Jeremiah Burroughs, The Saints Treasury
Chapter 1 Incomparable excellence and holiness of God
3 – For there is none like the Lord, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, and doing wonders (Ex. 15:11).
4 – There is none like Thee (1Chron. 17:20; Ps 86:8; 89:6).
6-7 – All that God is in Him is originally Him, He is of Himself and from Himself and for Himself. Then, none can communicate Himself as God can, none can inflict evil or convey good as God can. He can make the creature to which He communicates His goodness to be sensible of His goodness as He pleases which none else can do. In other words, God is unique in the excellencies of His nature and in the way of communicating Himself to His creature.
8-9 – Beauty and the creature is but a glory pointer. We must keep our affections reserved for God. We need to frequently review the Creator creature distinction lest we fall into the idolatry of creature worship.
10-11 – We must constantly inform our hunger for excellence on the excellency of God, that He is wonderfully separated from the world, and He is redeeming a people who are wonderfully separated from the world. When we emphasize the infinite distance between God and the creation, we are glorifying Him.
14-15 – The most concentrated Scripture passage on idolatry is Jer 8:1-2. This passage summarizes the activities and worshipping involvement of the idolater. All the excellencies in the world are infinitely below God. Therefore, it is great wickedness to set our lusts upon these created excellencies. God regards this sin as selling ourselves to our lusts. We resist this sin by letting our heart be fully set for God (Ecc 8:11 and 1 Kings 21:20).
17-20 – Your admiration of God must not be in the same category of admiration that you would have for the creature. For God is glorious, magnificent, noble, holy and excellent as the original and thus, infinitely above the creature. Scripture says God is glorious in holiness rather than in power. God can work with sin itself without any defilement of His nature. His character and ways are the standard of holiness. God’s holiness is too bright to be beheld in itself. We cannot behold infinite purity and holiness of God immediately. We may see a tiny reflected beam of it in the creature, but God’s holiness must be mediated to us. God’s holiness is a dedication of God to Himself as His own last end, He wills Himself as the highest and utmost end, and so He wills all things in order to Himself as the last and highest end. The image of this holiness is that stamp and work of grace that is upon the creature. When the creature is enabled to will God as the highest end, and all things in subordination to Him, the creature is then said to be holy. Thus, salvation through Christ is the action of the Lord in working in His people their commitment to God’s own commitment to His name. God’s commitment to His own holiness appears to be a truth that is lost in the church today (Ps 99:3).
21-23 – God’s holiness is adored above any other attribute of His. God glories in His own holiness. He swears by His holiness. The glories of heaven are the habitation of His holiness and only in heaven will God let out and reveal and communicate His holiness fully (Ps 47:8; Is 57:15; Amos 4:2; Is 63:15). God rejoices in the holiness of His people. His people are committed to be separated unto His holy name (Deut 7:6). Christ died to sanctify His people unto God (Eph 5:25-26; 1 Cor :11). Holiness is God’s highest perfection; holiness is the glory of God (Ps 27:4, 110:3, 111:9).
24-27 – The end and goal of all of God’s works is to advance and extend the glory of His holiness. All of God’s works are to advance His holiness. Holiness is that which that God aimed at when he created heaven and earth. It is what He aims at in all the ways of His providence. It is the end of the great counsel of God from all eternity that He might manifest His own holiness in those two great attributes, justice and mercy. It is the great business for which the Son of God came into the world that He might redeem to Himself a people to serve in holiness. Mercy and justice are the branches of His holiness; He will make shine to all eternity. That is the goal at which God aims, therefore, holiness must be the glory of God’s name. Unlike the creature, God keeps His holiness whether He is manifesting power, mercy, or wrath. He is holy in discipline and holy in His faithfulness. He manifests that holiness in fulfilling His promises to His people. God is committed to His holy glory; it is dearer to Him than your own soul is to you. God is jealous for every beam of His glory. The saint needs to know why that is in his highest interest.
28-30 – For the redeemed, the beauty of God’s holiness draws out their hearts to Him. God’s holiness makes our communion with Him pure and clean and reliable. God takes delight in us because we have just some drops of His holiness. Oh, how we should rejoice in Him then who is infinite in holiness. He is the source. We have just a little echo of His holiness. Unlike the creature, He is excellent in every part and all His dealings. Holiness puts a luster and glory upon the divine nature itself, so that if you have the holiness, it must put a glory on you.
31-33 – Our holiness is a derivative of His; He made us partakers of it (Heb 12:10; 2 Pet 1:3-4). Holiness fits us to commune with God; for He does not fellowship with sin and darkness. There is no communion with God without holiness in the creature. Holiness is the beginning of eternal life in the heart; it is the principle of eternal life. Holiness is what God delights in. Holiness separates us for God and for eternal life. The believer is a vessel of mercy whom God has set apart for Himself for the purpose of holiness, that God might glorify them with Himself (Ps 4:3). God initiated our holy consecration to Himself. Holiness is the dedication of the creature to God. There is a kind of horror in the active principle of sin which separates a creature unto eternal wrath and misery. Those separated from God unto their sin will experience sins eternal and cumulative existence.
34-37 – Though the wicked may mock you, they respect and reverence you in their heart and conscience. They notice that you walk strictly. They can see that your holiness dignifies you. Those who injure God’s people who are engaged in His holy worship, will experience the terrors of the Lord, for God will avenge His people (Ps 68:35). When we converse with God much and often, our delight in communing with Him will make us holy (Ps 90:17). It is a great privilege to serve God; we must order our heart laboring to sanctifying our hearts in order to serve Him (Josh 24:19; 1 Sam 6:20; Job 13:11).
38-39 – Here the author explains why the priest was not to ascend to the alter upon steps of polished stone (Ez 7:20). The holiness of God humbles us like nothing else, and causes us to view our sin its wretchedness (Is 6:5).
40-41 – Do we really know who God is? Were there not a mediator between the creature and God, God would eternally pour out His wrath upon the creature. We seldom consider the horror of being a sinner outside of Christ. Outside of Christ even if we could weep rivers of blood from our eyes, God would hate and abhor us and His wrath would eternally seize us. Christ is such a wonderful refuge for believing sinners; you do not have to deal with God in yourself, but through Christ and in Him you have liberty to come to God. Study the mystery of the gospel. Make use of Christ that the glory of God’s holiness may not be to your terror but to your comfort.
Chapter 2 Christ is All in All
42 – The saints enjoyment of God is described in 1 Corinthians 15:28.
43 – The father’s delight in the son of God is found in Proverbs 8:30.
44 – What is the great message that believers are bringing to the world? It is that God communicates Himself through a mediator. By the light of nature men understand and are convinced that they need divine mercy, but they are ignorant that this mercy only comes through a mediator. Without a mediator their cries for mercy will not be heard and they will perish eternally. It says in 1 Corinthians 1:21 that God was well pleased that through the wisdom of men they would not come to know Him.
45 – How sobering a truth this is that not one drop of divine mercy unto eternal life can be communicated from God except through Christ the mediator. It is the work of the spirit to know this, for it is spiritually discerned.
46 – There is no growing up unto godliness and spiritual maturity until we come to know that God is giving himself to us in Christ.
47-48 – God communicates himself through Jesus Christ—this is the way in which we come to be filled with all the fullness of God. We do not honor God merely as creator of heaven and earth. God does not accept natural honor. We must honor him in an evangelical way; that is through the Gospel. Otherwise the honor and service we give will not be accepted.
50 – Paul tells us in Ephesians that the blood of Christ has brought us near, only those who have an interest in the blood of Christ have anything to do with God. Like a son of a king taking a banished traitor to his father, Christ takes us by the hand and leads us to God.
51-53 – There was such a great need for a second covenant. For all of Adam’s descendants are covenant breakers. A second covenant was needed because the law condemns us and thereby stops mercy. The law condemns all souls found in their natural state who are not found in the son of God. Why is that so, because divine mercy will not stir until justice is satisfied. What is the error that has ruined countless individuals? They get no further than the following steps: one, they become sensible of their sins. Two, they believe God is infinitely merciful. Three, they believe that recognition of the first two, along with their remorse that they have done well enough. This is wrong, without an interest in Christ they will be undone forever. The ground of the new covenant with its promises to believing sinners are grounded upon what passed between the Father and the Son in eternity passed in which the second person of the Trinity agreed to take on our nature (Titus 1:2).
54 – Adam as head of the first covenant had his covenant breaking imputed to all his descendants. Only a second covenant could reverse this so as to recover us. But if the fulfillment of the second covenant depended upon us for its performance, we would have broken it and failed. The curse of the law cries for our judgment and condemnation. The curse must be born if we are to be delivered. Now here is a truth for millennials to hear: the dishonor to God brought about by our sins must be answered by suffering, His divine justice requires that.
55 – God’s honor is recovered in the death of Christ. Christ’s suffering makes up for the dishonor. In effect God says “I will have as much honor as I had dishonor in the sinning of the creature. These are the conditions upon which I will be reconciled to man.” Your sin dishonored Me, how will you be recovered and delivered? But the sinner argues “You are merciful.” God’s answer: ‘I will have as much honor by suffering as I had dishonor by your sinning. I will vindicate my holiness.” This is why the damned in hell will lie there forever. And so in the new covenant Christ lays down the price to God so that He shall have as much honor by his Son’s suffering for sin as He had dishonor in sin being committed.
56 – Thus through Christ’s propitiation divine mercy streams out to the children of men. In the Christ God shows forth his righteousness. Christ conveys God’s goodness by performing the obligations of the covenant and in so doing satisfying divine justice.
57 – Christ’s mediation as our substitute involves presenting His merits on our behalf in a continual work of intercession—the great thing we need from God is acceptance of us as righteous. This is the justification won for us by redemption (Romans 3:24).
58-59 – Justification is by faith alone, the sinner comes empty handed. When Christ is in the bridal chamber with us it is Christ and faith alone, only those two, but when we go abroad with Christ we manifest other graces so that our bond with him becomes evident. There is a great danger in the church today it’s amazing how easily the truth of justification is lost, faithful churchgoers hope that God will accept their deeds their duties, their performance, their faithfulness—and in so doing, God’s mercy shall bring about their justification. But God only accepts a perfect righteousness, woe to all the biblical saints if their combined righteousness is what they depended upon for salvation. Many churched individuals have bought into the error that God adds His mercy to their efforts so that they may eke their justification. No! We must have a righteousness beyond our own. God in Christ did not come to add his mercy to your efforts. “Do your best and God will do the rest” is the Devil’s gospel and it will take you to hell.
60-62 – It is a soul damning error to get the relationship between mercy and justification wrong. The true work of God’s mercy in justification is to take a soul off of himself, to remove his carnal foundation, to bankrupt him, or as Burroughs says “to unbottom him”—to make him sensible of his unrighteousness and uncleanness, that is the mighty work of God’s mercy. The only righteousness that is acceptable that we offer up to God is the righteousness of our mediator. No one goes to heaven except those who are righteous by faith, and the only reason you will be in heaven is because your Substitute is righteous. Luther said it well Countless church goers have a false confidence, for nothing is harder than to take Christ alone for righteousness. People have a false peace and are complacent when conscience is napping. But let the conscience come into violent conflict and trouble; that is when it is most difficult to take Christ as all in all in our justification—that is a true test of whose righteousness we are trusting. True believers are regarded righteous because of their union with Christ (John 1:12). Luther said “it is harder to comfort an afflicted conscience than to raise the dead.”
63 – Sanctification flows to us through Christ; the only way to overcome our corruptions is to understand that God is letting out his grace through Christ. When that flows into the soul you will have power for sanctification.
64-67 – Christ is ‘Source Person’, none of our duties or services to God are accepted without him. The gospel is incredibly counter-intuitive; it does not fit the light of reason and nature. Sinners find it scandalous that if they cry for mercy and pardon and deliverance from their sins, that God will not deliver them without a mediator. Why does God only communicate himself through a mediator?
68-70 – In Christ God’s justice is glorified perfectly in the payment of the debt. God’s infinite wisdom appears in the reconciliation of justice and mercy. God is infinitely just and infinitely merciful, but these two attributes are only reconciled by the blood of the lamb. The cross shows God’s hatred of sin, it is the greatest manifestation of his hatred of sin, even more of a manifestation than eternal hell.
72-73 – Countless individuals say that they believe in the God of the Bible. But most have only seen his footprints or his back parts (Ps 77:19). Only by Christ and him crucified can we behold the glory of the Lord, and see that glory in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18; 4:4-6). An enlightened sinner, begins to reason “If this is the wisdom of God, that he conveys his mercy through Christ, why then should I remain alienated from God in unbelief?”
75-76 – God appoints from all eternity that all grace and mercy that men shall have from Him shall only be through his son, that all may honor the Son even as the Father. Creation, providence, and the cosmos are but “a low piece of work” compared to redemption.
77-78 – What is the strong evidence that you have salvation and are a gracious soul? That God has opened your eyes to see the glory of the mystery of the gospel and your heart is taken and overcome by it, this is evidence that you’ve received mercy, for this truth is hidden from those who hope to be saved in some religious formal way. But if you’ve seen the mystery of the gospel then your heart has been raised up with admiration and the glory of the world has now been darkened to you. We must constantly bless God that the great mystery of the gospel has been revealed to us (Isaiah 49:8; 2 Corinthians 6:1-2).
79-83 – Has the mystery of the gospel been opened to you? That God is giving himself, letting himself out to his people through Christ? Has God taught you that the infinite distance between you and God is fully made up by the mediator? Luther said “God looked upon outside of Christ is most dreadful and terrible. We must know him only as a God who can be reconciled to us through his son”.
Jay’s Chart on God’s Ultimate Purpose to Glorify His Holiness
Why did God create a cosmos and a human history? God wanted a stage, a theatre if you will for His moral majesty. Only God knows how wonderful He is, and so he has a boundless propensity to share Himself. And so His desire to extend his glory is perfectly rational, holy and righteous. And so he made two orders of creatures designed to find their highest goal and end in God.
How marvelous that God is glorifying His holiness in the redemption of sinners. Two of the prongs of God’s glorious holiness are justice and mercy. But those attributes are invisible in a sinless universe. The Person of Christ becomes the mediator, the redeemer who will be the source of mercy because of His satisfaction of divine justice. And so Christ himself will become the new covenant and that will replace the broken covenant in Adam. All of us are covenant-breakers in Adam, we have inherited his nature, and we have brought immeasurable dishonor to God.
For this to make sense we have to realize that we are created in God’s image and likeness. Therefore we really don’t know who we are until we know deeply the One we are created to reflect. We are created to reflect God’s moral majesty in our relationships and in our worship and so there must be an echo of holiness in the creature in order for us to fulfill our cultural calling and our creational identity as the image of God. So ‘yes’ we were put on earth to be stewards over the work of God’s hands and to bring order over the creation to be bountiful, but those things are not an end in themselves. We are put here to be the image of God. And so our calling is inseparable from our creational identity as the moral image of God.
Because of secular humanism, we have bought into a new definition for homo sapiens. We define man as something other than his core identity—that he is first and foremost created in the image and likeness of God. Our creational identity cannot be reversed, if people buy into the myths of Hollywood and false ideas of other worldly philosophers and mythmakers whose damnable heresies are championed in our universities, it does not change the metaphysical foundation of our existence that God is ultimate reality. How arrogant that the majority of mankind believes that somehow they may create an illusory world and live in it. Or consider the humanistic version of this lie, with man as a meaningless biological robot programmed by mechanistic determinism—it is impossible to live that worldview—autonomy in God’s universe is an unreachable dream.
Our creational identity is the moral image of God. Restoration to our Maker to live as the image of God is only through salvation in Christ who is the perfect image of God. There is no other way to be fulfilled, happy, to have joy, to be in step with your creative purpose than to be in the Son.
Let’s think for a moment why salvation glorifies God, the Father does the electing, the Son does the redeeming, the Spirit does the calling. And so this massive project to restore us to the perfect image of God is a recovery project so that in Christ we ultimately are brought back to the ability and capacity to be the perfect image of God—a goal ultimately not realized fully in the glory to come.
Now, every unbeliever looks at God’s ultimate purpose to create a universe for the glory of his holiness and sees that divine purpose as a conflict of interest. Do you know why the unbeliever thinks that way? Answer: because the unbeliever has a peace treaty with sin—he loves his imagined autonomy. And because the unbeliever has a détente with sin, God’s holiness produces dread, offense, even revulsion.
So unbelievers reason that God’s glory and their good are hostile to one another. Now this is nothing less than the lie sown in Eden by the evil one, for when that lie was formally believed by eating of the forbidden fruit, the light of the knowledge of God that Adam had was replaced by darkness. Every sinner has inherited that lie and its effects, namely that God’s glory and our highest good are not compatible.
How is the lie expelled from the human heart? Answer: “look and live” as with the brazen serpent: when by faith you see the Son of God pumping out his heart’s blood onto the dusty Judean soil for the likes of you in your corruption, defilement and rebellion, the lie is purged from your heart. And for the first time in your life you see that God’s glory and your eternal good are on the same page. For the first time in your life you realize that God is accomplishing his glory and your rescue together. For the first time in your life you see that in and through Christ God has joined his glory with your ultimate good.
When that takes place and the Holy Spirit floods your heart with light, you become committed to God’s own commitment to glorify his own holiness. Prior to the Spirit’s calling, you saw God’s glory and your good as a conflict of interest. But now that your recovery and God’s glory are accomplished together in Christ, you now have a passion for God’s own passion which is his Glory. God’s cause becomes your cause.