A word from Augustus Toplady (1740-1778)

Reflecting on Genesis 49:10, Augustus Toplady extols the person and work of Christ.  Some may challenge this 18th century interpretation, but Toplady’s words are like music and speak truth worth repeating. 

Gen. 49:10 – The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. (KJV)

“Shiloh may be rendered Son; also Savior; likewise the peaceable and prosperous one.  The Septuagint translates it (or rather paraphrases it) – He for whom (all) things are laid up, or kept in store.  In this adorable person and most wonderful offices and transactions, Jesus exhausts every one of those significations.  He is, (1) the everlasting Son of the Father, as God; and the Son of Mary, as man. — (2) He is the effectual, the only and certain, Savior, i. e. deliverer and preserver of His elect body, the church. — (3) He is the alone peace-maker between God and men, by the infinitely precious blood of his cross. — (4) He prospered and prevailed, to the uttermost, in the whole and every branch of His mediatorial undertaking.  No part of His success as a Savior is uncertain, or suspended on a peradventure.  The reward of His humiliation lies in the absolute and infallible salvation of every individual sinner for whom He died.  And as His work was perfect, His reward is sure. — (5) For Him all things are reserved.  He is the appointed heir of all things; the Omega, or central end, no less than the Alpha, or author, of the worlds.  All beings are by Him, and for Him.  The elect, both angels and men, stoop to the sceptre of His grace; and the reprobate, both diabolic and human, must submit to the rod of His power.

“To Him shall the gathering of the people be.  It is plain from this clause of the text before us, that the redemption by Christ is not that random and precarious thing which the Arminian scheme pretends.  The salvation He wrought does not lie at sixes and sevens.  It is by no means unsettled, uncertain, or undetermined.  The dignity of His divine person, the infinite value of His sacrifice, together with the justice of His almighty Father, to whom the inestimable price was paid, render it impossible that any single soul should perish, for whom such a Redeemer died.  It is neither at the option, nor in the power, of thy corrupt free-will to render His mediation effectual or ineffectual.  All is firmly fixed by the unalterable will, the immoveable decree, and the everlasting covenant of the uncreated Three.  Christ did not come into the world at hap-hazard, nor live and die for a may-be.  He was born, and shed His blood, for a peculiar people, whom His own sanctifying grace was to make zealous for good works; and that He might gather together into one glorified company all the children of God that were scattered abroad.”   Complete Works, p. 426-7.