Glorious Mystery - Chapter 16 (1)

"An humble inquiry into, and prospect of, the infinite Wisdom of God, in the constitution of the person of Christ, and the way of salvation thereby." (p. 178)

1. As we investigate the constitution of the person of Christ and his work of redemption, we must consider the holy properties of the divine nature in them, which are: a) his Goodness b) his wisdom - by which he moves everything for his glory. c) his power - which is how he effects the moving of everything for his glory.

2. What else we discover about the character of God in the work of slavation can only be properly understood if we first grasped what he has saved us from - i.e. the nature of our sin, especially the first sin. There are three things to note here: a) We see God's honour and holiness "in the rejection of his image." (p. 181) What is peculiar about God's work of putting his image in man follows: i) God saying let us put our image on man, and him actually doing it, were two distinct acts (Gen. 1:26-27). this is not so with everything else done in creation, where God decreeing the thing IS him actually doing it i.e. "Let there be light; and there was light." ii) that there is a reference to the Trinity as God declares what he will do - "let US make man." iii) because it was a consultation between persons which led to the creation of man in God's image, testifies that it was a work of divine wisdom.

There are three reasons why God put his image on us: a) so he could represent his holiness and righteousness to his creatures. b) so that all the rest of creation might praise him as his glory os manifested c) We could be led to eternal enjoyment of God, because only with God's image could we fulfill the command to "do this and live." - "it was morally a power to live unto God in obedience, that we might come to the enjoyment of him in glory." (p. 183).

2. The entrance of sin involved man rejecting this image of God in himself. This meant all the above reasons for God putting his image on us were reversed: a) There was no longer any representation on earth of God's holiness and righteousness, "or any of the moral perfections of his nature." b) There was no way in which glory might be given to God by the rest of creation. c) man lost all power and ability to fulfill God's law and so enjoy God forever.

But what was especially heinous about this crime was that it cast contempt onto God's holiness, such a crime deserved to "perish eternally" (p. 185) - "unless there be some way whereby it may be more eminently exalted in the nature of man than it was debased and despised in the same nature." (p. 185).

We must now consider how we atempted to debase God in this sin, so that we might grasp the wisdom and glory of God in our salvation.

3. Sin brought disruption to God's government of the world. It was not becasue God chose to rule the world that he originally did so, but given who God is, it was "necessary" (p. 185). So god had to either not allow the fall, or make sure his glory was re-established, he did this by reducing the siner to his just punishment.

4. Man, by sinning, moved himself from under God's government to under the government of the devil. Seeing what we have done here should leave anyone to marvel at what God has done for us in Christ, but: "the great reason why the glory of God in Christ doth do little irradiate the minds of many, that it is so much neglected and despised, is because they are not acquainted nor affected with the nature of our first sin and apostasy." (p. 188)

We must consider some things here with regard to God's properties and our sinfulness: 1. After all these things (points 1-4) had happened was it right according to God's holy properties that "all mankind should be left eternall in this condition without remedy or relief?" or whether "our nature in some portion of it should be restored"? (p. 188) 2. Supposing a restoration to humanity was suited to God's wisdom and perfections, what might we learn from that wisdom? Firstly, it is consistent with God's character that he should want to restore humanity, for he created them to enjoy eternal life with him and bear his image - how could he turn his back on his own plan? But even though it was consistent with his character, it does not mean he was bound to restire us but freely chose to.

But, of course, it could be argued that because man had become so sinful, and ureparable to God's glory, that their restoration would be unsuitable to divine wisdom and goodness: But here Baxter answers two things: a) These people have not considered how much man fell by, it diminshed God's glory such that "it is only infinite wisdom that could find out a way for the salvation of any one of the whole race of mankind" (p. 191) b) Owen does think that if the only properties God has in himself were those manifested at creation, he would not have restored fallen man. But there are other properties in God such as: i) "love, grace and mercy" - although not revealed in creation, yet central to the nature of God. And these properties were compliant with God restoring our nature. ii) "divine goodness" - this was communicated in creation but not "to the uttermost." Becasue divine goodness is communicative, it was made manifest when God became man for our recovery.