The Heart of Christ

Thomas Goodwin, Thomas Smith

• Publisher: GLH Publishing
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781648630057
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

The Heart of Christ in Heaven towards Sinners on Earth was first published in 1651, and it soon became Thomas Goodwin's (1600-1680) most popular work. It is a Christ-centered work and a has both a pastoral tone with theological precision. He shows that Christ has a heart toward all that he has saved.

The Heart

of

Christ

Thomas Goodwin

Vintage Puritan Series

GLH Publishing

Louisville, KY

Originally Titled The Heart of Christ in Heaven, to Sinners on Earth

Sourced from The Works of Thomas Goodwin, Vol. IV., 1862

Thomas Smith, General Editor

© GLH Publishing, LLC, 2013

This work has been lightly edited to update some spelling and update scripture references to arabic numbers.

ISBN:

Epub 978-1-64863-005-7

Sign up for updates from GLH Publishing using the link below and receive a free ebook.

http://eepurl.com/gj9V19

Contents

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part I.

Having set forth our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in all those great and most solemn actions of his—his obedience unto death, his resurrection, ascension into heaven, his sitting at God’s right hand, and intercession for us, which of all the other hath been more largely insisted on—I shall now annex (as next in order, and homogeneal thereunto) this discourse that follows, which lays open the heart of Christ, as now he is in heaven, sitting at God’s right hand and interceding for us; how it is affected and graciously disposed towards sinners on earth that do come to him; how willing to receive them; how ready to entertain them; how tender to pity them in all their infirmities, both sins and miseries. The scope and use whereof will be this, to hearten and encourage believers to come more boldly unto the throne of grace, unto such a Saviour and High Priest, when they shall know how sweetly and tenderly his heart, though he is now in his glory, is inclined towards them; and so to remove that great stone of stumbling which we meet with (and yet lieth unseen) in the thoughts of men in the way to faith, that Christ being now absent, and withal exalted to so high and infinite a distance of glory, as to ‘sit at God’s right hand,’ &c., they therefore cannot tell how to come to treat with him about their salvation so freely, and with that hopefulness to obtain, as those poor sinners did, who were here on earth with him. Had our lot been, think they, but to have conversed with him in the days of his flesh, as Mary, and Peter, and his other disciples did here below, we could have thought to have been bold with him, and to have had anything at his hands. For they beheld him afore them a man like unto themselves, and he was full of meekness and gentleness, he being then himself made sin, and sensible of all sorts of miseries; but now he is gone into a far country, and hath put on glory and immortality, and how his heart may be altered thereby we know not. The drift of this discourse is therefore to ascertain poor souls, that his heart, in respect of pity and compassion, remains the same it was on earth; that he intercedes there with the same heart he did here below; and that he is as meek, as gentle, as easy to be entreated, as tender in his bowels; so that they may deal with him as fairly about the great matter of their salvation, and as hopefully, and upon as easy terms to obtain it of him, as they might if they had been on earth with him, and be as familiar with him in all their needs—than which nothing can be more for the comfort and encouragement of those who have given over all other lives but that of faith, and whose souls pursue after strong and entire communion with their Saviour Christ.

Now the demonstrations that may help our faith in this I reduce to two heads: the first more extrinsical and outward; the second more intrinsical and inward: the one showing the ὃτι of it, that it is so; the other the διὃτι, the reasons and grounds why it must be so.

I. First, for those extrinsical demonstrations (as I call them), they are taken from several passages and carriages of his, in all those several conditions of his; namely, at his last farewell afore his death, his resurrection, ascension, and how he is sitting at God’s right hand. I shall lead you through all the same heads which I have gone over in the former treatise1 (though to another purpose), and take such observations from his speeches and carriages, in all those states he went through, as shall tend directly to persuade our hearts of the point in hand, namely this, that now he is in heaven, his heart remains as graciously inclined to sinners that come to him, as ever on earth. And for a ground or introduction to these first sort of demonstrations, I shall take this Scripture that follows; as for those other, another Scripture, as proper to that part of this discourse.

When Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own, he loved them to the end; (or) forever.—John 13:1.

Demonstrations from Christ’s last farewell to his disciples.

I. It was long before that Christ did break his mind to his disciples that he was to leave them, and to go away to heaven from them, for, John 16:4, he says, he had forborne ‘to tell it them from the beginning.’ But when he begins to acquaint them with it, he then at once leaves them an abundance of his heart, and that not only how it stood towards them, and what it was at the present, but what it would be when he should be in his glory. Let us, to this end, but briefly peruse his last carnage, and his sermon at his last supper which he did eat with them, as it is on purpose penned and recorded by the evangelist John; and we shall find this to be the drift of those long discourses of Christ’s, from the 13th to the 18th chapter. I will not make a comment on them, but only briefly take up such short observations as do more specially hold forth this thing in hand.

1. These words which I have prefixed as the text, are the preface unto all that his discourse that follows (namely, unto that washing of his disciples’ feet, and his succeeding sermon), which accordingly do show the argument and sum of all. The preface is this: ‘Before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And supper being ended, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God, he then washed his disciples’ feet.’ Now this preface was prefixed by the evangelist, on purpose to set open a window into Christ’s heart, to show what it was then at his departure, and so withal to give a light into, and put a gloss and interpretation upon all that follows. The scope whereof is to show what his affections would be to them in heaven: he tells us what Christ’s thoughts were then, and what was his heart amidst those thoughts, both which occasioned all that succeeds.

(1.) He premiseth what was in Christ’s thoughts and his meditation. He began deeply to consider, both that he was to depart out of this world, ‘Jesus knew,’ &c., says the text (that is, was then thinking of it), ‘that he should depart unto the Father,’ and how that then he should shortly be installed into that glory which was due unto him; so it follows, ver. 3, ‘Jesus knowing’ (that is, was then actually taking into his mind) ‘that the Father had given all things into his hands,’ that is, that all power in heaven and earth was his, so soon as he should set footing in heaven; then in the midst of these thoughts he tells us, he went and washed his disciples’ feet, after he had first considered whither he was to go, and there what he was to be.

(2.) But, secondly, what was Christ’s heart most upon, in the midst of all these elevated meditations? Not upon his own glory so much, though it is told us that he considered that, thereby the more to set out his love unto us, but upon these thoughts his heart ran out in love towards, and was set upon, ‘his own:’ ‘having loved his own,’ says the 1st verse, τὸυς ἰδίους, his own, a word denoting the greatest nearness, dearness, and intimateness founded upon propriety.2 The elect are Christ’s own, a piece of himself, not τὰ ἲδίους, as goods, John 1:11: ‘he came unto his own, and his own received him not;’ τὰ ἲδια, the word shows that he reckons them his own, but as goods, not as persons, but he calls these here τὸυς ἰδίους, his own by a nearer propriety, that is, his own children, his own members, his own wife, his own flesh; and he considers, that though he was to go out of the world, yet they were to be in the world, and therefore it is on purpose added, ‘which were in the world,’ that is, to remain in this world. He had others of his own who were in that world unto which he was going, even ‘the spirits of just men made perfect,’ whom as yet he had never seen. One would think, that when he was meditating upon his going out of this world, his heart should be all upon Abraham, his Isaacs, and his Jacobs, whom he was going to; no, he takes more care for his own, who were to remain here in this world, a world wherein there is much evil (as himself says, John 17:15), both of sin and misery, and with which themselves, whilst in it, could not but be defiled and vexed. This is it which draws out his bowels towards them, even at that time when his heart was full of the thoughts of his own glory: ‘having loved his own, he loved them unto the end.’ Which is spoken to show the constancy of his love, and what it would be when Christ should be in his glory. ‘To the end,’ that is, to the perfection of it, εἰς τελείωσιν, says Chrysostom; having begun to love them, he will perfect and consummate his love to them. And ‘to the end,’ that is, forever. So in the Greek, εἰς τέλος is sometimes used, and so by the evangelist the phrase is here used in a suitableness to the Scripture phrase, Ps. 103:9, ‘He will not always chide, nor reserve anger forever,’ so we translate it; but in the original, ‘He reserves not anger unto the end.’ So that the scope of this speech is to show how Christ’s heart and love would be towards them even forever, when he should be gone unto his Father, as well as it was to show how it had been here on earth, they being his own; and he having loved them, he alters, he changes not, and therefore will love them forever.

(3.) And then thirdly, to testify thus much by a real testimony, what his love would be, when in heaven, to them, the evangelist shows, that when he was in the midst of all those great thoughts of his approaching glory, and of the sovereign estate which he was to be in, he then took water and a towel, and washed his disciples’ feet. This to have been his scope will appear, if you observe but the coherence in the second verse, it is said, that ‘Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands,’ then (ver. 4) ‘he riseth from supper, and lays aside his garments, and took a towel and girded himself (ver. 5) after that, ‘he poured water into a basin, and began to wash his disciples’ feet,’ &c., where it is evident that the evangelist’s scope is to hold forth this unto us, that then when Christ’s thoughts were full of his glory, and when he took in the consideration of it unto the utmost, even then, and upon that occasion, and in the midst of those thoughts, he washed his disciples’ feet. And what was Christ’s meaning in this, but that, whereas when he should be in heaven, he could not make such outward visible demonstrations of his heart, by doing such mean services for them; therefore by doing this in the midst of such thoughts of his glory, he would show what he could be content (as it were) to do for them, when he should be in fall possession of it? So great is his love unto them. There is another expression of Christ’s like unto this, in Luke 12:36, 37, which confirms this to be his meaning here, and to be his very heart in heaven. At ver. 36, he compares himself to a bridegroom, who is to go to heaven unto a wedding-feast; who hath servants on earth that stand all that while here below, as without, waiting for him; at which, because they wait so long, they may think much, Christ adds, ‘Verily I say unto you, that when the bridegroom returns’ (refreshed with wine and gladness) ‘he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.’ The meaning is not as if that Christ served at the latter day, or now in heaven, those that sit down there; but only it is an abundant expression in words, as here in a real instance, to set forth the overflowing love that is in his heart, and the transcendent happiness that we shall then enjoy, even beyond what can be expected by us; he utters himself therefore by an unwonted thing not heard of, that the Lord should serve his servants, and wait on them that waited for him. And it is to show his heart to them, and what he could be contented to do for them. So that you see what his heart was before he went to heaven, even amidst the thoughts of all his glory; and you see what it is after he hath been in heaven, and greatened with all his glory, even content to wash poor sinners’ feet, and to serve them that come to him and wait for him.

(4.) Now, fourthly, what was the mystery of this his washing their feet? It was, as to give them an example of mutual love and humility, so to signify his washing away their sins; thus, verses 8 and 10, himself interprets it. It is true indeed, that, now he is in heaven, he cannot come to wash the feet of their bodies, but he would signify thus much thereby, that those sinners that will come to him when in his glory, he will wash away all their sins; ‘He loved his church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle,’ &c., Eph. 5:25-27.

2. This specimen or declaration of his mind, we have from this his carriage, at this his last farewell. Let us next take a survey of the drift of that long sermon which he made at that his farewell, and we shall find the main scope of it to be farther to assure his disciples of what his heart would be unto them; and that will make a second demonstration.

It were too long a work to insist upon each particular. But certainly, no loving husband ever endeavoured more to satisfy the heart of his spouse during his absence, than Christ doth his disciples’ hearts, and in them all believers. For take that along, once for all, that what Christ said unto them, he says unto us, as in that 17th of John that speech implies, ‘I pray not for them only, but for those also that shall believe through their word. And as what he prayed for them was for all believers also, so what he then spake unto them.

(1.) First, he lets them see what his heart would be unto them, and how mindful of them when in heaven, by that business which he professeth he went thithe r to perform for them; concerning which, observe first, that he lovingly acquaints them with it aforehand what it is, which argued care and tenderness, as from an husband unto a wife it doth. And withal, how plain-heartedly doth he speak, as one that would not hide any thing from them! ‘I tell you the truth of it’ (says he), ‘it is expedient, and expedient for you, that I go away,’ John 16:7. And secondly, he tells them, it is wholly for them and their happiness, ‘I go to send you a comforter,’ whilst you are in this world, and ‘to prepare a place for you,’ John 14:2, when you shall go out of this world. ‘There are many mansions in my Father’s house,’ and I go to take them up for you, and to keep your places for you till you come. And there again, how openly and candidly doth he speak to them! ‘If it had been otherwise, says he, I would have told you.’ You may believe me, I would not deceive you for all the glory in that place to which I am a-going. Whom would not this openness and nakedness of heart persuade? But then, thirdly, the business itself being such as is so much for us and our happiness, how much more doth that argue it. And indeed, Christ himself doth fetch from thence an argument of the continuance of his love to them. So ver. 3, ‘If I go to prepare a place for you,’ if that be my errand, then doubt not of my love when I am there, all the glory of the place shall never make me forget my business. When he was on earth, he forgot none of the business for which he came into the world; ‘Shall I not do my Father’s business?’ said he, when he was a child; yes, and he did it to the utmost, by fulfilling all righteousness. Surely therefore he will not forget any of that business which he is to do in heaven, it being the more pleasant work b...

Table of contents

• Part I.