Having passed over these few scriptures, I shall come to particular instances of persons who have been justified, and shall briefly touch on their qualifications in the act of God's justifying them. First, By the Old Testament types. Second, By the New.
The first position is illustrated by Scripture types.
First. By the Old [Testament types]. First. 'Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them' (Gen 3:21).
At the beginning of this chapter, you find these two persons reasoning with the serpent, the effect of which discourse was, that they take of the forbidden fruit, and so break the command of God (vv 7-15). This done, they hide themselves and cover their nakedness with aprons. But God finds out their sin, from the highest branch to its roots. What followed? Not one precept by which they should by works obtain the favor of God, but the promise of a Saviour; of which promise this twenty-first verse is a mystical interpretation: 'The Lord God made them coats of skins, and clothed them.'
Hence observe—1. These coats were made, not before, but after they had made themselves aprons; a plain proof their aprons were insufficient to hide their shame from the sight of God. 2. These coats were made, not of Adam's inherent righteousness, for that was lost before by sin, but of the skins of the slain, types of the death of Christ, and of the righteousness brought in thereby—' By whose stripes we are healed (Isa 53). 3. This is further manifest; for the coats, God made them; and for the persons, God clothed them therewith; to show that as the righteousness by which we must stand just before God from the curse is righteousness of Christ's performing, not of theirs; so he, not they, must put it on them also, for of God we are in Christ, and of God his righteousness is made ours (1 Cor 1:30).
But, I say, if you would see their antecedent qualifications, you find them under two heads—rebellion [and] hypocrisy. Rebellion, in breaking God's command; hypocrisy, in seeking how to hide their faults from God. Expound this by gospel language, and then it shows 'that men are justified from the curse, in the sight of God, while sinners in themselves.'
Second. 'The Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering' (Gen 4:4).
By these words, we find the person first accepted: 'The Lord had respect unto Abel.' And indeed, where the person is not first accepted, the offering will not be pleasing; the altar sanctifies the gift, and the temple sanctified the gold; so the person, the condition of the person, is that which makes the offering either pleasing or despising (Matt 23:16-21). In the epistle to the Hebrews, it is said, 'By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous' (Heb 11:4). Righteous before he offered his gift, as his sacrifice testified; for God accepted of it.
'By faith he offered.' Wherefore faith was precedent, or before he offered. Now faith hath to do with God through Christ; not with him through our works of righteousness. Besides, Abel was righteous before he offered, before he did do good, otherwise God would not have testified of his gift. 'By faith, he obtained witness that he was righteous,' for God approved of his gifts. Now faith, I say, as to our standing quit before the Father, respects the promise of forgiveness of sins through the undertaking of the Lord Jesus. Wherefore Abel's faith as to justifying righteousness before God looked not forward to what should be done by himself, but back to the promise of the seed of the woman, that was to destroy the power of hell, and 'to redeem them that were under the law' (Gen 3:15; Gal 4:4,5). By this faith, he shrouds himself under the promise of victory and the merits of the Lord Jesus. Now being there, God finds him righteous; and being righteous, 'he offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than his brother'; for Cain's person was not first accepted through the righteousness of faith going before, although he seemed foremost as to personal acts of righteousness (Gen 4). Abel, therefore, was righteous before he did good works; but that could not be but alone through that respect God had to him for the sake of the Messiah promised before (3:15). But the Lord's so respecting Abel presupposed that at that time he stood in himself by the law a sinner, otherwise he needed not to be respected for and upon the account of another. Yea, Abel also, forasmuch as he acted faith before he offered sacrifice, must thereby entirely respect the promise, which promise was not grounded upon a condition of works to be found in Abel, but in and for the sake of the seed of the woman, which is Christ; which promise he believed, and so took it for granted that this Christ should break the serpent's head—that is, destroy by himself the works of the devil; to wit, sin, death, the curse, and hell (Gal 4:4). By this faith he stood before God righteous, because he had put on Christ; and being thus, he offered; by which act of faith God declared he was pleased with him because he accepted of his sacrifice.
