Jeremiah 22:24 As I live, said the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand… I. MENTION SOME AWFUL INSTANCES IN WHICH GOD HAS VERIFIED THIS DECLARATION. 1. The apostate angels. 2. Our first parents. 3. The Flood. 4. The Jews. 5. The Saviour Himself.It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He spared not His own Son. And will He then, O impenitent sinner, who by refusing to believe in Jesus Christ crucifiest Him afresh, will God spare thee? No; though thou weft the signet on His right Hand; though thou wert dear to Him as the Son of His love, He would not spare thee, when His violated law and His insulted justice call for thy destruction. II. STATE SOME OF THE REASONS WHY GOD HAS FORMED AND ENACTED SUCH A DECLARATION; or, in other words, why He will sooner give up all that is dear to Him than suffer sin to go unpunished. 1. It is needless to remark that, among these reasons, a disposition to give pain has no place. As God has sworn by Himself that the wicked shall die, so He has sworn by Himself that He has no pleasure in their death. 2. Nor has a desire to revenge the insults and injuries which sinners have offered to Himself any place among the motives which induce God to punish sin; for He inflicts punishment, not as an injured individual, but as the Sovereign and Judge of the universe, who is under the most sacred obligations to treat His subjects according to their deserts. 3. It is because the welfare of His great kingdom, the peace and happiness of the universe, require it. It is because a relaxation of His law, a departure from the rules of strict justice, would occasion more misery than will result from a rigid execution of His law. Were sin unrestrained, unpunished, it would soon scale heaven, as it has once done already in the case of the apostate angels; and there reign and rage with immortal strength through eternity, repeating in endless succession, and with increased aggravation, the enormities which it has already perpetrated on earth. We may add, that after God had once surrendered His truth, His justice, and holiness, and laid aside the reins of government, He could never more resume them. Nor could He ever give laws, or make promises to any other world, or any other race of creatures, which would he worthy of the least regard. (B. Payson, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence; |
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