hostage of the people of God. He was the representative of all the elect. When Christ was bound to the tree, I see my own sin bound there; when he died every believer virtually died in him; when he was buried we were buried in him, and when he was in the tomb, he was, as it were, God’s hostage for all his church, for all that ever would believe on him. Now, as long as he was in prison, although there might be ground for hope, it was only as light sown for the righteous; but when the hostage came out, behold the first fruit of the harvest! When God said, “Let my Anointed go free, I am satisfied and content in him,” then every elect vessel went free in him; then every child of God was released from vile imprisonment no more to die, not to know bondage or fetter for ever. I do see ground for hope when Christ is bound, for he is bound for me; I do see reason for rejoicing when he dies, for he dies for me, and in my place and stead; I do see a theme for solid satisfaction in his burial, for he is buried for me; but when he comes out of the grave, having swallowed up death in victory, my hope bursts into joyous song. He lives, and because he lives I shall live also. He is delivered and I am delivered too. Death has no more dominion over him and no more dominion over me; his deliverance is mine, his freedom is mine for ever. Again, I repeat it, the believer should take strong draughts of consolation here. Christ is risen from the dead, how can we be condemned? There are even stronger arguments for the vindication of the believer in the resurrection of Christ than in his precious death and burial. I think I have shown this; only may God give us grace to rest upon this precious truth — “yes, rather, who is risen from the dead.”
8. III. The next clause of the sentence reads thus: “WHO IS EVEN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD.” Is there not any word of special commendation to this? You will remember the last one had, “Yes, rather.” Is there nothing to commend this? Well, if not in this text, there is in another. If, at your leisure, you read through the fifth chapter of this epistle to the Romans, you will very readily discover there that the apostle proves, that if Christ’s death is an argument for our salvation, his life is a still greater one. He says, “If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more” {Romans 5:10} — that’s the word I wanted — “much more shall we be saved by his life.” We may look, then, at this third clause, as having a “much more” before it, comparing Scripture with Scripture. We cannot be condemned for “Christ has died. Yes rather, is risen again; (much more) is even at the right hand of God.” Here is an argument which has much more power, much more strength, much more force than even Christ’s death. Sometimes I have thought that to be impossible. Last Sunday, I thought by God’s good help I was enabled to persuade some of you that the death of Christ was an argument too potent to be ever denied — an argument for the salvation of all for whom he died. Much more, let me now tell you, is his life, much more the fact that he lives, and is at the right hand of the Father. Now I must call your attention to this clause, remarking that in other passages of God’s Word, Christ is said to have sat down for ever at the right hand of God. Observe carefully the fact that he is always described in heaven as sitting down. This seems to me to be one material argument for the salvation of the believer — Christ sits in heaven. Now, he never would sit if the work was not fully done. Jesus, when he was on earth, had a baptism to be baptised with, and how he was constrained until it was accomplished! Frequently, he had no time so much as to eat, so eager was he to accomplish all his work. And I do not, I cannot imagine that he would be sitting down in heaven in the posture of ease, unless he had accomplished all — unless “It is finished!” would be understood in its broadest and most unlimited sense. There is one thing I have noticed, in looking over the old levitical law, under the description of the tabernacle. There were no seats whatever provided for the priests. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering sacrifice for sin. They never had any seats to sit on. There was a table for the shewbread, an altar, and a brazen laver; yet there was no seat. No priest sat down; he must always stand; for there was always work to be accomplished, always something to be done. But the great High Priest of our profession, Jesus, the Son of God, has taken his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Why is this? Because, now the sacrifice is complete for ever, and the priest has made a full end of his solemn service. What would the Jew have thought if it had been possible for a seat to have been introduced into the sanctuary, and for the high priest to sit down? Why, the Jew would then have been compelled to believe that it was all over, the dispensation was ended; for a sitting priest would be the end of it all. And now we may rest assured, since we can see a sitting Christ in heaven, that the whole atonement is finished, the work is over, he has made an end of sin. I do consider that in this there is an argument why no believer ever can perish. If he could, if there were even the slightest chance of it, Christ would not be sitting down; if the work was not so fully done, that every redeemed one should at last be received into heaven, he would never rest, nor hold his peace.
9. Turning, however, more strictly to the words of the text, “Who is even at the right hand of God” — what does this mean? It means, first of all, that Christ is now in the honourable position of an accepted one. The right hand of God is the place of majesty, and the place of favour too. Now, Christ is his people’s representative. When he died for them they had rest; when he rose again for them, they had liberty; when he was received into his Father’s favour, yet again, and sat at his own right hand, then they had favour, and honour, and dignity. Do you not remember that the two sons of Zebedee asked to sit, one on the right hand and the other on the left? Little did they know that they had already what they asked for — for all the church is now at the right hand of the Father; all the church is now raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The raising and elevation of Christ to that throne of dignity and favour, is the elevation, the acceptance, the enshrinement, the glorifying of all his people, for he is their common head, and stands as their representative. This sitting at the right hand of God, then, is to be viewed as the acceptance of the person of the surety, the reception of the representative, and therefore, the acceptance of our souls. Then who is he who condemns? Condemn a man that is at the right hand of God! Absurd! Impossible! Yet I am there in Christ. Condemn a man who sits next to his Father, the King of kings! Yet there is the church, and how can she in the slightest degree incur condemnation, when she is already at the right hand of the Father with her covenant head. And let me further remark, that the right hand is the place of power. Christ at the right hand of God signifies that all power is given to him in heaven and in earth. Now, who is he who condemns the people that have such a Head as this? Oh my soul! what can destroy you if Omnipotence is your helper? If the aegis {a} of the Almighty covers you, what sword can strike you? If the wings of the Eternal are your shelter, what plague can attack you? Rest secure. If Jesus is your all prevailing King, and has trodden your enemies beneath his feet, if sin, death, and hell, are now only parts of his empire, for he is Lord of all, and if you are represented in him, and he is your guarantee, your sworn surety, it is absolutely impossible that you can be condemned. While we have an Almighty Saviour, the redeemed must be saved; until Omnipotence can fail, and the Almighty can be overcome, every blood bought redeemed child of God is safe and secure for ever. Well did the apostle say of this — “much more — much more than dying and rising again from the dead, he lives at the right hand of God.”
10. IV. And now I come to the fourth point; and this also has an encomium {b} praise passed upon it — “WHO ALSO MAKES INTERCESSION FOR US.” Our apostle, in the epistle to the Hebrews, has a very strong encomium upon this sentence. What does he say about it? A little more than he said about the others. The first one is, “Yes rather”; the second one is, “Much more.” And what is the third? Remember the passage — “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.” Lo! this is — “to the uttermost”; what we thought, perhaps, to be the very smallest matter in the recital, is just the greatest. “To the very uttermost” he is able to save, seeing he ever lives to intercede — the strongest argument of the whole four. Let us try to answer this question, “Why does Christ intercede today in heaven?” A quaint old divine says, that “When God in his justice rose from his throne to strike the Surety, he would make no concession whatever. The Surety paid the debt.” “Yet,” said the Judge, “I will not come down to earth
