2 Corinthians 9:13-14 Whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection to the gospel of Christ… Let me — I. ILLUSTRATE THIS INTERESTING DOCTRINE. By the gift of Christ we receive — 1. The gift of religious truth. 2. The gift of conscience. Where there is no truth there is no conscience; men seem asleep; in their trespasses and sins they are dead. Such was the state of the pagan world. 3. The gift of righteousness by faith. It is only by Christ that we come to know the fact that the God whom we have offended is placable, and that it is in His gracious purpose to forgive. 4. A new order of affections. 5. The privilege of public worship. II. IMPROVE IT. 1. This unspeakable gift, with all its resulting blessings, may have been offered to us in vain. 2. In it see the love of God; His readiness to save. 3. If the gift be unspeakable, from the very fulness and variety of its blessings, then have we presented to us the noblest view of the true life of a Christian. In every other form of religion, or in those framed out of a corrupted form of the true religion, we soon see all that they can give; the spring is soon dry, or, rather, it never flows but in the imagination of the deluded votary. But here the fulness is inexhaustible, and spreads innumerable blessings before us in time and eternity. (R. Watson.) Parallel Verses KJV: Whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men; |
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