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and made honourable: — Doctrine: That Christ, as our glorious Surety, having magnified the law and made it honourable, the Lord Jehovah declares Himself to be well pleased for His righteousness' sake. I shall —

I. SUGGEST A FEW THINGS CONCERNING THE LAW, AND HOW IT WAS DISPARAGED BY THE SIN OF MAN.

1. The law here principally intended is the moral law.

2. The moral law is nothing else but s transcript of the original holiness of God's nature.

3. The law being a copy or emanation of God's holiness, it must be dearer to Him than heaven and earth, or the whole frame of nature.

4. This law was given to our first parents under the form of a covenant; a promise of life being made to them, upon condition of their yielding a perfect obedience; and a threatening of death added, in case of disobedience.

5. Man being left to the freedom of his own will, through the flattering hisses of the old serpent, "did break the law of God." and so forfeited his title to life by virtue of that covenant; and brought himself, and all his posterity, under the penalty of death temporal, spiritual, and eternal.

6. The law being violated by sin, the honour of the law, and the authority of God, the great Law, ver, are, as it were, laid in the dust, and trampled under foot, by the rebellious sinner.

7. The law being violated, and the Lawgiver affronted, the salvation of sinners by the law becomes utterly impossible, unless the honour of the law, and of the great Lawgiver, be repaired and restored somehow or other.

II. SPEAK OF THE GLORIOUS PERSON WHO UNDERTAKES THE REPARATION OF IT AS OUR SURETY.

1. He is His Father's Servant (ver. 1).

2. His Father's Elect (ver. 1; Psalm 89:19).

3. His Father's Darling or Delight (ver. 1).

4. He is qualified by His Father for the work and service of redemption, by the anointing of the eternal Spirit (ver. 1).

5. He is one whose commission is very extensive; for we are told that He shall "bring forth judgment to the Gentiles."

6. He was to be a meek and lowly Saviour (ver. 21.

7. He was to be very tender and compassionate towards His poor people, particularly the weaklings of His flock (ver. 3).

8. He would be victorious and successful in His work (vers. 3, 4).

9. He would bear His Father's commission, .and be sustained in His work by the right hand of His power (ver. 6).

10. He is the free gift of God unto a lost world. "And give thee for a covenant of the people" (ver. 6).

11. He would be the light of the world, and particularly a light to the poor Gentiles, who had so long sat in th4e regions and shadow of death (vers. 6, 7).

12. He would loose the devil's prisoners (ver. 7)

III. INQUIRE WHAT MAY BE IMPORTED IN THE EXPRESSION OF HIS MAGNIFYING THE LAW, AND MAKING IT HONOURABLE. It supposes —

1. That the law is broken, and thereby the greatest indignity done to it, and to Him who gave it.

2. That God, the great Lawgiver, stands upon reparation.

3. That man, who has broken the law, is utterly incapable to repair its honour, or to satisfy justice.

4. That God, the great Lawgiver, admits of the substitution of a Surety in the room of the sinner.

5. That Christ, as our Surety, actually put His neck under the yoke of the Divine law.

6. That the holy law is no loser by Christ's substitution in our room; it has all that it demanded in order to its satisfaction.

7. That the holy law, instead of being a loser, gains an additional honour and glory by the righteousness of the Surety.

IV. HOW HE MAGNIFIES THE LAW, AND WHAT WAY HE TAKES TO MAKE IT HONOURABLE. The moral law comes under a twofold consideration: it may be considered as a covenant, and as a rule of life.

1. As a covenant, He magnifies it, and makes it honourable; and this He did by fulfilling all its demands.

2. Christ magnifies the law as a rule of life, and this He doth several ways.

(1) By writing a fair copy of obedience to it, in His own example, for the imitation of all His followers.

(2) By explaining it in its utmost extent, for" it is exceeding broad."(3) By establishing the obligation of it as a rule of obedience unto all His followers (Matthew 5:17; Romans 3:31).

(4) By writing it upon the heart of all His followers, by the finger of His eternal Spirit (Jeremiah 31:33).

(5) By enforcing obedience to the law, among all His followers, by stronger motives than the law itself, abstractly considered, could afford. "The love of Christ constraineth us."(6) By actuating them in their obedience to the law by His own Spirit (Ezekiel 36:27).

V. GIVE THE REASONS OF THE DOCTRINE. Why is it that Christ doth magnify the law, and make it honourable?

1. From the regard He had to His Father's honour and authority, affronted in the violation of the law.

2. Out of love that He bore to our salvation, which could not be accomplished without the penalty of the law had been endured, and the precept of it obeyed.

3. Because He was ordained of God from eternity for His work and service; He was set up for it by the decree and ordination of heaven, and He did always these things that pleased His Father.

4. Because He had given His engagement in the council of peace.

5. He magnified the law as a covenant, that "we might be freed from it," in its covenant form and curse (Galatians 4:4; Romans 7:4).

6. He magnified the law, and made it honourable, as a covenant, that we may obey it as a rule, and serve the Lord without fear of the curse and condemnation, "in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives."

7. To procure and confirm His own right of government as Mediator (Romans 14:9).

8. That He might still the enemy and the avenger, and outshoot the devil in his own bow.

VI. MAKE SOME APPLICATION.

1. See hence the excellency of the law of God, and the sacred regard that God bears unto it.

2. See hence the evil of sin, and why Christ came to finish transgression, and make an end of it.

3. See hence the dreadful situation of every sinner that is out of Christ, destitute of His righteousness.

4. See hence the wonderful love of God to lost sinners, in sending His own Son to magnify the law, after we had broken it; and at the same time it discovers the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He be supreme Judge, King, and Lawgiver, yet was willing to be made "under the law," and to obey it as a subject, that we might be delivered from law-vengeance, and have the righteousness of it fulfilled in us through Him.

5. See hence the ignorance and error of those who are prejudiced against the doctrine of Justification by faith, as if it were prejudicial to the holy law, or did any way derogate from its honour and authority.

6. See hence the error of those who assert that a justified believer is still liable to the curse or penal sanction of the law.

7. See the error and folly of those who go about to "establish their own righteousness" as the ground of their justification and acceptance, and "refuse to submit unto the righteousness of God."

8. This doctrine lets us see the error of those who, though they will not absolutely reject the righteousness of Christ, yet will adventure to mingle something of their own with it.

9. See the error of those who deny Christ's active obedience to the law to be any part of our justifying righteousness.

10. See hence how little reason even believers, who are justified before God, have to be proud of what they are come to.

(E. Erskine.)

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KJV: The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.

WEB: It pleased Yahweh, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify the law, and make it honorable.