SECOND. THAT MAN CAN BE JUSTIFIED FROM THE CURSE BEFORE GOD, WHILE SINNERS IN THEMSELVES, BY NO OTHER RIGHTEOUSNESS THAN THAT LONG AGO PERFORMED BY, AND REMAINING WITH, THE PERSON OF CHRIST.
FIRST. As to the first of these, I shall be but brief. Now, that the righteousness that justifies us was performed long ago by the person of Christ, besides what hath already been said, is further manifest thus—
First, He is said to have purged our sins by himself—’ When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of God (Heb 1:3). I have shown that in Christ, for the accomplishing of righteousness, there was both doing and suffering; doing, to fulfill all the commands of the law; suffering, to answer its penalty for sin. This second is that which in this to the Hebrews is in special intended by the apostle, where he saith he hath purged our sins, that is, by his precious blood; for it is that alone can purge our sins, either out of the sight of God or out of the sight of the soul (Heb 9:14). Now this was done by himself, saith the apostle; that is, in or by his personal doings and sufferings. And hence it is that when God rejected the offerings of the law, he said, ‘Lo, I come. A body hast thou prepared me,—to do thy will, O God (Heb 10:5-8). Now by this will of God, saith the Scripture, we are sanctified. By what will? Why, by the offering up of the body of Jesus Christ; for that was God’s will, that thereby we might be a habitation for him; as he saith again—’ Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate’ (Heb 13:12).
Second. As it is said, he hath purged our sins by himself, so it was by himself at once—’ For by one offering he perfected forever those that are sanctified’ (10:14). Now by this word at once,’ or by ‘one offering,’ is cut off all those imaginary sufferings of Christ which foolish conceive of; as that he in all ages had suffered for sin in us. No; he did this work but once. ‘Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entered into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world,’ in the time of Pilate, ‘hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself’ (Heb 9:25,26). Mark how to the purpose the Holy Ghost expressed it: he hath suffered but once; and that once, now; now once; now he is God and man in one person; now he hath taken the body that was prepared of God; now once at the end of the world had he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself; by the offering up of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
