Isaiah 9:6-7 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be on his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful… How peaceful was the scene when the first Sabbath shone upon this world! How reversed was the scene of man's Sabbatism when sin entered to revolutionise it! It is a work of magnitude to which the Redeemer stands appointed when He is presented in the character of a pacificator to bring this strife to a happy conclusion for man. I. WHAT ARE THE QUALIFICATIONS OF CHRIST FOR ACTING AS THE PRINCE OF PEACE? 1. His original personal excellence as the Only-begotten of the Father. 2. His Father's ordination of Him to the office. 3. The meritoriousness of His work when substituted in the room of sinners. 4. The station to which He has been exalted and the executive power which has been lodged in His hand. 5. The fervency with which His heart is dedicated to the attainment of His object. Assemble, then, together these various items of qualification, and howsoever dreadful be the war in which man is naturally so unequally engaged, here we have a Prince all-sufficient to reduce it to peace in behalf of those who may accept His aid. That aid He offers to all. II. THE PRINCIPAL ARTICLES OF THAT PEACE OF WHICH CHRIST IS, OR SHALL YET BE, THE MINISTERING PRINCE TO ALL THAT BELIEVE ON HIM. 1. The fundamental article of this great pacification is that He hath reconciled God to them. The principal idea conveyed in the text we maintain to be that God has in Christ devised a scheme whereby He may consistently leave off His anger, and not impute to mankind their trespasses. 2. In Christ we cease to war against ourselves. The sinner's follies, his passions, his evil conscience, destroy him. By the gifts of the Spirit which He has secured for His people, He restrains, subdues, and controls their passions and appetites, through the lawlessness of which men so frequently bring ruin on their persons, their characters, and their fortunes; and altogether, so does He incline them to their duty that their conscience ceases to torment them with its upbraidings and shall even invigorate and gladden them with the smiles of its complacency. 3. Our Prince hath reconciled to us the angels. When the human race rebelled, zealous as they are for God, they participated in the wrath of their King, disowned man as their brother, and became the willing executors of His wrath. But when God becomes the Friend of the believer, the angels hasten to salute him as a recovered fellow subject and brother, and resume their emulousness of the honour to be made the ministering spirits of his salvation. 4. By the Prince of Peace reconciliation is effected between Jew and Gentile. 5. The fifth article of pacification is the general reconcilement of man to man, the destruction of selfishness, and the diffusion of benevolence. (W. Anderson, LL. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. |
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