“The sixth proposition is this, That God the Father had the first and chief hand in this great work of saving sinners, by virtue of this covenant of redemption, wherein he and his Son had agreed to bring ‘many sons to glory,’ Heb. 2:10.
Weak Christians many times have their thoughts and apprehensions more busied and taken up with the love of the Son, than with the love of the Father; but they must remember, that in the great and glorious work of redemption, God the Father had a great hand, an eminent hand, yea, the first and chief hand.
God the Father first laid the foundation-stone of all our happiness and blessedness. His head and heart was first taken up about that heaven-born project, the salvation of sinners:
Isa. 28:16, ‘Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation;’ Heb., ‘I am he that foundeth a stone in Zion.’
It is God the Father that hath long since laid Christ as a sure foundation, for all his people to build their hopes of happiness upon; it is he that first laid Christ, the true corner-stone, whereby Zion is for ever secured against death, hell, and wrath.
Hence it is said, ‘The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand,’ that is, God’s eternal decree about the work of our redemption and salvation, shall be powerfully, faithfully, and completely executed by Jesus Christ; who, by his word and Spirit, shall communicate unto all his elect the fruit of his death, to life and salvation, Rom. 9:33; 1 Pet. 2:6; Isa. 53:10.
Again: Job 33:24, ‘Deliver him from going down into the pit, for I have found a ransom.’ The Hebrew word signifies a price paid to redeem a man’s life or liberty, ‘I have found a ransom,’ or an atonement, a cover for man’s sin.
Angels and men could never have found a ransom, but by my deep, infinite, and unsearchable wisdom, saith God the Father, ‘I have found a ransom,’ I have found out a way, a means for the redeeming of mankind, from going down to the infernal pit, viz., the death and passion of my dearest Son.
But where, O blessed God, didst thou find a ransom? Not in angels, not in men, not in legal sacrifices, not in gold or silver, not in tears, humblings, and meltings of my people; but in my own bosom.
That Jesus, that Son of my love, who has lain in my bosom from all eternity, John 1:18, he is that ransom, that by my own matchless wisdom and singular goodness, ‘I have found.’
I have not called a council to inquire where to find a ransom, that fallen man might be preserved from falling into the fatal pit of destruction; but I have ‘found a ransom’ in my own heart, my own breasts, my own bosom; without advising or consulting with others, I have found out a way how to save sinners with a salve to my honour, justice, holiness, and truth.
Had all the angels in heaven, from the first day of their creation, to this very day, sat in serious council, to invent, contrive, or find out a way, a means, whereby lost man might be secured against the curse of the law, hell, condemnation, and wrath to come, and whereby he might have been made happy, and blessed forever; and all this without the least wrong or prejudice to the justice and righteousness of God, they could never have found out any way or means to have effected those great things.
Our redemption, by a ransom, is God’s own invention, and God’s only invention. The blessed ransom which the Lord has found out for poor sinners, is the blood of his own dearest Son— a ransom which never entered into the thoughts or hearts of angels and men, till God had revealed it—which is called ‘the blood of the covenant,’ Heb. 10:29, because thereby the covenant is confirmed, and all covenant-mercies assured to us. Again,—‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son,’ John 3:16; Hosea 14:4.
Here is a sic, without a sicut, that sic, so, signifies the firstness of the Father’s love, and the freeness of the Father’s love, and the vehemency of the Father’s love, and the admirableness of the Father’s love, and the matchlessness of the Father’s love.
Oh! what manner of love is this, for God to give his Son, not his servant; his begotten Son, not his adopted Son, his only Son, and not one son of many; his only Son by eternal generation, and communication of the same essence; to be a ransom and mediator for sinners!
God the Father loving lost man, sent his Son to suffer and to do the office of a mediator, that through his mediation, he might communicate the effects of his love, in a way agreeable to his justice! for God loved the world, and that antecedently to his giving Christ, and as a cause of it.
The design, the project of saving sinners, was first contrived and laid by God the Father; therefore Christ says, ‘The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do.’ God the Father sent his Son, and God the Father sealed his Son a commission to give life to lost sinners.
‘Him hath God the Father sealed;’ that is, made his commission authentical, as men do their deeds by their seals. It is a metaphor taken from them who ratify their authority whom they send; that is, approve of them, as it were, by setting to their seal.
Christ is to be acknowledged to be he whom the Father hath authorised and furnished to be the Saviour and Redeemer of lost sinners, and the storehouse from whence they are to expect all spiritual supplies.
Look, as kings give sealed warrants and commissions to their ministers of state, who are sent out or employed in great affairs, 1 Kings 21:8; Eph. 3:12, and 4:8, so Christ is the Father’s great ambassador, authorised and sent out by him to bring about the redemption and salvation of lost man.
And look, as a seal represents in wax that which is engraven on it, so the Father hath communicated to him his divine essence and properties, and stamped upon him all divine perfection, for carrying on the work of redemption. And look, as a seal annexed to a commission is a public evidence of the person’s authority, so Christ’s endowments are visible marks whereby to know him, and clear evidences that he was the true Messiah, and of the Father’s installing him into that office of a Redeemer.
So John 6:38, ‘I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.’
In this verse Christ declares in the general that his errand into the world is to do his Father’s will who sent him, and not his own; which is not to be understood that, as God, he hath a different and contrary will to the Father’s, though, as man, he hath a distinct and subordinate will to his.
But the meaning is, he came not to do his own will only, as the Jews alleged against him, but the Father’s also; and that in this work he was the Father’s commissioner, sent to do what he had entrusted him with, and not, as the Jews gave out, that he was one who did that for which he had no warrant.
Christ, in entertaining them that come to him, as in ver. 37, is not only led thereunto by his own mercy, and bounty, and love towards them, as the reward of all his sufferings, but doth also stand obliged thereunto by virtue of a commission and trust laid upon him by the Father, and accepted and undertaken by him; therefore he doth mention ‘the will of him that sent him’ as a reason of his fidelity in this matter.
By what has been said, it is most evident that God the Father had the first and chief hand in the great work of our redemption. It is good to look upon God the Father as the first projector of our happiness and blessedness, that we may honour the Father as we honour the Son, and love the Father as we love the Son, and value the Father as we value the Son, and admire the Father as we admire the Son, and exalt the Father as we exalt the Son, and cleave to the Father as we cleave to the Son, &c.
I have a little the longer insisted on this proposition, because commonly we are more apprehensive of the love of the Son than we are of the love of the Father, and that I may the more heighten your apprehensions of the Father’s love in the great work of redemption.
Ah! what amazing love is this, that the thoughts of the Father, that the eye of the Father, that the heart of the Father, should be first fixed upon us, that he should begin the treaty with his Son, that he should make the first motion of love, that he should first propose the covenant of redemption, and thereby lay such a sure foundation for man’s recovery out of his slavery and misery.
To speak after the manner of men, the business from eternity lay thus: Here is man, saith God the Father to his Son, fallen from his primitive purity, glory, and excellency, into a most woeful gulf of sin and misery; he that was once a son is now become a slave; he that was once a friend is now become an enemy, Eph. 2:12, 13; he that was once near us is now afar off; he that was once in favour is now cast off; he that was once made in our image has now the image of Satan stamped upon him, Gen. 1:26, 27; he who had once sweet communion with us has now fellowship with the devil and his angels.
Now out of this forlorn estate he can never deliver himself, neither can all the angels in heaven deliver him. Now this being his present case and state, I make this offer to thee, O my Son: If, in the fulness of time, Phil. 2:7, 8, thou wilt assume the nature of man, ‘tread the winepress of my wrath alone,’ Isa. 63:3, bear the curse, Gal. 3:13, shed thy blood, die, suffer, satisfy my justice, fulfil my royal law, then I can, upon the most honourable terms imaginable, save fallen man, and put him into a safer and happier condition than ever that was from whence Adam fell, and give thee a noble reward for all thy sufferings.
Upon this Jesus Christ replies: O my Father! I am very ready and willing to do, to suffer, to die, to satisfy thy justice, to comply with thee in all thy noble motions, and in all thy gracious and favourable inclinations, that poor sinners may be sanctified and saved, made gracious and glorious, holy and happy, that poor sinners may never perish, that poor sinners may be secured from wrath to come, and be brought into a state of light, life, and love, 1 Thes. 1:10; Heb. 10:10, 14; I am willing to make myself an offering; and, ‘Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God,’ Ps. 40:6, 7.
Thus you see how firstly, and greatly, and graciously, the thoughts of God have been set at work, that poor sinners may be for ever secured and saved.”
–Thomas Brooks, “Paradise Opened,” The Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 5, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1867/1980), 5: 362-365.
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