invincible absurdity for this woman in the future state to have seven
husbands, or else an insuperable difficulty which of them should have
her, he whom she had first, or he whom she had last, or he whom she
loved best, or he whom she lived longest with.
1. They suggest the law of Moses in this matter
(v. 24),
that the next of kin should marry the widow of him that died childless
(Deut. xxv. 5);
we have it practised
It was a political law, founded in the particular constitution of the
Jewish commonwealth, to preserve the distinction of families and
inheritances, of both which there was special care taken in that
government.
2. They put a case upon this statute, which, whether it were a case
in fact or only a moot case, is not at all material; if it
had not really occurred, yet possibly it might. It was of seven
brothers, who married the same woman,
Now this case supposes,
(1.) The desolations that death sometimes makes in families when it
comes with commission; how it often sweeps away a whole fraternity in a
little time;: seldom (as the case is put) according to seniority (the
land of darkness is without any order,) but heaps upon heaps; it
diminishes families that had multiplied greatly,
When there were seven brothers grown up to man’s estate, there was a
family very likely to be built up; and yet this numerous family leaves
neither son nor nephew, nor any remaining in their dwellings,
Job xviii. 19.
Well may we say then, Except the Lord build the house, they labour
in vain that build it. Let none be sure of the advancement and
perpetuity of their names and families, unless they could make a
covenant of peace with death, or be at an agreement with
the grave.
(2.) The obedience of these seven brothers to the law, though they had
a power of refusal under the penalty of a reproach,
Note, Discouraging providences should not keep us from doing our duty
because we must be governed by the rule, not by the event. The seventh,
who ventured last to marry the widow (many a one would say) was
abold man. I would say, if he did it purely in obedience to God,
he was a good man, and one that made conscience of his duty.
But, last of all, the woman died also. Note, Survivorship is but
a reprieve; they that live long, and bury their relations and
neighbours one after another, do not thereby acquire an immortality;
no, their day will come to fall. Death’s bitter cup goes round, and,
sooner or later, we must all pledge in it,
3. They propose a doubt upon this case
(v. 28);
“In the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven? You
cannot tell whose; and therefore we must conclude there is no
resurrection.” The Pharisees, who professed to believe a
resurrection, had very gross and carnal notions concerning it, and
concerning the future state; expecting to find there, as the Turks in
their paradise, the delights and pleasures of the animal life, which
perhaps drove the Sadducees to deny the thing itself; for nothing gives
greater advantage to atheism and infidelity than the carnality of those
that make religion, either in its professions or in its prospects, a
servant to their sensual appetites and secular interests; while those
that are erroneous deny the truth, those that are superstitious betray
it to them. Now they, in this objection, went upon the Pharisees’
hypothesis. Note, It is not strange that carnal minds have very false
notions of spiritual and eternal things. The natural man receiveth not
these things, for they are foolishness to him.
1 Cor. ii. 14.
Let truth be set in a clear light, and then it appears in its full
strength.
III. Christ’s answer to this objection; by reproving their ignorance,
and rectifying their mistake, he shows the objection to be fallacious
and unconcluding.
1. He reproves their ignorance
(v. 29);
Ye do err. Note, Those do greatly err, in the judgment of
Christ, who deny the resurrection and a future state. Here Christ
reproves with the meekness of wisdom, and is not so sharp upon them
(whatever was the reason) as sometimes he was upon the chief priests
and elders; Ye do err, not knowing. Note, Ignorance is the cause
of error; those that are in the dark, miss their way. The patrons of
error do therefore resist the light, and do what they can to
take away the key of knowledge; Ye do err in this matter, not
knowing. Note, Ignorance is the cause of error about the
resurrection and the future state. What it is in its particular
instances, the wisest and best know not; it doth not yet appear what we
shall be, it is a glory that is to be revealed: when we speak of the
state of separate souls, the resurrection of the body, and of eternal
happiness and misery, we are soon at a loss; we cannot order our
speech, by reason of darkness, but that it is a thing about
which we are not left in the dark; blessed be God, we are not; and
those who deny it are guilty of a willing and affected ignorance. It
seems, there were some Sadducees, some such monsters, among professing
Christians, some among you, that say, There is no resurrection of
the dead
and some that did in effect deny it, by turning it into an allegory,
saying, The resurrection is past already. Now observe,
(1.) They know not the power of God; which would lead men to
infer that there may be a resurrection and a future state. Note,
The ignorance, disbelief, or weak belief, of God’s power, is at the
bottom of many errors, particularly theirs who deny the resurrection.
When we are told of the soul’s existence and agency in a state of
separation from the body, and especially that a dead body, which had
lain many ages in the grave, and is turned into common and
indistinguished dust, that this shall be raised the same body that it
was, and live, move, and act, again; we are ready to say, How can
these things be? Nature allows it for a maxim, A privatione ad
habitum non datur regressus–The habits attaching to a state of
existence vanish irrecoverably with the state itself. If a man die,
shall he live again? And vain men, because they cannot comprehend the
way of it, question the truth of it; whereas, if we
firmly believe in God the Father Almighty, that nothing is impossible
with God, all these difficulties vanish. This therefore we must fasten
upon, in the first place, that God is omnipotent, and can do what he
will; and then no room is left for doubting but that he will do what he
has promised; and, if so, why should it be thought a thing
incredible with you that God should raise the dead?
Acts xxvi. 8.
His power far exceeds the power of nature.
(2.) They know not the scriptures, which decidedly affirm that
there shall be a resurrection and a future state. The power of God,
determined and engaged by his promise, is the foundation for faith to
build upon. Now the scriptures speak plainly, that the soul is
immortal, and there is another life after this; it is the scope both of
the law and of the prophets, that there shall be a resurrection of
the dead, both of the just and of the unjust,
Acts xxiv. 14, 15.
Job knew it
(Job xix. 26),
Ezekiel foresaw it
and Daniel plainly foretold it,
Christ rose again according to the scriptures
(1 Cor. xv. 3);
and so shall we. Those therefore who deny it, either have not conversed
with the Scriptures, or do not believe them, or do not take the true
sense and meaning of them. Note, Ignorance of the scripture is the rise
of abundance of mischief.
2. He rectifies their mistake, and
(v. 30)
corrects those gross ideas which they had of the resurrection and a
future state, and fixes these doctrines upon a true and lasting basis.
Concerning that state, observe,
(1.) It is not like the state we are now in upon earth; They neither
marry, nor are given in marriage. In our present state marriage is
necessary; it was instituted in innocency; whatever intermission or
neglect there has been of other institutions, this was never laid
aside, nor will be till the end of time. In the old world, they were
marrying, and giving in marriage; the Jews in Babylon, when cut
off from other ordinances, yet were bid to take them wives,
Jer. xxix. 6.
All civilized nations have had a sense of the obligation of the
marriage covenant; and it is requisite for the gratifying of the
desires, and recruiting the deficiencies, of the human nature. But, in
the resurrection, there is no occasion for marriage; whether in
glorified bodies there will be any distinction of sexes some too
curiously dispute (the ancients are divided in their opinions about
it); but, whether there will be a distinction or not, it is certain
that there will be no conjunction; where God will be all in all,
there needs no other meet-help; the body will be
spiritual, and there will be in it no carnal desires to be
gratified: when the mystical body is completed, there will be no
further occasion to seek a godly seed, which was one end of the
institution of marriage,
In heaven there will be no decay of the individuals, and therefore no
eating and drinking; no decay of the species, and therefore no
marrying; where there shall be no more deaths
(Rev. xxi. 4),
there need be no more births. The married state is a composition of
joys and cares; those that enter upon it are taught to look upon it as
subject to changes, richer and poorer, sickness and health; and
therefore it is fit for this mixed, changing world; but as in hell,
where there is no joy, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the
bride shall be heard no more at all, so in heaven, where there is all
joy, and no care or pain or trouble, there will be no marrying. The
joys of that state are pure and spiritual, and arise from the marriage
of all of them to the Lamb, not of any of them to one another.
(2.) It is like the state angels are now in in heaven; They are as
the angels of God in heaven; they are so, that is,
undoubtedly they shall be so. They are so already in Christ their Head,
who has made them sit with him in heavenly places,
Eph. ii. 6.
The spirits of just men already made perfect are of the same
corporation with the innumerable company of angels,
Man in his creation was made a little lower than the angels
(Ps. viii. 5);
but in his complete redemption and renovation will be as the angels;
pure and spiritual as the angels, knowing and loving as those blessed
seraphim, ever praising God like them and with them. The bodies of the
saints shall be raised incorruptible and glorious, like the
uncompounded vehicles of those pure and holy spirits
&c.), swift and strong, like them. We should therefore desire
and endeavour to do the will of God now as the angels do it in heaven,
because we hope shortly to be like the angels who always behold our
Father’s face. He saith nothing of the state of the wicked in the
resurrection; but, by consequence, they shall be like the devils, whose
lusts they have done.
IV. Christ’s argument to confirm this great truth of the resurrection
and a future state; the matters being of great concern, he did not
think it enough (as in some other disputes) to discover the fallacy and
sophistry of the objection, but backed the truth with a solid argument;
for Christ brings forth judgment to truth as well as victory,
and enables his followers to give a reason of the hope that is in them.
Now observe,
1. Whence he fetched his argument–from the scripture; that is the great
magazine or armoury whence we may be furnished with spiritual weapons,
offensive and defensive. It is written is Goliath’s sword.
Have ye not read that which was spoken to you by God? Note,
(1.) What the scripture speaks God speaks.
(2.) What was spoken to Moses was spoken to us; it was spoken and
written for our learning.
(3.) It concerns us to read and hear what God hath spoken, because it
is spoken to us. It was spoken to you Jews in the first place, for to
them were committed the oracles of God. The argument is fetched from
the books of Moses, because the Sadducees received them only, as
some think, or, at least, them chiefly, for canonical scriptures;
Christ therefore fetched his proof from the most indisputable fountain.
The latter prophets have more express proofs of a future state than the
law of Moses has; for though the law of Moses supposes the immortality
of the soul and a future state, as principles of what is called natural
religion, yet no express revelation of it is made by the law of Moses;
because so much of that law was peculiar to that people, and was
therefore guarded as municipal laws used to be with temporal promises
and threatenings, and the more express revelation of a future state was
reserved for the latter days; but our Saviour finds a very solid
argument for the resurrection even in the writings of Moses. Much
scripture lies under ground, that must be digged for.
2. What his argument was
(v. 32);
I am the God of Abraham. This was not an express proof,
totidem verbis–in so many words; and yet it was really a
conclusive argument. Consequences from scripture, if rightly deduced,
must be received as scripture; for it was written for those that have
the use of reason.
Now the drift of the argument is to prove,
(1.) That there is a future state, another life after this, in which
the righteous shall be truly and constantly happy. This is proved from
what God said; I am the God of Abraham.
[1.] For God to be any one’s God supposes some very extraordinary
privilege and happiness; unless we know fully what God is, we could not
comprehend the riches of that word, I will be to thee a God,
that is, a Benefactor like myself. The God of Israel is a God
to Israel
a spiritual Benefactor; for he is the Father of spirits, and blesseth
with spiritual blessings: it is to be an all-sufficient Benefactor, a
God that is enough, a complete Good, and an eternal Benefactor; for he
is himself an everlasting God, and will be to those that are in
covenant with him an everlasting Good. This great word God had often
said to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and it was intended as a recompence
for their singular faith and obedience, in quitting the country at
God’s call. The Jews had a profound veneration for those three
patriarchs, and would extend the promise God made them to the
uttermost.
[2.] It is manifest that these good men had no such extraordinary
happiness, in this life, as might look any thing like the
accomplishment of so great a word as that. They were strangers in the
land of promise, wandering, pinched with famine; they had not a foot of
ground of their own but a burying-place, which directed them to look
for something beyond this life. In present enjoyments they came far
short of their neighbours that were strangers to this covenant. What
was there in this world to distinguish them and the heirs of their
faith from other people, any whit proportionable to the dignity and
distinction of this covenant? If no happiness had been reserved for
these great and good men on the other side of death, that melancholy
word of poor Jacob’s, when he was old
Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, would
have been an eternal reproach to the wisdom, goodness, and
faithfulness, of that God who had so often called himself the God of
Jacob.
[3.] Therefore there must certainly be a future state, in which, as God
will ever live to be eternally rewarding, so Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
will ever live to be eternally rewarded. That of the apostle
(Heb. xi. 16),
is a key to this argument, where, when he had been speaking of the
faith and obedience of the patriarchs in the land of their pilgrimage,
he adds, Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God;
because he has provided for them a city, a heavenly city;
implying, that if he had not provided so well for them in the other
world, considering how they sped in this, he would have been ashamed to
have called himself their God; but now he is not, having done
that for them which answers it in its true intent and full extent.
(2.) That the soul is immortal, and the body shall rise again, to be
united; if the former point be gained, these will follow; but they are
likewise proved by considering the time when God spoke this; it was to
Moses at the bush, long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were dead and
buried; and yet God saith, not, “I was,” or “have been,”
but I am the God of Abraham. Now God is not God of the dead,
but of the living. He is a living God, and communicates vital
influences to those to whom he is a God. If, when Abraham died, there
had been an end of him, there had been an end likewise of God’s
relation to him as his God; but at that time, when God spoke to Moses,
he was the God of Abraham, and therefore Abraham must be then alive;
which proves the immortality of the soul in a state of bliss; and that,
by consequence, infers the resurrection of the body; for there is such
an inclination in the human soul to its body, as would make a final and
eternal separation inconsistent with the bliss of those that have God
for their God. The Sadducees’ notion was, that the union between
body and soul is so close, that, when the body dies, the soul dies with
it. Now, upon the same hypothesis, if the soul lives, as it certainly
does, the body must some time or other live with it. And besides, the
Lord is for the body, it is an essential part of the man; there is a
covenant with the dust, which will be remembered, otherwise the
man would not be happy. The charge which the dying patriarchs gave
concerning their bones, and that in faith, was an evidence that
they had some expectation of the resurrection of their bodies. But this
doctrine was reserved for a more full revelation after the resurrection
of Christ, who was the first-fruits of them that slept.
Lastly, We have the issue of this dispute. The Sadducees were
put to silence
(v. 34),
and so put to shame. They thought by their subtlety to put Christ to
shame, when they were preparing shame for themselves. But the multitude
were astonished at this doctrine,
v. 33.
1. Because it was new to them. See to what a sad pass the exposition of
scripture was come among them, when people were astonished at it as a
miracle to hear the fundamental promise applied to this great truth;
they had sorry scribes, or this had been no news to them.
2. Because it had something in it very good and great. Truth often
shows the brighter, and is the more admired, for its being opposed.
Observe, Many gainsayers are silenced, and many hearers astonished,
without being savingly converted; yet even in the silence and
astonishment of unsanctified souls God magnifies his law, magnifies his
gospel, and makes both honourable.
| The Substance of the Commandments. |
|
|
34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the
Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.
35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a
question, tempting him, and saying,
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Here is a discourse which Christ had with a Pharisee-lawyer, about the
great commandment of the law. Observe,
I. The combination of the Pharisees against Christ,
They heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, had stopped
their mouths, though their understandings were not opened; and they
were gathered together, not to return him the thanks of their
party, as they ought to have done, for his effectually asserting and
confirming of the truth against the Sadducees, the common enemies of
their religion, but to tempt him, in hopes to get the reputation
of puzzling him who had puzzled the Sadducees. They were more vexed
that Christ was honoured, than pleased that the Sadducees were
silenced; being more concerned for their own tyranny and traditions,
which Christ opposed, than for the doctrine of the resurrection and a
future state, which the Sadducees opposed. Note, It is an instance of
Pharisaical envy and malice, to be displeased at the maintaining of a
confessed truth, when it is done by those we do not like; to sacrifice
a public good to private piques and prejudices. Blessed Paul was
otherwise minded,
II. The lawyer’s question, which he put to Christ. The lawyers were
students in, and teachers of, the law of Moses, as the scribes were;
but some think that in this they differed, that they dealt more
in practical questions than the scribes; they studied and professed
casuistical divinity. This lawyer asked him a question, tempting
him; not with any design to ensnare him, as appears by St. Mark’s
relation of the story, where we find that this was he to whom Christ
said, Thou are not far from the kingdom of God,
Mark xii. 34,
but only to see what he would say, and to draw on discourse with him,
to satisfy his own and his friends’ curiosity.
1. The question was, Master, which is the greatest commandment of
the law? A needless question, when all the things of God’s law are
great things
and the wisdom from above is without partiality, partiality in the law
(Mal. ii. 9),
and hath respect to them all. Yet it is true, there are some commands
that are the principles of the oracles of God, more extensive and
inclusive than others. Our Saviour speaks of the weightier matters
of the law,
ch. xxiii. 23.
2. The design was to try him, or tempt him; to try, not so much his
knowledge as his judgment. It was a question disputed among the critics
in the law. Some would have the law of circumcision to be the great
commandment, others the law of the sabbath, others the law of
sacrifices, according as they severally stood affected, and spent their
zeal; now they would try what Christ said to this question, hoping to
incense the people against him, if he should not answer according to
the vulgar opinion; and if he should magnify one commandment, they
would reflect on him as vilifying the rest. The question was harmless
enough; and it appears by comparing
that it was an adjudged point among the lawyers, that the love of
God and our neighbour is the great commandment, and the sum
of all the rest, and Christ had there approved it; so the putting of it
to him here seems rather a scornful design to catechise him as a child,
than spiteful design to dispute with him as an adversary.
III. Christ’s answer to this question; it is well for us that such a
question was asked him, that we might have his answer. It is no
disparagement to great men to answer plain questions. Now Christ
recommends to us those as the great commandments, not which are so
exclusive of others, but which are therefore great because
inclusive of others. Observe,
1. Which these great commandments are
(v. 37-39);
not the judicial laws, those could not be the greatest now that the
people of the Jews, to whom they pertained, were so little; not the
ceremonial laws, those could not be the greatest, now that they were
waxen old, and were ready to vanish away; nor any particular moral
precept; but the love of God and our neighbour, which are the spring
and foundation of all the rest, which (these being supposed) will
follow of course.
(1.) All the law is fulfilled in one word, and that is, love.
See
All obedience begins in the affections, and nothing in religion is done
right, that is not done there first. Love is the leading affection,
which gives law, and gives ground, to the rest; and therefore that, as
the main fort, is to be first secured and garrisoned for God. Man is a
creature cut out for love; thus therefore is the law written in the
heart, that it is a law of love. Love is a short and sweet word;
and, if that be the fulfilling of the law, surely the yoke of
the command is very easy. Love is the rest and satisfaction of the
soul; if we walk in this good old way, we shall find rest.
(2.) The love of God is the first and great commandment of all,
and the summary of all the commands of the first table. The proper act
of love being complacency, good is the proper object of it. Now God,
being good infinitely, originally, and eternally, is to be loved in the
first place, and nothing loved beside him, but what is loved for him.
Love is the first and great thing that God demands from us, and
therefore the first and great thing that we should devote to him.
Now here we are directed,
[1.] To love God as ours; Thou shalt love the Lord they God as
thine. The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other God;
which implies that we must have him for our God, and that will engage
our love to him. Those that made the sun and moon their gods, loved
them,
Jer. viii. 2; Judges xviii. 24.
To love God as ours is to love him because he is ours, our Creator,
Owner, and Ruler, and to conduct ourselves to him as ours, with
obedience to him, and dependence on him. We must love God as
reconciled to us, and made ours by covenant; that is the foundation of
this, Thy God.
[2.] To love him with all our heart, and soul, and mind. Some
make these to signify one and the same thing, to love him with all our
powers; others distinguish them; the heart, soul, and mind, are the
will, affections, and understanding; or the vital, sensitive, and
intellectual faculties. Our love of God must be a sincere love, and not
in word and tongue only, as theirs is who say they love him, but their
hearts are not with him. It must be a strong love, we must love him in
the most intense degree; as we must praise him, so we must
love him, with all that is within us,
Ps. ciii. 1.
It must be a singular and superlative love, we must love him more than
any thing else; this way the stream of our affections must entirely
run. The heart must be united to love God, in opposition to a divided
heart. All our love is too little to bestow upon him, and therefore
all the powers of the soul must be engaged for him, and carried out
toward him. This is the first and great commandment; for
obedience to this is the spring of obedience to all the rest; which is
then only acceptable, when it flows from love.
(3.) To love our neighbour as ourselves is the second
great commandment
(v. 39);
It is like unto that first; it is inclusive of all the precepts
of the second table, as that is of the first. It is like it, for
it is founded upon it, and flows from it; and a right love to our
brother, whom we have seen, is both an instance and an evidence of our
love to God, whom we have not seen,
1 John iv. 20.
[1.] It is implied, that we do, and should, love ourselves. There is a
self-love which is corrupt, and the root of the greatest sins, and it
must be put off and mortified: but there is a self-love which is
natural, and the rule of the greatest duty, and it must be preserved
and sanctified. We must love ourselves, that is, we must have a due
regard to the dignity of our own natures, and a due concern for the
welfare of our own souls and bodies.
[2.] It is prescribed, that we love our neighbour as ourselves.
We must honour and esteem all men, and must wrong and injure none; must
have a good will to all, and good wishes for all, and, as we have
opportunity, must do good to all. We must love our neighbour as
ourselves, as truly and sincerely as we love ourselves, and in the same
instances; nay, in many cases we must deny ourselves for the good of
our neighbour, and must make ourselves servants to the true welfare of
others, and be willing to spend and be spent for them, to lay
down our lives for the brethren.
2. Observe what the weight and greatness of these commandments is
(v. 40);
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets;
that is, This is the sum and substance of all those precepts relating
to practical religion which were written in men’s hearts by nature,
revived by Moses, and backed and enforced by the preaching and writing
of the prophets. All hang upon the law of love; take away this, and all
falls to the ground, and comes to nothing. Rituals and ceremonials
must give way to these, as must all spiritual gifts, for love is the
more excellent way. This is the spirit of the law, which animates it,
the cement of the law, which joins it; it is the root and spring of all
other duties, the compendium of the whole Bible, not only of the law
and the prophets, but of the gospel too, only supposing this love to be
the fruit of faith, and that we love God in Christ, and our neighbour
for his sake. All hangs on these two commandments, as the effect doth
both on its efficient and on its final cause; for the fulfilling of
the law is love
and the end of the law is love,
1 Tim. i. 5.
The law of love is the nail, is the nail in the sure place, fastened
by the masters of assemblies
on which is hung all the glory of the law and the prophets
a nail that shall never be drawn; for on this nail all the glory of the
new Jerusalem shall eternally hang. Love never faileth. Into
these two great commandments therefore let our hearts be delivered as
into a mould; in the defence and evidence of these let us spend our
zeal, and not in notions, names, and strifes of words, as if those were
the mighty things on which the law and the prophets hung, and to them
the love of God and our neighbour must be sacrificed; but to the
commanding power of these let every thing else be made to bow.
| The Pharisees Silenced. |
|
|
41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked
them,
42 Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say
unto him, The Son of David.
43 He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him
Lord, saying,
44 The LORD
said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till
I make thine enemies thy footstool?
45 If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?
46 And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any
man from that day forth ask him any more questions.
Many questions the Pharisees had asked Christ, by which, though they
thought to pose him, they did but expose themselves; but now let
him ask them a question; and he will do it when they are gathered
together,
He did not take some one of them apart from the rest (ne Hercules
contra duos–Hercules himself may be overmatched), but, to shame
them the more, he took them all together, when they were in confederacy
and consulting against him, and yet puzzled them. Note, God delights to
baffle his enemies when they most strengthen themselves; he gives them
all the advantages they can wish for, and yet conquers them.
Associate yourselves, and you shall be broken in pieces,
Isa. iii. 9, 10.
Now here,
I. Christ proposes a question to them, which they could easily answer;
it was a question in their own catechism; “What think ye of Christ?
Whose Son is He? Whose Son do you expect the Messiah to be, who was
promised to the fathers?” This they could easily answer, The Son of
David. It was the common periphrasis of the Messiah; they called
him the Son of David. So the scribes, who expounded the
scripture, had taught them, from
I will not lie unto David; his seed shall endure for ever
(Isa. ix. 7),
upon the throne of David. And
A rod out of the stem of Jesse. The covenant of royalty made
with David was a figure of the covenant of redemption made with Christ,
who as David, was made King with an oath, and was first humbled
and then advanced. If Christ was the Son of David, he was really and
truly Man. Israel said, We have ten parts in David; and Judah
said, He is our bone and our flesh; what part have we then in
the Son of David, who took our nature upon him?
What think ye of Christ? They had put questions to him, one
after another, out of the law; but he comes and puts a question to them
upon the promise. Many are so full of the law, that they forget Christ,
as if their duties would save them without his merit and grace. It
concerns each of us seriously to ask ourselves, What think we of
Christ? Some think not of him at all, he is not in all, not in any, of
their thoughts; some think meanly, and some think hardly, of him; but
to them that believe he is precious; and how precious then
are the thoughts of him! While the daughters of Jerusalem
think no more of Christ than of another beloved; the spouse
thinks of him as the Chief of ten thousands.
II. He starts a difficulty upon their answer, which they could not
easily solve,
Many can so readily affirm the truth, that they think they have
knowledge enough to be proud of, who, when they are called to confirm
the truth, and to vindicate and defend it, show they have ignorance
enough to be ashamed of. The objection Christ raised was, If Christ
be David’s son, how then doth David, in spirit, call him Lord? He
did not hereby design to ensnare them, as they did him, but to instruct
them in a truth they were loth to believe–that the expected Messiah is
God.
1. It is easy to see that David calls Christ Lord, and this in
spirit being divinely inspired, and actuated therein by a spirit of
prophecy; for it was the Spirit of the Lord that spoke by him,
2 Sam. xxiii. 1, 2.
David was one of those holy men that spoke as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost, especially in calling Christ Lord; for it
was then, as it is still
that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy
Ghost. Now, to prove that David, in spirit, called Christ
Lord, he quotes
which psalm the scribes themselves understood of Christ; of him, it is
certain, the prophet there speaks, of him and of no other man; and it
is a prophetical summary of the doctrine of Christ, it describes him
executing the offices of a Prophet, Priest, and King, both in his
humiliation and also in his exaltation.
Christ quotes the whole verse, which shows the Redeemer in his
exaltation;
(1.) Sitting at the right hand of God. His sitting denotes both
rest and rule; his sitting at God’s right hand denotes superlative
honour and sovereign power. See in what great words this is expressed
(Heb. viii. 1);
He is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty. See
He did not take this honour to himself, but was entitled to it by
covenant with his Father, and invested in it by commission from him,
and here is that commission.
(2.) Subduing his enemies. There he shall sit, till they be all made
either his friends or his footstool. The carnal mind, wherever
it is, is enmity to Christ; and that is subdued in the
conversion of the willing people that are called to his foot (as
the expression is,
and in the confusion of his impenitent adversaries, who shall be
brought under his foot, as the kings of Canaan were under the feet of
Joshua.
But that which this verse is quoted for is, that David calls the
Messiah his Lord; the Lord, Jehovah, said unto my Lord.
This intimates to us, that in expounding scripture we must take notice
of, and improve, not only that which is the main scope and sense of a
verse, but of the words and phrases, by which they Spirit chooses to
express that sense, which have often a very useful and instructive
significance. Here is a good note from that word, My Lord.
2. It is not so easy for those who believe not the Godhead of the
Messiah, to clear this from an absurdity, if Christ b David’s son. It
is incongruous for the father to speak of his son, the predecessor of
his successor, as his Lord. If David call him Lord, that
is laid down
(v. 45)
as the magis notum–the more evident truth; for whatever is said
of Christ’s humanity and humiliation must be construed and understood
in consistency with the truth of his divine nature and dominion. We
must hold this fast, that he is David’s Lord, and by that explain his
being David’s son. The seeming differences of scripture, as here, may
not only be accommodated, but contribute to the beauty and harmony of
the whole. Amicæ scripturarum lites, utinam et
nostræ–The differences observable in the scriptures are of a
friendly kind; would to God that our differences were of the same
kind!
III. We have here the success of this gentle trial which Christ made of
the Pharisees’ knowledge, in two things.
1. It puzzled them
(v. 46);
No man was able to answer him a word. Either it was their
ignorance that they did not know, or their impiety that they would not
own, the Messiah to be God; which truth was the only key to unlock this
difficulty. What those Rabbies could not then answer, blessed be God,
the plainest Christian that is led into the understanding of the gospel
of Christ, can now account for; that Christ, as God, was David’s
Lord; and Christ, as Man, was David’s son. This he did
not now himself explain, but reserved it till the proof of it was
completed by his resurrection; but we have it fully explained by him in
his glory
I am the root and the offspring of David. Christ, as God, was
David’s Root; Christ, as Man, was David’s Offspring. If
we hold not fast this truth, that Jesus Christ is over all God blessed
for ever, we run ourselves into inextricable difficulties. And well
might David, his remote ancestor, call him Lord, when Mary, his
immediate mother, after she had conceived him, called him, Lord and
God, her Saviour,
Luke i. 46, 47.
2. It silenced them, and all others that sought occasion against him;
Neither durst any man, from that day forth, ask him any more
such captious, tempting, ensnaring questions. Note, God will
glorify himself in the silencing of many whom he will not glorify
himself in the salvation of. Many are convinced, that are not
converted, by the word. Had these been converted, they would have asked
him more questions, especially that great question, What must we do
to be saved? But since they could not gain their point, they would
have no more to do with him. But, thus all that strive with their
Master shall be convinced, as these Pharisees and lawyers here were, of
the inequality of the match.
|
[Previous] [Next] |
Matthew Henry |
|
Back to Bibles Net . Com – Online Christian Library Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary – Free Download |
Copyright 2008. Bibles Net. Com. All Rights Reserved.