Here is a wonderful section from Hugh Martin's sermon "The Eternal Priesthood of Christ and the Father's Oath" found in "Christ for Us"
[i:f7a802ee25]The Meaning of the Oath of God[/i:f7a802ee25]
It is very little I see of it, but by the help of God's Word let us seek to find out what can possibly be meant by God's swearing, or putting Himself on oath. 'An oath for confirmation is ... an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath.' 'Because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself.' What is the particular force of the oath? What particular help does it render to faith? Of an honest man we sat that his word is as good as his deed. Of Jesus we never read that He put Himself on oath. The repeated use of 'Verily, verily I say unto you' was the form of speech nearest the oath. Why then should God swear when sustaining the honour and counsels of the Godhead? To see a little of it, what constitutes the last security for all belief? Belief in the Godhead itself. There must be a belief in the Godhead itself before belief in Christ. The inevitable necessity of God's existence is the last security. It is not an optional thing to God to exist or not. God cannot but exist. This is the final distinction between God and all creatures. Creatures are so weak and deficient in being that it was possible once they might never be at all, and except for God's will they never would have been. About God that never could have been possible. He is too glorious a Being for it to be possible that He might never have been. He is so glorious that He could not but be, and be the glorious, unchangeable and everlasting God that He is.
Do you say, 'O! that my salvation rested on a ground like that. I would rest secure then, if it were the case that in the nature of things I could not be but safe'? Ay, but in the nature of things you cannot have that security. Your salvation cannot be an inevitable necessity like the existence of the Godhead. For one reason, you never could be grateful for it in such a case. A creature without gratitude is not a saved but a lost creature. Your salvation must depend on the will of God, and [i:f7a802ee25]cannot[/i:f7a802ee25] spring from inevitably without God's will from His nature, as some, by perversion of the truth that 'God is love' say, and sing 'Jesus loves me' as if Jesus could not help loving them. Your salvation must be at the disposal of the divine will, of free sovereign grace. More, it must be from free acceptance on your own part, as well as free giving on God's part, dependent in a sense on your will --your will renewed by divine grace, according to the Father's promise to the Priest of Zion, 'thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.' But it must be by [i:f7a802ee25]your[/i:f7a802ee25] will, in order, by the grace of the divine Spirit, to secure [i:f7a802ee25]your[/i:f7a802ee25] willing, confiding acceptation of Christ in His priesthood, and His salvation thereby. To charm you to a confidence as great as if (and more grateful far than if) God's own being necessitated your salvation, God appeals to His own being in proof that His will in all that concerns your redemption is immutable, and, that all may know it who hear the word of truth and Christ therein, He says to the Son, 'Thou art a priest for ever'. These are the terms, 'As I live, saith the Lord.' An appeal is made to the life of God, the necessary, immutable, infinite fullness of life in the Godhead; and not as of necessity, but of sovereign, good, loving pleasure, He pledges the life of God to the priesthood of Christ, and to the reliableness of the promise of salvation through Him.
Not of necessity then, but of sovereign free grace and love, for which eternal thanks be to His name, He places the life of the Godhead to the life of the Son's priesthood. Lifting His hand to heaven, He gives us to know that He would not count it worthwhile being God if He could not say, 'Look unto me, and be ye saved.' He swears to the glorious perpetuity of the priesthood through which salvation comes, and gives His oath to those who trust in His word, 'that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.' This truth causes the faith of His people to root at last in the everlasting life of God Himself, and the eternal life through which Christ is constituted a priest. From that great epoch it becomes true, that 'as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.' And he is able to say, 'As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.' Thus, by free grace, a security is attained as strong as of necessity, and not with the iron coldness and hardness of necessity, but so as love shall still be lord of all. Such help the oath affords in bringing it to pass that it is by faith, that it might be by grace, that the promise might be sure to all the seed.
Italics, quotations and elisions in original. I hope these words will be a blessing to you.
[Edited on 4-26-2004 by py3ak]
[i:f7a802ee25]The Meaning of the Oath of God[/i:f7a802ee25]
It is very little I see of it, but by the help of God's Word let us seek to find out what can possibly be meant by God's swearing, or putting Himself on oath. 'An oath for confirmation is ... an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath.' 'Because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself.' What is the particular force of the oath? What particular help does it render to faith? Of an honest man we sat that his word is as good as his deed. Of Jesus we never read that He put Himself on oath. The repeated use of 'Verily, verily I say unto you' was the form of speech nearest the oath. Why then should God swear when sustaining the honour and counsels of the Godhead? To see a little of it, what constitutes the last security for all belief? Belief in the Godhead itself. There must be a belief in the Godhead itself before belief in Christ. The inevitable necessity of God's existence is the last security. It is not an optional thing to God to exist or not. God cannot but exist. This is the final distinction between God and all creatures. Creatures are so weak and deficient in being that it was possible once they might never be at all, and except for God's will they never would have been. About God that never could have been possible. He is too glorious a Being for it to be possible that He might never have been. He is so glorious that He could not but be, and be the glorious, unchangeable and everlasting God that He is.
Do you say, 'O! that my salvation rested on a ground like that. I would rest secure then, if it were the case that in the nature of things I could not be but safe'? Ay, but in the nature of things you cannot have that security. Your salvation cannot be an inevitable necessity like the existence of the Godhead. For one reason, you never could be grateful for it in such a case. A creature without gratitude is not a saved but a lost creature. Your salvation must depend on the will of God, and [i:f7a802ee25]cannot[/i:f7a802ee25] spring from inevitably without God's will from His nature, as some, by perversion of the truth that 'God is love' say, and sing 'Jesus loves me' as if Jesus could not help loving them. Your salvation must be at the disposal of the divine will, of free sovereign grace. More, it must be from free acceptance on your own part, as well as free giving on God's part, dependent in a sense on your will --your will renewed by divine grace, according to the Father's promise to the Priest of Zion, 'thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.' But it must be by [i:f7a802ee25]your[/i:f7a802ee25] will, in order, by the grace of the divine Spirit, to secure [i:f7a802ee25]your[/i:f7a802ee25] willing, confiding acceptation of Christ in His priesthood, and His salvation thereby. To charm you to a confidence as great as if (and more grateful far than if) God's own being necessitated your salvation, God appeals to His own being in proof that His will in all that concerns your redemption is immutable, and, that all may know it who hear the word of truth and Christ therein, He says to the Son, 'Thou art a priest for ever'. These are the terms, 'As I live, saith the Lord.' An appeal is made to the life of God, the necessary, immutable, infinite fullness of life in the Godhead; and not as of necessity, but of sovereign, good, loving pleasure, He pledges the life of God to the priesthood of Christ, and to the reliableness of the promise of salvation through Him.
Not of necessity then, but of sovereign free grace and love, for which eternal thanks be to His name, He places the life of the Godhead to the life of the Son's priesthood. Lifting His hand to heaven, He gives us to know that He would not count it worthwhile being God if He could not say, 'Look unto me, and be ye saved.' He swears to the glorious perpetuity of the priesthood through which salvation comes, and gives His oath to those who trust in His word, 'that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.' This truth causes the faith of His people to root at last in the everlasting life of God Himself, and the eternal life through which Christ is constituted a priest. From that great epoch it becomes true, that 'as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.' And he is able to say, 'As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.' Thus, by free grace, a security is attained as strong as of necessity, and not with the iron coldness and hardness of necessity, but so as love shall still be lord of all. Such help the oath affords in bringing it to pass that it is by faith, that it might be by grace, that the promise might be sure to all the seed.
Italics, quotations and elisions in original. I hope these words will be a blessing to you.
[Edited on 4-26-2004 by py3ak]
