Object. 1. Perhaps some may say that we are not saved from all punishment of sin by the death of Christ, and if so, we are not saved from all danger of damnation by the intercession of Christ.
Answ. We are saved from all punishment in hellfire by the death of Christ. Jesus has 'delivered us from the wrath to come.' (1 Thess 1:10) So that as to this great punishment, God, for his sake, has forgiven us all trespasses. (Col 2:13) But we being translated from being slaves to Satan to be sons of God, God reserves yet this liberty in his hand to chastise us if we offend, as a father chastiseth his son. (Deut 8:5) But this chastisement is not in legal wrath but in fatherly affection; not to destroy us, but that still we might be made to get advantage, thereby even being made partakers of his holiness. This is, that we might 'not be condemned with the world.' (Heb 12:5-11, 1 Cor 11:32) As to the second part of the objection, there are, as we say, many things that happen between or between the cup and the lip; many things attempt to overthrow the work of God and cause us to perish through our weakness, notwithstanding the price that Christ has paid for us. But what says the Scripture? 'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake, we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' (Rom 8:35-39)
Thus the apostle reckoneth up all the disadvantages that a justified person is exposed to in this life and, by way of challenge, declares that not any one of them, nor all together, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, that is towards us by Christ, his death, and his intercession.
Object. 2. It may be further objected that the apostle doth here leave out sin, unto which we know the saints are subject, after justification. And the sin of itself—we need no other enemies—is of that nature as to destroy the whole world.
Answ. Sin is sin, like sin, wherever it is found. But sin as to the damning effects thereof is taken away from them, unto whom righteousness is imputed for justification. Nor shall any or all of the aforementioned, though there is a tendency in every one of them to drive us unto sin, drown us through it, in perdition and destruction. I am persuaded, says Paul; they shall never be able to do that. The apostle, therefore, doth implicitly, though to expressly, challenge sin, yea, sin by all its advantages, and then glorieth in the love of God in Christ Jesus, from which he concluded it shall never separate the justified. Besides, it would now have been needless to have expressly here put in sin by itself, seeing before that he had argued that those he speaks of were freely justified there from.
One word more before I go to the second head. The Father, as I told you, has reserved to himself the liberty to chastise his sons, to wit, with temporal chastisements, if they offend. This still abideth to us, notwithstanding God's grace, Christ's death, or blessed intercession. And this punishment is so surely entailed to the transgressions that we who believe shall commit that it is impossible that we should be utterly freed from that place, insomuch as the apostle positively concluded them to be bastards, what pretenses to sonship soever they have, that are not, for sin, partakers of fatherly chastisements.
For the reversal of this punishment, we should pray if perhaps God will remit it when we are taught to say, 'Our Father, forgive us our trespasses.' And he who admits of any other sense as to this petition derogates from the death of Christ, faith, or both. For either he concludes that for some of his sins, Christ did not die, or that he is bound to believe that God, though he did, has not yet, nor will forgive them, till from the petitioner some legal work be done; forgive us, as we forgive them that trespass against us. (Matt 6:14,15) But now apply this to temporal punishments, and then it is true that God has reserved a liberty in his hand to punish even the sins of his people upon them; yea, and will not pardon their sin, as to the remitting of such punishment, unless some good work by them be done; 'If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.' (Matt 6:15, 18:28–35)
And this is the reason why some that belong to God are yet so under the afflicting hand of God; they have sinned, and God, who is their Father, punisheth; yea, and this is the reason why some who are dear to God have this kind of punishment never forgiven, but it abides with them to their lives end, goes with them to the day of their death, yea, is the very cause of their death. By this punishment, they are cut off from the land of the living. But all this means is that they might 'not be condemned with the world.' (1 Cor 11:32)
Christ died not to save from this punishment; Christ intercedes not to save from this punishment. Nothing but a good life will save from this punishment, nor will it always be that way.
The hidings of God's face, the harshness of his providences, the severe and sharp chastisements that ofttimes overtake the very spirits of his people, plainly show that Christ died not to save from temporal punishments, prays not to save from temporal punishments—that is, absolutely. God has reserved the power to punish, with temporal punishments, the best and dearest of his people, if need be.5 And sometimes he remits them, sometimes not, even as it pleases him. I come now to the second thing.
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