V. PERFORMANCE OF MIRACLES. 15. Matt. viii. 3: Jesus put forth [his] hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 16. Mark iv. 39: And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, &c. 17. John xi. 43: He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. REMARKS. [Jesus] spoke with the authority and the majesty of one who was conscious of having in himself the necessary power.— Wardlaw. In our Lord's miracles there was an ease and readiness which showed that he exerted inherent powers, and a command over nature which indicates its Lord.-Hill. The manner in which Christ wrought his miracles, in general without the least appearance of relying on any power but his own, was very different from that of prophets or apostles; for while they take great care to have it understood, that they were merely the instruments of him in whose name they spake, lest the honour should be ascribed to them, he authoritatively issued his mandates in his own name, acted entirely by his own power, and manifested forth his own glory.-Scott. If we judge from the language of Scripture, and attend only to small portions of the lives of other men, we might infer that they had the same power which has been ascribed to Christ, especially with respect to Peter, Acts v. 15. This account fully equals any thing we read of our Saviour himself; and yet it is not supposed, that these cures were performed by any power belonging to Peter, or that it depended on his mere will, like that of walking: neither, therefore, ought we to infer the same with respect to those of Jesus. So with respect to Paul, Acts xix. 12.-Priestley. On this subject there seems to have been a striking difference between Jesus and his apostles. He had a power of working miracles at his own pleasure; but they, being limited to such occasions as were deemed by the Son conducive to divine glory, were sometimes unable to work miracles when they must have desired it; as Paul, when he left Trophimus sick at Miletus.-Kenrick. For continuation of remarks, see page 198. ILLUSTRATIVE TEXTS. o John v. 36: The works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. Chap. x. 25: The works that I do in my Father's nume, they bear witness of me. p John xiv. 10: The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself; but the Father, that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. q See Matt. xii. 28. Luke xi. 20. r See Mark x. 17, 18. John xiii. 4—17. Luke ii. 49. John ix. 4. et al. s See pages 39, 40. t John xi. 42: Jesus lifted up [his] eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that THOU HEAREST ME ALWAYS; but because of the people who stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. u See Exod. xiv. 21; xvii. 6. v See 2 Kings iv. 32-35. w John xiv. 12: He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these he shall do. -See Acts iii. 1-8; v. 15; ix. 36-41; xix. 11, 12; xx. 9—12; xxviii. 3—6. et al. x 2 Kings v. 10: And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. Ver. 27: The leprosy of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper [as white] as snow. y Mark iv. 41: What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him!-See John vii. 46. z John vi. 14: Then those men, when they had seen the miracles that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world. a Luke xxiv. 19: Jesus of Nazareth,.. a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.-See chap. vii. 16. b John iii. 2: Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. c Matt. ix. 8: When the multitude saw [it], they marvelled, and glorified God, who had given such power unto men. d See Luke ix. 54. e John xi. 24, 27. OBSERVATIONS. 15-17. The peculiar manner in which Jesus Christ performed miracles is alleged to be a proof of inherent and underived power. But did our Lord actually claim this prerogative? Did he calm the tempest, heal the sick, and raise the dead, in order to evince the energies of his own omnipotence? No: he appealed to these and other astonishing works, merely as indications of his divine mission—of his having been indeed sent by the Father. He expressly affirmed, that it was the Father who dwelt in him that did the works; he ascribed to the Almighty the power which was manifested in the casting out of demons; and it appears highly reasonable to infer, from his unaffected humility, and his entire devotedness to the will of God" from the often-repeated prayers and ascriptions of praise which he presented to the Father, and particularly from his simple expression of pious gratitude uttered at the tomb of the beloved Lazarus,' that he did not perform a single miracle without at the same time devoutly acknowledging, though sometimes mentally, the infinite superiority of his God and Father. Christ's miracles were not, in their own nature, more difficult to perform than those of the prophets and apostles. Moses divided the Red Sea, and produced water from a barren rock;" Elisha restored a dead child to life;" and Peter and Paul, and other disciples of Christ, wrought miracles not inferior to those of their Master." The power, too, by which the prophets performed their miraculous works was unquestionably the gift of God; and yet we find that, like the Saviour, they did not, in the performance of every miracle, audibly use the name of Jehovah.* It is certain that the attendants on Christ's ministry did not conceive the power which he manifested to have been underived. They considered him merely as an extraordinary man"-as a propheta mighty prophet," who could not have performed the wonderful things which they witnessed, unless God had been with him. In the fulness of their grateful hearts, some of them thanked Heaven for having bestowed such beneficent powers on a human being. Even his more immediate followers could not have supposed, from the tone of authority with which their Master acted, that he was omnipotent; for they themselves, who were surely unconscious of possessing an essentially divine nature, were not unwilling, on one occasion, to command the fire of heaven to descend on the heads of the Samaritans. One of his female friends, a sister of Lazarus, who seems to have had better ideas respecting his Messiahship than was enjoyed by any of his disciples, expressed her conviction, that if he had been present her brother would not have died—obviously not on the grounds of his being the Supreme and Omnipresent God, but of his being the Christ, the Son of God; for her language clearly implies, that she considered Jesus as having ability to restore the deceased to life, not because he possessed inherent and independent power, but because e REMARKS-continued from p. 196. It is evident, from the plain and express testimony of Christ and his apostles, that Jesus never performed a single miracle by any natural, inherent, or independent power of his own.-Christie. Our Lord did not prove himself to be the Omnipotent by the miracles which he wrought, nor was it in the exercise of physical power that his superiority to other prophets consisted; but in what was infinitely more important,--the moral beauty, dignity, and sinless perfection of his character. In this respect, he stood above them all, unrivalled and alone. In this respect, he bore the untarnished image of the invisible God.Drummond. After Christ had ascended into heaven, the apostles, according to his promise, raised the dead by his power and authority; and thus proved the ubiquity of his power, as well as of his presence. -Dwight. The apostles only wrought miracles to attest the truth of their Master's doctrine, and the fact of his resurrection: he wrought them to confirm his own claims to be the Messiah. This would produce some diversity in their manner, and such we find.-Fox. Here he plainly refers to the miraculous gifts of the holy spirit, which are called the promise of the Father, because they had been promised to the Son by him.... We see how careful Christ was to inform the disciples, that the extraordinary powers which he was about to communicate came from God.-Kenrick on Luke xxiv. 49. See p. 272 for remarks by Dr. J. P. Smith. ILLUSTRATIVE TEXTS. f John xi. 21, 22: Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give [it] thee. g Acts ii. 22: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God, among you, by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him, as ye yourselves also know. h Matt. xxvi. 53: Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? John xx. 31: These are written, that ye might believe that JESUS IS THE CHRIST, THE Son of God. i See pages 58, 59; 64, 66. j John xiv. 26: The Comforter, [who is] the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name. Chap. xv. 26: When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, [even] the Spirit of truth who proceedeth from the Father, Behold, I send the promise of my Father he shall testify of me. Luke xxiv. 49: upon you; but tarry ye in the city, until ye be endued with power from on high. (G.)—Comp. Acts ii. 33. k Acts iii. 12: Why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? 7 See Acts iii. 22, 26. 1 John iv. 14. m See Mark xvi. 20. Acts ix. 4-6. n Acts iv. 29, 30: Now, Lord, .. grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth THY HAND to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of THY holy child (or, servant) Jesus. • 2 Kings ii. 9-15: Elijah said unto I be taken away from thee. And Elisha Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing; [nevertheless,] if thou see me [when I am] taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee.... When the sons of the prophets.. saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. p Acts viii. 17: Then laid they [their] hands on them, and they received the holy spirit. she knew that his pious and benevolent requests would be granted by his Father. St. Peter, who had been one of the constant followers of Jesus, who had been a witness of the mighty works that he performed, and who had repeatedly heard his authoritative and gracious declarations, asserted, after the ascension of his Master, and at a time when he was himself plentifully endowed with the gift of inspiration, that God did miracles, and wonders, and signs BY (or through) Jesus of Nazareth.g The peculiar manner, then, in which Jesus performed his mighty works indicates merely that he was vastly superior to all other divine teachers; that he was invested by his heavenly Father with a voluntary power of working miracles; that he was, in fine, the longexpected Messiah, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world." 18, 19. An argument for the essential Deity of Christ is sometimes deduced from the commission which our Saviour gave the apostles to preach the Gospel—from his having bestowed on them the gift of the holy spirit—and from their frequent employment of the name of Jesus, to whom they attributed the power manifested in the miracles which they performed. In answer to this, it may be remarked, that, in the First Part of our work, we collected the most ample and the clearest Scriptural proof for the opinion, that all the wisdom and power which Christ possessed was derived from God, the Father: it is obvious, then, that the qualifications for propagating the Gospel which the apostles received from their Master must have primarily been the gift of the Deity; a conclusion which is further confirmed by those passages in which Jesus speaks of the holy spirit as the promise of the Father-as proceeding or coming from the Father-as the Comforter, whom the Father would send in his name.' The design of the apostles, in using the name of Christ, was probably to indicate that they did not exert their extraordinary powers for any vain or ostentatious purpose, but for the spread and establishment of that religion, whose Head and Author was Jesus of Nazareth, whom they declared to have been "raised up" by God to be the Saviour of the human race: or, perhaps they meant, by ascribing their miraculous energies to the power of Christ, to show that they were immediately and personally assisted by their Lord and Master.m However this may be, we have on record one of their prayers, clearly pointing out their conviction that the God of Jesus was the original Source of the endowments which they possessed for the promotion of the Gospel." k If we admit the justness of the Trinitarian principle, that the person communicating inspiration must have independent power, it will follow that Elijah, who imparted a portion of his prophetic spirit to Elisha, and the apostles, who conferred the gift of the holy spirit on the early disciples, were equal to, or identified with, the God and Father of all! VII. THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS. 20. Matt. ix. 2—8: Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer: thy sins be forgiven thee, &c.-Par. Pas. Mark ii. 3-12. Luke v. 18-26. 21. Luke vii. 48: And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. REMARKS. Our Saviour healed the man that was sick of the palsy, and forgave his sins; a plain proof of his divinity, because none but God has the power and the prerogative of forgiving sins.-Porteus. He does not intimate that he then had authority to remit the future punishment of sin, but only to remove its present consequences" on earth to forgive sins."Carpenter on Matt. ix. 6. Our Lord alludes to the Jewish notion, that diseases and other calamities were inflicted as the punishments of sin.--See John ix. 2, 34; also Luke xiii. 1-5. His language, therefore, on this occasion was an indication of his intention to heal the disease, q. d. "Thy disorder is removed." -Eds. of Imp. Ver. on Mark ii. 5. It is somewhat remarkable, that, when he speaks of the forgiveness of sins, in cases which refer to the guilt and future punishment of sin, (see Luke vii. 47,) he merely declares the fact, "Thy sins are forgiven thee."—Carpenter. VIII. RISING FROM THE DEAD. 22. John ii. 19-21: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. He spake of the temple of his body. REMARKS. Our Lord's expression is to be understood figuratively; not that he would raise himself, but that he would be raised by God. Thus, when it is said, "The dead shall rise," 1 Thess. iv. 16, all that is intended is, that they shall be raised by a divine power. Mark v. 41.-Belsham. As, in these instances (Matt. x. 39. Mark viii. 35. Luke xvii. 33), the man who gives up life is said to find it again, and to produce a living being, although a dead body be capable of no such acts, but they are performed for him by God; so Christ may say, that when the temple is destroyed, he will raise it again, when he only means, that it will be raised for him again by God.-Kenrick. ILLUSTRATIVE TEXTS. q See page 212, reference a. Luke r 1 John iv. 14: We have seen, and do testify, that the Father sent the Son [to be] the Saviour of the world. xxiv. 47: That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, &c. Acts v. 31: Him hath God exalted with his right hand [to be] a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. Chap. xiii. 38: Be it known unto you, .. men [and] brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. See chap. iii. 26. s Luke xxiii. 34: Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. u John ii. 22: When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said. (G.) v Acts ii. 32: This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. 1 Pet. i. 19-21: Christ was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, &c. - See Acts ii. 24; iii. 15; iv. 10; x. 40. w Rom. x. 9: If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.— See Acts xiii. 30—37; xvii. 31. Rom. iv. 24; vi. 4; viii. 11. 1 Cor. vi. 14; xv. 15. 2 Cor. iv. 14. Gal. i. 1. Eph. i. 17, 20. Col. ii, 12. 1 Thess. i. 9, 10. x See this reference in page 202. |