How Shall Man Be Right With God?
Horatius Bonar Biography (1809-1889)
The Finest Hymnwriter of Scotland
A recent statement describing Horatius Bonar sums up the significance of his literary endeavors — “clearly one of the most valued evangelical writers of the 19th century who has to be bracketed with J.C. Ryle and C.H. Spurgeon in his understanding of the power of the press and using it to extensive use.” So who is Horatius Bonar and do we know any hymns he has written?
Early Years and Theological Influence
Horatius was born in Edinburgh on December 19, 1808. His parents, James Bonar and Marjory Maitland, had 9 children, all of whom miraculously survived. His father was an elder in Lady Glenorchy’s Chapel, but died when Horatius was only 13 years old, hence his greatest influences during this early formative years was his godly mother and his elder brother, James.
He was educated at Edinburgh High School and Edinburgh University and took a course on Divinity. The professor of the subject at that time was Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847). Chalmers is chiefly remembered for his key role in the events that led to the formation of the Free Church of Scotland in 1843. Chalmers had an enormous influence on Bonar and his fellow students. His teachings allowed them to see Christ’s love in a fresh light.
Ministerial Assignments
After graduating from university, Horatius Bonar was assigned in St. John’s, Leith (1833-1837). He worked as an assistant minister to James Lewis and had the responsibility of running Sunday school. It was during his work with children that he began to write original hymns.
After his stint at Leith, he was requested to pastor a congregation at North Parish Church, in Kelso (1837-1866). Bonar’s preaching was thoroughly biblical. He was not blessed with commanding powers of oration, but rather, was characterized as a sober and erudite preacher.
Dr. Bonar had a modest estimate of his abilities, coupled with a seemingly boundless capacity for work. He edited and contributed to various magazines and periodicals; he wrote books, tracts, and hymns. His pen was scarcely idle. Whether it was a word of comfort to the afflicted saint or sound encouragement for the mature believer, his books were written with the sole purpose of communicating the truths of Scripture to the hearts and minds of his readers.
Horatius was unable to avoid the trials and afflictions of life. He and his wife, Jane Lundie, who he married in 1843, suffered greatly when five of their children died early in life. In a moment of deep sorrow, a broken Horatius wrote, “Spare not the stroke; do with me as thou will; let there be nothing unfinished, broken or marred; complete thy purpose that we may become thy perfect image.” Years later, when his son-in-law was taken early in life, Bonar’s daughter and five children came back to live with him and he was able to joyously write to a friend, “God took five children from me some years ago, and He has given me another five to bring up for Him in my old age.”
Bonar’s Hymns
Despite his numerous books and tracts, Bonar is most known for his hymns. He had begun writing hymns in 1833 in Leith for the over 280 children who attended Sunday school. The children’s hymns eventually led, in 1836, to his writing hymns that were for the use of older worshippers. Over the course of his life he went on to publish over 600 hymns and poems.
Many of Dr. Bonar's most precious hymns refer to Christ's second coming as the Christian's "blessed hope." In one of his last addresses he said: "I know not but this may be my last opportunity of bearing witness to the much-forgotten doctrine which was so specially given to the Church as her blessed hope; and I wish to say how increasingly important that doctrine is to me as the ages are running to their close, and the power of the great adversary is unfolding itself both in the church and in the world. The poison of the last days has penetrated everywhere. Unbelief, error, strong delusion, self-will, pride, hatred of God and of His Christ—these are the deadly forces operating all over the earth, disintegrating society, and demonstrating the necessity for the return of Him who is to end all of Satan's and man's evil work, and introduce the kingdom of righteousness and peace."
Dr. Bonar died in Edinburgh, July 31, 1889, and was buried at the base of Colton Hill, where he lies with his kindred, near to the house of the reformer John Knox. At his funeral no word of eulogy was offered, per his request; for what better eulogium could he have than the rich legacy of hymns he has left to the household of faith? Soon, the Savior of whom he so sweetly wrote, will come, and then in the home of glory above we shall sing together the praises of the precious Savior.
How Shall Man Be Right with God?
A Sermon By Horatius Bonar
How may I, a sinner, draw near to God in whom there is no sin, and look upon His face in peace? This is the great question which, at some time or other, every one of us has asked. This is one of the awful problems which man in all ages has been attempting to solve.
That man's answers to this question should have been altogether wide of the mark, is only what might have been expected; for he does not really understand the importance of the question which he, with much earnestness perhaps, is asking, nor discern the malignant character of that evil which is a barrier between him and God. That man's many elaborate solutions to the problem which has perplexed the race since evil entered should have been unsatisfactory, is not a wonder, seeing his ideas of human guilt are so superficial; his thoughts of himself so high; his views of God so low.
The preference which man has always shown for his own theories on this question is unaccountable, save upon the supposition that he has but a poor discernment of the evil forces with which he professes to battle; a faint knowledge of the spiritual havoc which has been wrought in himself; a very vague perception of what law and righteousness are; a sorrowful ignorance of that Divine Being with whom, as lawgiver and judge, he knows that he has to answer to; and a low appreciation of eternal holiness and truth.
Man has always treated sin as a misfortune, not a crime; as disease, not as guilt; as a case for the physician, not for the judge. Herein lies the essential faultiness of all mere human religions or theologies. They fail to acknowledge the judicial aspect of the question, as that on which the real answer must hinge; and to recognize the guilt or criminality of the evil-doer as that which must first be dealt with before any real answer, or approximation of an answer, can be given.
God is a Father; but He is no less a Judge. Shall the Judge give way to the Father, or the Father give way to the Judge? God loves the sinner; but He hates the sin. Shall He sink His love to the sinner in His hatred of the sin, or His hatred of the sin in His love to the sinner? God has sworn that He has no pleasure in the death of the sinner (Ezekiel 33:11); yet He has also sworn that the soul that sinneth, it shall die (Ezekiel 18:4). Which of the two oaths shall be kept? Shall the one give way to the other? Can both be kept inviolate? Can a contradiction, apparently so direct, be reconciled? Which is the more unchangeable and irreversible, the vow of pity or the oath of justice? Law and love must be reconciled. The one cannot give way to the other. Both must stand. The reconciliation man has often tried; but he has failed; for his endeavors have always been in the direction of making law succumb to love.
The reconciliation God has accomplished; and, in the accomplishment both law and love have triumphed. The one has not given way to the other. Each has kept its ground; nay, each has come from the conflict honored and glorified. Never has there been love like this love of God; so large, so lofty, so intense, so self-sacrificing. Never has law been seen so pure, so broad, so glorious, so inexorable.
There has been no compromise. Law and love have both had their full scope. Not one jot or tittle has been surrendered by either. They have been satisfied to the full; the one in all its severity, the other in all its tenderness. Love has never been more truly love, and law has never been more truly law, than in this conjunction of the two. It has been reconciliation without compromise. God's honor has been maintained, yet man's interests have not been sacrificed.
God has done it all; and He has done it effectually and irreversibly. God only could have devised and done it. He has done it by removing the whole case into His own courts of law, that it might be settled there on a righteous basis. Man could not have gone into court with the case, save in the certainty that he would lose it. God comes into court, bringing man and man's whole case along with Him, that upon righteous principles, and in a legal way, the case may be settled, at once in favor of man and in favor of God. It is this judicial settlement of the case that is God's one and final answer to man's long unanswered question, "How shall man be justified before God?"
Sin is too great an evil for man to meddle with. His attempts to remove it do but increase it, and his endeavors to approach God in spite of it aggravate his guilt. Only God can deal with sin, either as a disease or a crime; as a dishonor to Himself, or as a hinderer of man's approach to Himself. He deals with it not in some arbitrary or summary way, by a mere exercise of will or power, but by bringing it for adjudication into His own courts of law. As judge, seated on His tribunal, He settles the case, and settles it in favor of the sinner, -- of any sinner on the earth that will consent to the basis which He proposes. This settlement will at once be granted to each applicant; and the guilty man with his case, however bad, thus legally settled, retires from court with his burden removed and his fears dispelled, assured that he can never again be summoned to answer for his guilt.
May I then draw near to God, and not die? May I draw near, and live? May I come to Him who hates sin, and yet find that the sin which He hates is no barrier to my coming, no reason for my being shut out from His presence as an unclean thing? May I renew my lost fellowship with Him who made me, and made me for Himself? These are the questions with which God has dealt, and dealt with so as to ensure an answer which will satisfy our own troubled consciences as well as the holy law of God.
Yet the tendency of modern thought repels the thought that sin is crime, which God hates with an infinite hate, and which He, in His righteousness, must condemn and avenge. If sin is such a surface thing, such a trifle, as men deem it, what is the significance of this long sad story? Do earth's ten thousand graveyards, where human love lies buried, tell no darker tale? Do the millions upon millions of broken hearts and heavy eyes say that sin is but a trifle?
The world has grown old in sin, and has now more than ever begun to trifle with it, either as a necessity which cannot be cured, or a partial aberration from good order which will rectify itself before long. It is this refusal to see sin as God sees it, as the law declares it, and as the story of our race has revealed it, that has in all ages been the root of error. God's interposition on behalf of man must be a confirmation, not a relaxation of law: for law cannot change, even as God cannot change nor deny Himself.
God’s provision has been made by means of substitution, or transference of the penalty from him who had incurred it to One who had not. God has affirmed substitution as the principle on which he means to deal with fallen man. From the beginning God recognized this principle in His dealings with man; the Just dying for the unjust; the blessed One becoming a curse that the cursed might be blessed. In person and in work, in life and in death, Christ is the sinner's substitute. "He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." (II Corinthians 5:21)
To be entitled to use another's name, when my own name is worthless; to appear before God in another's person -- the person of the Beloved Son -- this is the summit of all blessing. The sin-bearer and I have exchanged names. I am now represented by Him; He now appears in the presence of God for me. So entirely am I one with the sin-bearer, that God treats me not merely as if I had not done the evil I have done; but as if I had done all the good which I have not done, but which my substitute has done. In one sense I am still the poor sinner, once under wrath; in another I am altogether righteous, and shall be so forever, because of the Perfect One, in whose perfection I appear before God. It is an exchange which has been provided by the Judge; an exchange of which any sinner upon earth may avail himself and be blest.
The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah is a prophetic vision of the cross, expressing the transference of the sinner's guilt to the Messiah. The prophet describes the Messiah as one rising up in the midst of us, but not to be appreciated and honored; not to be admired or loved. "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." (Isaiah 53:2-3)
Whence all this life-long sadness? Why is the holy Son of God, from his childhood, subjected to this contempt, and bowed down beneath this burden? It was our griefs that He was bearing; it was our sorrows that He was carrying. These were the things that made Him the man of sorrows. They that saw Him could not understand the mystery. They said, God has smitten him for his sins, and afflicted him for some hidden transgression that we know not. (Isaiah 53:4) But no; "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4-5) The wounding, the bruising, the chastening, and the scourging had their beginnings before He reached the cross; but it was there that they were all completed by "the obedience unto death." (Philippians 2:8)
On that tree of death and shame the work was finished; there He was numbered with the transgressors; there He bore the sin of many. "It is finished" were His words as He died. He who makes this announcement on the cross is the Son of God; it is He who but the day before had said in the prospect of this consummation, " I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.." (John 17:4-5) The work that justifies is done. It is so finished that a sinner may at once use it for pardon, for rest, for acceptance, for justification. There the divine displeasure against sin has spent itself; there righteousness has been obtained for the unrighteous.