The Sword of Justice Awakened against God’s Fellow - Part Two

Extract

The Sword of Justice Awakened against God’s Fellow – Part Two
Ralph Erskine

“Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts” Zechariah 13:7.

V. The fifth thing, viz. — The reasons of the doctrine; Why the Lord of hosts ordered the sword of justice to awake against his shepherd, the man that is his fellow? Surely it was necessary, that the sword should awake against him, “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things?” says our Lord himself, (Luke 24:26). However innocent he was in himself; yet our sins, which were laid upon him, deserved to be thus treated; and therefore he, as our surety, who had the guilt of the world lying upon him, says, — “O God, thou knowest my foolishness: and my sins are not hid from thee,” (Psa. 69:5). These are the words of Christ, of whom David was a type. He had enough of sin imputatively; and our sins had never been expiated, our judge never atoned, our souls never saved, our state never secured, justice never satisfied, the bond never cancelled, if the sword had not awaked against him. Ought he not then to have suffered the stroke of the sword? Yea, he gave his oath for it to his Father from eternity; and all the promises, prophecies, types, and sacrifices of old pointed out this. God was ready to come down with fury in his heart, and red-hot thunderbolts in his hand, to sink all mankind to hell: and ought not Christ to suffer and interpose? Yea, glory to God that he did. But more particularly,

1. The Lord of hosts the Rector of the universe, designed by this method to rectify what was out of course, by the sin of man, and to bring all things to rights. By the fall, the universal frame suffered a convulsion: the covenant of works was broken; the devil was reigning, and raging in the earth; and all the honour of God’s workmanship, in the first creation, was like to be lost. Now, the supreme Rector comes with the sword of justice to rectify these disorders, by drenching his sword in the blood of his eternal Son. Was the covenant of works broken? Behold here is the condition of …