Section 2

Romans 8:34. Who shall condemn? Christ has died.

CHAP. 1.

To come now to all those four particulars of or about Christ as the object of faith here mentioned, and to show both how Christ in each is the object of faith as justifying, and what support or encouragement the faith of a believer may fetch from each of them in point of justification, which is the argument of the main body of this discourse.

First, Christ as dying is the object of justifying faith: 'Who shall condemn? Christ has died.'

For the explanation of which, I will 1. give a direction or two.

2. Show how an encouragement, or matter of triumph, may from here be fetched.

1. The first direction is this: that in seeking forgiveness or justification in the promises, as Christ is to be principally in the eye of your faith, so it must be Christ as crucified, Christ as dying, as here he is made. It was the serpent as lifted up, and so looked at, that healed them. Now this direction I give to prevent a mistake which souls that are about to believe do often run into; for when they hear that the person of Christ is the main object of faith, they thus conceive of it, that when one comes first to believe, he should look only upon the personal excellencies of grace and glory which are in Jesus Christ, which follow upon the hypostatic union, and so have his heart allured in to Christ by them only, and close with him under those apprehensions alone. But although it be true that there is that radical disposition in the faith of every believer which, if it were drawn forth to view Christ in his mere personal excellencies abstractively considered, would close with Christ for them alone, as seeing such a beauty and suitableness in them — yet the first view which a humbled soul always does and is to take of him is of his being a Savior, made sin and a curse, and obeying to the death for sinners. He takes up Christ in his first sight of him under the likeness of sinful flesh (for so the gospel first represents him, though it holds forth his personal excellencies also), and in that representation it is that he is made a fit object for a sinner's faith to trust and rest upon for salvation, which in part distinguishes a sinner's faith while here on earth towards Christ from that vision or sight which angels and the souls of men have in heaven of him. Faith here views him not only as glorious at God's right hand (though so also) but as crucified, as made sin and a curse, and so rests upon him for pardon; but in heaven we shall see him as he is and be made like him. Take Christ in his personal excellencies simply considered, and so with them proposed as a head to us, and he might have been a fit object for angels and men even without sin to have closed with, and what an addition to their happiness would they have thought it to have him for their husband! But yet, so considered, he should be and rather is the object of love than of faith or affiance. It is therefore Christ that is thus excellent in his person, yet further considered as clothed with his garments of blood and the qualifications of a mediator and reconciler — it is this that makes him so desirable by sinners and a fit object for their faith (which looks out for justification) to seize upon, though they take in the consideration of all his other excellencies to allure their hearts to him and confirm their choice of him. Indeed I say further: consider faith as justifying, that is, in that act of it which justifies a sinner, and so Christ taken only or mainly in his personal excellencies cannot properly be called the object of it; but the formal reason, the proper respect or consideration that makes Christ the object of faith as justifying, must necessarily be that in Christ which does indeed justify a sinner, which is his obedience to death. For the act and object of every habit or faculty are always suited and similar each to other, and therefore Christ justifying must needs be the object of faith justifying. It is true that there is nothing in Christ with which some answerable act of faith in us does not close, and from the differing considerations under which faith looks at Christ, those several acts of faith have various denominations. As: faith that is carried forth to Christ and his personal excellencies may be called uniting faith; and faith that goes forth to Christ for strength of grace to subdue sin may (answerably to its object) be called sanctifying faith; and faith as it goes forth to Christ (as dying, etc.) for justification may be called justifying faith. For faith in that act looks at what in Christ does justify a sinner, and therefore Christ considered as dying, rising, etc. does in this respect become the most pleasing and grateful object to a soul that is humbled, for this makes Christ suitable to him as he is a sinner, under which consideration he reflects upon himself when he is first humbled. And therefore thus to represent Christ to believers under the law was the main scope of all the sacrifices and types therein: all things being purged with blood, and without blood there being no remission (Hebrews 9). Thus did the Apostles also in their sermons. So Paul in his epistle to the Corinthians seemed by the matter of his sermon to have known nothing but Christ, and him as crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2), as Christ above all, so Christ as crucified above all in Christ, as suiting their condition best, whom he endeavored to draw on to faith on him. Thus in his epistle to the Galatians he calls his preaching among them the preaching of faith (chapter 3:2), and what was the main scope of it but the picturing out (as the word is) of Christ crucified before their eyes (verse 1)? So he preached him, and so they received him, and so they began in the Spirit (verse 3). And thus also do the seals of the promises (the sacraments) present Christ to a believer's eye: as they hold forth Christ (as was in the former direction observed), so Christ as crucified, their scope being to show forth his death till he come (1 Corinthians 11:26), the bread signifying Christ's body broken in the sufferings of it, and the cup signifying the sufferings of his soul and the pouring of it forth to death. And hence likewise, as faith itself is called faith on Christ (as was before observed), so it is called faith on his blood (Romans 3:24–25), because Christ as shedding his blood for the remission of sins is the object of it. So the words there are: 'Whom God has ordained to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins.' And as God has ordained and set forth Christ in the promises, under that picture of him does faith at first close with him. And one reason, similar to the former, may be grounded on verse 24 of that Romans 3: 'Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ.' And as (I showed before in the reason of the former direction) all promises hold of his person as being heir of all the promises, so the special tenure upon which forgiveness of sins holds of him is by purchase and by the redemption that is in him. So that as the promise of forgiveness refers to his person, so also to this redemption that is in him. Thus both in Ephesians 1 and Colossians 1: 'In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.' His person gives us title to all the promises, and his blood shows the tenure they hold on — a purchase and a full price, an adequate price (1 Timothy 2:6). And as sin is the strength of the law and of the threatenings thereof, so Christ's satisfaction is the strength of all the promises in the gospel. In a word, a humbled soul is to have recourse to that Christ who is now alive and glorified in heaven, yet to him as once crucified and made sin. He is to go to Christ now glorified as the person from whom he is to receive forgiveness, etc., but also to him as crucified, as through whom (considered in that condition he then was in) he is to receive all.

CHAP. 2.

Now then, a second direction for faith towards Christ as dying is this: faith is principally and mainly to look to the end, meaning, and intent of God and Christ in his sufferings, and not simply at the tragic story of his death and sufferings. It is the heart and mind and intent of Christ in suffering which faith chiefly eyes and which draws the heart on to rest on Christ crucified. When a believer sees that Christ's aim in suffering for poor sinners agrees and answers to the aim and desires of his heart, and that that was the end of it — that sinners might have forgiveness, and that Christ's heart was as full in it to procure it as the sinner's heart can be to desire it — this draws his heart in to Christ to rest upon him. And without this, the contemplation and meditation of the story of his sufferings and of the greatness of them will be altogether unprofitable. And yet all (or the chief) use which the papists and many carnal Protestants make of Christ's sufferings is to meditate upon and set out to themselves the grievousness of them, so to move their hearts to a relenting and compassion towards him, and indignation against the Jews for their crucifying of him, with an admiring of his noble and heroic love herein. And if they can but get their hearts thus affected, they judge and account this to be grace — when as it is no more than what the like tragic story of some great and noble personage (full of heroic virtues and ingenuity, yet inhumanly and ungratefully used) will work, and usually does work in noble spirits who read or hear of it — indeed and this oftentimes though it be but in the way of a fiction. Which when it reaches no higher is so far from being faith that it is but a carnal and fleshly devotion, springing from fancy which is pleased with such a story, and the principles of natural decency stirred towards one who is of a noble spirit and yet abused. Such stories use to stir up a principle of humanity in men to a compassionate love — which Christ himself at his suffering found fault with, as being not spiritual nor raised enough in those women who went weeping to see the Messiah so handled: 'Weep not for me' (says he) — that is, weep not so much for this, thus to see me unworthily handled by those for whom I die.

And therefore accordingly as these stirrings are but fruits of the flesh, so human inventions such as crucifixes and lively representations of the story of Christ's passion to the sight of fancy do exceedingly provoke men to such devotional meditations and affections — but they work a bare historical faith only, a historical remembrance and an historical love (as I may so call them). And no other than such does the reading of the story of it in the word work in many who yet are against such crucifixes. But saving, justifying faith chiefly minds and is most taken up with the main scope and drift of all Christ's sufferings, for it is that in them which answers to its own aim and purpose, which is to obtain forgiveness of sins in Christ crucified. As God looks principally at the meaning of the Spirit in prayer (Romans 8), so does faith look principally to the meaning of Christ in his sufferings. As in all other truths a believer is said to have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2 last), so especially he minds what was the mind and heart of Christ in all his sufferings. And therefore you may observe that the drift of all the Apostles' epistles is to show the intent of Christ's sufferings: how he was therein set forth to be a propitiation for sin, to bear our sins upon the tree, to make our peace, etc. He was made sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. As in like manner the scope of the evangelists is to set forth the story of them (for that is necessary to be known also). And thus did that evangelical prophet Isaiah chiefly set forth the intent of Christ's sufferings for justification, Isaiah 53, throughout the chapter, as David before had done the story of his passion, Psalm 22. And thus to show the use and purpose of his sufferings was the scope of all the Apostles' sermons, holding forth the intent of Christ's passion to be the justification and salvation of sinners: 'This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ came into the world to save sinners' (1 Timothy 1:15) — and they still set forth what the plan was, at which God by an ancient design aimed, in the sufferings of Christ, which was an end higher than men or angels thought on when he was put to death. And thus faith takes it up and looks at it. And upon this does Peter (in his sermon, Acts 2) pitch their faith, where having first set forth the heinousness of their sin in murdering the Lord of life, then to raise up their hearts again (that so seeing God's end in it they might be drawn to believe) he tells them that all this was done by the determinate counsel of God (verse 23), and that for a further end than they imagined, even for the remission of sins through his name, as in the close of that sermon he shows. It was not the malice of the Jews, the falseness of Judas, the fearfulness of Pilate, or the iniquity of the times he fell into that wrought his death so much as God his Father complotting with Christ himself and aiming at a higher end than they did: there was a further matter in it; it was the execution of an ancient contriving and agreement, whereby God made Christ sin and laid our sins upon him. God was in Christ (not imputing our sins to us, but) making him sin (2 Corinthians 5:20). Which covenant Christ came (at his time) into the world to fulfill: 'Sacrifice and burnt offering you would not have' (Hebrews 10:5) — 'Behold, I come to do your will,' and that will was to take away sins (verses 4, 10, 12, 14–16). These words Christ spoke when he took our nature and when he came into the world clothed with infirmities like to us sinners. Romans 8:3: 'God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh.' Mark that phrase 'for sin' — [reconstructed: the Greek word] there is put for 'on account of,' as in John 10:33 'not for a good work' — that is, not because of a good work or for a good work's sake. So here 'for sin,' that is, because of sin: sin was the occasion of his taking the likeness of sinful flesh. What, to increase it? No, but to condemn it, as it follows — that is, to cast and overthrow it in its power and plea against us, that instead of sin's condemning us he might condemn sin, and that we might have the righteousness of the law (verse 5). This phrase 'for sin' is like to that in Romans 6:10: 'He died to sin,' that is, for sin's cause — for so the opposition that follows evinces: 'In that he lives, he lives to God,' that is, for God and his glory. So he died merely for sin, that sin might have its course in justice, and for its sake suffered death, so putting to silence the clamor of it. The death of Christ was the greatest and strangest design that ever God undertook and acted, and therefore surely had an end proportionate to it. God that wills not the death of a sinner would not for any inferior end will the death of his Son, whom he loved more than all creatures besides. It must needs be some great matter for which God should contrive the death of his Son, so holy, so innocent, and separate from sinners — neither could it be any other matter than to destroy that which he most hated, and that was sin, and to set forth that which he most delighted in, and that was mercy (Romans 3:25–26). And accordingly Christ demeaned himself in it, not at all looking at the Jews or their malice, but at his Father's command and intent in it. And therefore when he was to arise to go to that place where he should be taken: 'As the Father gave me commandment, so do I; arise, let us go from here' (John 14:31). And when Judas went out at Christ's own provoking of him — 'What you do, do quickly' (says he) — 'the Son of man goes as it was determined': he looked to his Father's purpose in it. When he went out to be taken, it is said, 'Jesus knowing all things that should befall him, went forth' (John 18:4). And when he was in his agony in the garden, whom does he deal with but his Father? 'Father' (says he) 'if it be possible, let this cup pass' — and God made his passion of so great necessity that it was even impossible that that cup should pass. Indeed, had Christ stood in his own stead it had been an easy request and justice to grant it; indeed so he tells Peter that he could command millions of angels to his rescue; but he merely submits to his Father: 'Not my will but your will be done' (says he) — for God had laid upon him the iniquities of us all (Isaiah 53).

Let our faith therefore look mainly to this design and plan of God and of Christ in his suffering, to satisfy for our sins and to justify us sinners. When we consider him as born flesh and blood and laid in a manger, let us think also that his meaning was to condemn sin in our flesh (Romans 8:4). So when we read of him fulfilling all or any part of righteousness, let us take his mind in also, to be that the law might be fulfilled in us (as it follows there), who were then represented in him, and so the fulfilling of it is accounted ours. Let us behold him in his lifetime, as John the Baptist did, even as the Lamb of God bearing and taking away the sins of the world; and when upon the cross, let our faith behold the iniquities of us all met in him: 'Surely he has borne our sorrows,' 'bearing our sins in his body on the tree' (1 Peter 3), and thereby 'once offered to bear the sins of many' (Hebrews 9), etc. This intent of Christ in all that he did and suffered is that welcome news and the very spirit of the gospel which faith seizes on.

CHAP. 3.

Now having thus directed your faith to the right object, Christ, and Christ as dying, let us secondly see what matter of support and encouragement faith may fetch from Christ's death for justification. And surely that which has long ago satisfied God himself for the sins of many thousand souls now in heaven may very well serve to satisfy the heart and conscience of any sinner now upon earth, in any doubts in respect of the guilt of any sins that can arise. We see that the Apostle, after that large discourse of justification by Christ's righteousness in the former part of this epistle to the Romans and having shown how every way it abounds (chapter 5), now in this chapter 8 does as it were sit down like a man over-convinced. As verse 31: 'What then shall we say to these things?' — he speaks as one satisfied and even astonished with abundance of evidence, having nothing to say but only to admire God and Christ in this work. And therefore he presently throws down the gauntlet and challenges a dispute in this point with all comers: let conscience and carnal reason, law and sin, hell and devils bring in all their strength — 'Who is he shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who shall condemn?' Paul dares to answer them all and carry it with these few words: 'It is God that justifies; it is Christ that died' — and (as in verse 37) 'we are more than conquerors in all these.' It was this that brought in the prodigal — that in his father's house there was bread enough. And so likewise he (whoever he was) who was the author of Psalm 130, when his soul was in deep distress by reason of his sins (verses 1–2), yet this was it that settled his heart to wait upon God: that there was plenteous redemption with him. Christ's redemption is not merely a price or ransom equivalent, or making due satisfaction according to the just desert of sin, but it is plenteous redemption. There is an abundance of the gift of righteousness (Romans 5:17) and unsearchable riches of Christ (Ephesians 3:8). Indeed, 1 Timothy 1:14: 'The grace of our Lord' (that is, of Christ, as verse 12) — we translate it 'was abundant,' but the word reaches further: it was over-full, redundant, more than enough. And yet (says Paul, verse 13) I had sins enough to pardon, as one would think that might exhaust it: 'I was a blasphemer, etc.' But I found so much grace in Christ, even more than I knew what to do with.

I shall not insist so largely on this first head of Christ's dying as upon those three following, because it is the main subject of another discourse (which through God's grace I intend to publish, though in another method). Only (for a taste) to instance in some few particulars, showing how Christ's satisfaction may be opposed and set against the guilt of a poor sinner's offenses. What is there that can be said to aggravate sin in general, or any man's particular sins, that may not be answered out of this — 'Christ has died' — and something not be considered in it which the conscience may oppose thereto? So that whatever evil which, according to the rules of spiritual reason (which the righteous law proceeds by and contains as the foundation of its righteousness in condemning or aggravating sin) a man's conscience may suggest to be in sin — oppositely to this may a man's faith, according to the like rules of true spiritual reason, show a more transcendent goodness to have been in Christ's death (which the gospel reveals), and so may oppose the one to the other, and have as good reason to show why sin should not condemn (from Christ's death) as conscience can have that the law may condemn.

As first: is sin the transgression of the law? Christ dying, the lawmaker, was subjected to the law — and will not that make amends? Is sin the debasement of God's glory manifested in his word and works? Christ's dying was the debasement and emptying of the brightness of his glory in the highest measure, being personally manifested in the flesh. The one of them is but as the darkening of the shine or luster of the sun upon a wall, but the other is as the obscuring of the sun itself. Sin's highest evil lies in offending God, but Christ's righteousness is (oppositely) the righteousness of God himself, or Jehovah made our righteousness. So that God in our sin is considered but as the object against whom, but God in this our righteousness is the subject from whom and in whom this righteousness comes and is seated. And so his Godhead answerably gives a higher worth to it, by how much the alliance which the subject has to an action of its own that proceeds from it is nearer than that which an object has against which the action is committed.

Or secondly, what peculiar aggravations or circumstances are there in your sins to weigh down, with which some circumstances in Christ's obedience and death may not be paralleled to lift you up again?

As first: is it the greatness of your sin in the substance of the fact committed? Has there been lewdness in your wickedness (as the prophet speaks)? Consider what guilt of how heinous crimes God suffered to be laid to Christ's charge by profane men when he was made an offering for sin. He died as a traitor to his prince and a blasphemer of God in the highest kind of blasphemy, as making himself equal with God — an imposter, a seducer, indeed a devil, indeed a prince of devils, than whom a murderer was esteemed more worthy to live. Which imputations, though by men unjustly charged on him, yet by God were so ordered as just in respect of his bearing our sins. For him who was holiness itself to be made the greatest of sinners, indeed to be made sin and the worst of sins, and accordingly to suffer from God and men — what greater satisfaction for the taking of sins away can be desired or imagined?

Or secondly, do you aggravate your sins by the naughtiness of your heart in sinning, and say that the inward carriage thereof has been much worse than the outward? Look you into the heart of Jesus Christ dying, and behold him struggling with his Father's wrath; you will find the sufferings of his soul more than those of his body, and in them to lie the soul of his sufferings.

Thirdly, may your sin be aggravated in that you did commit it with so great delight and eagerness, and poured out your heart to it? Consider that Christ offered himself more willingly than ever you did sin. 'Behold, I come' (says he, Psalm 40); 'I delight to do your will.' 'And how am I constrained till it be accomplished!' (Luke 12:56). And though to show how great an evil and misery it was in itself he showed an aversion to it, yet as it was his Father's will for our salvation he heartily embraced and drank off that cup to the bottom.

Fourthly, did you sin with much deliberation and when you might have avoided it? There was this circumstance in Christ's sufferings to answer that: he knew all he was to suffer and yet yielded up himself, as John 18:4.

Fifthly, have you sinned presumptuously and made a covenant with death and hell? Christ in like manner offered up himself by a covenant and agreement with his Father so to do.

Sixthly, are there any special circumstances of time and place, etc., that aggravate your sins?

As first, that so great a person in the church should scandalize the name of God in sinning. Why, how great a person was Christ? even equal with God the Father. And yet how greatly humbled? even to the death, his offices of king, priest, and prophet being debased with him. How great a name had he? as Hebrews 1:4. Which notwithstanding was dishonored more than ever any man's.

Or 2, that you sinned at such a time or in such company, which sometimes serve to make a sin the more heinous. Consider how God contrived to have the shame and affliction of his Son's death aggravated by all these circumstances: it was of deaths the most accursed; at a time most solemn; in a place most infamous; with company most wretched.

Thus might we find out that in Christ's sufferings and satisfaction made that would fitly answer to anything in our sins, and so thereby we should be the more relieved. And though the whole body of his sufferings does stand and answer for the whole bulk of our sinning, yet the consideration of such particulars will much conduce to the satisfying of a humbled and dejected soul about the particulars of its sinning.

Therefore (to conclude) get your hearts and consciences distinctly and particularly satisfied in the all-sufficiency of worth and merit which is in the satisfaction that Christ has made. As it is a fault and defect in humiliation that men content themselves with a general apprehension and notion that they are sinners, and so never become thoroughly humbled, so is it a defect in their faith that they content themselves with a superficial and general conceit that Christ died for sinners, their hearts not being particularly satisfied about the transcendent all-sufficiency of his death. And from there it is that in time of temptation, when their abounding sinfulness comes distinctly to be discovered to them and charged upon them, they are then amazed and their faith at a loss, as not seeing that in Christ which might answer to all that sinfulness. But as God saw that in Christ's death which satisfied him, so you should endeavor by faith to see that worth in it which may satisfy God, and then your faith will sit down as satisfied also. If a man were to dispute for his life some hard and difficult controversy, wherein are many great and strong objections to be taken away, he would be sure to view and study and ponder all that might be said on that other part which he were to hold, in way of answer to them, and to get such a clear and convincing light as might make the truth of his position apparent and manifest through those clouds of objections that hang in the way. Now you will all be thus called one day to dispute for your souls (sooner or later), and therefore such skill you should endeavor to get in Christ's righteousness, how in its fullness and perfection it answers to all your sinfulness, that your hearts may be able to oppose it against all that may be said of any particular in or about your sins, that in all the conflicts of your spirits you may see that in it which could clear your whole score, and that if God would but be pleased to impute it to you, you might say: I dared presently to come to an account with him and settle scores with his law and justice.

Thus much of the first thing made the object of faith, namely Christ as dying.