Chapter 26

Q. Whether is Christ's Righteousness imputed and made ours, because we believe and apprehend it ours; or do we believe, because it is ours first before we believe?

Ans. There is a twofold imputation, one legal, another which for doctrine's cause we call application or real (though the legal imputation be also real; but not to us as the former) the Lord's act of laying the iniquity of us all upon Christ (Isaiah 53:6), and the Lord's making him sin for us, that is a sacrifice for sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), evinces necessarily the truth of this, the former imputation. For (2 Corinthians 5:21) God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. If it be expounded of actual reconciliation of persons, it may say something, for the other imputation, but the other imputation is clear, (Romans 4:3) Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, (verse 7) Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered, (verse 8) Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes not sin, (verse 9) Faith (that is, that which faith believed, as hope is put for the thing hoped for, (Colossians 1:5) (Romans 8:24)) was imputed to Abraham for righteousness, though Gomarus gives another exposition, to wit, that by faith or the act of believing we obtain this to be reputed righteous, and it suits better with the Text. And as to the former imputation, God could not in justice wound Christ for our transgressions, nor bruise him for our iniquities, nor could the Lord break him, nor deliver him to the death for us all, except God had both made him the sinner, that is, imputed and reckoned him the sinner in Law (for intrinsically and inherently he was not the sinner but holy, harmless, &c.) and laid our debts upon him (Isaiah 53:6) and except he had been willing to have been counted the sinner, and had said (you hast given me a body, here am I, to do your will, (Psalm 40:7) (Hebrews 10:6-7)) this reckoning of Christ to be the sinner is not only in the eternal decree, but also a laying of our iniquities upon him in time (Isaiah 53:6) or a dealing with him in Law in punishing him as the sinner. And second, by using the human nature as an instrument of our Redemption on the Cross. Antinomians take this imputing of our sins to Christ, and reckoning Christ to be the sinner, to be the justifying of the sinner, which is a gross mistake; for so without believing all that Christ died for should be justified upon the Cross. But the Scripture is so far from ascribing Justification to any but to a believer, that it says Abraham's faith was imputed to him for righteousness. Now the faith of multitudes for whom Christ died when he suffered on the Cross, is a very nothing: Many are not born, and a nothing or a non ens cannot be counted for righteousness.

It is to be observed that payment made by the surety absolves the debtor, so as the Law, except it be the general Law of gratitude, requires no act of love, of faith, of service from the debtor, nor does the Law of suretyship in its essence and nature require that the Creditor, & sub eo titulo should pay the homage of faith, indeed when the Creditor is both the Creditor and the offended Party, and also the supreme Lawgiver GOD, he may require of the captives the obedience of faith. So would justice, which says, we should hurt none, give to every man his own, press, that the debtor repay to the surety, so far as he is able to make up his losses, but to pay the obedience of faith as a part of the ransom due to offended Justice, is no Gospel-Law, nor any part thereof, nor can it be a truth, except we deny the real satisfaction made by Christ, which both Papists do weaken when they mix the merit of faith therewith, and Socinians deny.

The satisfaction performed upon the Cross for sinners, though it be for a certain particular number, determined of God, & quoad numerum numerantem, & quoad numerum numeratum, both as touching the number, so many, not all and every one, and such persons, by head, name, birth, &c. Yet it is not the justifying of me, or John, or Paul, for I, nor no man can know that Christ's satisfaction stands for you or me, by name and person, while first I or you believe, because it is the hidden decree of God. Nor is this legal imputation believable, nor is it revealed, as it is terminated to single persons, to me or to you, until by faith we apprehend it.

But the imputation of application is that in which our justification stands.

And the faith by which as by an instrument we are justified, presupposes three unions, and makes a fourth union. It presupposes a union, 1. Natural. 2. Legal. 3. Federal.

Natural, that Christ and we are not only both mankind, for Christ and Pharaoh, Judas the traitor and all the sons of perdition are one, specie & naturâ, true men, but one in brotherhood. He assuming the nature of man with a special eye to Abraham (Hebrews 2:16), that is, to the elect and believers, for with them he is bone of their bone, and is not ashamed to call them brethren (Hebrews 2:11-12) (Psalm 22:22).

It presupposes a Legal union between Christ and them, that God made the debtor and the Surety one in Law, and the sum one in so far as he laid our debts on Christ (Isaiah 53:6) (2 Corinthians 5:21).

It presupposes a Federal union, God making Christ our Surety, and he was willing to be our Surety, and to assume not only our nature in a personal union, but also our state, condition, and made our cause his cause, our sins his sins, not to defend them, nor to say Amen to them, as if we might commit them again, but to suffer the punishment due to them. And our faith makes a fourth union between Christ and us, whether natural, as between head and members, the branches and the Vine Tree, or mystical, as that of the spouse and beloved wife, or artificial, or mixed between the imp and the tree. Or 4. Legal, between the Surety and the Debtor, the Advocate and the Client, or rather a union above all, is hard to determine, for these are but all comparisons, and this Christ prays for (John 17:23), I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one.

6. Now to the question, as the law condemns not a man, but him who is first a sinner, and an heir of wrath by nature in the first Adam, for the law is essentially just: so God justifies not a man, but the man who, by order of nature, is first by faith in Christ (Romans 5:18). Therefore by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to [reconstructed: condemnation], even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men (in Christ, as the other were in the first Adam) to the justification of life: and so we must say, that all, before they be justified, and before God imputes faith to them, that is, Christ's believed righteousness to be theirs, must have faith and so believe, and so be one with Christ. And this imputed righteousness is ours, because we believe, and not until we first believe, and the other imputation goes before faith. So the faith of God's special mercy is two ways so called. 1. As it leans upon and apprehends God in Christ, for the obtaining of mercy and remission of sins, and imputed righteousness: so faith goes before justification, and we believe that our sins may be pardoned, and that our sins may not be imputed, and that we may be justified and freed from condemnation: so by the act of believing, righteousness is imputed to us. And thus justification and remission, that is, relaxing of our persons from a state of eternal condemnation, as is meant (Romans 8:1), are not the object of faith, but the effect and fruit of faith. 2. The faith of special mercy to me is considered as it apprehends and believes, or rather feelingly knows special mercy, imputation of Christ's righteousness now given to me, and as Christ has paid a ransom for me, and satisfied justice for me, and so imputed righteousness and justification are the object of faith; or rather the object of the sense of faith, which is most carefully to be observed. To answer Bellarmine's [reconstructed: unsound] argument, we either believe remission of sins past, or to come, etc. But remission is liberation from punishment eternal or temporal, but [reconstructed: justification] is freedom from the fundamental guilt-deserving punishment, and remission is a consequent thereof.

Q. Whether or not, is justification taken one and the same way in the Old and New Testament?

Ans. The Apostle is clear (Romans 4), where he proves both Jews and Gentiles are justified as Abraham and David. But 2. Justification by grace does not, in iisdem apicibus, in the same points, have the same adversaries. 1. Moses and the Prophets contend most with ceremonial hypocrites, who sought righteousness much in ceremonies, washings, sacrifices, new moons, and also their own inherent godliness (Deuteronomy 5; Deuteronomy 7; Deuteronomy 10; Deuteronomy 11; Isaiah 1:10-12, etc.; Micah 6:6-8; Psalm 50:7-18; Psalm 4:2-5; 1 Samuel 15:22-23; Isaiah 66:1-5; Jeremiah 7:1-3, 21-23).

2. Paul had other adversaries (Romans chapters 3, 4, 5, 9, 10), especially Antinomians, who drew the doctrine of free justification by grace to licentious looseness, then we may sin, if so and so, we be justified (said they) — then is the law of none effect (Romans 6:1). But his chief adversaries, on the other extreme, were men that stood much for justification by the works of the moral law: and Paul (Romans 3) proves that all, Jews, Gentiles, David, Abraham, could be justified neither by works of nature nor of grace, and casts down the Jews' righteousness by law-doing (Romans 9; Romans 10).

3. There were a third class of adversaries to free justification, Galatians, seduced and false Apostles, who contended for [reconstructed: Justification] by circumcision and the necessity of keeping the ceremonial law, if they would be saved (Acts 15:1-4, etc.; Galatians 2; Galatians 3; Galatians 4; Galatians 5; Galatians 6). These mixed the Gospel and Moses his law, and Paul proves (Galatians 3) that we are not justified by the works of the moral law, for that law (Deuteronomy 26:27) involves all that omit the least duty of the law (Galatians 3:10-13) under a curse, and Christ was made a curse for us. And Paul proves in the general, we are justified by neither the works of the moral, nor of the ceremonial law.

4. James had to do with another gang of loose livers, the Gnostics, who contended for justification by a bare nominal faith without love or good works. And James proves that we are justified before men and to ourselves by faith working by love, and not by a dead faith.

5. John contends much for real and speaking marks of justification and conversion, against dead professors void of love to the brethren.

Q. 3. What is the dominion of the law over a sinner?

A. It is the legal power to condemn all such as are under the Law, as a Covenant of Works; as marriage is dissolved, if either of the parties be dead: So (Romans 7:4). You are dead to the Law through the body of Christ, and it is not every commanding power that Paul, Romans 7, denies to the Law, but a lordly dominion, such as lords of life and death have and exercise, [illegible], and we are dead to the Law through the body of Christ, which mortification or dying is not understood subjectively, as if it were in us, but legally and objectively in Christ, because Christ in his body on the tree did bear our sins (1 Peter 2:24), and was made a curse for us, in our place (Galatians 3:13). For Christ (says Ambrose, clearing the place) giving his body as a Savior, overcame death and condemned sin: Hence these two words (Romans 7:4), Therefore you also my brethren, are become dead to the Law. (Galatians 2:19), For I through the Law am dead to the Law, that I might live to God; As the death to the Law is legal, I am no more under law-condemnation than a dead man, so the living to God is a law living to God on a law-absolution (as the absolved malefactor cleared of a capital crime which might have cost him his head, lives, and so is set free) so there is another most emphatic word which insinuates that Christ is dead to the Law, as Paul was, for after Paul says (Galatians 2:19), I through the Law am dead to the Law, he adds, verse 20, I am crucified with Christ legally, that is, as Christ was crucified for sin by the sentence of the Law, so I am crucified with him. (Romans 6:8). Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, which is not only to be expounded of mortification and inherent newness of life, but also of legal dying with Christ: For Christ died no death but legal death, there is no inherent mortification or slaying of a body of sin in him as in us, though from his death there also flows a merited and inherent personal mortification in us, for it is added, verse 9, knowing that Christ being raised from death dies no more, death has no more dominion over him, then Christ, by Law, cannot die twice, so Christ being once crucified, the Law and death, which had once dominion over him, has now no more dominion over him. Then, first, as Christ died a law-death and was under death, because under the Law, so are we legally in him freed from the Law's dominion, and death following thereupon. 2. As Christ defies the Law's dominion and death, so do we. 3. As Christ cannot twice satisfy the Law by dying (for then the first had not been sufficient) so neither can we ever be under law-death and law-condemnation, for we were once in Christ legally condemned and crucified in our Surety and so cannot suffer in our persons legal condemnation and legal death. 4. As Christ is dead to the dominion of the Law and death having once died and come out from under both, so are we dead and come legally out in him, which answers the several temptations we can be under in Christ. Obj. But then may we not sin, because we are freed from the dominion of the Law and death? as (Romans 6), he had said, you are not under the Law, but under Grace, verse 15. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the Law, but under Grace? God forbid, verses 16-17. He answers from an absurd, then we that are ransomed by Christ, should not be our ransom-payer's servants, but the servants of sin. Now except the meaning had been, we are not under the Law, that is, the Law's dominion and the Law's condemning power, there had been no place for such an objection, indeed, nor any shadow; but the true objection is, we are not under the Law to be thereby condemned and eternally punished, therefore what is the hazard of sin? We may sin at will, there is no fear of hell. Paul answers not from that evil of servile fear that follows sin, but from the woeful ingratitude to our ransom-payer. O then we should not be under Christ and the directing light and rule of our Lord Ransomer, if we sin at will, but still servants and slaves to sin and so not redeemed, by which we gather that there are two things in the Law. 1. The condemning power of it. 2. The directive commanding power: As to the former, Christ by being condemned and suffering a cursed death for us, took that wholly away. We are not then under the Law as condemning, indeed neither as saving and justifying, for then should we be married to the Law and under conjugal power as wife and husband living together, which Paul refutes (Romans 2:1-3, 8). (2.) There is a directive commanding power that Christ takes in hand, and commands us to obey our Lord Ransomer, and we should sin against his love, if we should live loosely, because we are freed from condemnation. Hence also there is a twofold dominion of sin, one legal to condemn us eternally, another (as it were) physical to keep us under the superlative power of lusts, if Christ had not died, we had been under both.

Q. 4. What is meant by the oldness of the letter in which we are not to serve? Romans 7.

A. He means the idle, fruitless, and bare knowledge of the Law in external discipline, that reigns in an unrenewed man, by which he remaining in nature under the Law, foments a pharisaical opinion (for he points at the false and literal glosses of the Law given by Pharisees and refuted by Christ, (Matthew 5)) of merit, external worship, ceremonies without any inward heart-renovation, to which is opposed the newness of the spirit, or true new Evangelical obedience and holiness wrought by the Spirit.

Object. Is not the letter of the Law a bondage, since we are freed in heaven from the letter and from awing threatening?

Ans. To serve God is liberty, not bondage (Psalm 119:45; Revelation 22:3) compared with verse 5, serving of God and reigning suit well together. See (Luke 1:74-75; John 8:34-36; Romans 6:16-17) but there is a threefold bondage of the letter. 1. Accidental, in regard of our corruption, the service is wearisome to unrenewed nature: This we are saved from in Christ, not fully in this life, but it comes not from the Law which is spiritual. 2. A bondage to the dominion of the condemning Law. 3. There is a bulk of ordinances, hearing, reading, praying, meditating, repenting, receiving of the seals, we are freed from the one in this, and shall be freed from the other in the life to come.

Q. What is the dignity of the Gospel above the Law?

A. By the hearing of faith, that is, of the Gospel we receive the Spirit (Galatians 3), though the Law in the letter be also spiritual and lively and seek of us the lost image of God by way of commanding, yet there is no promise of the Spirit, made in the Law neither gifts nor grace, and both are given by the preaching of the Gospel.

2. No miracles are wrought by the Law to confirm the doctrine of the Law, for it is not new, nor is the gift of miracles given as a reward of Law-obedience, miracles in genere causae finalis, are wrought to avenge Pharaoh and the Egyptians Law-obedience; but the miracles are wrought by the name of Jesus (Acts 4) and for the confirming of the Gospel, and for the good of the church: See Galatians 3:1-3.