'Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in
Christ' (2 Cor 2:14).
See here, our cause of triumph is through Christ Jesus, and God caused us through him to triumph, first and chiefly, because Christ Jesus has done our work for us, has pleased God for our sins, and has spoiled the powers of darkness. God gave Jesus Christ to undertake our redemption; Christ did undertake it, did engage our enemies, and spoiled them—He 'spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them' upon the cross (Col 2:14,15). Therefore, it is evident that he paid full price to God for sinners with his blood because God commands us to give thanks to him in his name, through his name—' And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him' (Col 3:17).
Take this conclusion from the whole: no thanks are accepted of God that come not to him in the name of his Son; his Son must have the glory of conveying our thanks to God because he was he who conveyed his grace to us by his blood.
EIGHTH. In the next place, that Jesus Christ, by what he hath done, hath paid full price to God for sinners and obtained eternal redemption for them, is evident because we are exhorted to wait for and to expect the full and glorious enjoyment of that eternal redemption, at the second coming of the Lord from heaven—' Let your loins by girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord,—that when he cometh and knocked, they may open unto him immediately' (Luke 12:35,36).
Jesus Christ hath obtained eternal redemption for us by his blood, and he has taken it up now in the heavens, is, as I have shown, preparing for us there everlasting mansions of rest; and then he will come again for us. This coming is intended in this text, and this coming we are exhorted to wait for; and that I may more fully show the truth of this demonstration, observe these following texts—
First, it is said, he shall choose our inheritance for us—' He shall choose our inheritance for us; the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah. God is gone up with a shout,' &c. (Psa 47:4,5). These latter words intend the ascension of Jesus Christ; his ascension, when he had upon the cross made reconciliation for iniquity; his ascension into the heavens to prepare our mansions of glory for us; for our inheritance is in the heavens; our house, our hope, our mansion-house, and our incorruptible and undefiled inheritance is in heaven (2 Cor 5:1,2; Col 1:5,6; John 14:1,2; 1 Peter 1:3-5).
This is called the eternal inheritance, of which we that are called have received the promise already (Heb 9:14,15).
This inheritance, I say, he is gone to choose for us in the heavens, because by his blood he obtained it for us (Heb 9:12). And this we are commanded to wait for; but how ridiculous, yea, how great a cheat would this be, had he not by his blood obtained it for us.
Second. 'We wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus [Christ], which delivered us from the wrath to come' (1 Thess 1:10). He delivered us by his blood. He obtained the kingdom of heaven for us, and hath promised that he would go and prepare our places, and come again and fetch us thither—' And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may also be (John 14:3). This, then, is the cause that we wait for him, we look for the reward of the inheritance at his coming who have served the Lord Christ in this world.
Third. 'For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ' (Phil 3:20). We look for him to come yet as a Saviour—a Saviour he was at his first coming, and a Saviour he will be at his second coming. At his first coming, he bought and paid for us; at his second coming, he will fetch us to himself. At his first coming, he gave us promise of the kingdom; at his second coming, he will give us possession of the kingdom. At his first coming, he also showed us how we should be by his own transfiguration; at his second coming, 'he will change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body' (Phil 3:21).
Fourth. Hence, therefore, it is that his coming is called our blessed hope—'Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ' (Titus 2:13). A blessed hope indeed, if he hath bought our persons with his blood, and an eternal inheritance for us in the heavens; a blessed hope indeed, if also at his coming we are certainly carried thither. No marvel, then, if saints be bid to wait for it and if saints themselves long for it. But what a disappointment these waiting believers would have, should all their expectations be rewarded with a fable! And the result of their blessed hope can amount to no more, if our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ either denied coming or coming, bringeth not with him the hope, the blessed hope that is laid up for us in heaven, whereof we have certainly been informed by 'the word of the truth of the gospel' (Col 1:5).
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