George Whitefield
Sermon 45
The Knowledge of Jesus Christ the best Knowledge
1 Corinthians 2:2, "I determined not to know any thing among you, save
Jesus Christ, and him crucified."
The persons to whom these words were written, were the members of the
church of Corinth; who, as appears by the foregoing chapter, were not only
divided into different sects, by one saying, "I am of Paul, and another, I
am of Apollos;" but also had man amongst them, who were so full of the
wisdom of this world, and so wise in their own eyes, that they set at
nought the simplicity of the gospel, and accounted the Apostle's preaching
foolishness.
Never had the Apostle more need of the wisdom of the serpent, mingled
with the innocency of the dove, than now. What is the sum of all his
wisdom? He tells them, in the words of the text, "I determined not to know
any thing amongst you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified."
A resolution this, worthy of the great St. Paul; and no less worthy,
no less necessary for every minister, and every disciple of Christ, to make
always, even unto the 3end of the world.
In the following discourse, I shall,
FIRST, Explain what is meant by "not knowing any thing, save Jesus
Christ, and him crucified."
SECONDLY, Give some reasons why every Christian should determine not
to know any thing else. And
THIRDLY, Conclude with a general exhortation to put this determination
into practice.
FIRST, I am to explain what is meant by "not knowing any thing, save
Jesus Christ, and him crucified."
By Jesus Christ, we are to understand the eternal Son of God. He is
called Jesus, a Savior, because he was to save us from the guilt and power
of our sins; and, like Joshua, by whom he was remarkably typified, to lead
God's spiritual Israel through the wilderness of this world, to the
heavenly Canaan, the promised inheritance of the children of God.
He is called CHRICT, which signifies anointed, because he was anointed
by the Holy Ghost at his baptism, to be a prophet to instruct, a priest to
make an atonement for, and a king to govern and protect his church. And he
was crucified, or hung (O stupendous love!) till he was dead upon the
cross, that he might become a curse for us: for it is written, "Cursed is
every man that hangeth upon a tree."
The foundation or first cause of his suffering, was our fall in Adam;
in whom, as the living oracles of God declare, "We all died;" his sin was
imputed to us all. It pleased God, after he had spoken the world into
being, to create man after his own divine image, to breathe into him the
breath of life, and to place him as our representative in the garden of
Eden.
But he being left to his own free will, did eat of the forbidden
fruit, notwithstanding God had told him, "The day in which he eat thereof,
he should surely die;" and thereby he, with his whole posterity, in whose
name he acted, became liable to the wrath of God, and sunk into a spiritual
death.
But behold the goodness, as well as the severity of God! For no sooner
had man been convicted as a sinner, but lo! A Savior is revealed to him,
under the character of the seed of the woman: the merits of whose sacrifice
were then immediately to take place, and who should, in the fullness of
time, by suffering death, satisfy for the guilt we had contracted; by
obeying the whole moral law, work out for us an everlasting righteousness;
and by becoming a principle of new life in us, destroy the power of the
devil, and thereby restore us to a better state than that in which we were
at first created.
This is the plain scriptural account of that mystery of godliness, God
manifested in the flesh; and to this our own hearts, unless blinded by the
god of this world, cannot but yield an immediate assent.
For, let us but search our own hearts, and ask ourselves, if we could
create our own children, whether or not we would not create them with a
less mixture of good and evil, than we find in ourselves? Supposing God
then only to have our goodness, he could not, at first, make us so sinful,
so polluted as we are. But supposing him to be as he is, infinitely good,
or goodness itself, then it is absolutely impossible that he should create
any thing but what is like himself, perfect, entire, lacking nothing. Man
then could not come out of the hands of his Maker, so miserably blind and
naked, with such a mixture of the beast and devil, as he finds now in
himself, but must have fallen from what he was; and as it does not suit
with the goodness and justness of God, to punish the whole race of mankind
with these disorders merely for nothing; and since men bring these
disorders into the world with them; it follows, that as they could not sin
themselves, being yet unborn, some other man's sin must have been imputed
to them; from whence, as from a fountain, all these evils flow.
I know this doctrine of our ORIGINAL SIN, or fall in Adam, is esteemed
foolishness by the wise disputer of this world, who will reply, How does it
suit the goodness of God, to impute one man's sin to an innocent posterity?
But has it not been proved to a demonstration, that it is so? And
therefore, supposing we cannot reconcile it to our shallow comprehensions,
that is no argument at all: for if it appears that God has done a thing, we
may be sure it is right, whether we can see the reasons for it or not.
But this is entirely cleared up by what was said before, that no
sooner was the sin imputed, but a Christ was revealed; and this Christ,
this God incarnate, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, that he might be
freed from the guilt of our original sin; who was born of the Virgin Mary,
that he might be the seed of the woman only; who suffered under Pontius
Pilate, a Gentile governor, to fulfill these prophecies, which signified
what death he should die: This same Jesus, who was crucified in weakness,
but raised in power, is that divine person, that Emmanuel, that God with
us, whom we preach, in whom ye believe, and whom alone the Apostle, in the
text, was determined to know.
By which word KNOE, we are not to understand a bare historical
knowledge; for to know that Christ was crucified by his enemies at
Jerusalem, in this manner only, will do us no more service, than to know
that Caesar was butchered by his friends at Rome; but the work KNOW, means
to know, so as to approve of him; as when Christ says, "Verily, I know you
not;" I know you not, so as to approve of you. It signifies to know him, so
as to embrace him in all his offices; to take him to be our prophet,
priest, and king; so as to give up ourselves wholly to be instructed,
saved, and governed by him. It implies an experimental knowledge of his
crucifixion, so as to feel the power of it, and to be crucified unto the
world, as the Apostle explains himself in the epistle to the Philippians,
where he says, "I count all things but dung and dross, that I may know him,
and the power of his resurrection."
This knowledge the Apostle was so swallowed up in, that he was
determined not to know any thing else; he was resolved to make that his
only study, the governing principle of his life, the point and end in which
all his thoughts, words, and actions, should center.
SECONDLY, I pass on to give some reasons why every Christian should,
with the Apostle, determine "not to know any thing, save Jesus Christ, and
him crucified."
FIRST, Without this, our persons will not be accepted in the sight of
God. "This (and consequently this only) is life eternal, to know thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent." As also St. Peter
says, "There is now no other name given under heaven, whereby we can be
saved, but that of Jesus Christ."
Some, indeed, ma please themselves in knowing the world, others boast
themselves in the knowledge of a multitude of languages; but could we speak
with the tongue of men and angels, or did we know the number of the stars,
and could call them all by their names, yet, without this experimental
knowledge of Jesus Christ, and him crucified, it would profit us nothing.
The former, indeed, may procure us a little honor, which ...
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