For if thou look upon any of these asunder—that is to say, the Godhead without the manhood, or the manhood without the Godhead—thou wilt conclude that what was done by the Godhead was not done for man, being done without the manhood; or else, that that which was done with the manhood could not answer Divine justice, in not doing what it did by the virtue and in union with the Godhead; for it was the Godhead that gave virtue and value to the suffering of the manhood, and the manhood being joined therewith, that giveth us an interest into the heavenly glory and comforts of the Godhead.
What ground can a man have to believe that Christ is his Saviour if he does not think He suffered for sin in his nature? And what ground can a man have to believe that God the Father is infinite splendor if he feels not also that He who gave the satisfaction was equal to Him who was offended?
Therefore, beloved, when you read of the offering of the body of the Son of Man for our sins, consider that He did it in union with, and by the help of, the eternal Godhead. "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works," etc.
And when thou readest of the glorious works and splendour of the Godhead in Christ, then consider that all that was done by the Godhead was done as it had union and communion with the manhood. And then thou shalt see that the devil is overcome by God-man; sin, death, Hell, the grave, and all overcome by Jesus, God-man, and then thou shalt find them overcome indeed. They just need to be overcome when God does overcome them, and we have good ground to hope victory is ours when, in our nature, they are overcome.
Second. The second thing is how to apply or make an application of this Christ to the soul. And for this, there are to be considered the following particulars—
1. That when Jesus Christ did thus appear, being born of Mary, He was looked upon by the Father as if the sin of the whole world was upon Him; nay, further, God did look upon Him and account Him the sin of man—"He hath made Him to be sin for us," (2 Cor 5:21) that is, God made His Son Jesus Christ our sin or reckoned Him to be, not only a sinner, but the very bulk of sin of the whole world, and condemned Him so severely as if He had been nothing but sin. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh"—that is, for our sins condemned His Son Jesus Christ; as if He had in deed and truth been our very sin, although altogether "without sin" (Rom 8:3; 2 Cor 5:21). Therefore, as to the taking away of thy curse, thou must reckon Him to be made sin for thee. And as to His being thy justification, thou must reckon Him to be thy righteousness; for, saith the Scripture, "He," that is, God, "hath made HIM to be SIN for us, though He knew no sin, that we might be made the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God in HIM."
2. Consider for whose sakes all this glorious design of the Father and the Son was brought to pass; and that you shall find to be for man, for sinful man (2 Cor 8:9).
3. The terms on which it is made ours; and that you will find to be a free gift, merely arising from the tender-heartedness of God—you are "justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith in His blood," etc. (Rom 3:25).
4. How men are to reckon it theirs; and that is, upon the same terms which God doth offer it, which is unrestricted, as they are worthless and undeserving creatures, as they are without all good, and also unable to do any good. This, I say, is the right way of applying the merits of Christ to thy soul, for they are freely given to thee, a poor sinner, not for anything that is in thee, or done by thee, but freely as thou art a sinner, and so standest in absolute need thereof.
And, Christian, thou art not in this thing to follow thy sense and feeling, but the very Word of God. The thing that doth do the people of God the most significant injury, it is their too little hearkening to what the Gospel saith, and their too much-giving credit to what the Law, sin, the devil, and conscience saith; and upon this very ground to conclude that because there is a certainty of guilt upon the soul, therefore there is also for sure, by sin, damnation to be brought upon the soul. This is now to set the Word of God aside and to give credit to what is formed by the contrary, but thou must give more credit to one syllable of the written Word of the Gospel than thou must give to all the saints and angels in Heaven and earth; much more than to the devil and thy own guilty conscience.
Let me give you a parable:—There was a confident man who had committed treason against his king, but forasmuch as the king had compassion upon him, he sent him, by the hand of a faithful messenger, a pardon under his own hand and seal; but in the country where this poor man dwelt, there were also many that sought to trouble him, by often putting of him in mind of his treason, and the law that was to be executed on the offender. Now, which way should this man honor his king? He should do so by believing his handwriting, which was the pardon. Indeed, he would honor him more by so doing than to regard all the clamors of his enemies continually against him.
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